CHAPTER XXVIII 

 THE LAST CAMP 



ON the sixth of October we pitched our first camp 

 in the North Fork. By the night of the fifteenth we 

 had covered our season's assignment. The Black 

 Eange was cruised and mapped. The summer, with 

 its pleasures, and its hardships, was over, and we 

 were free to hike for town. 



The last day of cruising was, by a coincidence, the 

 opening day of the game season. Some of us were 

 anxious to try our luck on a whitetail buck, so for 

 this reason, and also because the trip in to Silver 

 promised to be an arduous one, Frazer decided to 

 stay over until the seventeenth. Those who would 

 might rest, the others could hunt. 



Wallace, Conway, Wetherby, Jackson, and my- 

 self spent the holiday looking for deer, but with the 

 exception of the ranger we might just as well have 

 stayed in camp. Jackson left with his 25.20 carbine 

 directly after breakfast and reappeared about nine 

 o 'clock with a fair sized buck slung over his shoulder. 

 He and Brown skinned and dressed the deer and for 

 supper we had venison steak, the first I had ever 

 tasted. The meat was exceedingly tough, due 

 mainly, no doubt, to the fact that it was cooked so 

 soon after the death of the animal. As a matter of 



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