weak.

Selecting a convenient place he sat down to wait for a chance glimpse
of game. Possibly a deer might come that way to drink, and a deer
would be worth his one bullet. Rodney by this time concluded his
pursuers had lost his trail and he felt as though he were alone in the
great forest. His eyelids were heavy, but, recalling what happened to
him through falling asleep three days before, he rose to his feet the
better to keep awake. As he did so he was startled by a shot, fired a
little way down the stream.

The boy's eyelids were no longer heavy. He experienced something like
a chill and he asked himself, "What if I had seen game and fired?"
After waiting a few moments, it occurred to him that there was a
possibility that the shot had been fired by white men. Of course it
was improbable, but he must investigate. If they were Indians, they
would gorge themselves with the meat and sleep soundly so that he
ought to have no trouble in getting past them. Moreover, unless many
were in the party, they would leave a portion of the carcass if it
were a deer they had shot. Why might he not secure that? He was hungry
enough to eat the flesh raw.

Cautiously approaching he finally saw the gleam of firelight among the
trees and then shadows of men, and his heart sank. They were Indians!
Two came up to the fire from the stream and the boy noted the
direction whence they came. After the moon appeared he entered the
brook to descend it and look about for signs of the place where the
game was killed. At last he found it, and the carcass of a deer from
which the hind quarters had been cut. Quick work with his knife
secured him a goodly portion of what was left and with this he hurried
on down the brook, on the slippery bed of which he kept his footing
with difficulty. His hunger urged him so that after going about a mile
he decided he was far enough away to risk a fire.

He gathered a lot of dried twigs and rubbed them between his palms,
thus making a small powdery mass into which, after mixing with it a
few grains of powder from the priming, he struck sparks from the flint
and steel of his rifle. The smell of the cooking meat made him
ravenous and, like an Indian, he ate it half raw. He then lost no time
in extinguishing his fire and renewing his journey.

The good food and the reflection that so far he had outwitted the
savages, put him in a very happy frame of mind. He was congratulating
himself on his good luck when he he