Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER IX. THE SIOUX VILLAGE, For the life of him, when his senses returned, Cuthbert could not tell where he was. He lay upon the ground near a small fire, be- tween which and himself dark, shadowy figures moved. Perhaps he had been sick and was just now re- covering in the camp—but he could not remember, rack his brains as he might, any of the circum- stances attending the case where he was when the event happened, and under what conditions. Were these cowboys moving around him? He could detect the presence of many horses near by, for a range rider’s ear becomes very acute, espe- cially to all the movements of stock. Cuthbert endeavored to raise himself to a sitting position, the better to satisfy his mind, but to his in- tense amazement he was unable to accomplish such a thing. Then the truth burst upon his mind—he was bound—a prisoner. At about the same time he made another discov- ery, equally startling. This concerned the identity of those who hovered about the little fire at which they appeared to be cooking some meat. They were Indians. So the whole truth broke in upon his mind and he remembered all—the uneasiness of the saddle band, his prowling to windward to ascertain the cause, the vigil upon the knoll, his discovery of the hobbled Indian ponies, the casting of a lariat, his downfall, COnnicloooks C©