Frank, however, had started at the first report, and was now running at the top of his speed. Robert rushed forward to dye his hand for the first time in the blood of so noble a victim; yet it made him almost shudder to hear the knife grate through the delicate flesh, and to see the rich blood gurgling upon the ground. Had it not been that such butchery was necessary to subsistence, he would have resolved at that moment to repeat it no more.

But what was next to be done? Here were two large deer lying upon the earth. Should he skin and cleanse them there, and attempt to carry home the divided quarters? or should he carry home one deer and return for the other? He decided upon the last. Before proceeding homewards, however, he blazed a number of trees, to show afar off the place of his game; then selecting a tree, as far as he could distinguish in his way, he went towards it, chopping each bush and sapling with his hatchet; and making a broad blaze upon this tree, he selected another in the same line, and proceeded thus until he reached the tent. He had learnt by one-half day's practice to thread the trackless forest with a steadiness of course and a confidence of spirit that were surprising to himself.

CHAPTER XXVI

CRUTCHES IN DEMAND--CURING VENISON--PEMMICAN--SCALDING OFF A PORKER'S HAIR WITH LEAVES AND WATER--TURKEY TROUGH--SOLITARY WATCHING--FORCE OF IMAGINATION--FEARFUL RENCOUNTER--DIFFERENT MODES OF REPELLING WILD BEASTS

Harold's ankle continued so painful whenever he attempted to move, that Sam advised him, the morning after the accident, to construct for himself a pair of crutches. "Make 'em strong and good, Mas Harol," said he, with a broad grin of satisfaction. "I hope by time you trow 'em away, I'll pick 'em up." This work occupied the two invalids, while Robert and Frank were engaged in their successful deer hunt.

When the venison was brought home, Harold assisted in various ways in preparing it for use; and also promised that if he was provided with the necessary means, he would see that all which was thereafter brought in should be properly cured. His favourite mode was by the process called jerking. The plan was this: A wig-wam was made, about five feet in diameter at the base, and five feet high, leaving a hole at the top about two feet wide. A place for fire was scooped in the middle; and the pieces of venison were hung in the smoke that poured through the open top. Pieces an inch thick, when exposed at the same time to smoke and sunshine were perfectly cured in the course of a day. The hams required, of course, a longer time, and were all the better for a little salt. The salting tub was made of a fresh deer's skin, fleshy side up, supported by stakes so as to sag in the middle. A substitute for a pickle barrel was also devised in the course of time; this consisted of a deer's skin, stripped off whole, and rendered water-tight by stopping the holes; in this the meat was put, covered with a strong brine, and drawn up into a tree. When the visits of the flesh-fly were apprehended, the mouth of the sack was secured by a string. But the most convenient form in which the meat was cured was that known as pemmican. To prepare this the meat was jerked until perfectly dry, then pounded fine, and mixed with half its own weight of melted grease; after which it was packed away in skin bags, having the hair outwards. The pemmican could be eaten, like bologna sausage, either cooked or raw, and kept perfectly sweet as long as it was needed.

While describing these several modes of preparing and preserving their meat, it may not be amiss to mention also a method adopted by Harold for scalding off an opossum's hair without any of the usual appliances for heating the water. The opossum had been killed before it was known that the utensils for boiling were all in use and could not be spared. Robert was perplexed, for he knew that the hair "sets" as soon as the carcass is cold, and refuses to be drawn. But Harold replied with a smile,

"I have seen hogs scalded by being put into a deep puddle of water heated with red hot stones. All the water needed for so small an object as the opossum may be heated in a deer skin, hung like our salting tub over the fire. But I will show you a still easier plan."

He gathered a pile of dry leaves, with which he covered the body, and then poured on water until the pile was quite wet; after which he piled on a much larger quantity of dry leaves, which he set on fire. When the mass had burnt down, the hair of the opossum was found so thoroughly steamed by the surrounding heat, that it yielded as easily as if it had passed through the most approved process of the pork cleaning art.

Towards sunset Robert went to the turkey baits; the birds had returned to the place they had visited before, and eaten all the parched corn thrown there the second time. He renewed the bait, with this difference (made on Harold's suggestion)--that whereas he had formerly scattered the corn broad-cast, he now strewed it in a sort of trough, or shallow trench, made in the ground. This trench was made on a line proceeding straight from a place of concealment, selected within good shooting distance. Turkeys are greedy feeders; and when they find a place baited as that was, they gather on each side of the trench, with their heads close together, trying each to obtain his share of the prize; and a person having a gun loaded with duck or squirrel shot, has been known to kill six or eight at a time, by firing among their interlocking heads.