In the Days of Poor Richard | Page 7

by the smell
of the cooking flesh and the protest of the older men. There would be
no war-dance--at least not yet--too much hunger in the band and the
means of satisfying it were too close and tempting. Solomon had
foreseen the peril and his cunning had prevented it.
In a letter he has thus described the incident: "It were a band o'
cutthroat robbers an' runnygades from the Ohio country--Hurons,
Algonks an' Mingos an' all kinds o' cast off red rubbish with an old
Algonk chief o' the name o' Splitnose. They stuffed their hides with the
meat till they was stiff as a foundered hoss. They grabbed an' chawed
an' bolted it like so many hogs an' reached out fer more, which is the
differ'nce betwixt an Injun an' a white man. The white man gen'ally

knows 'nough to shove down the brakes on a side-hill. The Injun ain't
got no brakes on his wheels. Injuns is a good deal like white brats. Let
'em find the sugar tub when their ma is to meetin' an' they won't worry
'bout the bellyache till it comes. Them Injuns filled themselves to the
gullet an' begun to lay back, all swelled up, an' roll an' grunt an' go to
sleep. By an' by they was only two that was up an' pawin' eround in the
stew pot fer 'nother bone, lookin' kind o' unsart'tn an' jaw weary. In a
minute they wiped their hands on their ha'r an' lay back fer rest. They
was drunk with the meat, as drunk as a Chinee a'ter a pipe o' opium.
We white men stretched out with the rest on 'em till we see they was all
in the land o' nod. Then we riz an' set up a hussle. Hones' we could 'a'
killed 'em with a hammer an' done it delib'rit. I started to pull the young
Huron out o' the bunch. He jumped up very supple. He wasn't asleep.
He had knowed better than to swaller a yard o' meat.
"Whar was the wimmen? I knowed that a part o' the band would be
back in the bush with them 'ere wimmen. I'd seed suthin' in the trail
over by the drownded lands that looked kind o' neevarious. It were like
the end o' a wooden leg with an iron ring at the bottom an' consid'able
weight on it. An Injun wouldn't have a wooden leg, least ways not one
with an iron ring at the butt. My ol' thinker had been chawin' that cud
all day an' o' a sudden it come to me that a white man were runnin' the
hull crew. That's how I had gained ground with the red scout I took him
out in the aidge o' the bush an' sez I:
"'What's yer name?'
"'Buckeye,' sez he.
"'Who's the white man that's with ye?'
"'Mike Harpe.'
"'Are the white wimmin with him?'
"'Yes.'
"'How many Injuns?'

"Two.'
"'What's yer signal o' victory?'
"'The call o' the moose.'
"'Now, Buckeye, you come with us,' I sez.
"I knowed that the white man were runnin' the hull party an' I itched to
git holt o' him. Gol ding his pictur'! He'd sent the Injuns on ahead fer to
do his dirty work. The Ohio country were full o' robber whelps which I
kind o' mistrusted he were one on 'em who had raked up this 'ere band
o' runnygades an' gone off fer plunder. We got holt o' most o' their guns
very quiet, an' I put John Irons an' two o' his boys an' Peter Bones an'
his boy Isr'el an' the two women with loaded guns on guard over 'em. If
any on 'em woke up they was to ride the nightmare er lay still. Jack an'
me an' Buckeye sneaked back up the trail fer 'bout twenty rod with our
guns, an' then I told the young Injun to shoot off the moose call. Wall,
sir, ye could 'a' heerd it from Albany to Wing's Falls. The answer come
an' jest as I 'spected, 'twere within a quarter o' a mile. I put Jack erbout
fifty feet further up the trail than I were, an' Buckeye nigh him, an' tol
'em what to do. We skootched down in the bushes an' heerd 'em comin'!
Purty soon they hove in sight--two Injuns, the two wimmin captives an'
a white man--the wust-lookin' bulldog brute that I ever seen--stumpin'
erlong lively on a wooden leg, with a gun an' a cane. He had a broad
head an' a big lop mouth an' thick lips an' a long, red, warty nose an'
small black eyes an' a growth o' beard that looked like hog's bristles. He
were stout built. Stood 'bout five foot seven. Never see sech a sight