The days were always long to Kingdom when John was gone. From their
childhood they had been much together. Even in the time of his bound-boy
experience, with a harsh master to serve, Ree had found time for play
occasionally only because John helped him with his work. He had never
known any other intimate companion; had never cared for any. Now, far
from all other friends, he valued John Jerome's friendship all the more
and counted the days until the cheerful, helpful lad would be returning.
Yet Kingdom had much to do even while he watched and waited. Lone-Elk
frequently hovered near. He had grown more sullen and ugly than at first
and Ree had little doubt of the fate the cabin would suffer if the
Indian were but given a chance to act without danger that he would be
discovered. To watch for the Seneca's coming, then, and to keep an eye
on him while he flitted about the edge of the clearing, disappearing,
reappearing, coming and going like the ominous shadow he was, became as
much a daily task as the care of the two horses.
Twice in a week's time Ree found opportunities to visit the vicinity of
the mysterious camp in the gully. He saw no one, but he never remained
long, for the freshness of the ashes and the altered position of the log
in front of them each time were assurance that the tenants were not far
away.
It was the lead mine which kept the camp occupied, Kingdom now was
certain. The hidden treasure could not be far away. He had no doubt of
his ability to find it if but given the chance to make unmolested
search.
It was while on little hunting trips into the woods to the north that
the boy had visited the strange camping place. Though he made it a rule
never to go a great distance from the cabin, game was plentiful and he
rarely, if ever, returned empty-handed. The season for hunting and
trapping was now at its beginning. Each taste of its pleasures made the
young pioneer long for the end of the trouble with Lone-Elk and a return
of the days of security and care-free happiness which both he and John
had so much enjoyed in the past. The thought that they would not
return--not, at least, until after many days and many dangers that he
little anticipated,--did not so much as come to his confident,
self-reliant brain.
Not since the "talk" with the Delawares had Kingdom been near Captain
Pipe's village. He seldom left the clearing to go even a little distance
in that direction, though often he wished he might do so; often wished
he could talk the whole trouble over with Captain Pipe alone; often
wished Fishing Bird would come, even if he brought no news. The friendly
Delaware, he felt certain, feared for his own safety every time he
visited the clearing. He must have given up his watching of the Seneca,
too. Perhaps he had been warned to do so. Time would tell.
Thinking of these things, thinking of John, thinking of the work before
him, Kingdom was busily occupied one afternoon, tying choice ears of
corn together by the husks to hang them from the roof poles, when rapid
footsteps near the open door caused him to spring hastily up.
"Hello, here! Howdy, little brothers!" he exclaimed heartily, for before
him stood Little Wolf and Long-Hair, two Indian boys, both of whom had
shown for the young white settlers a warm friendship.
With the true Indian showing of unmoved indifference, the Delaware lads
returned the greeting and Kingdom at once led them into the cabin and
set before them the choicest bits of meat and bread the larder afforded.
As the youthful braves ate, Ree inquired kindly concerning Captain Pipe,
Neohaw and others of the Delawares, and presently asked about Fishing
Bird--desired to know if the spirits prospered him and where he had been
so long that his Paleface friends had seen nothing of him.
Ree did not recall the fact at the moment, but he remembered a few
seconds later that Long-Hair was a brother of Fishing Bird,--a
relationship which soon explained the object of the visit of the Indian
lads.
"Fishing Bird--him Long-Hair and Little Wolf come to tell White Fox
about," the former said. "Fishing Bird was hunting. Long-Knives caught
him and Long-Knives going to kill Fishing Bird dead."
"Long-Hair! What are you saying? What do you mean!" cried Kingdom with
such solemn but keen earnestness that the Delaware boy was quite
startled. "Who will harm Fishing Bird?"
"Yep; just as Long-Hair says," put in Little Wolf. "Palefaces made
Fishing Bird prisoner, where Paleface army is at the River Ohio, and
going to kill him."
"Tell me, brothers, how do you know this? Were you sent to tell the
White Fox?" asked Ree, calling himself by the name the Indians had long
ago given him. "This is terrible news you bring me! It cannot be!"
Both the little redskins slowly nodded their heads in solemn
confirmation of all they had said.
"From Fort Pitt a runner came, telling Hopocon how Fishing Bird a
prisoner is--made a prisoner by Captain Wayne's warriors," said
Long-Hair with the air of being a full-fledged warrior himself. "Gentle
Maiden said Long-Hair must come fast and tell White Fox."
"Little Wolf come too," said the other youngster, bound to be included.
"You both did just right. Gentle Maiden did right also; for White Fox
will not for a great deal let harm come to Fishing Bird, if he can help
it," Kingdom briskly replied. "White Fox is going right away to
'Captain' Wayne's men. Little Brothers will go back and tell Gentle
Maiden this. Tell Gentle Maiden, and any others who ask, that Fishing
Bird shall be set free if White Fox and Little Paleface can possibly do
it."
Even as he spoke, Ree's mind was made up. In fifteen minutes he had
saddled Phoebe, turned Neb out to graze and was closing the cabin
preparatory to a rapid ride to Wayne's encampment. The Indian boys
watched him gallop across the clearing, his rifle hanging before him
from the saddle, his powder horn and bullet pouch, both freshly
refilled, slung from his shoulder, his blanket and a hastily collected
supply of provisions taking the usual place of saddle bags.
"White Fox is a mighty warrior," said Little Wolf admiringly.
"White Fox is too good to be a Paleface. Fishing Bird says the same
thing," Long-Hair made answer.
