“Oh! I doan’t know,” remarked Pat, rubbing his chin with his hand, as though considering some idea that had crept into his active mind.
Of course both lads turned eagerly on their companion. They seemed to view his few words, and his manner, as suggesting hope.
“You’ve thought of something, Pat; please tell us what it is, for I do hope we can find a way to get our share of all this meat,” Sandy asked, anxiously.
“Arrah, now, listen to me, wud yees?” whispered the trapper. “And mebbe afther all we can sacure what we came out to kerry home, a pack av juicy mate. D’ye mind that the first young bull I saw a-runnin’ off had an arrow stickin’ in his side; but he managed to go some distance afore droppin’ to the ground? Whin I saw him last he was just passin’ beyant the bunch av timber that stands to the lift, it might be a quarrter av a mile. An’, saing as he niver showed up agin, the chances are he fell there. Me ijee is to worrk around in that quarrter, and whin the hunt is over, and the reds do be busy skinnin’ an’ cuttin’ up the game, what is to hinder the three av us from securin’ all we want from the carcase av the young bull as lies out yonder? Sure the trees wull be afther consalin’ us from the eyes av the Injun hunters; an’, by the same token, it may be they niver noticed that animal at all, at all!”
The proposition struck both boys as a splendid one. They nodded their heads, and their eyes sparkled; and Pat needed nothing more to tell him that his plan met with their unqualified approbation.
“Hadn’t we better be backing out of this then, right away?” suggested Sandy, always ready to act.
“Yis, but be mighty careful,” advised the trapper. “Av we have not been sane up till now, we doan’t want to spile the broth by anny undue haste. Aisy it is, byes.”
So they retreated in the same track by which they had advanced, and there came no sound or sign to tell them that their presence in the vicinity had been noticed by the other red hunters, doubtless crouching likewise in the grass, and waiting for the time to come when they might burst into view, to take a last shot at the remnant of the buffalo herd, by that time alarmed and in full flight.
It stood to reason that these eager hunters would have eyes only for the game, and this accounted for the fact that the palefaces had not been discovered.