When Sam waked it was nearly noon, and he ate a little of the palmetto cabbage left in his pockets, while the others slept.

His face was very pale, however, and he sat very still until his companions aroused themselves.

Then he explained.
"When I found that we could not get to Fort Glass, the question was, where should we go?
Fort Stoddart is probably surrounded by Indians too, and so the only thing to do was to make our way down through the Tensaw Country to Mobile; but that is about eighty or a hundred miles away, and the fact is I am a little sick from my wound.

My foot and leg are all swelled up, and I've been having a fever, so that I can't travel much further.

It seemed to me that the best thing to do, under the circumstances, was to find a good hiding-place where it will be easy to get something to eat, and to stay there till I get better, or something turns up, and so I thought of the Alabama River as the very best place, because mussels and things of that kind are better than sweet potatoes, and here we are; now the next thing is to find a hiding-place, and I think I know where one is.