James A. Braden

“ So it was agreed, and allowing the Quaker to rest under the impression that he was going back along their trail only to bring up the old cart, which for more than a year had stood exposed to the weather in the ravine where it had been left, John started off at daylight on a clear, frosty morning. The fine air and the beautiful, peaceful quiet of the woods, broken only by the occasional call of wild turkeys or the chattering of squirrels and other small animals, put the younger of the boy pioneers in a most happy frame of mind. ”

“ The quick intuition of the girl in recognizing the Quaker as one who would wish to teach the Delawares the religion of the white people, and her way of telling him that his efforts would meet with poor appreciation, amused Ree, though he sincerely wished his friend all success.
“Dear child, thy Father in heaven is all wise and approves the love thou bearest thy earthly father. Goodness is in thy heart, and—see, though one of thy own people, it may be, has done this, yet do I come to thee as a friend who seeks only to do thee good.” ”

“ Why should Duff have wished to have John kidnaped? The questions were still puzzling him when suddenly he discovered another freshly-made trail in the snow. The tracks were those of a man, but whether Indian or Paleface he could not tell.
“A white man, I should guess from their size,” the boy was saying to himself, “Indians nearly always have small—”
“Stand!”
It was the voice of Duff, and as Ree looked up, startled by the unexpected command, he gazed at the muzzle of a rifle in the hands of that scoundrel, not a score of yards distant. ”

“ John started to answer, protesting that Ree must not take the whole night of guard duty upon himself; but his chum interrupted him:
“We must appear to have gone to bed and be sound asleep, so let the fire die down early. One of us must be inside to watch Mr. Hatch, anyway, and you must do that. When my eyes get used to the darkness I can see all around the clearing, and all I’ll want of you is that you be ready if I call you. If we are going to be spied upon, we want to know it from the start.”
Saying no more, Kingdom slipped out of the darkened cabin and to the darkest side of the building. ”

“ It would have been a glorious day for hunting, but any day must be gloomy when one’s best friend is strangely missing, and may be dead or dying, and there was no sunshine in the heart of the lonely boy who traversed the snow-bound forest.
At last, a quarter of a mile to the right of the point where the trail passed the big poplar, Ree did discover, in a protected valley, the tracks of three persons. Minutely he examined them, but the fine snow had so sifted in that he could not tell whether they were those of Indians or otherwise, or whether or not John might have made any of the footprints. ”

“ Deeply impressed, and on the verge of breaking out in sobs, though this man whose clay they buried, that wild animals might not tear the body to pieces, had been their enemy, the brave boys who performed for him the last deed of kindliness they could upon this earth, filled in the frozen mold around and above the corpse. So passed from the sight of men, far in the forest’s fastnesses, all that was mortal of Henry Quilling, and the ploughshares of later days have long since mingled his dust with the soil. ”

“ Quilling’s yelling at him, instead of pursuing or shooting at the boy himself directed Duff’s rage toward the former landlord. Paying no attention to John, he rushed madly up to Quilling. With the most frightful curses he called the old fellow “a driveling idiot” and worse names, and ended by slapping him full in the face.
Even this vile insult, however, served only to make the erstwhile tavern keeper beg the more piteously for mercy, and try the harder to excuse himself to the man he feared. Never was there a more abject coward. ”

“ With a tremendous oath, the white man raised his rifle and quick as flash discharged it, the muzzle almost touching Black Eagle’s body.
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It was all over in an instant. The bullet sped to the Indian’s heart; the poor fellow fell senseless, dying at his slayer’s feet.
“Lord, man! Would you bring a whole tribe of warriors down on us! An’ us away off here—”
It was the proprietor of the Eagle tavern who was speaking now, gasping the words chokingly, frightened and dazed by the brutal murder committed.
Before he could say more, John Jerome sprang among them. ”

“ The children, too, though bearing their suffering with true Indian grit,—not a cry or whimper escaping them,—were most desperately hungry.
“Our dogs knew our distress and their danger, and our women could not come near to them to kill one for eating. Always did they run away, howling or sometimes almost speaking words of fear—or—or woe,” said Gentle Maiden, telling of the suffering of her father’s people, while Ree and Mr. Hatch warmed themselves at the fire in the chief’s cabin. ”

“ The prospect that on the white neighbors of the savages would fall the task of providing them with meat was not, to Ree, a pleasing one. True, it was a duty and must be performed, but it would take the time of himself or John the greater part of every day, he quickly saw. The Quaker was undoubtedly willing to do his part, but his mind was bent more upon the spiritual than the bodily welfare of the Indians, and, moreover, he would scarcely shoot a deer even if he had an opportunity. ”

“ Theodore Hatch, if such was the stranger’s name, though the boys doubted it, had been very restless during the night. Often in his delirium he had spoken of a letter and twice had mentioned the name of Ichabod Nesbit. How so gentlemanly appearing a man could be connected with the dead robber was more than the boys could guess, though they now considered it certain that he, as well as the precious pair of rogues they had met at the Eagle tavern, had some mysterious interest in the man whom the Indian, Black Eagle, had killed. ”

“ Hatch’s mare, being very much more sensitive and alert than slow-going Neb, had suddenly shied upon passing a large poplar tree, and as a man sprang from behind it to seize him, as another seized John, the horse gave so violent a leap forward that the fellow grasped only at the air, though his intended victim was almost thrown from the saddle. ”

“ There he goes!” cried young Jerome, and leveled his rifle at an Indian who leaped from tree to tree with most astonishing speed, traveling in a circle about the camp at a distance of eighty or ninety yards, loading his rifle as he ran, with the greatest dexterity.
In another moment, as he thought the chance was favorable, John fired. A second later Kingdom also let drive, but all to no purpose, for the next second there came from the side of the camp opposite that from which the first bullet had flown, another to keep it company, splitting a spoke in one of the cart’s wheels. ”

“ In a few minutes a half dozen aged men of the tribe had gathered around and all gave the young trader welcome. They could speak little English and though Ree knew some Delaware words their efforts at conversation were so poorly rewarded that one of the Indians went to call an interpreter.
To Ree’s surprise and pleasure the person summoned was Gentle Maiden, the daughter of Captain Pipe, a young woman thoroughly deserving of the pretty name the Moravian missionaries had bestowed upon her. From them she had learned the language of the “Long-knives” and with her Kingdom could communicate readily. ”

“ So pleased were the Indian lads and so friendly after receiving these gifts, that it occurred to John to improve the opportunity to see what he could learn from them about the prowling Redskin who seemed ever to seek and lose no chance to kill and scalp white hunters, always traveling alone, and, as Gentle Maiden had said, carrying on “his own war.”
“Killdeer, young Long-knife says,” Flying Fish explained to Little Wolf, who seemed not to understand at once to whom the white boy referred.
“Is that his name? He is not a Delaware, is he? He is not one of Captain Pipe’s people?” John asked. ”

“ As time proved, Ree’s decision was wise. He had gone scarcely a half mile farther when he came upon fresh tracks in the snow. They were those of but two persons apparently, and of Indians, the young pioneer believed; but he remembered that frequently in traveling Indians take great care to step in the footprints of one another and thus conceal their real number from any one discovering their trail, and he took up this fresh clue at increased speed. Five minutes later he caught sight of two figures ahead of him. One was a white man, he judged from the dress, the other an Indian. ”

“ Duff began, calmly sitting down on a log, his rifle in both hands, while his eyes never left the face of the lad he so monstrously accused, “you heard what was said. They’ve hanged men for killing peaceable Redskins before now, and will do it again. Just let us tell what we know at Fort Pitt, and you are pretty likely to stretch a rope. You killed Black Eagle; we saw you do it—never mind, now! Let me talk! I say we saw you shoot the Indian down. We can set all the Mingoes west of the Ohio against you, or we can have you hanged. We haven’t just decided which we’d rather do.” ”

“ This was the landlord, tired, probably, of sleeping out at night, and working and walking by day. John knew his voice, also.
“I wish to goodness you were!” came the voice of Duff, disgustedly, “but all the miserable, sneaking robbing of travelers’ clothes at night, that you ever did wouldn’t be a drop in the bucket beside this buried fortune if we can only get hold of it. No man knows better than me what a lot of wealth that chest has in it—unless it be that Quaker, blast him!”
“Well, we might go back to Fort Pitt for a spell, anyhow, an’ rest up,” suggested Quilling. ”

“ Also with the lads when they went back to Connecticut, it will be remembered, was Tom Fish, the woodsman whose friendship they had formed on their first trip West, and Arthur Bridges, Tom’s friend, who was a cousin of Nesbit, the outlaw. Bridges had suddenly appeared one evening at the cabin, and as it had been believed that he was dead, there was great rejoicing. Gladly he had gone with Tom Fish and Kingdom and Jerome to Connecticut where for years his mother had been living upon the hope that he would sometime return. ”

“ Ree would have interrupted the girl to tell his regret that he and John had not known their needs to have helped them before, but she would not permit it; for Gentle Maiden, now really a young woman, though girlish in appearance in her short skirt and embroidered leggins, continued:
“Very little corn have we left, and of beans none; and no powder here for the one gun left with us by my father’s warriors. Yet come, rest, and eat of what we have and our people shall prepare more.” ”

“ Ree said, quietly. “Was it long ago? And where was the fighting?”
“There,” answered Gentle Maiden in a hushed but still slightly triumphant tone, pointing to the westward, “a journey of seven suns, it may be, near the river called Wabash. The Paleface chief Sain Clair (General St. Clair) and many soldiers had come into the land of my father’s people and his friends to build their forts and to drive the Indians from their homes. It was at the coming of day that the battle began and the white soldiers and the warriors were many as the trees of the forest. ”