The Young Alaskans on the Trail - Emerson Hough (best free novels TXT) 📗

They lay thus for what seemed a long time, eagerly watching the game animals which were unconscious of any hunters’ presence. One of the sheep, a yearling, began to jump up and down, bouncing like a rubber ball in its sportive antics, which almost made John laugh as he watched it. Turning to look at this, the smaller ram paced off to the right, followed now by the larger ram. Both creatures now, as if they had some sense of danger, stood with their majestic heads raised, looking steadily about and apparently scanning the air to catch the taint of danger. Thus they offered a good mark to the riflemen.

“Shoot!” whispered Alex, quickly; and almost as he spoke two reports rang out.

At the report of Rob’s rifle the lesser ram, which was the one that stood to the left, fell as though struck by a hammer, shot through the shoulders and killed at once. The larger ram, which had fallen to John’s lot, was not struck beyond a slight singe of the bullet along the hair of its back. It sprang, and with incredible speed began to make its way up the opposite slope. The ewes also scattered and ran. Alex was on the point of using his rifle, when again John’s piece rang out, and this time the great ram, hit fair by the bullet, fell and rolled over and over until it reached the bottom of the slope quite dead.

Both of the boys sprang to their feet and gave a wild whoop of exultation. They were trembling now, although they did not know it, and jabbered excitedly as they started on down the slope to their game. Alex followed slowly, calmly filling his pipe and smiling his approval.

“That’s good work for young hunters,” said he. “I couldn’t have done better. Mr. John, you missed your first shot. Do you know why?”

“I know,” said Rob. “He didn’t allow for shooting downhill. A fellow nearly always shoots too high when he shoots at anything away down below him.”

“Quite right,” nodded Alex, “and a very common fault in mountain hunting.”

“Well, I got him the next time,” said John. “If you can see where your bullet goes you can tell how to shoot the next shot.”

“They’re two magnificent sheep,” said Alex, admiringly, “and we’ve got to take out both these heads, for they’re too good to leave in the mountains. I suppose now we will have to do a little butchering.”

He drew his great knife from his belt, and now in very skilful way began to skin, clean, and dismember the sheep, doubling back the half-disjointed legs and the hams and shoulders and throwing the separated pieces of meat on the skins, which were spread out, flesh side up, on the ground. He took out the shoulders and hams of each sheep and split the remainder of the carcass, detaching the ribs along the spine with blows of his heavy bladed knife. After a little he rolled up the meat of each sheep in its own hide, lashed it firmly with thong, and made it into two packs. The heads he next skinned out, showing the boys how to open the skin along the back of the neck, and across the head between the horns. He asked for their smaller and keener knives when it came to skinning out the ears, eyes and nostrils, but removed the scalp from each sheep without making a cut which showed through the skin.

“Now,” said he at last, “when we get the meat trimmed off these skull-bones you’ll have a couple of sheep heads that many a hunter would give hundreds of dollars to kill for himself. They are going to be awkward to carry, though, I’ll tell you that.”

“How much would one of these rams weigh, Alex?” asked Rob.

“The biggest one a couple of hundred pounds, maybe,” said Alex. “The green head, this way, might make fifty of that, I don’t know. We’ll have to make two trips down to the bivouac, that’s one thing sure. Maybe we can lighten the heads by trimming out to-night.”

“I’ll tell you, Alex,” said Rob; “if you can take one of the meat packs we’ll take one of the heads between us. It’s downhill from here to where we left the blankets.”

“All right,” answered Alex. “I could carry a couple of hundred pounds down here, I suppose, but there’s plenty of time, as we aren’t more than a mile from camp. So come ahead.”

Proceeding in this way they finally did get all their meat down to the little bivouac they had made under the spruce-trees. They were very tired but happy by this time, and hungry as well, for now evening was closing down.

“I’ll show you how to make a fire now,” said Alex, “because you will see that we aren’t over sand or gravel in this camping place, as we are on the river.”

He scraped away the bed of spruce needles and loose soil until he got down to the moist and sandy layer, with some rocks here and there projecting through.

“That’ll do, I think,” said he. “We won’t build a big fire, and we’ll have rocks under and around it all we can. You always want to remember that a forest fire is a terrible thing, and nearly always they come from careless camp-fires. You know the earth itself burns in a forest like this. Never allow a fire to get away, and never leave it burning. These are laws which we have to follow up here, or we get into trouble.”

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I  believe I like it up here better than I do along the river,” said John, after they finally had their little fire going.

