to their own camp.
But they found no one there, for the rest of the party had fled back home.

However, Boone and Stewart stayed on, and some weeks later they were
pleasantly surprised when Daniel's brother, Squire Boone, also a woodsman,
unexpectedly arrived with another man and joined the camp. The four were
quite contented, living and hunting together, until one day Stewart was
shot by an Indian and killed. His death so frightened the man who had come
over the mountains with Squire Boone, that the woods lost their charm for
the poor fellow and he went back home.

So only the two brothers were left. They remained together three months
longer in a little cabin in the forest. Then, as their powder and lead
were getting low, Squire Boone returned to North Carolina for a fresh
supply, leaving his brother to hold the hunting-ground.

Now Boone was left all alone. His life was continually in danger from the
Indians. For fear of being surprised, he dared not sleep in camp, but hid
himself at night in the cane-brake or thick underbrush, not even kindling
a fire lest he should attract the Indians.

During these weeks of waiting for his brother, he led a very lonely life.
In all that time he did not speak to a single human being, nor had he even
a dog, cat, or horse for company. Without salt, sugar, or flour, his sole
food was the game he shot or caught in traps.

How gladly he must have welcomed his brother, who returned at the end of
two months, bringing the needed supplies! Other hunters also came from
time to time, and Boone joined one party of them for a while.

After two years of his life in the woods he returned to his home on the
Yadkin to bring out his wife and children.

By September, 1773, he had sold his farm and was ready with his family to
go and settle in Kentucky. He had praised the new land so much that many
others wished to go with him. So when he started there were, besides his
wife and children, five families and forty men driving their horses and
cattle before them. This group was the first to attempt settlement far out
in the wilderness, away from the other settlers.

But while still on its way, the little company was set upon by a band of
Indians near a narrow and difficult pass in the mountains. Six men were
killed, among them Boone's eldest son, and the cattle were scattered. This
misfortune brought such gloom upon the party that all turned back for a
time to a settlement on the Clinch River.