Part 2 (1/2)

”But this will never do. I must be getting to sleep,” Ree said to himself.

Going to sleep just when one wishes, however, is not always easy. Ree found it the very opposite. Tired as he was, his mind went over the adventure of the night, and in a round-about way to his future home in the wilderness, again, before his eyes closed. At last dreams came to him, and in one of them he saw Big Pete waving a white handkerchief as a flag of truce. He could not make out for whom the sign of peace was meant; for a war party of Indians seemed to be hot on the giant's trail, and it was in the opposite direction that Pete waved the handkerchief.

Ree recalled the dream when pulling on his boots in the morning, and pondered over the possibility of its having some significance.

Many times during that day the young man had occasion to remember the incidents of the night preceding. Everyone he met, it seemed, had heard of his adventure with Big Pete and they all congratulated him. More than one, too, warned him against the giant Ellis, saying the fellow would surely seek revenge.

Ree gave but little heed to this talk. Big Pete had had the chance to kill him, or at least to attempt it, and had not done so, evidently wis.h.i.+ng to avoid blood-shed. But Peter Piper came along during the afternoon with a story which he had heard in the adjacent village, that gave the boy some uneasiness. Big Pete had sent word by a farmer he had seen at daybreak, that he would return to his old haunts and that not a man would dare to touch him; that he would not be driven off, though he had killed both Jim Huson and Marvel Rice, and that those who had interfered with him would suffer for it.

”He's a braggart,” said Ree contemptuously.

”Jes' what he says, he will do. He's bad, bad, bad,” said Peter Piper in his simple, earnest way.

So Ree came to look upon the matter with much seriousness. Somehow it occurred to him that the giant might seek revenge by burning the barn or poisoning the horses, or some such cowardly thing--he knew not what. For himself he was not afraid, and it is not strange that in the wildest flights of his lively fancy he did not for a moment imagine under what startling circ.u.mstances he was destined to next behold the fugitive criminal.

CHAPTER III.

The Beginning of a Perilous Journey.

”Hitch yer cheers up t' the blaze; it's a cool night fer September,” said Captain Bowen, drawing his own splint-bottom chair toward the great fire-place of his homely but thoroughly comfortable home, and slowly sipping new cider, just old enough to sparkle, from the bright pewter mug containing it.

”An' help yerselves to some more cider, naow dew; I like a man to feel at home,” he went on as Return Kingdom and John Jerome gave heed to his kindly bidding.

”Naow as I was a sayin',” Captain Bowen continued, ”I r'ally kent advise yeu youngsters t' undertake these plans yer minds air set on. The Injuns hev hated us whites worse than ever sence the British turned their back to 'em after the war was over, an' comin' so soon after their hevin'

helped the pestiferous Redcoats so much--they fit fer 'em tooth an'

toe-nail as the sayin' is, ye know--as I was sayin' it rankles in their in'ards. General Was.h.i.+ngton--peace to him--he's did all he kin toward pacifyin' 'em, an' it ain't no wonder they call him the 'Great Father'; but so many other men hev cheated 'em, an' so many settlers air crowdin'

into their huntin' graounds thet they air jist ready to lift the hair of any white man they catch sight on, a'most. Ye air takin' long chances, boys, I do tell ye.”

”We want to hear both sides of the matter,” Ree answered, and Captain Bowen resumed, saying in his own slow, homely but kindly way, that it was into the very thick of the savages that the boys were planning to go. He reminded them of the barbarous cruelties the Indians had practiced as allies of the King's troops in the war, and told them briefly the story of the battle Col. Crawford had fought with the savages in the Ohio country, ending with the burning of Col. Crawford at the stake.

He cautioned his young friends further of the hazardous nature of the journey through an unsettled country, a long part of the way lying over the Allegheny mountains. He told them of the cutthroats they would be likely to encounter--rough men, who, for adventure's sake, had gone into the war, and had never been satisfied to settle down to lives of peace and respectability after the close of the Revolution. As he paused at last, there was quiet for a minute or two. Then Return Kingdom said:

”We have thought of these things, Captain, and maybe we are head-strong, but we are bent on going. There is little future for a young man here. I will soon have no home, and John can well be spared from his. All we can do, if we do not emigrate and secure homes of our own, is to hire out as farm hands, and, as you know, labor is not greatly in demand. And as we have said, we expect to go among the Indians partly as traders. The land we shall settle upon, we expect to buy from them.

”Traders who have behaved themselves have not had much trouble, and we hope to make peace with every tribe we fall in with. The truth is, Captain, we really have more fear of finding ourselves in the woods with a lot of stuff we do not need, taking up the room in our cart and adding to our load, while that which we should have will not be within reach, than we have of trouble with the Indians.”

”People say it will be only a few years until all the country about the Ohio river will be settled,” put in John Jerome.

”Y-a-as, land agents say that,” smiled Captain Bowen, ”but I ain't so sure on it. Folks kin still find plenty of hards.h.i.+ps right here in Connecticut 'thout pokin' off t' the Ohio Valley or the northwest kentry.

But I tell you what, youngsters,” he exclaimed with sudden enthusiasm, ”I wish I was ten years younger, I'd go with ye, bless me if I wouldn't!

They do bring tales of a marvelous kentry from the valley where my ol'

friend General Putnam an' his colony settled!”

From that moment Ree and John had smooth sailing so far as getting advice and information from Captain Bowen was concerned. Then and there, however, the Captain had to tell them all he knew about the colony of brave men who had founded Marietta on the Ohio river, nearly three years earlier. ”An' they do tell that game is thick there as fleas on a homeless, yaller dog,” he said.