They began to look around, there being no longer any necessity for concealment; and in a short time Tom announced that he believed he saw how he might cross over to the little green plateau where the bighorns had been feeding.
[CHAPTER XIV—A WAKEFUL NIGHT]
It required considerable climbing, as well as taking chances, for the boys to cross over to where the dead bighorn lay on the green plateau which had long been the dining table of the flock, and where they undoubtedly felt they were safe from all the ordinary enemies of their kind. But in reckoning thus, they knew not of the long range of the modern rifle, nor the terrible expanding power of the up-to-date softnosed bullet, that mushrooms to three times its original size upon striking even the flesh of an animal.
When both of the lads had successfully landed on the plateau it was beginning to grow a little dusk. The sun had long since vanished behind the great rocky ridge that stood out above them against the sky.
"We'll have to put in a night up here, all right," commented Felix, as they arrived at the side of the dead sheep, over which Tom bent eagerly.
"Well, since we prepared for that same thing, it won't be so hard on us," replied the Western boy; "and I'm not any disappointed in my game either. I don't believe it's a year old even, and I'm only sorry we haven't some way to make a fire up here; for a slice or two off this chap would go great. Come over this way, and let's see; I've got a dim idea I saw a few stunted trees hanging to the face of the rock, where there were gaps, and some earth had blown in from time to time. If it turns out that way, count on a supper worth while; and that'll go better than just cold biscuits and jerked venison."
They had hardly rounded the shoulder of rock mentioned by Tom, than he gave vent to a shout of delight.
"There they are, just as I thought;" he remarked; "and now to see what we can do about picking up enough fine wood to make a fire. Every scrap will count. Look in the crevices, and every which way, for broken branches, twigs, and anything that will burn. We've just got to have supper, and that's all there is to it, with such bully game on hand!"
Presently Tom found a way to reach the stunted trees himself, and here he came upon a regular bonanza in the way of partly dead branches, which he kicked off in any way possible, until the boy below declared they had more than enough fuel to cook two suppers.
By the time they had selected the nook where a fire would be best sheltered from the night wind at that elevated spot, the darkness had begun to creep around them.