CHAPTER XXVI
CRUTCHES IN DEMAND--CURING VENISON--PEMMICAN--SCALDING OFF A PORKER'SHAIR WITH LEAVES AND WATER--TURKEY TROUGH--SOLITARY WATCHING--FORCE OFIMAGINATION--FEARFUL RENCOUNTER--DIFFERENT MODES OF REPELLING WILDBEASTS
Harold's ankle continued so painful whenever he attempted to move, thatSam advised him, the morning after the accident, to construct forhimself a pair of crutches. "Make 'em strong and good, Mas Harol," saidhe, with a broad grin of satisfaction. "I hope by time you trow 'emaway, I'll pick 'em up." This work occupied the two invalids, whileRobert and Frank were engaged in their successful deer hunt.
When the venison was brought home, Harold assisted in various ways inpreparing it for use; and also promised that if he was provided with thenecessary means, he would see that all which was thereafter brought inshould be properly cured. His favourite mode was by the process called_jerking_. The plan was this: A wig-wam was made, about five feet indiameter at the base, and five feet high, leaving a hole at the topabout two feet wide. A place for fire was scooped in the middle; andthe pieces of venison were hung in the smoke that poured through theopen top. Pieces an inch thick, when exposed at the same time to smokeand sunshine were perfectly cured in the course of a day. The hamsrequired, of course, a longer time, and were all the better for a littlesalt. The _salting tub_ was made of a fresh deer's skin, fleshy sideup, supported by stakes so as to sag in the middle. A substitute for a_pickle barrel_ was also devised in the course of time; this consistedof a deer's skin, stripped off whole, and rendered water-tight bystopping the holes; in this the meat was put, covered with a strongbrine, and drawn up into a tree. When the visits of the flesh-fly wereapprehended, the mouth of the sack was secured by a string. But themost convenient form in which the meat was cured was that known as_pemmican_. To prepare this the meat was jerked until perfectly dry,then pounded fine, and mixed with half its own weight of melted grease;after which it was packed away in skin bags, having the hair outwards.The pemmican could be eaten, like bologna sausage, either cooked or raw,and kept perfectly sweet as long as it was needed.
While describing these several modes of preparing and preserving theirmeat, it may not be amiss to mention also a method adopted by Harold forscalding off an opossum's hair without any of the usual appliances forheating the water. The opossum had been killed before it was known thatthe utensils for boiling were all in use and could not be spared.Robert was perplexed, for he knew that the hair "sets" as soon as thecarcass is cold, and refuses to be drawn. But Harold replied with asmile,
"I have seen hogs scalded by being put into a deep puddle of waterheated with red hot stones. All the water needed for so small an objectas the opossum may be heated in a deer skin, hung like our salting tubover the fire. But I will show you a still easier plan."
He gathered a pile of dry leaves, with which he covered the body, andthen poured on water until the pile was quite wet; after which he piledon a much larger quantity of dry leaves, which he set on fire. When themass had burnt down, the hair of the opossum was found so thoroughly_steamed_ by the surrounding heat, that it yielded as easily as if ithad passed through the most approved process of the pork cleaning art.
Towards sunset Robert went to the turkey baits; the birds had returnedto the place they had visited before, and eaten all the parched cornthrown there the second time. He renewed the bait, with this difference(made on Harold's suggestion)--that whereas he had formerly scatteredthe corn broad-cast, he now strewed it in a sort of trough, or shallowtrench, made in the ground. This trench was made on a line proceedingstraight from a place of concealment, selected within good shootingdistance. Turkeys are greedy feeders; and when they find a place baitedas that was, they gather on each side of the trench, with their headsclose together, trying each to obtain his share of the prize; and aperson having a gun loaded with duck or squirrel shot, has been known tokill six or eight at a time, by firing among their interlocking heads.
