human
If we could only make a fire, said the former,
gpt
I wouldn't mind so much staying right where we are till daylight; but I should hate to do so without one. Are you certain you haven't a single match?
human
Certain, replied Alaric;
gpt
So I do; but I used them all on that old lantern last night. I almost wish now I'd never invented that thing, and that they had caught us. They wouldn't have starved us, at any rate, and perhaps the prison isn't so very bad after all.
human
I don't know about that, rejoined Alaric, stoutly.
gpt
To my mind a prison is the very worst thing, worse even than starving. After all, this doesn't seem to me so bad a fix as some from which I've already escaped. Going to China, for instance, or drifting alone at night in a small boat.
human
What do you mean by going to China?
gpt
Hark! exclaimed the other, without answering this question.
human
Don't you hear something?
gpt
Nothing but the wind up aloft.
human
Well, I do. I hear some sort of a moaning, and it sounds like a child.
gpt
Maybe it's a bear or a wolf, or something of that kind,
human
Of course it may be, admitted Alaric;
gpt
Yes, I suppose we are; only if it proves to be a bear, I wonder who will rescue us?