“I have never before killed any living creature,” she said in a rather miserable tone. “Why did the stupid thing attack us? We were doing it no harm.”
Maseden laughed.
“Off you go, both of you!” he said. “C. K. and I have the job of our lives now. It will be no joke disjointing this fellow with a couple of pocket-knives. But if the fact brings any consolation, I may tell you that a sea-lion when irritated can be a very ugly customer. Probably this one was sleeping in the sun under the lee of a rock, and you may have come unpleasantly near him without knowing it. When he awoke and saw you he was curious. Instead of slinking off, he roared at you, and might easily have killed the pair of you!”
“Can’t we help?” inquired Nina, seeing that Maseden meant to lose no time.
“No.”
“But we ought to,” she persisted. “We must get used to such work.”
“You can do something quite as serviceable by rigging a few lines on stout poles, where there is plenty of sun and air, and seeing that a big fire is kept up.... And, by the way, don’t come this way till we call you. We shan’t be—presentable.”
The two disappeared without further question.
“This will be a messy undertaking,” Maseden explained to his assistant. “The best thing we can do is strip, or our clothes will be in an awful state.”
At the outset they abandoned any thought of actually dismembering the colossal carcass. They skinned it with difficulty, and then cut off the flesh in layers. After an hour’s hard endeavor they had gathered a fine store of meat, while the pelt, after being well washed in salt water, was stretched on a flat rock to dry.