“Well,” said Hugh, “you know it now. There’s only now and then one of these Piegan women that would dare to dress a bear hide. We may find such a woman in camp when we go back, but the chances are against it. However, I reckon we’ll manage somehow to get the hide tanned.”
While they were talking thus, both workers were plying the knife vigorously and in a little while the hide was free all around and the carcass was slipped off it. Then Hugh, cutting into the bear’s stomach, turned out its contents on the ground. It was almost empty, containing nothing but two or three wads of grass and a single ground squirrel, which had been swallowed whole.
“You see,” said Hugh, “this fellow hasn’t had much to eat, and you see, too, that he’s got quite a little fat left on his carcass. I reckon maybe he’s been down along the shore of the lake to see if he couldn’t pick up a fish or two that had drifted ashore, and not having found anything there, he was going back up onto the mountain to try to dig out a gopher, or a woodchuck, or one of those little rock rabbits.”
They now folded the bear hide, and while Jack held his horse, Hugh tried to tie on the hide behind the saddle, but the horse would have none of it. He struggled and pulled back, and it was only by blinding him with a coat—an operation which took some time and involved some trouble because both men were covered with bear’s grease, the scent of which frightened the horse—that they could get him blindfolded and the hide firmly lashed in position.
“Now, Hugh,” said Jack, “I’m not proposing to get onto that horse on this side hill. The chances are that he’d buck and very likely drop me off on a rock. I’ll walk and lead him until he’s a little more used to his load.”
“Well,” said Hugh, “that’s pretty sensible. You go ahead and lead him and I’ll follow, and if he pulls away from you, why I’ll drive him along the trail.”
Jack took the blind from the horse’s head and taking up his gun went down toward the trail. The horse, however, was afraid of his load and bucked pretty savagely. They had, however, taken the precaution to cinch the saddle tightly, and the lashing held, so that, at length, the badly frightened horse followed more or less uneasily along the trail, Hugh riding behind him and having some trouble in controlling his own animal, into whose nostrils the scent of the bear hide was constantly blown. Their progress toward camp was slow, but an hour after they started they reached it and found the horses feeding near it not greatly troubled by the flies, for a strong wind was now blowing down the lake.
During the afternoon, while Hugh was getting the camp in shape and cooking supper, the two boys stretched the bear hide and went over it with a knife, scraping from it all possible grease. After supper and just before sundown, Jack, casting at the mouth of the turbulent mountain stream which here poured itself into the lake, caught a dozen splendid trout, some of which gave him fine sport.
After nightfall, the breeze which swept down from the mountains was so cool that the mosquitoes ceased to be troublesome, and they sat about the camp fire enjoying its grateful warmth. Presently Joe broke out and said, “Where are we going, White Bull? I never came into the mountains so far as this, and I don’t know this country.”
“Well,” said Hugh, “I ain’t much surprised at that, for the Piegans don’t go much into the mountains. They are afraid of the bears and of the bad ghosts that live there.”