JACK'S CLOSE CALL 



and I never want to get into such another tight 

 place, where breath is so scarce. I'd killed the 

 buffalo and begun ripping open the hide to skin it 

 back, and just then I got a smell of grass a-burning, 

 and, looking up, I saw in a jiffy what a trap I was 

 in and no way out of it unless I could fly. Sud- 

 denly I thought of that skame that Peck read 

 about the other night, and in a minute I was cut- 

 ting and slashing in blood up to my shoulders. 



"I ripped open the throat and cut off the wind- 

 pipe and cut loose everything around the lights 

 inside as far as I could reach. Then I started in 

 behind the brisket and ripped open the belly and 

 reached in and got a holt of the windpipe and 

 begun pulling the entrails back, and all the time 

 I was too busy to look up to see how nigh the fire 

 was a-getting; but I knew by the smoke thick 

 around me and the roar of the fire that I didn't 

 have any time to fool away. 



"When I got the in'ards dragged out I placed 

 my wolfskin coat over the opening I'd made in 

 the breast and then propped up the short ribs and 

 flank with me carbine so's I could crawl in, and 

 in I went, pulling my carbine in after me; and 

 none too soon, either, for the fire was roaring 

 around me and I could smell the wool a-burning 

 in a second after I'd got inside. 



"And then's when I begun to smell hell for 

 sure! The little bit of fresh air that was inside 

 the buffalo soon gave way to hot smoke, and oh, 



241 



