about noon
He illustrated the method of mixing a batch of baking-powder bread , and how to parboil salt pork before cooking , explained to him the otherwise mysterious expansion of rice and beans and dried apples in boiling water , all of which Breyette was shrewd enough to realize that Thompson knew nothing about . He had a ready ear for instructions but a poor understanding of these matters . So Mike reiterated out of his experience of camp cooking , and Thompson tried to remember . Meanwhile , MacDonald , who had vanished into the woods with a rifle in his hand at daybreak , came back about noon with a deer 's carcass slung on his sturdy back . This , after it was skinned , the two breeds cut into pieces the thickness of a man 's wrist and as long as they could make them , rubbed well with salt and hung on a stretched line in the sun . The purpose and preparation of `` jerky '' was duly elucidated to Thompson ; rather profitless explanation , for he had no rifle , nor any knowledge whatever in the use of firearms . `` Bagosh , dat man Ah 'm wonder w ` ere hees raise , '' Mike said to his partner once when Thompson was out of earshot .