Jack put his rifle to his shoulder, feeling as cool and steady as
ever he did in his life, and aiming just behind the big buck's elbow,
fired, and the deer dropped in his tracks. The little fellow made one
or two jumps, and then stood looking, when Hugh's ball pierced his
breast, and he too fell to the ground.
"Well," said Hugh, "that's a good job, son. If I'd thought we were
going to get meat so quick, I'd a fetched a pack horse along, but
I didn't much think we would. So I'll go down and butcher them
deer, and you go back to camp and put a pack saddle on one of the
pack horses and fetch it over here. Mind you take the saddle and
the blanket and the lash rope that goes together; don't mix up the
riggings. You'd better bring the pack horse you led; it hasn't had
nothing to do all day except to pack its saddle, and it might as
well work for its grub now. You can't see the camp from here, but I
don't expect there's any danger of your losing your way. You know we
crossed four of these gulches coming, and when you get to the fifth
you want to turn to your right and follow up the creek, and soon
you'll come in sight of the camp. Keep the sun on your right hand all
the time. Do you think you can do it?"
"Oh, I guess so, Hugh," said Jack; "now that you've told me how
many ravines we crossed; I didn't notice, myself, I only knew we'd
crossed a number of them."
"Well," said Hugh, "you've got to learn to take notice of just them
things, if you're going to be a prairie man. Now mind, if you should
not be able to find your way to camp, and think you're lost, don't
keep on travelling; just climb up to the top of the nearest hill and
set there, and before night you'll see or hear me. But I don't expect
but what you'll find your way back to camp all right."
Hugh went on downhill toward the deer, and Jack set out on his return
to camp. He kept count of the ravines as he crossed them, and when he
came to the fifth, looked around to see if there was anything there
that he could recognise. It all looked strange to him, but he turned
to his right and followed the stream up, and, before he had gone very
far, he noticed a clump of willows that he remembered they had passed
soon after leaving camp. A few steps beyond this a grove of trees
appeared, and a moment later he saw the horses. "Now, the question
is," he said to himself, as he hurried toward camp, "can I find my
way back to Hugh? I'll try hard, anyhow."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account