"David Eddings - High Hunt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

kind of huddled up to see what's gonna happen."

I could see Jack leaning forward now, his eyes bright with excitement and his lips drawn back from his
teeth a little. Of course, I couldn't look straight at him. I had to keep everything in place out on the other
side of the doorway.

"So Dad just lays that long old rifle out across the log and touches her off. Then he started loading and
firing as fast as he could so's he could get as many as possible before they got their sense back. Well,
those old black-powder cartridges put out an awful cloud of smoke, and about half the time he was
shooting blind, but he managed to knock down seventeen of them before the rest got themselves
organized enough to run out of range."

"Wow! That's a lot of deer, huh, Dad?" I said.

"As soon as Old Pete heard the shooting, he knew his part of the job was over, so he went out to do a
little hunting for himself. The dogs hadn't had anything to eat since the day before, so he was plenty
hungry, but then, a dog hunts better if he's hungry тАФ so does a man.

"Anyway, Dad got the team and skidded the deer on in to shore and commenced to gutting and
skinning. Took him most of the rest of the day to finish up."

Jack started to fidget again. He'd gone for almost a half hour without saying hardly anything, and that
was always about his limit.

"Is a deer very hard to skin, Dad?" he asked.

"Not if you know what you're doing."

"But how come he did it right away like that?" Jack demanded. "Eddie Selvridge's old man said you
gotta leave the hide on a deer for at least a week or the meat'll spoil."

"I heard him say that, too, Dad," I agreed.

"Funny they don't leave the hide on a cow then when they butcher, isn't it?" the Old Man asked. "At the
slaughterhouse they always skin 'em right away, don't they?"

"I never thought of that," I admitted.

Jack scowled silently. He hated not being right. I think he hated that more than anything else in the
world.
"Along about noon or so," Dad continued, "here comes Pete back into camp with a full belly and blood
on his muzzle. Old Buell went up to him and sniffed at him and then started casting back and forth until he
picked up Pete's trail. Then he lined out backtracking Pete to his kill."

Jack howled with sudden laughter. "That sure was one smart old dog, huh, Dad?" he said. "Why work if
you can get somebody else to do it for you?"

Dad ignored him. "Old Pete had probably killed a fawn and had eaten his fill. Anyway, my dad kinda
watched the dogs for a few minutes and then went back to work skinning. After he got them all skinned
out, he salted down the hides and rolled them in a bundle тАФ sold the hides in town for enough to buy his