“Yes,” remarked Rob, “you can see out farther here. The mountains are fine. See how pink they are over where the snow is—the sun from the west makes it all like a picture, doesn’t it?”

“I never tire of the mountains,” said Alex, “and I’ve lived among them many years.”

“I’d like to be a hunter,” Rob began.

“Not to-day,” rejoined Alex. “Our people can’t make a living that way now. We have to buy things of the Company, and pay for them with our furs and robes. But we’ll be hunters for this time, sure, with meat in camp and two fine heads as well. I wish we could eat some to-night.”

“Why, why can’t we?” demanded John, who looked as though he could eat a good-sized piece quite raw.

“We could if we had to,” said Alex, “but the meat will be better if we let it hang over night. If we ate too much of the very fresh meat it might make us sick.”

“Men eat bear liver the day it is killed.”

“Yes, white men do, but not many Indians will eat bear liver at all. We can try some of the sheep liver, if you like, for I’ve brought it down in the packs. For that matter, it won’t hurt us maybe to try a little piece of meat roasted on a stick before the fire, the way the Indians cook. That, with a bit of bacon and some bannock that I’ll make, will do us, if we have a cup of tea. You see, I’ve a little can along which I got in Moise’s cook-bag.”

“I don’t see how you’re going to make bread,” began John, “for you haven’t got any pan.”

“No, Injuns don’t always have pans like white people,” said Alex, laughing, “but I’ll show you. I’ll use the flour-sack for a pan—just pour the water right in on the flour and mix it up in the sack. All outdoor men know that trick. An Injun would take a stick and roll around in that white dough and roast that dough ball before the fire along with his meat,” he said, “but I think by taking a slab of bark we can cook our bannock somehow, a little bit, at least, as though we had a pan to lean up before the fire.”

The boys found new proof of the old saying that hunger is the best sauce. For though their meal was really very frugal, they enjoyed it heartily, and having had a cup of tea, they forgot all about their fatigue.

The shadows were coming down across the near-by ridges when at length they turned to Alex inquiringly.

“We want to know where we’re going to make our beds.”

“Well, this big spruce-tree is a good enough tent for me—the lower branches spread out almost like an umbrella. We won’t keep much fire, but if I get cold in the night, not having any blankets, I’ll just make a little fire. You know, I don’t need to sleep as warmly as you do.”

“Well,” said John, “you ought to get under part of our blanket.”

“Then we’d all be cold. Keep some of the blanket under you, for that’s where the cold comes from, not from above. I may after a while push the ashes back from our fireplace and lie down on the ground where it has been made warm by the fire. Injuns sometimes do that when they can’t do any better. Mostly, however, we depend on keeping up a fire if it is very cold and we have no robe or blanket.”

High up in the hills where they were it grew very cold at night, and the boys, shivering in their scanty covering, woke up more than once. Sometimes they would see Alex lying quite asleep, and again he would be sitting up smoking his pipe, leaning against the trunk of the tree. In some way, however, the night wore through, although they were glad when at length the sun came up and they could all stretch their cramped and stiffened limbs.

“My eyes have got sticks in them,” said John, rubbing at his face.

“And my hair pulls a little bit, too,” Rob added. “I forgot to bring my comb, or even my tooth-brush.”

“Well, one thing,” said Alex, as he built up the fire. “We’ll have some sheep meat for breakfast, all right. The animal heat will be all out of it now, and we’ll have a hearty meal. We’ll need it too, for it’s quite a way down to camp, several miles, that’s sure.”

They finished their breakfast while the sun was still low over the eastern mountains, and presently began to think about the homeward march.

“They’ll be wondering about us down there,” said Rob, “and I’m mighty glad we’ve made our hunt and can get home so soon.”

“We might not be able to do it again in a dozen hunts,” said Alex. “Game isn’t as abundant as it once was.”

“I should say not,” said John. “When you read in the stories about Mackenzie and Fraser, and all those old fellows, they’ll tell about seeing all kinds of game from the boat just as they went along.”

“We’ll do the same when we get out of the mountains,” Alex replied; “but not buffalo and caribou any more. Bear and moose we’ll be very apt to see.

“We’ll double-portage these loads for one trip, at least,” he resumed. “I’ll make the first trip with one head on top of my pack, and if you can manage the other one for a little way I’ll come back for the rest of the meat, and we’ll go about half-way down toward the boats on our first trip. As you probably can’t travel as fast as I can, I’m going ahead, but I’ll blaze the trees as I go. Then I’ll drop my load and come back to meet you. When you come to my first load you must stop there until I catch up with you again. As I’ll be below you all the time, at first, there’ll be no danger about your getting