CHAPTER X
THE GREAT BORDERER
Tom Ross watched until about an hour after midnight, when he awokeHenry, who would keep guard until day.
"Heard anything?" asked the boy.
"Nuthin'" replied Tom with his usual brevity, as he stretched his longfigure upon the ground. In a minute he was fast asleep. Henry lookeddown at the recumbent forms of his comrades, darker shadows in the dusk,and once more he felt that thrill of deep and intense satisfaction. Thefive were reunited, and, having triumphed so often, he believed them tobe equal to any new issue.
Henry sat in a comfortable position on the dead leaves of last year,with his back against the stump of a tree blown down by some hurricane,his rifle across his knees. He did not move for a long time, exercisingthat faculty of keeping himself relaxed and perfectly still, but henever ceased to watch and listen.
About half way between midnight and morning, he heard the hoot of theowl and also the long, whining cry of the wolf. He did not stir, but heknew that hoot of owl and whine of wolf alike came from Indian throats.At this hour of the night the red men were signaling to each other. Itmight be the Wyandots still in pursuit of the escaped prisoner, or, morelikely, it was the vanguard of the hosts converging on Tuentahahewaghta(the landing place opposite the mouth of the Licking, the site ofCincinnati).
But Henry felt no apprehension. The night was dark. No one could followa trail at such a time. All the five were accomplished borderers. Theycould slip through any ring that might be made, whether by accident orpurpose, around them. So he remained perfectly still, his musclesrelaxed, his mind the abode of peace. Cry of owl and wolf came muchnearer, but he was not disturbed. Once he rose, crept a hundred yardsthrough the thicket, and saw a band of fifty Miamis in the most vivid ofwar paint pass by, but he was yet calm and sure, and when the last Miamihad disappeared in the darkness, he returned to his comrades, who hadneither moved nor wakened.
Dawn came in one great blazing shaft of sunlight, and the four awoke.Henry told all that he had seen and heard.
"I'm thinkin' that the tribes are all about us," said Shif'less Sol.
"Shorely," said Tom Ross.
"An' we don't want to fight so many," said Long Jim.
"An' that bein' the case," said Shif'less Sol, "I'm hopin' that the resto' you will agree to our layin' quiet here in the thicket all day.Besides, sech a long rest would be a kindness to me, a pow'ful lazyman."
"It's the wisest thing to do," said Henry. "Even by daylight nothing butchance would cause so faint a trail as ours to be found."
It was settled. They lay there all day, and nobody grew restless exceptPaul. He found it hard to pass so much time in inaction, and now andthen he suggested to the others that they move on, taking all risks, butthey merely rallied him on his impatience.
"Paul," said Long Jim, "thar is one thing that you kin learn from SolHyde, an' that is how to be lazy. Uv course, Sol is lazy all the time,but it's a good thing to be lazy once in a while, ef you pick the rightday."
"You don't often tell the truth, Saplin'," said Shif'less Sol, "butyou're tellin' it now. Paul, thar bein' nuthin' to do, I'm goin' to laydown ag'in an' go to sleep."
He stretched himself upon a bed of leaves that he had scraped up forhimself. His manner expressed the greatest sense of luxury, but suddenlyhe sat up, his face showing anger.
"What's the matter, Sol?" asked Paul in surprise.
The shiftless one put his hand in his improvised bed and held up an oakleaf. The leaf had been doubled under him.
"Look at that," he said, "an' then you won't have the face to ask me whyI wuz oncomf'table. Remember the tale you told us, Paul, about some oldGreeks who got so fas-tee-ge-ous one o' 'em couldn't sleep 'cause a roseleaf was doubled under him. That's me, Sol Hyde, all over ag'in. I'm apow'ful partickler person, with a delicate rearin' an' the instincts o'luxury. How do you expect me to sleep with a thing like that pushed upin the small o' my back. Git out!"
As he said 'Git out,' he threw the leaf from him, lay down again on hiswoodland couch, and in two minutes was really and peacefully asleep.
"He is shorely won'erful," said Long Jim admiringly. "Think I'll trythat myself."
He was somewhat longer than the shiftless one in achieving the task, butin ten minutes he, too, slept. Paul was at last able to do so in theafternoon, when the sun grew warm, and at the coming of the night theyprepared to depart.
They traveled a full eight hours, by the stars and the moon, through acountry covered with dense forest. Twice they saw distant lights, onceto the south and once to the east, and they knew that they were the campfires of Indians, who feared no enemy here. But when dawn came there wasno sign of hostile fire or smoke, and they believed that they were nowwell in advance of the Indian parties. They shot two wild turkeys from aflock that was "gobbling" in the tall trees, announcing the coming ofthe day, and cooked them at a fire that they built by the side of abrook. After breakfast Henry and Tom Ross went forward a little to spyout the land, and a half mile further on by the side of the brook theysaw two or three faint prints made by the human foot. They examined themlong and carefully.
