“Little good that does us!” growled Jimmie.
“You couldn’t eat ’em!” laughed Carl.
“But I’ll tell you what I could do!” insisted Jimmie. “If we had plenty of ammunition, I could make a sneak outside and bring in game enough to keep us eating for a month.”
“You know what always happens to you when you go out after something to eat!” laughed Carl. “You always get into trouble!”
“But I always get back, don’t I?” demanded Jimmie. “I guess the time will come, before long, when you’ll be glad to see me starting out for some kind of game! We’re not going to remain quietly here and starve.”
“That looks like going out hunting,” said Sam, pointing to the savages outside. “Those fellows might have something to say about it.”
It was now broad daylight. The early sunshine lay like a mist of gold over the tops of the distant peaks, and birds were cutting the clear, sweet air with their sharp cries. Many of the Indians outside being sun worshipers, the boys saw them still on their knees with hands and face uplifted to the sunrise.
The air in the valley was growing warmer every minute. By noon, when the sun would look almost vertically down, it promised to be very hot, as the mountains shut out the breeze.
“I don’t think it will be necessary to look for game,” Sam went on in a moment, “for the reason that the Louise and Bertha, ought to be here soon after sunset. It may possibly take them a little longer than that to cover the distance, as they do not sail so fast as the Ann, but at least they should be here before to-morrow morning. Then you’ll see the savages scatter!” he added with a smile. “And you’ll see Jimmie eat, too!”
“Don’t mention it!” cried the boy.