Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 199: what you’re looking at

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

The Gray-Coated Pirate. 187 Karl carried the torch, having an extra supply of touchwood fastened to his back; at the same time he held his gun in the other hand, ready, like a true cowboy, to meet a sudden emergency. Cuthbert handled the Winchester. If the Virginia lad was nervous or excited in the least—which would have been natural enough, con- sidering the circumstances—he gave no outward manifestation of the fact. Of course, he knew this was game of quite a dif- ferent calibre from antelope—that there was dire peril in hunting a big “gray jacket,” as Karl called the panther, in his native woods and while the shadows of night held sway. But Cuthbert had a stanch heart, and he knew this adventure was of his own seeking, so that he had no cause for complaint. How ghastly the woods looked, once the adven- turous youths had left the vicinity of the fire and plunged into their depths. Why, the sudden hoot of an owl startled Cuth- bert and made him turn half way around, with an involuntary upward fling of the gun toward his shoulder. Karl chuckled when he saw this, evidently appre- ciating how his comrade’s nerves were wrought up to a high tension, and that, at any rate, he did not mean to be taken unawares. When next that peculiarly blood-curdling scream reached their ears it came from a quarter close by. The panther was ahead of them, and even at that moment must have reached the edge of the timber where the two antelope carcasses hung. Karl stepped up more briskly, the torch flaming above his head, while, close beside him, walked Cuth- bert, his gun at a ready, his eager eyes endeavoring to pierce the darkness beyond as though he would cComiclooks C©