"Might as well make a clean sweep of it," he said, with a feeling of having accomplished something worth while; for Jesse had told him these roving dogs were just as destructive to sheep and other domestic animals as so many timber wolves would have been. Perhaps the farmers of the community might feel like voting Jerry thanks for his good service of that day. And not knowing whether he could find the place again he proceeded to cut off the four caudal appendages, "to embellish his tale," as Frank later on declared with a laugh. "Guess I've had quite enough sport for to-day," Jerry remarked, as he bent over the mutilated deer; "there's quite as much meat here as I can carry home. In fact, I've a good mind to hang most of it up out of reach of wild animals. We could come for it another time. From the looks of the sky that storm Jesse spoke about must be coming right along." So he determined to make haste. While something of a novice at the art of cutting up a deer, he had a general inkling as to how it should be done. Accordingly, after half an hour's work he managed to swing the better part of the meat, fastened up in the skin, to a limb that he made sure was sound. "Now for home with my trophies. Say, perhaps the boys won't open their eyes when I show these four tails, and get Toby to cook some of _my_ venison! This has been a red letter day in my calendar. What was that--thunder, I do believe. Perhaps--" Jerry did not even wait to finish his sentence, but started off on a lope. But the gloom under the heavy timber increased. He found difficulty in telling the points of the compass. And finally it became absolutely impossible for him to make more than a half-way decent guess as to the quarter where the camp in all probability lay. "I suppose I'm just about lost," he at length reluctantly admitted. Still, Jerry was not one to be easily daunted. He had been in situations before now that called for a show of manliness and courage, and rather prided himself on being equal to any such occasion. The thunder was booming heavily, and the rain ready to descend. He believed he could hear a distant roaring. It might be wind tearing through the forest, or a heavy fall of rain, perhaps both. At any rate it would mark the breaking of the storm. "Better be finding that hollow tree I spoke to Jesse about," he concluded. Once again luck favored the lad. Not thirty paces away he discovered what seemed to be a big stump, about twelve feet or more in height. It had an opening at the bottom, large enough for him to crawl through; indeed, to his mind, it was there especially for the very use he intended to put it. Running forward just as the rain began to rattle down all around him, Jerry proceeded to crawl through the aperture. He found the interior amply large enough to give him the needed shelter. What was better, the opening happened to be on the leeward side, so that the driving rain could not find entrance.