There were no signs of our foe. So far as one's eyes might give him information, we were alone in the thicket with none to molest or make afraid.
Kenton set about making a blaze in the fireplace, and such act aroused my mother from her sorrowful memories to a realization of the present.
All her housewifely instincts took possession of her once more, and she set about preparing breakfast—perhaps the last meal we might ever eat.
"Think you the savages count on starving us out?" I asked, rather for the purpose of starting a conversation than to gain information.
"It may be that all the party are not yet arrived, and those who made the first attack are waitin' for more to come up. If the entire force is here, then certain it is they count on starvin' us, although so far as the villains know, that may prove a long task. Were you and I alone, I should favor tryin' to give 'em the slip after midnight; but it would be folly to attempt anything of the kind while your mother is to be protected."
"You will not find her a coward," I said proudly, whereat he replied with a laugh:
"Of that we have already had good proof; but there would be too much danger in attemptin' to fight our way out while she was with us. After a time——"
He was interrupted by rifle shots in the distance. First one, then a couple, and, after an interval of four or five seconds, what sounded like a regular volley.
Then came scattering shots, by which I understood that whoever was engaged in deadly combat had succeeded in gaining a shelter, and was firing only when the possibility of hitting a target presented itself.
"Can it be that some of Major Clarke's force have come our way?" I asked as a great hope came into my heart; but Simon Kenton speedily dashed it.