I took from my pocket all the food remaining, and the lad devoured it like one famished, whereupon Sergeant Corney asked:
"Have you had nothin' to eat since we left you?"
"I gathered some roots an' berries, but not enough to satisfy my hunger."
"An' yet you would have stayed here longer in danger of starvation?"
"Ay, until havin' satisfied myself that father was as safe as one can be who remains in the power of such as are encamped here. Did you come for no other purpose than to find me?"
"Nothin' more," I said, not minded to let him know that if he could show any reasonable chance of rescuing Peter Sitz it was our purpose to give him aid.
"Where have you been all this while?"
"That is too long a story to tell now," Sergeant Corney interrupted. "If the savages are not likely to do more than dance from now till mornin', we may as well find a shelter in which to spend the morrow, an' then I'm of the opinion that the three of us had best make tracks for Cherry Valley, as Jacob's father advised."
As he ceased speaking, Sergeant Corney would have led us out of the thicket; but Jacob whispered, softly:
"Not half a mile away is a small cave--no more than a hole in the hillside, an' there we may remain hidden durin' the hours of daylight."