“He’s an old one. If he had been younger the deer would never have been able to turn on him. I think this is the first painter you’ve seen, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“They are getting thinned out around here, so Sam Barringford told me.”
“Do they generally attack such big game as deer?”
“Very often, although they usually feed on smaller animals. They lie on the limbs of trees and drop down on anything passing beneath. Zeph Tassot had a hand-to-hand fight with one, and he’s got that long scar on his left cheek to show for it. Zeph jammed the painter in the throat with his knife and they fought for ’most half an hour, when the beast turned tail and hid among the rocks. Zeph ran for his life and didn’t stop till he’d covered two miles or more. He says he never wants to set eyes on a painter again.”
Uncle and nephew dragged the dead deer and the dead panther close to the camp-fire, and then it was decided that one should remain on guard while the other slept.
“The smell of blood may attract other wild beasts to the vicinity,” said Joseph Morris. “We’ll keep an eye open for them, and also keep the fire burning brightly.”
Dave turned in and slept for three hours. Then his uncle aroused him and slumbered for the same length of time.
In the morning they skinned the deer and the panther and hung the pelts in the rising sun to dry. For breakfast they tried a steak from the panther and found it not unlike coarse beef to the taste. The remainder of the panther meat was left behind, but they took with them all of the deer meat they could conveniently carry.
That day saw them through the mountains and by nightfall they struck a trail over which horses and wagons had traveled. They now pushed on faster than ever, and did not rest until an hour after sunset, when they had gained a small collection of houses called Berry’s Post. Here they met a trader who willingly relieved them of their skins at a fair price.