Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 217: what you’re looking at

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

All for Polly. 205 No class of men can get ready for action in quicker time than these rough riders, and ere twenty minutes had followed the clang of the alarm bell they were off. No shouts and cheers marked their departure, but erim faces and set jaws told of the determination to make it exceedingly warm for the desperadoes when the final round-up occurred. Cuthbert was in a fever heat. He could hardly yet believe the wonderful good fortune that had fallen to his lot. It seemed too good to be true, for of all the girls he had ever met Polly was the one he would have chosen for a cousin had he been given the opportunity. And Karl, who also loved the girl like a sister, how delighted he would be when he learned the amazing truth! Then the dangerous nature of their mission came up before him to trouble his mind and chase away the pleasant dreams in which he had just been in- dulging. Would Karl be able to keep them in sight? He was but one against many, and they might turn upon him to inflict injury. Meanwhile the pace grew hotter, as the horses warmed to their work, and Pack Saddle speedily loomed up ahead. Several other cowboys had been met and given the news to circulate around, so that a second party might be organized to follow their trail, since there could be no telling what dangers lay ahead of them, once they penetrated the Bad Lands. Cuthbert found himself entering into the spirit of the thing with quite as much vim as any of the old cow punchers. His year and more on the prairie had filled him comiclooks C©