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Authors: Charles G. West
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she was doubly glad to see Cam again. She got up from her seat on a blanket to help him with the deer. Emma’s eyes got bigger and bigger when she saw the carcass draped across Toby’s withers. The girls had never seen a dead deer before. She and Grace ran after their mother to get a closer look.
Raymond got up from the rock he had been seated on, his interest definitely aroused. “You work fast,” he commented to Cam. “I heard the shot.”
“Didn’t take long to find ’em,” Cam replied with no elaboration of the details. He was thinking that it took the prospect of fresh meat to foster any animation on the part of their stoic host. It was a sign of the desperation the man must certainly be in.
He must have been eating grass,
Cam thought. It caused him to make an offer to help. “Say, if you need to get into town to get supplies, I could stay here and watch your claim for you.” He figured Mary and the girls could go back to Custer City with him. But as soon as he said it, he saw the narrowing of Raymond’s eyes and his look of concern.
“I don’t need anybody to sit on my claim for me. I don’t need supplies that bad, and I’ll be leaving here for good pretty soon.”
“Well, I was just offerin’,” Cam said, shrugged, and went to work skinning his deer. Mary volunteered her help, but he told her he had butchered enough game to have his own methods of doing it. “You just take care of the cookin’,” he said. “Besides, it looks like I’ve got all the help I need,” he added, nodding toward the girls, who were crowding in to get a closer look at the procedure.
Before long, there were strips of fresh venison roasting over the fire on a spit that the brothers had fashioned, but that looked to have not been in use for some time. Mary served the hot meat as soon as it was done, and no one was more eager than Raymond.
Like he ain’t had anything solid in days,
Cam thought. He began to suspect that Raymond might have been searching for gold for too many years. He had heard of men who had spent so many lonely years of hard labor, brutal weather, and danger from Indians and outlaws that they had gone crazy in the head. The image of Raymond, choking down strip after strip of meat like a hungry wolf, easily verified his suspicions. When all had had their fill, Cam finished the butchering, portioned out some to cook later, and prepared the fire to dry out the rest, smoking it over the flames.
The only occasions when Mary could talk to Cam without being overheard were when Raymond would have to walk back in the woods to answer nature’s calls. To satisfy his curiosity on one such occasion, Cam opened the flap on the tent and stuck his head inside for a quick look. It was as he had suspected. The tent was over a hole more than three feet deep. It had been carved out in the shape of a square, just inside the area covered by the canvas, in effect, a short room. There were two beds, one on each side, and a small stove in the center with a stovepipe that extended up to a smoke hole in the top of the tent. In one corner of the hole, he saw a small pile of three cloth bags, containing gold dust, he assumed.
Not much to show for the time the two brothers had spent here,
he thought. He had no need to linger, for he had seen all there was to see, and the heavy stale air inside the hole made him crave a lungful of fresh air. He backed away and closed the flap, then turned to meet Mary’s questioning gaze. Shaking his head vigorously and snorting like a buffalo, he said, “You don’t wanna go in there.”
She started to question him, but Raymond returned at that moment. “When are you folks planning to start back?” he asked.
“I guess we’ll leave tomorrow,” Mary answered. She then turned to Cam. “Is that all right with you, or do you need more time to tend the venison?”
“That’s fine with me,” Cam replied. “I’m leavin’ most of that meat here for Raymond to finish up. We oughta be able
Raymond got up from the rock he had been seated on, his interest definitely aroused. “You work fast,” he commented to Cam. “I heard the shot.”
“Didn’t take long to find ’em,” Cam replied with no elaboration of the details. He was thinking that it took the prospect of fresh meat to foster any animation on the part of their stoic host. It was a sign of the desperation the man must certainly be in.
He must have been eating grass,
Cam thought. It caused him to make an offer to help. “Say, if you need to get into town to get supplies, I could stay here and watch your claim for you.” He figured Mary and the girls could go back to Custer City with him. But as soon as he said it, he saw the narrowing of Raymond’s eyes and his look of concern.
“I don’t need anybody to sit on my claim for me. I don’t need supplies that bad, and I’ll be leaving here for good pretty soon.”
“Well, I was just offerin’,” Cam said, shrugged, and went to work skinning his deer. Mary volunteered her help, but he told her he had butchered enough game to have his own methods of doing it. “You just take care of the cookin’,” he said. “Besides, it looks like I’ve got all the help I need,” he added, nodding toward the girls, who were crowding in to get a closer look at the procedure.
Before long, there were strips of fresh venison roasting over the fire on a spit that the brothers had fashioned, but that looked to have not been in use for some time. Mary served the hot meat as soon as it was done, and no one was more eager than Raymond.
Like he ain’t had anything solid in days,
Cam thought. He began to suspect that Raymond might have been searching for gold for too many years. He had heard of men who had spent so many lonely years of hard labor, brutal weather, and danger from Indians and outlaws that they had gone crazy in the head. The image of Raymond, choking down strip after strip of meat like a hungry wolf, easily verified his suspicions. When all had had their fill, Cam finished the butchering, portioned out some to cook later, and prepared the fire to dry out the rest, smoking it over the flames.
The only occasions when Mary could talk to Cam without being overheard were when Raymond would have to walk back in the woods to answer nature’s calls. To satisfy his curiosity on one such occasion, Cam opened the flap on the tent and stuck his head inside for a quick look. It was as he had suspected. The tent was over a hole more than three feet deep. It had been carved out in the shape of a square, just inside the area covered by the canvas, in effect, a short room. There were two beds, one on each side, and a small stove in the center with a stovepipe that extended up to a smoke hole in the top of the tent. In one corner of the hole, he saw a small pile of three cloth bags, containing gold dust, he assumed.
Not much to show for the time the two brothers had spent here,
he thought. He had no need to linger, for he had seen all there was to see, and the heavy stale air inside the hole made him crave a lungful of fresh air. He backed away and closed the flap, then turned to meet Mary’s questioning gaze. Shaking his head vigorously and snorting like a buffalo, he said, “You don’t wanna go in there.”
She started to question him, but Raymond returned at that moment. “When are you folks planning to start back?” he asked.
“I guess we’ll leave tomorrow,” Mary answered. She then turned to Cam. “Is that all right with you, or do you need more time to tend the venison?”
“That’s fine with me,” Cam replied. “I’m leavin’ most of that meat here for Raymond to finish up. We oughta be able
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