The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley | Page 7

made his headquarters while bent on
such cruel work as that of harrying the settlers who favored the
rebellion against the king, and it is not necessary I should write down
here the well-known fact that Thayendanega was in the pay of the
British.
It seemed much as if the Indians had no care as to whether they were
being followed, for, instead of sending back scouts along the trail, as
Brant almost always did, the party remained in a body, and even when

we were so close on them as to lie down within view of their
camp-fires at night, we never saw one of the painted villains who
appeared curious to know if any person was in the rear.
We were within a day's march of the Indian town, and had lain down in
a thicket of spruce bushes after having looked in vain for some signs of
a prisoner, as we had done during each of the four days while we were
directly behind the band and at no time more than two miles distant.
Jacob's face was wrinkled, or so it seemed to me, with lines drawn by
sorrow because we had not succeeded in getting a glimpse of his father,
and it was evident that the lad was beginning to fear, as did I, that the
savages, finding a prisoner too troublesome, had tortured him to death;
for if Master Sitz was yet alive and in the keeping of Brant's followers,
why had we not got a glimpse of him?
"There is no reason why you should grieve so deeply, lad," Sergeant
Corney said, as if he could read the boy's thoughts. "I'll answer for it
that your father is as much alive as we are."
"How can you be certain of that?" Jacob asked, moodily.
"We have seen every one of their camps, eh?"
"Of course," Jacob replied, impatiently.
"An' have you noted any sign of a prisoner's havin' been
tortured--meanin' a half-burned tree, a pile of rocks near the fire, or sich
other like thing?"
Jacob shook his head; he could not bring himself to speak calmly of
such a possibility.
"No, you haven't, an' we know without bein' told that when sich devils
as follow Joe Brant get a prisoner in their clutches, they never kill him
without torture. Now, 'cordin' to my way of thinkin', we can count to a
certainty that he's alive."

"Then why haven't we come across him?" Jacob demanded, fiercely.
"This is the fourth time we've had their camp in full view, an' if he was
with 'em we ought to have seen somethin' of him."
"I allow you're right, lad, an' that's why I've come to believe that he's
been sent on ahead to the village."
"Then I must be movin'!" Jacob cried, springing suddenly to his feet. "I
should have had sense enough to guess that before!" And he made as if
he would leave us; but Sergeant Corney pulled him back by the
coat-sleeve.
"Wait a bit. It was on my tongue's end to propose somethin' of the same
kind; but we can't afford to take the chances of makin' a move till
yonder nest of snakes has settled down for the night. An hour from now,
an' we'll all pull out."
Jacob could not well have made complaint after this, and he settled
down with his back against a tree to wait with so much of patience as
he could summon, until the old soldier should give the word.
It surprised me that Jacob was not utterly cast down by the possibility
that his father had already been carried to the Indian village, for once
there we could not hope to effect a rescue; but since this thought had,
apparently, never come into his mind, it was not for me to add to his
distress by suggesting it.
Well, we remained in the thicket until the red villains had quieted down
for the night, and then Sergeant Corney led us toward the south, that we
might make a long circle around the encampment, when would come
the most dangerous portion of our task.
Thus far we had done as Jacob would have us, and at the same time
performed our full duty as Minute Boys, for our task was to learn what
Brant counted on doing, and as to that we could not be certain until he
was in the village.
But now that the old soldier was leading us around the encampment to

the end that we might gain a position between Brant's force and those at
Oghkwaga, I said to myself, with many an inward shudder, that we
were like to join Jacob's father after a different fashion than we had
counted on.
It was as if Sergeant Corney had no fear as to