"My companions," quoth Menke. "Don't understand ye, stranger."
"We certainly heard you talking with someone just before you came into the ravine," replied the prince.
"Wull, now, that's so; I was doin' some talkin', I reckon, but it was to myself. Ye see, stranger, when a feller's alone 'bout all the time, as I am, he gets real sociable with 'imself, an' falls into that way o' doin'. No, there's no one 'long o' me, an' ef I did any conversin', it was entirely onesided," returned the hunter, in his peculiar manner of expression. "Ye've got a right snug place here," he continued, taking a look at the fugitives' shelter. "Goin' to stop a while, eh?"
"That will depend on circumstances," replied the prince. "Do you live near here?"
"Wull, no; it's some distance to my place. There are folks livin' hereabout, but their way o' livin's kind o' tough. Ye'd better go round 'em, stranger. Some good people on the plateaus, though. Now, there's Tezcot—lives th' other side of yon mountain. He's a man ye can fasten to an' know ye're safe. He's a kind o' chief 'mong the mountain people. Ef ye happen to run onto Tez, ye'll find 'im true as his arrer, an' that's sayin' a heap."
"We'll try to remember your friend Tezcot, hunter, and should we meet him, will feel that we are fortunate."
"S'pose ye're on a huntin' excursion, eh?" said Menke, forgetting the strangers could not be supplied with arms, else the animal would hardly have held them prisoners.
"Well, not exactly. Our business is, to some extent, searching for roots and berries," replied the prince, expressing a sudden thought which suggested a way of misleading the hunter and avoiding immediate discovery.
"Medicine man, eh?" responded the hunter, in an ejaculatory manner.
The prince found it necessary to change the subject, which he did by inquiring: