Transgressing all the rules of the craft, I neither reloaded nor remained quiet in my place to await a second; but rushed out, dragged him to the fire, broke him up, and in a very few minutes, portions of him were put down to roast. I then reloaded, and kept a sharp look-out. Probably the smell of roasting meat kept others away; for though I heard snorting and stamping, I saw no more for the present—but my stomach could not hold out any longer.
Refreshed and strengthened by the food, I stirred the fire to a bright glow, and, again on good terms with myself and the whole world, I sat patient and watchful under the towering flames. Nothing stirred till about one in the morning, when I again heard a light measured step, and a doe appeared coming straight towards me. She had not the slightest suspicion of danger, but stood staring at the fire with clear shining eyes, hardly six paces from the stand. She was with young; still I must have a hunting shirt, and I had raised the death-dealing tube, when three more deer arrived on the scene, one of them a fine buck. They passed round the lick, and then stopped about ten or eleven paces behind the doe, who never once moved from her place. Turning the rifle a little aside, I fired at the buck, who bounded high in the air and fell dead, the doe flying off like the wind. She was so close that she must have been singed by the powder.
Deathlike stillness again prevailed. I was nodding a little, but waking up suddenly and looking before me, I saw two glowing eyes shining through the darkness, and soon afterwards descried the whole form of a deer. He came straight towards me, stood for a moment, turned a little aside, and disappeared after the crack of the rifle. I gave myself no concern about him, but reloaded and watched for more. Whip-poor-will had already begun his monotonous song, which regularly resounds through the woods shortly before the first gleam of day, when I again heard the measured tread of a deer on the dry leaves, and he received my ball just as the gray dawn was appearing. As it grew lighter I found him lying dead on his tracks. The third, which I had fired at, had left no signs; so assuming that I had missed him, I made no attempt to seek him, but set to work to skin the others. When this was done, I hung them up, and proceeded to a farmer’s about two miles off, with whom I was well acquainted, to tell him to take the meat; and then went on some miles further to Kelfer’s, who received me hospitably, and in whose house I rested for a few days.
Hearing of another lick which was said to be very good, I resorted thither the same evening, and was soon ensconced under a hastily prepared platform.
The woods in Arkansas present a beautiful aspect at this season of the year, when the logwood trees are in bloom. They are small bush-like trees, seldom more than seven inches in diameter, with a white blossom of the size of a rose; but the whole tree is covered with them. They grow in immense numbers, and give the forest the appearance of a garden. Then the mild spring nights, the wailing note of the whip-poor-will, the monotonous hooting of the owls, would make it altogether romantic, were the infernal mosquitoes only away.
I shot two deer during the night, took out their brains, and laid them about half an inch thick on a flat stone, placed it near the fire, and kept stirring them, to preserve them for dressing the skins.
Imagining that I had skins enough, I took them, as soon as they were dry, to old Slowtrap’s, as he was celebrated for understanding the curing business thoroughly. In a few days I was seated in the well-known chimney corner opposite my old friend, who was the same as usual, had on the same shabby old black coat with the same eventful buttons behind, and as usual he was roasting potatoes in the hot ashes. I made no long preface, and next morning found me hard at work, scraping off the hair with a knife which I had prepared for the purpose. Finding that I had not preserved a sufficiency of brains, I was obliged to go out shooting again, and Hogarth, who lived near, was willing to accompany me for a few days.
Just as we were about to start on the following morning, five horsemen drew up before the door. They dismounted, and Hogarth asked them to breakfast, though we had just finished. After breakfast, as they saw that we were ready to start, one of them asked us not to go shooting to-day, but to go with them, as they were on their way to execute an act of justice. The case was this: Some time since had settled on the banks of the little river, a set of men who were found to be rather too fond of horseflesh, without inquiring particularly to whom the horses belonged. They lived scattered over a district of about twenty miles in circumference, and almost conclusive proofs of horse-stealing were brought against two of these people, though the evidence was not strong enough for proceedings against them in a court of justice, where they could have an advocate, a being for whom all backwoodsmen entertain a profound respect. Therefore to make short work of the matter, they had decided on taking the law into their own hands. A man of the name of Brogan and my poor Curly were the two victims.
Hogarth was ready at once. I resolved to go as a spectator, fully resolved to take no part in the proceedings. We were soon off, and overtook the poor fellows, bound, and led between two horses. Curly was very dejected; Brogan looked savage and desperate. When we arrived at the rendezvous, we found a much more numerous assembly than we had expected, there being about sixty persons present. The jury was chosen, witnesses were brought forward, sworn, and questioned, and all the proceedings were carried on according to the regular forms of a court of justice. It came out that Brogan had been absent for some time during the preceding year—that the two horses in question had been seen in the neighborhood of these two men, in a certain place where the forest was very thick—and that Brogan was always hanging about there. Later, Curly had made use of one of these horses, and then sold him; the proofs were convincing enough, yet they both steadfastly denied all the facts.
Two men now stripped Curly of his upper garments, tied him up to a tree, and began to belabor his back with hickory sticks. Curly had sense enough to see that if his head remained obstinate, his back would have to pay the score; so he offered to confess. He was instantly cast loose, and the register of his sins was soon unfolded. He stated that he himself had never stolen any horse, but had acted as receiver, or as he said, had been good-natured towards the thieves. When the last horse was to be stolen, four of them had been present, and it was agreed that he was to be carried off and sold. But as one of them must first steal him, it was left to sportsman’s luck to decide. He, who by a certain day, had shot fewest deer, should undertake the risk of stealing the horse. Curly had killed four, by the day named, the other two had shot two each, Brogan only one. He concluded by giving the names of all the horse-stealers, twenty-six in number, and well-known names, having the modesty to leave out his own.