In a short time smoke began to curl upwards from his small beginning. Blowing the feeble blaze he quickly had it taking hold in earnest. The crackle and snap of the burning wood was music to the ears of the almost delirious boy.
“The fire is ready, Dick!” he called out.
“Then come for some of the meat, and commence business,” was the welcome answer.
As there was nothing that Mayhew could do to assist in carving the dead buffalo, he also was given various “hunks” of the meat, and presently the two sat there by the fire, attending to a dozen or more sticks, on the ends of which their long-delayed meal was being slowly browned.
Never in all his life had Roger felt so frantic upon smelling the odor of cooking meat. It would have been just the same had their fare consisted of venison, bear meat, or wild turkey; all he wanted was something to satisfy that terrible craving which was overpowering him.
It must be confessed that Roger, unable to stand the suspense and temptation longer, snatched the first piece from its stick before it was half-cooked, and commenced to devour it like a savage.
He seemed to enjoy it, too, which fact caused the guide to speedily follow his example and appropriate one of the sections for himself.
Dick, coming up just then with a further supply, first of all filled the empty sticks with fresh portions, and then—well, Dick was just as hungry as either of his comrades, and there was really no sense in waiting any longer, so he made it unanimous!
After they had taken the sharp edge off their ravenous hunger the pace was not quite so swift. They were willing to wait until the meat was fairly well cooked; and by degrees it was noticed that they even began to slacken in their attack.
At length Dick laughed as he remarked: