"I knew all along, Tayoga, that Dave would seek me and rescue me if you didn't, or if I didn't rescue myself, provided I remained alive, as you see I did."
"The Great Bear is the most faithful of all comrades. He would never desert a friend in the hands of the enemy."
"You think then that we should try to meet the Mountain Wolf and his rangers?"
"Of a certainty. As soon as Dagaeoga is strong enough. Now lie still, while I scout through the forest. If no enemy is near I will heat the tea, and then you must drink, and drink deep."
He made a wide circuit, and, coming back, lighted a little fire on which he warmed the tea in the pot that he had taken from the village on an earlier night. Then, under the insistence of Tayoga, Robert drank a quantity that amounted to three cups, and soon fell into a deep sleep, from which he awoke the next day with an appetite so sharp that he felt able to bite a big piece out of a tree.
"I think I'll go hunt a buffalo, kill him and eat him whole," he said in a large, round voice.
"If so Dagaeoga will have to roam far," said Tayoga sedately. "The buffalo is not found east of the Alleghanies, as you well know."
"Of course I know it, but what are time and distance to a Samson like me? I say I will go forth and slay a buffalo, unless I am fed at once and in enormous quantities."
"Would a haunch of venison and a gallon of samp help Dagaeoga a little?"
"Yes, a little, they'd serve as appetizers for something real and substantial to come."