Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/180

 were getting to a place where there was famous shooting. We did not camp until very late that first night and I was so tired that I slept like the  dead. When I woke up in the morning, he was gone.”

“He left you alone?” exclaimed Hugh in horror.

“Not only that, but he took all our stores with him, and our axes and our compass. To leave men in the woods, stripped of everything they  need, is very little short of murder. I had been sleeping with my rifle beside me, so he didn’t dare  take that. It was the only thing that saved us.”

“And you have lived only on what you could shoot?” questioned Hugh. “Why, you must be half famished!”

“I am,” assented Dick, cheerfully, “rather more than half, to tell the truth, but we must  attend to Johnny first.”

When at last there was time to stir up the fire and prepare a meal, Hugh realized on seeing  Dick eat how near he had been to real starvation.