"They have taken themselves off and left me behind for dead," Ralph said to himself. "Well, thank fortune, I am alive!"
The boy was in a sad situation. He was without food and with no means of communication with the mainland on either side of the lake.
"I must see if I can't signal some passing boat," he thought. "It is impossible to swim to the shore, especially now when I feel as weak as a rag."
Ralph had just struck out for the opposite side of the island, that upon which all of the regular lake boats passed, when the report of a gun reached his ears.
It came from some distance to the north, and was soon followed by several other shots.
He wondered if it could be Martin and Toglet, or some sportsmen. Determined to find out, he set out as rapidly as he could in the direction of the sound.
After passing through a patch of woods and over a hill of rough stones, he came to a thicket of blueberry bushes. As he entered it there came another shot, not a hundred feet away.
In a moment more the boy espied a sportsman, dressed in a regular hunting garb.
"Hallo, there!" he called out.
"Hallo, boy!" returned the man, cheerily. "Out hunting, like myself?"