If kept dry, it will retain its flavor and its sweetness for a month or more.
Samson was busy with this process long after the others had gone to bed.
When it was nearly finished he left the meat on the rack, the fire beneath it having burned low, crossed the river to the wagon, got his blanket, reloaded his gun and lay down to sleep with the dog beside him.
Some hours later he was awakened by "a kind of a bull beller," as he described it.

The dog ran barking across the river.

Samson seized the gun and followed him.

The first dim light of the morning showed through the tree-tops.

Some big animal was growling and roaring and rolling over and over in a clump of bushes near the meat rack.