Part 33 (2/2)

Peleg and the great scout were in the front lines, if indeed the advancing body could be said to be moving with any appearance of order.

It is true the men kept closely together, but the nature of the ground over which they were moving and the forests through which they pa.s.sed made any approach to military order well-nigh impossible.

The men near Peleg abruptly halted when not far before them on the opposite sh.o.r.e of a large pond they spied a solitary Indian. The warrior was standing as motionless as the nearby trees as he gazed steadily at his approaching enemies.

Suddenly he turned and fled into the forest, disregarding the calls of the men and even unmindful of the few scattered shots which followed him.

”Who was that?” whispered Peleg to Daniel Boone.

”It was Henry.”

”I believe it was,” declared Peleg excitedly. ”What will he do now?”

”He will give the alarm to the village. We are not more than a mile from it now, and he will be there long before our horses can carry us over such ground as we have had for the past few miles.”

Just at that moment there was a sharp call for an advance. The entire body at once responded, although the hungry horses were in no condition for swift action.

The words of the great scout were fulfilled when the force drew near the Indian village. Not one of its people was to be seen. Fires were still smouldering and even the meat which was being roasted and the corn that was boiling in the kettles had been abandoned in the precipitate flight of the Indians.

The discovery of the food was perhaps more welcome to the hungry men than would have been the sight of their foes. At all events, a halt was made, and such food as could be obtained was speedily allotted.

At the right of the village a large field of corn was seen, and the discovery that the corn was in the ear and ripe for food was good news indeed. It was not long before the hunger of every man was appeased, in a measure at least, and the entire force was ready for the further commands of Colonel Clark.

The village was set on fire in several places, and flames were also kindled in the field. In less than an hour the men departed, leaving behind them only the smoking embers of what a short time before had been a prosperous village of the red men.

Colonel Clark now urged his men forward with increasing speed. At times the force divided and the task of burning certain villages was a.s.signed to the different bands. At other times the entire force proceeded as one body. But their enemies still had not been seen. Occasionally a solitary Indian would crawl within gunshot when the camp was pitched, discharge his gun, and then instantly flee; and once a small party of warriors, mounted upon superb horses, advanced boldly within gunshot. The red men coolly surveyed the little army, but when a force was sent to attack them they rode away so swiftly that pursuit was useless.

Village after village was burned to the ground, and rich fields of corn were left in ruins. The pioneers were determined to rid themselves once and for all of further possibilities of attacks by the ferocious Shawnees.

The alarm over the advance of Colonel Clark had spread throughout the entire region, and with one accord the red men had abandoned their homes and fled into the wilderness beyond.

When the attacking forces at last disbanded and the men returned to their homes, Daniel Boone and Peleg Barnes went back with their friends into Kentucky. The warfare with the Indians was ended. The Kentucky homes were now free from the attacks of the Shawnees or Cherokees.

Peleg was no longer a boy. The years that had pa.s.sed during these pioneer days had made of him a man. He now had his own home and a tract of land adjoining that of his great friend, Daniel Boone.

Not a word was heard concerning Henry. There were occasional vague reports of the presence of a white man among the Shawnees, but whether or not this referred to ”the white Shawnee” was never known.

As for Daniel Boone, it seemed as if the days of his peril were ended.

The region which he had opened up for the incoming people had now become well settled. The sound of the axe was heard more frequently than the rifle. Prosperity smiled upon the efforts of the st.u.r.dy settlers, and the steadily advancing civilization and the spread of education wrought wonders among the people.

In the diary of Daniel Boone there occurs the following:

”Two darling sons and a brother I have lost by savage hands which have also taken from me 40 valuable horses and abundance of cattle.

Many dark and sleepless nights have I spent, separated from the cheerful society of man, scorched by the summer's sun, and pinched by the winter's cold, an instrument ordained to settle the wilderness.”

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