“Now, Joe,” said Jack, “how are we going to carry this meat to camp?”
“I reckon we’d better pack it on my horse and I can walk,” said Joe. “It isn’t far.”
“Well, but how are you going to get across the creek?”
“Oh, I can ride on top of the load for a little short way like that,” declared Joe.
“I don’t know, though,” he went on, “whether these horses will pack fresh meat like this, but we’ll have to try.”
It was soon evident that the horses would strongly object to the load, and it was not until Joe’s horse had been blinded by a coat that the boys could lift the meat across the saddle and lash it with Joe’s lariat. After that had been done and the blind removed from the horse’s head he showed a good deal of disposition to buck, but at last thought better of it, and when Jack led the way down the trail, Joe’s horse followed very quietly.
When streams had to be crossed, Joe clambered on the load of meat, and they reached camp long before sundown without further incident.
CHAPTER VII
OLD-TIME HUNTING WAYS
“WELL,” said Hugh, when they rode up to the tent, “I’m glad you got some meat. Now, before you even unsaddle, I’m going to send one of you boys up into that cottonwood tree there. Knot a couple of those sling ropes together and let us haul that meat up above the flies if we can. It’ll spoil in a day if we leave it down here close to the ground, where the blow flies can get at it.”
The wisdom of this advice was recognized at once, and Jack promptly scrambled up into the cottonwood and made his way into the lower branches. Joe threw him the end of a sling rope and Jack climbed well into the tree, and then, passing the rope over a branch, the meat was hauled up and tied thirty or forty feet above the ground, out of reach of the flies and exposed to the breeze which blew almost constantly up or down the lake.