But Lone-Elk and a white man who was with him, crouching in the bushes
by the river, watched the young horseman speed into the woods with
altogether different feelings.
Fishing Bird had been a prisoner in the strong, log guard-house more
than four days at the time Kingdom dashed away to his rescue. The
friendly Delaware, together with three others, had made the journey to
the Ohio, drawn thither by curiosity, and perhaps, too, with some
expectation of gaining intelligence of the increasing strength of the
white commander's forces.
Friendly Indians were coming and going in the vicinity of Wayne's
"Legion" constantly, and the Delawares undoubtedly counted upon being
classed among the neutral savages. But "Mad Anthony" was not asleep.
While he waited to receive new recruits from the east, and drill his men
to a point of proper efficiency, before making a start into hostile
Indian country, he was constantly informing himself of the doings of the
redskins in the interior--in the northwest country, where, he knew, the
inevitable battle would eventually be.
Wayne's staff of loyal scouts and trained woodsmen were likewise alert.
Every day they gathered from one source or another some news of the
preparations all the northwest tribes were making for a fight, which,
they told one another, would sicken the Palefaces more than the defeat
of St. Clair had done, and check the advance of the settlers upon their
forest lands forever.
Unfortunately for Fishing Bird, it so happened that, just at the time he
and his friends were spying about in the vicinity of the white army,
Gen. Wayne ordered that some Indian from the interior be brought in and
questioned. Six men went out to find and capture such a redskin.
They came upon the little party of Delawares, encamped several miles
from the river, just at daybreak. All were sleeping, but they heard the
white men stealing upon them, and dashed into the woods without firing a
shot. Three made their escape. One was caught and the unhappy Fishing
Bird was he.
Matters were made worse for the captive, too, by the redskins who had
eluded capture returning and firing upon the white scouts. They
intended, no doubt, to assist Fishing Bird to get away. But they caused
him only so much the more trouble; for his captors made him bear the
brunt of the wrath the hostile act excited in their minds. The still
further result was that Fishing Bird, being mistreated, became ugly and
obstinate. He refused to talk. He would tell the Palefaces nothing. Let
them beat him, abuse and torture him as they would, he bore it all in
sullen, defiant silence.
"Chuck him in the guard-house! Starve him! Let him know that he's got to
talk or die! Hang all the rascals, anyhow!" a captain had exclaimed, and
the unoffending Delaware was hustled off in no very tender manner.
Gen. Wayne soon learned of what had taken place and caused Fishing Bird
to be brought to his own cabin. He talked kindly to the Indian, but the
latter was still smarting physically from the injuries, and smarting
still more mentally from the bitter injustice of the punishment he had
received, and remained obstinate.
"He evidently knows something. If he had nothing to tell he would be
talkative enough," "Mad Anthony" thought, and ordered Fishing Bird taken
back to the guard-house. "Let him understand that he will not be harmed
if he'll tell the truth," he said, "but if he won't talk--"
In a short time the peaceable redskins in the vicinity learned what had
been done with the Delaware and so before a great while the information
reached the three warriors who had been his companions. Immediately they
carried word to Captain Pipe. The latter was too proud to call upon
Return Kingdom to exert himself in Fishing Bird's behalf, after the
manner in which he had allowed the white boy to be treated, but Gentle
Maiden did not hesitate. She sent Long-Hair and Little Wolf to the cabin
at once.
None of the Indians really knew, however, the many reasons Kingdom had
for showing his friendship for Fishing Bird in the latter's hour of
need. They may have known that the two were more than usually friendly,
but they did not guess how the young white settlers had often been
assisted by the Delaware; nor did anyone besides Ree and John and
Fishing Bird himself know of the terrible struggle in the woods that
night two years ago, when Kingdom was so near to killing the young
savage.
The circumstances of the capture and detention of Fishing Bird were not,
of course, known to Kingdom until he reached Wayne's camp. Indeed, he
puzzled his mind a great deal with the subject, as he traveled rapidly
along the old trail to the east. Sometimes at a gallop, sometimes at a
walk, he kept to the course, but wherever the path would permit of it,
he let Phoebe take her fastest gait and urged the docile and only too
willing mare on and on.
Ree camped at evening beneath some heavy, overhanging bushes at the foot
of a steep hill. The night passed without incident and was followed by a
long, hard day in the saddle. Every minute seemed most precious to the
anxious boy and every delay of any kind vexed and worried him. He feared
constantly that he would reach his destination too late. The very
thought that he would arrive only to learn that the good, loyal Fishing
Bird had been put to death filled him with anguish and alarm.
Hardly could Kingdom endure to spend another night in camp. He wished to
be pushing forward. The delay of many hours was more than irksome. But
he could make little progress in the darkness, he knew, and Phoebe would
be the better the next day for the rest. Luckily the weather remained
pleasant. Fortune favored him in this respect, at least. The second
night of his journey, therefore, Ree spent in a sheltered spot beside a
little stream, where a fine growth of grass afforded his horse abundant
feed.
Twice in the hour of darkness the lad heard far off an Indian's
war-whoop. The sound alarmed him a great deal; not for his own safety so
much as for the reason it gave him for believing the trouble along the
border was far worse than he had supposed. And such, in fact, was the
case, as the youthful pioneer was soon to learn.
For the time, however, the threatening, distant cries served only to
make the solitary traveler somewhat uneasy in his lonely camp. But with
the coming of morning, he thought little more of the matter, and it was
not until he reached Wayne's outposts and found that John Jerome had not
arrived there that the night's disturbing sounds caused him any further
anxiety.