Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 282: what you’re looking at

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

270 The Last Round-Up. good reason to believe Jasper Hosmer had this time really paid nature’s debt, for he was reckoned among those who fell in the stormy scenes attend- ing the cavalry charge on the outlaws’ den. Of course this news gave satisfaction, for in the eyes of the boys Hosmer was something of an ogre, who had carried the princess off to his enchanted castle, where he meant to detain her until the showers of golden coin rained down from her lips, as in the fairy story; and now that he was under the daisies, they could go off upon their winter hunt with more confidence that all would be well with Polly. Old Sile entered into the business with much en- thusiasm. It stirred up memories of days long since num- bered with the past, days when he had been a trap- per by profession, daring the perils of the almost un- known Northwest, to collect precious pelts under the very noses of Blackfeet and Crows, who hated his kind most bitterly, and never neglected an op- portunity to wipe a trapper from the face of the earth. With unlimited means and such judgment as long experience had given him, the veteran was very apt to collect such material as would most conduce to their comfort while in the wilderness. At the same time he knew all about the difficulties of transportation, and did not mean to take along more than they could conveniently “tote” over a carry, when such a thing became necessary. With good guns, plenty of ammunition, and a sup- ply of modern steel traps of the best make, he reck- oned they ought to pull along until spring, and get fat in the bargain—all of which the future alone could decide. Sunset Ranch days were almost over, so far as the boys were concerned, for it was not their inten- ConnicloOokkSs.€©