An additional visit enabled Robert to determine that the hour of theircoming was early in the morning; and this being the only othercircumstance wanting to fix the time of his own coming to meet them, heused that opportunity to arrange to his fancy the place of hisconcealment. The trench was on a line with two short hedges of bamboobrier, diverging from each other in the shape of the letter V, having aplace of egress at the angle. He closed the mouth of the V by plantinga blind of evergreens, high as his head, and very close at the bottom;and as it was probable that he should be compelled to remain some hoursin concealment, he made a seat, and opened through the blind a hole forobservation.
On the following morning he was up and moving at the peep of day. Maryprepared him a cup of coffee, and by the time that there was lightsufficient to follow the blazed track he was on the way. His course layeastward, and through the opening branches glowed that beautiful starwhich he had often admired, Venus, the gem of the morning, "flaming uponthe forehead of the dawn."
Frank begged hard to be allowed to go too, his confidence in Robert'swoodsmanship having been greatly increased by the recent success; butHarold decided against him. He said that in turkey shooting the fewerpersons there were present the better; that Robert himself must keepstill as a mouse, and that well trained as Mum was, it would be bettereven for him to be left behind. Robert therefore departed alone,putting into his pocket a small volume of Shakespeare, to aid in whilingaway the slow hours of his solitary watch.
On arriving at the spot his first act was to see that the bait was yetuntouched. He took his seat, and continued for a long time peepingthrough the port hole, and listening with an attention so acute that hecould hear the rush of his own blood along the throbbing arteries. Butas the minutes passed, and no change occurred, not even the chirp of abird or the bark of a squirrel enlivening the grim solitude, hisexcitement gradually gave way to weariness. He leaned his gun againstthe wall of vines, and drew out his book. It was the first volume,containing that magnificent drama, "The Tempest." He read rapidly thefamiliar scenes describing Ariel, the light, invisible spirit, andCaliban, the hideous son of the old hag, and Prospero, with hisbeautiful daughter, and the dripping refugees from the sea, and becameso deeply absorbed as perfectly to forget where he was, until a slightrustling behind a briery thicket near the bait aroused his attention.Whatever the animal might have been, its step was very stealthy, andevidently approaching. Laying down the book, and grasping his gun, hepeeped cautiously around; nothing was visible. Soon he heard a rattlingupon the ground of falling fragments, as if from some animal climbing atree, and a grating sound like that of bark which is grasped andcrushed.
"I wonder what that can be?" he mentally soliloquized. "Perhaps a largefox-squirrel climbing after acorns--but no, there is too much barkfalling for that. It must be a squirrel barking a dead limb for worms.That's it! O, yes, that's it."
But it was no squirrel, and had Robert been more of a woodsman he wouldnot have returned so quietly to his reading. Indeed, he had become moredeeply interested in his book than in his business, and was glad of anyexcuse that allowed him to return to Prospero and the shipwrecked crew.He read a few pages more, and stopping to connect in his mind thedisjointed parts of the story, his eye rested upon what appeared to bethe bushy tail of a very large squirrel, lying upon a limb of the treethat overhung the bait.
"I knew it was a squirrel," said he to himself; "but he is a bouncer!How long his tail is! and how it moves from side to side like a cat's,when it sees a bird or a mouse that it is trying to catch. I wish Icould see his body, but it is hidden by that bunch of leaves."
His imagination was so powerfully impressed with the graphic scenery of"The Tempest," that he could scarcely think of anything else. The ideain his mind at that moment was the ludicrous scene in which the drunkenStephano comes upon the queer bundle, made up of Caliban and Trinculo,lying head to head under the same frock, and appearing to his unsteadyeyes like a monster with two pairs of legs at each end. As Robertlooked into the
tree, he almost laughed to catch himself fancying thathe saw Caliban's head lying on the same limb on which lay the squirrel'stail, and staring at him with its two great eyes. Indeed he did seesomething. There was a veritable head resting there, and two greateyeballs were glaring upon him, and nothing but the irresistibleinfluence of the scenes he had read deceived him for a moment with theidea that it was Caliban's.
