José — page 232: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JOSE. 925 to the inevitable and believed myself beyond imme- diate danger. The heavy loads which the mules had to carry and the bad packing, caused frequent and long delays on the way; but her face was ever the same, pale and mobile, as I had seen it before starting; she looked coldly past me as if I were no more to her than any of the redskins—and yet I knew that I was, knew it ever since she exposed her own life to save me from the consequence of my fool-hardy buffalo hunt, and the excitement caused her to faint away. You already know what a strange impression her eyes made upon me when at Independence Dutch Bill first brought the boy to us—the singular fascination that constantly drew me toward the little muleteer on the journey, and from that may judge how earnest and pure my attach- ment for the strange little creature was. Never- theless the discovery of her sex, on the day of the buffalo hunt, had set my blood boiling with a fever- ish excitement. In the silence of the night I stole to her couch and spoke to her as my mad passion prompted. She sprang to her feet with a pitiful wail that forever haunted me like a vision, and quit the camp; now that we had met again I real- ized that I was guilty of a wrong toward her which it was my duty to right, and doubtless that it was that in view of her present conduct so oppressed me. Iam free to confess to you that a tremor of excitement convulsed my frame when, during the first night’s rest, not only my hands were tied but hers also, after she had given the chief’s wound a fresh dressing—when it was intimated to us that we should have to lie down side by side upon a blanket in a circle of redskins, and when, moreover, this done, our feet also were tied together. Without — Gomichboo cS (G(e)