ns nowadays "fuss" with deep
wounds as little as possible. They clean the deep wound, by washing it
as well as they can, to remove dirt and other loose foreign particles;
then they cover gently with a sterilized pad, and bandage, to keep
microbes away, and Nature does the rest. In the days when our fathers
were boys, salves and arnica and all kinds of messy stuff were used; but
the world has found that all Nature asks is a chance to go ahead,
herself, without interference.

Unless a bullet, even, is lodged where it irritates a nerve or a muscle
or disturbs the workings of some organ of the body, the surgeon is apt
to let it stay, until Nature has tried to throw a wall about it and
enclose it out of the way.

So the less a Scout pokes at a deep wound, the better. He can wash it
out with hot water, and maybe can pick out particles of visible dirt or
splinters with forceps which have been boiled for ten minutes. Then he
can bandage it loosely, and wait for Nature or a surgeon.

CHAPTER XVI

Note 55, page 186: The Elks by this time had lost their pack-saddles and
panniers, which had been cached with other stuff after the two burros
were stolen by the renegades. They had lost also their lash ropes with
the cinchas; so that it was necessary to throw some pack-hitch that did
not require a cincha and hook. One of the easiest of such hitches is the
squaw-hitch. The tarps were spread out and the camp stuff was folded in
so that the result was a large, soft pad, with nothing to hurt Apache's
back. Then the hitch was thrown with one of the ropes, as follows:

[Illustration: Fig. I.]

[Illustration: Fig. II.]

[Illustration: Fig. III.]

Figure I is a double bight, which is laid over the top of the pack, so
that the two loops hang, well down, half on each side. "X"-"Y" is the
animal's back. Take the end of the rope, "c," and pass it under the
animal's belly, and through loop "a" on the other side; pass rope end
"d" under and through loop "b," the same way. Next bring them back to
the first side again, and through the middle place "e," as shown by
dotted lines of Figure II. Keep all the ropes well separated, where they
bite into the pack and into the animal's stomach, and draw taut, and
fasten with a hitch at "e." The result will look like Figure III.

The diamond hitch _can_ be tied by using a loop instead of the cincha
hook.

Note 56, page 193: Pack animals and saddle-horses do much better on the
trail if they can be