A second and steady look would probably have revealed the truth; but forthis he had not time. The welcome "twit! twit!" of the expected gamecaused him to look through his port hole, and a large turkey cock,accompanied by four hens, ran directly to the trench, and began to eatas fast as they could pick up the grains. Robert cautiously slipped hisgun through the port hole, and took deliberate aim, confident that hecould kill the five at one shot. But hesitating a moment whether heshould commit such wholesale destruction, when they were already so wellsupplied with fresh meat, his gun made a slight noise against theleaves, which attracted the attention of the turkeys, and caused thehens to dart away. The gobbler, being the leader and protector of theparty, stood his ground courageously, stretching his long neck full fourfeet high, looking in every direction, and then coming cautiouslytowards the blind to reconnoitre.
Robert had gained experience from his still hunting; and in thisconjuncture stood perfectly motionless, keeping his gun as immovable asthe stiff branch of a dry tree. The bird was deceived. It returnedquietly to the trench, and commenced feeding. Robert waited in the hopethat it would be joined by another; but no other coming, he fired whileit was picking up the last few grains, and killed it. The moment ofpulling the trigger, he heard a rustle of leaves in the tree above theturkey, and the moment after the report of his gun a heavy fall upon theground. As he rushed from his concealment to seize the fallen game, hewas horrified to see an enormous beast of the cat kind, crushing thehead of the bird in its mouth, while its paw pinioned the flutteringwings. It was a panther. It had crawled into the tree while Robert wasreading. It was _its_ tail he had mistaken for a squirrel's, and _its_head he had fancied was Caliban's. For half an hour it had been glaringupon him with its big eyeballs, waiting until he should pass near enoughto be pounced upon.
The coming of the turkeys had distracted its attention; and beinghungry, it had ceased to watch for its human victim, and resolved uponthat which was surer. When Robert emerged from his concealment itturned upon him, dropped the mangled head from its bloody mouth,reversed the hair on both back and tail, showed its enormous fangs, andgrowled. Had he retreated from the field he might have escaped theterrible conflict that awaited him, for the panther, left to thepeaceable possession of its prize, would probably have snatched it upand ran away. But his horror at the sight was so great that for amoment he was paralysed. He convulsively clutched his gun, and was onthe point of firing almost without aim, when another fierce growl fromthe panther, that appeared to be gathering itself for a leap, broughthim to his senses. He took deliberate aim between its eyes, and fired.It was a desperate chance, for the gun was loaded only with duck shot.The howl of rage and pain with which the panther bounded upon him, andthe grinning horrible teeth that it showed, made his blood run cold. Heclubbed his gun, prepared to aim a heavy blow upon its forehead, but, tohis surprise, instead of leaping upon him, it sprang upon the thicket ofbriers, about three feet distant, and began furiously to tear on everyside at perfect random.
He needed no better chance to escape from so dangerous a neighbourhood;and, in the moment of leaving, saw that both eyes of the animal had beenshot away, and that the bloody humour was streaming down its face. Hehurried on for a few steps, but fearing that the frantic beast mightpursue him, he slipped behind a tree, and pouring hastily into his gun acharge of powder, which he rammed down as he ran, put upon that a heavyload of deer shot, and then made his way homewards.
Ere he had run one-half the distance, however, his fears began tosubside. The panther, if not mortally wounded, was stone-blind; whyshould he not muster courage enough to complete the work, and thusperform a feat of which he might be proud as long as he lived? In themidst of this cogitation, he heard before him the tramp of footsteps,and saw the glimmering of an animal that bounded towards him with rapidpace. Could this be the panther which had pursued him, and interceptedhis flight! He levelled his piece in readiness for battle, and waspreparing to pull trigger at the first fair sight, when he saw that,instead of a panther, it was Mum--good faithful Mum, broken loose fromhis confinement at home, and come in a moment of need to help hismaster. What a relief! Robert called him, patted him, hugged him, andthen said, "Stop, Mum! I'll give you something to do directly. Justwait a minute, boy, till I load this other barrel; and with you to helpme, I shall not be afraid of any panther, whether his eyes are in orout."
