The Phantom of the River | Page 7

dis: One ob de men from de block-house had been
scoutin' frough de woods, and he come back and tole Mr. Hastings
what he seed----"
"What was it?" interrupted Kenton.
"Being as he didn't tole me, yo'll hab to obscoose me from answerin'
dat question, but I was invited to go on ahead and to tell yo' folks dat
Mr. Hastings wanted one ob yo' or bofe ob yo' to come back again, as
he had somethin' he wanted to see yo' about."
Neither Boone nor Kenton made any comment on the singular course
of Hastings in selecting Jethro Juggens to bear such a message, when,
among all the male members of the company probably there was not
one that was less qualified.
"I don't know what it means," said Boone, rising from the tree, "but it

means something. You had better go back with this simpleton at once."
"And you?"
"I'll push ahead and larn what I kin. It won't make any difference
whether I'm with you or not, if there's a fight coming, but I'll do my
best to jine you. I'm likely to run onto something ahead that we oughter
know."
"Do you expect to use any signallin' for me?" asked Kenton, who had
also risen to his feet.
"Don't see that there'll be any need, but if there is you'll understand it.
You and me are too used to each other, Simon, to make any slip up----"
Kenton raised his hand and smiled. While the words were in the mouth
of Boone, the soft, faint cawing of the crow was heard for the fifth
time.
At the same moment two interesting facts were impressed upon the
rangers.
The call did not sound half so far away as in any one of the former
instances, and it came from a throat which essayed it for the first time
in the hearing of Boone and Kenton.
"Now we know there's three of 'em," remarked the latter.
"They're wondering why me and the rest of 'em aren't pushing faster
through the woods. But off with you, Simon; we're losing time."
Without another word these two great pioneers separated, the elder
moving silently among the trees to the eastward, that is, up the Ohio
and toward Rattlesnake Gulch, now a place of the first importance to all
concerned. He did not look around to note what was done by the other.
But Kenton had taken only a few steps when he stopped and looked
back.

Jethro Juggens was standing by the fallen tree with his gun on his
shoulder and glancing inquiringly from the disappearing figure of
Boone to that of Kenton, only a few yards away.
"What's the matter?" asked the latter. "What are you waiting for?"
"Which ob yo' folks wants me, Mr. Kenton?"
"I don't think either one of us will die of a broken heart if we lose you;
but come along with me."
"Sure Mr. Boone won't feel bad if I don't go wid him?"
"Come along, keep close to me and don't make any noise, for the
woods is full of the varmints."
Enough has been told for the reader to understand the situation. The
Altman and Ashbridge families were threading their way through the
Kentucky wilderness, from the clearing where a cabin had been erected
some weeks before, to the block-house ten miles distant and on the
opposite side of the river. They were escorted by a number of rangers
and scouts from the block-house, under the charge of Daniel Boone,
and sent thither by Captain Bushwick, who discovered the imminent
peril of the families after they had declined the invitation to tarry at the
block-house, and had passed beyond and down the Ohio in the flatboat.
Kenton was not mistaken in his theory about the return journey of
himself and companion. Not the slightest sign of danger appeared, and
in a comparatively short time they came upon their friends, who, from
their appearance, might well have been taken for a picnic party on an
outing of their own.
What more inviting opening could the crouching Shawanoes ask than
was here presented to them? From their lurking places among the
surrounding trees they could pour in a frightfully destructive volley that
would stretch many of the helpless party lifeless on the ground.
And why did they not do so? Because they knew the cost to them.

Those hunters and rangers were used to the Indian method of fighting.
If the redskins could approach nigh enough to fire before detection,
there would be enough white men left to make many of them bite the
dust ere they could get beyond reach of the deadly rifles.
No; in the estimation of the Shawanoes there was a plan open to them
that was a thousandfold more preferable.
Rattlesnake Gulch