A TREACHEROUS COWARD 225 



logs. Now, if such exercise would tire a man in a 

 wholesome condition, how does it act upon one who 

 has to carry with him an unwholesome load of lum- 

 bago ? Well, I presume there are many who wouldn't 

 care to try it a second time. However, it is a part of 

 my method and therefore I must insist upon it. 

 After my walk I return for my dinner, with my 

 anatomy still doubled-up, but with the conviction 

 that my first brush with the enemy has sapped 

 his entrenchments, and that another one will knock 

 his fortifications into smithereens. After dinner I 

 take a second walk, choosing, this time, a wet bog and 

 trudging through it, ankle-deep at every step, back 

 and forth until the perspiration starts as freely as if I 

 were in a Turkish bath. Then I return to camp, and 

 at night apply a hot-water bag to my back. Next 

 morning behold me spring from my couch of spruce 

 boughs! Undoubled and erect, "Richard's himself 

 again ! " After breakfast I go for another dose of my 

 walking-physic. True, it isn't as gentle and palatable 

 as it might be, but the dose goes down much easier 

 than it did yesterday. After the walk I return to 

 camp and — well, the battle is over, the victory won, 

 and my Machiavellian enemy has surrendered uncon- 

 ditionally. I retire to my spruce boughs and the next 

 morning finds me without a pain or an ache and with 

 a soul eager and hungry for the sport that only a 

 moose or caribou can give me. 