Mum had sagacity enough to know that his master was greatly excited, andhe showed his own sympathy by whining, frisking about, and wagging hisshort tail. Robert loaded with dispatch, hurried back, keeping Mumdirectly before him, and holding his piece ready for instant use; butthe panther had disappeared.
On reaching the field of battle, Mum's first act was to spring upon theprostrate bird, but finding it dead he let it lie; then perceiving theodour of the panther's track, his hair bristled, he followed the trailfor a few steps, and returned, looking wistfully into his master's face.He evidently understood the dangerous character of the beast that hadbeen there, and was reluctant to follow. Robert, however, put him uponthe trail, and encouraged him to proceed. Mum undertook the businessvery warily. He went first to the brier on which the panther had lastbeen seen; then in a zigzag course, that seemed to be interrupted byevery bush against which the blinded beast had struck; finally hebristled up again, and gave signs of extreme caution. A few stepsbrought them to a fallen log, between two large branches of which Robertsaw his formidable enemy, crouched and panting. He softly called in hisdog. The panther pricked up its ears, and raised its head, as if tryingto pierce through the impenetrable gloom. Robert came noiselessly nearerand nearer, until within ten paces, then deliberately taking aim, hedischarged the whole load of bullets between the creature's eyes. Itleaped convulsively forward, and died almost without a struggle.
Deliberately taking aim, he discharged the whole load ofbullets between the creature's eyes]
Soon as it was indubitably dead, Robert went forward to examine it. Heturned it over, felt its bony legs and compact body; looked at theterrible fangs from which he had made so narrow an escape, and, havingsatisfied his curiosity, attempted to take it upon his shoulder; butthis was far beyond his strength--the panther was heavy as a large deer.He marked carefully the spot where it lay, and returning to the tree forhis book and bird, hurried home, to tell the others of his perilousadventure.
Hardly had he come within sight, before Frank's quick eyes discernedhim. "What!" said he, with a playful taunt, "only one turkey! Ithought you would have had a house full, you staid so long and fired sooften. Cousin Harold hardly knew what to make of it; he said he supposedyou must have _wounded_ a turkey; so I ran and let Mum loose to helpyou."
"I am glad you did," replied Robert, drawing a long breath, "for neverin my life was I more in need of help."
"And you didn't get the other after all?"
"O, yes, all I aimed at. But something came near getting me, too.Where are Cousin Harold and sister?"
"In the tent."
Harold and Mary smiled with pleasure to see the fine bird on hisshoulder, but could not understand the seriousness of countenance withwhich he approached. He related the particulars of his adventure, towhich they listened with breathless attention. Mary turned very pale,Harold's eyes flashed fire, and Sam's white teeth shone in repeatedlaughs of admiration.
"How I wish I could have been with you," said Harold, looking mournfullyat his lame foot.
"I wish you had been."
"That was a terrible moment, when you had fired your last barrel, andthe panther was rushing upon you. You must have given up all for lost."
"No," replied Robert, "I felt myself tremendously excited, but had noidea of giving up."
"That is natural," said Harold. "No one ever gives up while there isanything to do. But do tell me, what did you think of? People canthink so fast, and so powerfully, when brought to the pinch, that I liketo hear all about their plans and thoughts. Tell me everything."
"From first to last," said Robert, smiling, "I thought of many things,but of none which I had time to execute, except to fire into his eyes,and club my gun. I first thought of running away, but not until I hadstood so long that the panther seemed about to spring upon me. Then theidea occurred to me of trying the power of my eye, as father recommendedabout dogs; but I confess there was more power in his eye than mine, forI was badly frightened. My next thought was to take off my cap and rushupon him, as if that was some deadly weapon. I heard once of a lady inIndia, who saved herself and several others from a Bengal tiger, byrushing at him with an umbrella which she kept opening and shutting asshe ran. There was another plan still, of a negro in Georgia, whofought and killed a panther with his knife. But," he continued, "let ustalk a moment of the carcass. What shall I do with it; leave it thereor bring it to the tent?"
