about in here."

"Then," said Albert, "let's have a try at the buffaloes. Their
robes will be worth a lot when we go back to civilization, and
there is more room left in the Annex."

They took their repeaters and soon proved Dick's words to be
true. In a sheltered meadow three or more miles up the valley
they found about twenty buffaloes grazing. Each shot down a fat
cow, and they could have secured more had not the minds of both
boys rebelled at the idea of slaughter.

"It's true we'd like to have the robes," said Dick, "but we'd
have to leave most of the carcasses rotting here. Even with the
wonderful appetites that we've developed, we couldn't eat a whole
buffalo herd in one winter."

But after they had eaten the tongue, brisket, and tenderloin of
the two cows, while fresh, these being the tenderest and best
parts of the buffalo, they added the rest of the meat to their
stores in the Annex. As they had done already in several cases,
they jerked it, a most useful operation that observant Dick had
learned when they were with the wagon train.

It took a lot of labor and time to jerk the buffaloes, but
neither boy had a lazy bone in him, and time seemed to stretch
away into eternity before them. They cut the flesh into long,
thin strips, taking it all from the bones. Then all these pieces
were thoroughly mixed with salt--fortunately, they could obtain
an unlimited supply of salt by boiling out the water from the
numerous salt springs in the valley--chiefly by pounding and
rubbing. They let these strips remain inside the hides about
three hours, then all was ready for the main process of jerking.

Albert had been doing the salting and Dick meanwhile had been
getting ready the frame for the jerking. He drove four forked
poles into the ground, in the form of a square and about seven
feet apart. The forks were between four and five feet above the
ground. On opposite sides of the square, from fork to fork, he
laid two stout young poles of fresh, green wood. Then from pole
to pole he laid many other and smaller poles, generally about an
inch apart. They laid the strips of buffalo meat, taken from
their salt bath, upon the network of small poles, and beneath
they built a good fire of birch, ash, and oak.

"Why, it makes me think of a smokehouse at home," said Albert.

"Same principle," said Dick, "but if you let that fire under
there go out, Al, I'll take one of those birch rods and give you
the biggest