Then he set off, dragging the deer and carrying the panther pelt. The young panthers were large enough to eat meat; they would find rabbits and partridges, and would not starve.
So, well content, and wondering what Washington would say, he staggered along. The raw pelt was heavy, the deer carcass weighed not a little, the forest had waxed gloomy—and hark! Wolves howled! They were scenting his bloody trail!
Wah! He dared not stop, for his leg would stiffen. He had no mind to lose the pelt, or the deer. Ho! The camp could not be very far, but if he shouted he might attract French Indians in addition to the wolves. One never could tell. He knew a scheme, though. Thereupon he halted and peeled off his hunting shirt; he hung this upon a bit of brush over the deer carcass, to keep the suspicious wolves at a distance; he dragged the panther skin on, for another trail, then he wrapped the skin about his body for warmth, and with the long tail and the feet dangling he limped at best pace to reach the camp. Let the wolves follow.
After a time he smelled smoke. A fearsome sight he was when he hobbled in out of the darkness—a bare-headed brown boy clad from shoulders to ankles in a flapping panther hide, his bow in his hand and his arms smeared and his leg bloody. Wah!
“Wah!” uttered Tanacharison, and all. “The Hunter has taken a scalp! Good!”
“Well done,” said Washington. “A large panther. The boy is a hunter. But he is hurt. Sit down and let us look at that leg.”
“Where is the meat?” demanded Tanacharison.
“I left a deer in the brush, with my shirt on it to scare off the wolves,” panted Robert. “It should be brought quick.”
Guyasuta was here. He had returned with nothing. Now he sprang up and ran away, to back-trail to the deer carcass. The Hunter thankfully sat down by the fire; he was proud, but he did not show it—he only told about the fight, while they listened and John Davidson and Jacob Vanbraam, helped by Washington, dressed his wound.
“He iss a brave boy,” Jacob Vanbraam declared. “He will make a soldier. Yah! Now pretty soon coom a deer, an’ we eat.”