In the Days of Poor Richard | Page 8

in
my life. I hopped out afore 'em an' Jack an' Buckeye on their heels. The
Injun had my ol' hanger.
"'Drop yer guns,' says I.
"The white man done as he were told. I spoke English an' mebbe them
two Injuns didn't understan' me. We'll never know. Ol' Red Snout
leaned over to pick up his gun, seein' as we'd fired ours. There was a
price on his head an' he'd made up his mind to fight. Jack grabbed him.
He were stout as a lion an' tore 'way from the boy an' started to pullin' a

long knife out o' his boot leg. Jack didn't give him time. They had it
hammer an' tongs. Red Snout were a reg'lar fightin' man. He jest stuck
that 'ere stump in the ground an' braced ag'in' it an' kep' a-slashin' an'
jabbin' with his club cane an' yellin' an' cussin' like a fiend o' hell. He
knocked the boy down an' I reckon he'd 'a' mellered his head proper if
he'd 'a' been spryer on his pins. But Jack sprung up like he were made
o' Injy rubber. The bulldog devil had drawed his long knife. Jack were
smart. He hopped behind a tree. Buckeye, who hadn't no gun, was
jumpin' fer cover. The peg-leg cuss swore a blue streak an' flung the
knife at him. It went cl'ar through his body an' he fell on his face an' me
standin' thar loadin' my gun. I didn't know but he'd lick us all. But Jack
had jumped on him 'fore he got holt o' the knife ag'in.
"I thought sure he'd floor the boy an' me not quite loaded, but Jack were
as spry as a rat terrier. He dodged an' rushed in an' grabbed holt o' the
club an' fetched the cuss a whack in the paunch with his bare fist, an' ol'
Red Snout went down like a steer under the ax.
"'Look out! there's 'nother man comin',' the young womern hollered.
"She needn't 'a' tuk the trouble 'cause afore she spoke I were lookin' at
him through the sight o' my ol' Marier which I'd managed to git it
loaded ag'in. He were runnin' towards me. He tuk jest one more step, if
I don't make no mistake.
"The ol' brute that Jack had knocked down quivered an' lay still a minit
an' when he come to, we turned him, eround an' started him towards
Canady an' tol' him to keep a-goin'! When he were 'bout ten rods off, I
put a bullet in his ol' wooden leg fer to hurry him erlong. So the wust
man-killer that ever trod dirt got erway from us with only a sore belly,
we never knowin' who he were. I wish I'd 'a' killed the cuss, but as
'twere, we had consid'able trouble on our hands. Right erway we heard
two guns go off over by the house. I knowed that our firin' had prob'ly
woke up some o' the sleepers. We pounded the ground an' got thar as
quick as we could. The two wimmen wa'n't fur behind. They didn't
cocalate to lose us--you hear to me. Two young braves had sprung up
an' been told to lie down ag'in. But the English language ain't no help to
an Injun under them surcumstances. They don't understan' it an' thar

ain't no time when ignerunce is more costly. They was some others
awake, but they had learnt suthin'. They was keepin' quiet, an' I sez to
'em:
"'If ye lay still ye'll all be safe. We won't do ye a bit o' harm. You've got
in bad comp'ny, but ye ain't done nothin' but steal a pair o' wimmen. If
ye behave proper from now on, ye'll be sent hum.'
"We didn't have no more trouble with them. I put one o' Boneses' boys
on a hoss an' hustled him up the valley fer help. The wimmen captives
was bawlin'. I tol' 'em to straighten out their faces an' go with Jack an'
his father down to Fort Stanwix. They were kind o' leg weary an'
excited, but they hadn't been hurt yit. Another day er two would 'a'
fixed 'em. Jack an' his father an' mother tuk 'em back to the pasture an'
Jack run up to the barn fer ropes an' bridles. In a little while they got
some hoofs under 'em an' picked up the childern an' toddled off. I went
out in the bush to find Buckeye an' he were dead as the whale that
swallered Jonah."
So ends the letter of Solomon Binkus.
Jack Irons and his family and that of Peter Bones--the boys and girls
riding two on a horse--with the captives filed down the Mohawk trail. It
was a considerable cavalcade of twenty-one people and twenty-four