He inferred, also, with certainty, that it came from an Indian camp, and, without hesitation, turned his course toward it.

Indian camp though it might be, and containing the deadliest of foes, he was glad to know something lived beside himself in this wilderness.
He approached with great caution, and found his surmise to be correct.
Lying full length in a wet thicket he saw a party of about twenty warriors-Mohawks he took them to be-in an oak opening.

They had erected bark shelters, they had good fires, and they were cooking.

He saw them roasting the strips over the coals-bear meat, venison, squirrel, rabbit, bird-and the odor, so pleasant at other times, assailed his nostrils.
But it was now only a taunt and a torment.

It aroused every possible pang of hunger, and every one of them stabbed like a knife.
The warriors, so secure in their forest isolation, kept no sentinels, and they were enjoying themselves like men who had everything they wanted.