As I stood resting for a few moments before resuming my journey, I had a strange, uneasy sensation of being watched and I peered nervously about, but no sign of a living thing could I see. Laughing at my own foolishness, I picked up the strip of bark which I had fastened to the deer’s antlers and resumed my journey. The deer slid along over the snow quite easily and, by keeping to the more open parts of the woods and avoiding trees and branches which might catch upon the deer’s legs and feet, I made fairly rapid progress. But despite every effort, I could not shake off the feeling that I was being watched and followed. Several times I wheeled about quickly and swept the surrounding forest with my eyes, but I saw nothing tangible, although once I thought I caught a glimpse of a flitting, shadowy form behind a clump of thick firs.
Perhaps, I thought, the lynx is following me in the hope of regaining his lost prey, and I began to fear that the creature might actually gather sufficient courage to attack me.
Then that demoniacal face which I had seen outside my cabin in the moonlight began to haunt me, and unconsciously I hurried faster and faster until, as I approached the edge of the woods and saw the clearing with my hut before me, I was making the best speed which my clumsy foot-gear and the deer’s carcass would permit.
Once in the open, and with the forest behind me, I felt easier, and, panting for breath, stopped and wheeled about, and as I did so I knew that my vague, unreasoning fear had not been unfounded. Squatting at the edge of the woods was the lynx, every hair bristling with fury, his green eyes gleaming with cruelty and hate, and his lips drawn back across the great, white teeth in a threatening snarl.
For an instant he sat there, as if half minded to leap forth to the attack, and then, with a mighty spring, he bounded into a near-by spruce. The branches swayed and the snow came down in avalanches as he leaped from bough to bough, and from the shelter of the woods the creature’s fearful cry of defiance rang out.
Even there in the sunshine and within a few yards of my hut I shivered at the eerie sound, but I realized that, after all, the lynx was too cowardly to attack me in the open. Relieved, now that I knew my phantom-like pursuer was the lynx, I dragged the deer to the cabin, slammed the door to, and threw myself upon the bunk, thoroughly exhausted with my hard morning’s work.
CHAPTER XII
STRANGE ADVENTURES
After a short rest and a hearty meal of broiled venison I felt greatly refreshed. Then I skinned the deer and hung the hide upon the wall to dry. I had no means of tanning it, unless I cut it into small pieces, and I could not remove the hair by burying it, but I had no real need of more leather at the time and this did not trouble me. Moreover, I felt sure that the skin could be softened and tanned later on, if it was required, and that meanwhile the rawhide, with its thick hair, would serve as a robe or blanket for my bunk.
I soon found that the lynx had served me far better than I had thought at first, for the deer furnished a great many useful things which would prove of the utmost value.
In the hard, pointed horns I saw material which could be used in making awls, arrow-heads, and other objects. The strong leg-tendons were just what I required for my bowstring. The great cords of the neck would serve as thongs or lashings, and I even saved the hoofs in the hope of finding use for them. By the time the skin was scraped and spread up, the cords and tendons removed and stretched to dry, and the meat had been cut up and hung up to freeze, the afternoon was spent and darkness prevented further work.