Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

Wild Life on the Ranch. 35 By degrees he worked to windward, keeping close to the rope corral. He had made almost half the circuit and as yet discovered nothing, but was not in the least disappointed, for the racket had in- creased inside the corral, the rams rattling their horns in defiance and snorting much as a deer whistles at sight of danger, while some of the fright- ened lambs uttered plaintive cries, as if recognizing the fact that it was their precious selves the intruder wanted. Still further crept the herder; his eyes had be- come almost like those of a cat, and he was able to detect many things that might have escaped ordi- nary vision. Then came victory—he detected a movement in the down-trodden grass, as though some crouching figure crawled stealthily along in the direction of the corral. “Whether that dusky figure,” said Cuthbert under his breath, “is that of man or beast, I’m not going to attempt to decide; this isn’t the time to argue the point; but this infernal creeper threatens the safety of my charges, and incurs the penalty of his rashness.”’ The boy made ready with his gun. It was not a long shot, though the conditions made it anything but a sure one. Whatever the crawler might be, man or beast, some suspicion of danger had arisen, for it no longer advanced, but crouched there. Cuthbert discovered a pair of luminous eyes turned in his quarter, which reminded him forcibly of the yellow orbs that had surrounded his lone camp-fire when he was lost upon the prairie. The recollection gave him new resolution. He utilized the twin orbs as a target, and let fly without wincing a particle, as had been his wont in ‘earlier days. COnmicdoo S CO