"Starve us out; we have eat nothin' since leaving the clearin', though that time is so short it don't count, but there isn't a mouthful of food in this party, and no way of getting it."
"It does look bad," remarked Hastings, feeling deeply the views expressed by his companion.
"I wish Boone would come, so him and me could agree on something to try, whether it will win or not."
Simon Kenton was not the man to sit down and fold his hands in despair, no matter how desperate the situation, but he had expressed the wish that was strong within him, that he might have the counsel of the man who was twenty years his senior, and who had turned his steps westward before Kenton knew that Kentucky and Ohio existed.
"I'm glad of one thing," added the pioneer, after a moment's pause, "and that is, that this arrangement of yours is open on the side toward the river."
"Jim said that was done so as to give him and the boys a chance for the last plunge. If they hadn't done that them three chaps never would have seen the sun rise again."
"It may come to the same thing when there's only two or three of us left. Helloa! who's this?"
It was Mr. Altman, who, knowing where the two were in consultation, ventured to approach them, doing so with an apology.
"I have no wish to intrude," he added, "but I am disturbed over one matter, Kenton, about which I would like to ask a question or two."
"What's that?" inquired the scout.