He loosened the pack horse from its picket pin, led it to the
saddles, and choosing the right rigging, saddled the animal and tied
the lash rope to the saddle. It was the first time he had ever put a
pack saddle on a horse, and he did not feel sure that he had done it
right, but he spent little time over it, thinking that the important
thing now was to get the horse to Hugh, so that they could bring
their meat to camp before the sun set. He found his way back without
difficulty to the place they had shot from, and from there saw Hugh,
who had finished butchering, smoking his pipe by the two carcasses.
When Jack reached him, Hugh said, "Well, you didn't have no trouble,
did you?"
"Not a bit," said Jack. "I'd a notion at one time that maybe I was
lost, for the ravine that we came down looked strange to me on my way
back, but I followed it up and got to camp all right."
"Well," said Hugh, "it's a mighty good plan, when you're going along
in a strange country, to stop every now and then and take a look
behind you, and see how the country looks after you pass through it.
Of course as you go along you see how things look ahead of you, but
sometimes they look mighty different from the other side. I'd ought
to have spoken to you about that before. Say," he continued, as he
rose to his feet and looked at the pack horse, "who saddled that
horse?"
"Why, I did, of course," answered Jack; "what's the matter with it?
I kind o' felt as if there was something wrong when I started, but I
was in a rush to get back here, and so hurried along without stopping
to think about it."
"Well," said Hugh, "there is something wrong, but we ain't got time
now to let you find out what it is. Don't you see you've got the
saddle on hind side before? You must have cinched the horse up from
the off side instead of from the near."
"Of course," said Jack, "I see it now. That must be what made it seem
so queer when I was saddling; but you see, both ends of the pack
saddle look alike. I don't think I would have made that mistake with
a riding saddle."
"No, I expect not," said Hugh, "if you had, you'd probably have found
it out when you tried to mount. Now, I'll put this saddle on right
and then we'll take these deer to camp as quick as we can. The sun
will be down before long, and we want daylight to cook supper and
spread our beds by."
They packed the two deer on the horse. Hugh did most of the work of
packing, but Jack helped now and then by holding up the load on one
side, and pulling a rope or two. As they drew near the camp Hugh
said, "We've got lots of daylight yet and can make a nice camp here,
and to-morrow morning we'll hunt a little way on horseback. We don't
want to have too good luck right at the start, if we do we'll have to
go back home again too soon."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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