"Made by white men," said Henry at last.
"Shorely," said Tom Ross.
"Now, I wonder who they can be," said Henry. "It's not the renegades,because they would not leave the Indians."
"S'pose we go see," said Tom Ross.
The trail was faint and difficult to follow, but they managed to make itout, and after another half mile they saw two men sitting by a smallcamp fire under some trees. The fire was so situated that no one couldcome within rifle shot of it without being discovered by those who builtit, and Henry knew that the two men sitting there had noticed him andRoss.
But the strangers did not move. They went on, calmly eating pieces ofbuffalo steak that they were broiling over the coals. Although nearly asbrown as Indians, they were undoubtedly white men. The features in bothcases were clearly Caucasian, and, also, in each case they were markedand distinctive.
Henry and Ross approached fearlessly, and when they were near the firethe two men rose in the manner of those who would receive visitors. Whenthey stood erect the distinction of their appearance, a distinctionwhich was not of dress or cultivation but which was a subtle somethingbelonging to the woods and the wilderness, was heightened. They differedgreatly in age. One was in middle years, and the other quite young, notmore than twenty-two or three. Each was of medium height and spare. Theface of the elder, although cut clean and sharp, had a singularly softand benevolent expression. Henry observed it as the man turned his calmblue eyes upon the two who came to his fire. Both were clad in thetypical border costume, raccoon skin cap, belted deerskin hunting shirt,leggings and moccasins of the same material, and each carried thelong-barreled Kentucky rifle, hatchet, and knife. Their dress wascareful and clean, and their bearing erect and dignified. Theirappearance inspired respect.
Henry looked at them with the greatest curiosity. He believed that heknew the name of the elder man, but he was not yet sure.
"My name is Henry Ware," said Henry, "and my friend is Tom Ross. Ourhome is at Wareville in Kentucky, whenever we happen to be there, whichhasn't been often lately."
"I think I've heard of both of you," said the elder man in mild tonesthat accorded well with his expression. "Mine is Boone, Dan'l Boone, andthis young fellow here with me is Simon Kenton. Simon's a good boy, an'he's learnin' a lot."
Henry instinctively took off his cap. Already the name of Boone wascelebrated along the whole border, and it was destined to become famousthroughout the English-speaking world. The reputation of Simon Kenton,daring scout, explorer, and Indian fighter, was also large already.
"We're proud to see you, Mr. Boone and Mr. Kenton," said Henry, "and toshake your hands. When we saw this fire we did not dream what men wewere to find sitting beside it."
Daniel Boone laughed in his kindly, gentle way, and his fine large eyesbeamed benevolence. Nor was this any assumption or trick of manner, asHen
ry soon learned. The man's nature was one of absolute simplicity andgenerosity. With a vast knowledge of the woods and a remarkableexperience, he was as honest as a child.
"I'm nothin' but plain Dan'l Boone," he said, "an' there ain't anyreason why you should be proud to see me. But white folks ought to beglad when they meet one another in these woods. Simon, fry some more o'them buffalo steaks for our friends."
Kenton, who had said nothing but who had listened attentively, wentabout his task, working with skill and diligence.
"Set down," said Boone.
Henry and Tom obeyed the hospitable invitation and took the crisp steaksthat Kenton handed to them. They were not hungry, but it was the customof the border for white men when they met to take meat together, as theArabs taste salt. But the steaks were uncommonly tender and juicy, andthey were not compelled to force their appetites.
Both Boone and Kenton looked admiringly at Henry as he ate. But a boy inyears, he had filled out in an extraordinary manner. He was not only ayouthful giant, but every pound of him was bone and muscle and leanflesh.
"I've heard of you more than once, Henry Ware," Boone said. "You've beena captive 'way out among the Indians o' the northwest, but you cameback, an' you've fought in the battles in Kentucky. I was a prisoner,too, for a long time among the Indians."
"I've heard all about it, Mr. Boone," said Henry eagerly. "I've heard,too, how you saved Boonesborough and all the other wonderful things thatyou've done."
Boone, the simple and childlike, blushed under his tan, and Simon Kentonspoke for the first time.
"Now don't you be teasin' Dan'l," he said. "He's done all them thingsthat people talk about, an' more, too, that he's hid, but he's plum'bashful. When anybody speaks of 'em he gets to squirmin'. I'm not thatway. When I do a big thing, I'm goin' to tell about it."
Boone laughed and gave his comrade a look of mild reproof.
"Don't you believe what he tells you about either him or me," he said."Simon's a good boy, but his tongue runs loose sometimes."
Henry knew that an explanation of his and Tom's appearance there wasexpected, and now he gave it.
