Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 193: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XIV. THE GRAY-COATED PIRATE. A sudden shrill whistle of alarm from the watchful buck announced that the flag had been instantly dis- covered. Although hidden themselves by the screen of sage- brush, the two boys could plainly see what occurred upon the open. The antelope had started off in hot haste, and a greenhorn might have exposed himself, believing the game assuredly up. Karl only fluttered the red signal more violently, knowing what the chances were. Sure enough, the timid animals soon came to a stop, and, turning, surveyed the strange thing with undisguised wonder. Then that fatal element of curiosity got the better - of their alarm, for, by little fits and starts, they once more began to retrace the ground over which they had so recently fled. Cuthbert was aware of a peculiar sensation that passed over his frame when he surveyed their trem- bling limbs and startled appearance. He felt as guilty as though he had by some occult power hypnotized the beautiful creatures. Surely the old Sioux medicine man was not in it with this species of witchcraft. As usual, the practical overcame the sentimental ; they needed fresh meat, and a cowboy has no busi- ness giving way to such feelings, at any rate. So he crushed them down, and prepared to do slaughter; the old spirit of a hunter, handed down from remote ancestors who had to live by the chase, was rampant. Comiclboe® S C©