him. He stood up, exposing himself for the fraction of a second, then
concealed himself behind the bushes again. Caribou are very
inquisitive animals, and these walked towards him, for they wanted to
ascertain what the strange object was that they had seen. When they
had come within easy range he selected the smaller one, a young buck,
aimed carefully at a spot behind the shoulders, and fired. The animal
fell and its mate stood stupidly still and looked at it, and then
advanced and smelled of it. Even the report of the gun had not
satisfied its curiosity.

It would have been an easy matter for Bob to shoot this second
caribou, but the one he had killed was quite sufficient for his needs,
and to kill the other would have been ruthless slaughter, little short
of murder, and something that Bob, who was a true sportsman, would not
stoop to. He therefore stepped out from his cover and revealed
himself. Then when the animal saw him clearly, a living enemy, it
turned and fled.

Bob removed the skin and quartered the carcass. These he loaded upon
his toboggan and hauled to his tilt. The meat was suspended from the
limb of a tree outside, where animals could not reach it and where it
would freeze and keep sweet until needed. A small piece was taken into
the tilt for immediate use, and some portions of the neck placed in
the corner of the tilt where they would decompose somewhat and thus be
rendered into desirable fox bait. The skin was stretched against the
logs of the side of the shack farthest from the stove, to dry. This
would make an excellent cover for Bob's couch and be warm and
comfortable to sleep upon. The sinew, taken from the back of the
animal, was scraped and hung from the roof to season, for he would
need it later to use as thread with which to repair moccasins.