"I've just escaped from the Indians, a Wyandot band, Mr. Boone," hesaid, "and I was lucky enough to meet in the forest four old comrades ofmine. The other three are back about a mile. We came on ahead to scout.Indians of different tribes are in great numbers behind us."
"We reckoned that they were," said Boone. "Me an' Simon have been takin'a look through the woods ourselves, and we know that mighty big thingsare stirrin'."
"The biggest yet," said Henry. "We've been to New Orleans, and we'vecome back up the Mississippi into the Ohio with a big fleet of boats andcanoes loaded with arms, ammunition, and all kinds of supplies. It iscommanded by a brave man, Adam Colfax, and they mean to take all thesethings up the river to Pittsburgh, where they will be carried over themountains to our people in the east who are fighting Great Britain."
"I've heard of that fleet, too," said Boone, "an' it's got to get toPittsburgh, but it won't have any summer trip. Now, what did you hearamong the Wyandots?"
"I saw chiefs from all the valley tribes, Wyandots, Shawnees, Miamis,Lenni-Lenape, Ottawas, and Illinois," replied Henry, "and they've boundthemselves together for a great war. Their bands are on the march now tothe meeting place on the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Licking. Therenegades, too, are with the Wyandots, Mr. Boone. I saw with my own eyesGirty, Blackstaffe, McKee, Eliot, Quarles, and Braxton Wyatt."
Boone's mild eyes suddenly became threatening.
"They'll all be punished some day," he said, "for making cruel war ontheir own kind. But I can tell you somethin' else that we've just foundout. While you were down the Mississippi, some new people have built asettlement an' fort on the south bank of the Ohio some distance beforeyou get to the mouth of the Licking. I think it was a plum' foolishthing to do to settle so far north, but they've got a strong fort andthe river is narrow there. They say that they can stop the Indian canoesfrom passing and help our own people. They call their place FortPrescott."
"But won't it help, Mr. Boone?" asked Henry.
"It would if they could hold it, but that man Girty has gone on aheadwith five hundred picked warriors to take it. It's only a little fort,an' there ain't more than seventy or eighty men in it. I'm afraid he'lltake it."
"They must have help," said Henry impulsively. "My friends and I travellight and fast, and we can at least warn them of what is coming. There'sa lot in being ready."
"That's so," said Boone, "an' I reckoned that you'd go when you heardwhat I had to say. Me an' Simon would have gone if we didn't have towarn another place back of the river. But we'll come with help, if theycan hold out a while."
"Then it's all settled," said Henry.
"It's settled," said Daniel Boone.
Tom Ross at once went back for the others, and they quickly came. They,too, were delighted to meet the famous Boone and Kenton, but they wastedlittle time in talk. Boone, with his hunting knife, drew a map ondeerskin, and he added verbal details so explicit that skilled forestrunners like the five could not fail to go straight to Fort Prescott.
In a quarter of an hour they started. When they reached the forest theyglanced back and saw Boone and Kenton leaning on their long rifles,looking at them. Paul impulsively waved his hand.
"These are two men to trust!" he exclaimed.
"Shorely!" said Tom Ross.
They did not speak again for a long time. Dropping into Indian file,Henry in the lead, they traveled fast. They knew that the need of themat Fort Prescott was great. Evidently the men who had built the fortwere inexperienced and too confident, and Henry, moreover, had a greatfear that Girty and his army would get there first. The renegade wasuncommonly shrewd. He would strike as quickly as he could at thisexposed place, and if successful--which in all likelihood he wouldbe--would turn the captured cannon against the fleet of Adam Colfax. Ifsuperhuman exertions could prevent such a disaster, then they must bemade.
It was a warm day, and Paul was the first to grow weary. The way ledwholly through woods, and it seemed to him that the heat layparticularly heavy under the boughs of the great trees which served toenclose it and which shut out wandering breezes. But he would notcomplain. He strove manfully to keep up with the others, step for step,although his breath was growing shorter.
Henry about noon looked back, noticed that Paul was laboring, andstopped for a rest of a half hour. Two or three hours later they strucka great trail, one so large that all knew at least five hundred warriorsmust have passed. It was obvious that it had been made by Girty and hisarmy, and they saw with a sinking of the heart that it was hours cold.The Indian force was much ahead of them, and its trail led straight awayto Fort Prescott.
"I'm afraid they'll beat us to the fort," said Henry. "They've got sucha big start. Oh, that Girty is a cunning man! If we could only warn thegarrison! Surprise is what they have most to dread."
"It means that we must get there somehow or other and tell them," saidPaul. "We've got to do the impossible."
"Shorely," said Tom Ross.
"That is so," said Henry quietly. "We must try for Fort Prescott. If allof us cannot get there in time, then as many as can must. If only onecan do it, then he must reach it alone."
"It is agreed," said the others together, and the file of five resumedits swift flight toward the Ohio.