"O, bring it, bring it, by all means," Harold replied; "I doubt notCousin Mary and Frank will help you."
Mary was not at all pleased with the prospect of such unladylikebusiness, and in consequence gave Harold a look of disapproval, which heaffected not to see. She went, nevertheless, and the panther was soonlying before the tent-door. The rest of the forenoon was spent inflaying it, which they did with the claws, tail and ears attached; forRobert had remarked, that being compelled to imitate Hercules indestroying wild beasts, he had a fancy to imitate him also in his couch.While thus engaged, Harold asked for the story of the negro.
"It is not much of a story," said Robert; "I thought of it merely inconnection with the rest. The negro was going to his wife's house,which was some miles distant from the plantation, and which made itnecessary for him to pass through a dark, dismal swamp. Usually hepassed it by daylight, for it was infested by wild beasts; but being adaring fellow, he sometimes went by night, armed only with a long sharpknife. The last time he made the attempt he did not reach his wife'shouse, and his master went in search of him. Deep in the swamp he hadmet with a panther, and had a terrible fight. Traces of blood wereplentiful, and deep tracks, where first one and then the other had madesome unusual effort. Near at hand lay the panther, stabbed in nineplaces, and a little beyond lay the negro, torn almost to pieces. Theyhad killed each other."
"I wonder," said Harold, "that he did not carry a torch; no wild beastwill attack a person bearing fire."
"Are you sure of that?" Robert inquired.
"As sure as I can be, from having heard of it often, and tried ittwice."
Robert begged for the particulars.
"I went with my father and two other gentlemen, on a hunting excursionamong the mountains, where we camped out, of course. One of thegentlemen having heard that there were plenty of wolves in that region,and wishing, as he said, to have some fun that night, had rubbed gumassafoetida upon the soles of his boots, before leaving the tent for itis said that wolves are attracted by the smell of this gum, and willfollow it to a great distance. Now, whether it was the smell of theassafoetida or of our game, I will not pretend to say, but the wolvescame that night in such numbers that we could scarcely rest. Theyhowled first on this side and then on that, and barked in such shortquick notes, that one sounded like half a dozen. Our horses wereterribly frightened; we could scarcely keep them within bounds; and ourdogs ran slinking into the tent with every sign of fear. The only planby which we could sleep with comfort was by building a large fire, andkeeping it burning all night."
"Did not the gentleman who was so fond of wolves go out after them?"asked Robert.
"O, yes, we all went, again and again, but the cunning creatures kept inthe edge of the darkness, and when we approached on one side, they ranto the other. It was there I heard the other gentleman, who wasesteemed a great hunter, remark, that all wild beasts are afraid offire."
"I wonder why?"
"Night beasts are afraid I suppose, because they prowl in darkness; andas for the others, if they once feel the pain of fire they will be aptto keep out of its way."
"The other circumstance is this:--Last year I went on a night hunt, withsome boys of my own age; and not only did we meet with very poorsuccess, but for some hours were completely lost. About an hour beforeday I left the company, and returned home; for I had promised my motherto return by twelve o'clock. Before parting company, we heard a pantherin the woods directly in my way, crying for all the world like a youngchild. The boys tried to frighten me out of my intention; but I toldthem that if they would only let me have a good torch, I should safelypass by a dozen panthers. It was full two miles home. The panthercontinued his cry until I came within a furlong, and then ceased. As Ipassed the piece of woods from which his voice appeared to come, I heardafar off the stealthy tread of something retiring, and saw two largeeyes shining in the dark. I have always supposed that these were theeyes and tread of the panther, and that it was driven off by the torch."