Thus encouraged, Tom took a mouthful, and found it
by no means bad, for from their long stay in the valley
the animals were all in excellent condition, and he
acknowledged to himself that he would not have known
the flesh from beef.
“I call it mighty good for a change.”
Terry said. “Out on the plains, where one
can get buffalo, one would not take horse for choice,
but as we have been eating deer and bear meat for
about a year, horse-meat ain’t bad by no means.
What! You won’t take another bit, Tom?”
“Not to-night, Jerry; next time I shall be all
right. But it is my first trial, you know, and
though I can’t say it is not good, it gives me
a queer feeling, so I will stick to the bread.”
“Well, boys,” Harry said presently, “we
have made a first-rate start, and have got out of
a big scrape, easier than I ever looked for. We
could not have got two better canoes for our work if
we had had them brought special from Canada, and it
seems to me that they ought to go down pretty near
anywhere without much damage. We shall get real
handy with our paddles in two or three days, and I
hope we sha’n’t meet with any big rapids
until we have got into the way of managing them well.”
“You bet, Harry, we have got out well,”
said Jerry. “I tell you it looked downright
ugly, and I wouldn’t have given a continental
for our chances. As for the rapids, I guess we
shall generally find rocks one side or the other where
we can make our way along, and we can let down the
canoes by the ropes. Anyhow, we need not get skeery
over them. After getting out of that valley with
our hair on, the thought of them does not trouble
me a cent.”
AFLOAT IN CANOES
The two Indians were off long before daylight, and
just as the others were having a wash at the edge
of the river they heard the crack of a rifle some
distance up the cliff.
“Bear!” Jerry exclaimed; “and I
reckon they have got it, else we should have heard
another shot directly afterwards. That will set
us up in food for some time. Get the fire made
up, Tom, you won’t have to eat horse steak for
breakfast unless you like.”
The Indians returned half an hour later laden with
as much bear-flesh as they could carry.
“I vote we stop here for two days,” Harry
said. “We have got a lot of meat now, but
it won’t keep for twenty-four hours in this heat,
so I vote we cut it up and dry it as the Indians do
buffalo-meat; it will keep any time. Besides,
we deserve a couple of days’ rest, and we can
practise paddling while the meat dries. We got
on very well yesterday, but I do want us to get quite
at home in the boats before we get to a bad bit.”
The proposal was agreed to, and as soon as breakfast
was over the whole of the meat was cut up into thin
slices and hung up on cords fastened from tree to
tree.
“It ought to take three days to do it properly,
and four is better,” Harry said. “Still,
as we have cut it very thin, I should think two days
in this hot sun ought to be enough.”
