Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 239: what you’re looking at

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

The Raid on the Bad Lands. 227 have been run across; but, at any rate, they experi- enced no difficulty in advancing. Once Little Buckshot came to a sudden pause, with his hand on Karl’s arm. “Hist!” he whispered. “Me lead. Follow close; no lose me.” Then he began to make a little detour, with Karl in his wake. There was no mystery about the matter to Karl, since his ears had also detected the sudden locust- like whirr of a rattlesnake’s warning. It seemed, indeed, a fit resort for this venomous reptile, enemy of man and beast, with carrion crows, buzzards and coyotes for company. Now lights gleamed ahead, coming from ctamp- fires, a strange enough spectacle amid such bleak and gloomy surroundings. Ten minutes later the boys had crawled close enough to the settlement to look down with won- der and surprise on the strange scene. There were some cabins, horses in a corral, and a prairie schooner or two, possibly the fruits of for- mer raids. Women and children were to be seen, showing that some of the lazy, desperate spirits of the camp were men of families, but, as might have been ex- pected, these females were frowsy-headed and slat- ternly dressed, fit companions for the rough ele- ments gathered in this strange community, bound together simply by their fear and hatred of the law. Supper was being cooked. Karl had memories of other scenes, and had Cuth- bert been present he might have been reminded of the Sioux village, though this place and its denizens lacked most of the picturesque effects that made that other attractive. “There’s Polly!” cried Karl, at length, The Indian was already watching her. Connicloe® “S C©