Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 224: what you’re looking at

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

212 Where Karl Went. Probably the fellows had posted a vidette, feel- ing uneasy because of the conditions that governed their actions. And that sentry would have orders to shoot on sight any suspicious moving object in the grass. Karl knew all this, but he did not intend that the keen eyes of this guardian of the camp should dis- cover a fellow of his size. His prairie training could be depended on to carry him through. “Why, even.a greenhorn might crawl close to the fire without being found out, if he wanted to know what was doing,” Karl contemptuously de- clared to himself. His tour of investigation gave him all the infor- mation he desired. Jasper was there, and Caleb Cross, together with a second cowboy who had been chased off the range by Mr. Kelly on account of some mean work he had done, and who evidently cherished an ugly spirit to- ward the ranchman ever since. The other two Karl did not appear to know, but, judging from their evil looks, he set them down as bad men, equal to al- most any deed, from holding up a stagecoach to looting a poor widow’s shack in search of hidden treasure. And Polly was there! His heart bled for the girl, she looked so utterly dejected, holding her head between her hands and _ staring painfully into the fire. Karl would have liked very much to have given her some signal to arouse her spirits, and tell her of his presence, but he was fearful lest so sudden a change in her appearance might arouse the suspi- cions of her captors, and thus lead to a search of the vicinity, ending in his discovery and capture. | From the looks of the fellows, Karl knew what sort of treatment he might expect at their hands, Conniclooolkks.€©