"I reckon not," said Boone."Leastways if they have, he must ha' struck a new breed of redskin.Jim was better nor any redskin in Kaintuck', and they knowed it.I told ye, neighbours, of our doings before you come west through the Gap.The Shawnees cotched me and Jim in a cane-brake, and hit our trace back to camp, so that they cotched Finley too, and his three Yadkiners with him.Likewise they took our hosses, and guns and traps and the furs we had gotten from three months' hunting.Their chief made a speech saying we had no right in Kaintuckee and if they cotched us again our lives'ud pay for it.They'd ha' sculped us if it hadn't been for Jim, but you could see they knew him, and was feared of him.Wal, Finley reckoned the game was up, and started back with the Yadkiners.Cooley and Joe Holden and Mooneyiye mind them, Squire! But I was feeling kinder cross and wanted my property back, and old Jim--why, he wasn't going to be worsted by no redskins.So we trailed the Shawnees, us two, and come up with them one night encamped beside a salt-lick.Jim got into their camp while I was lying shivering in the cane, and blessed if he didn't snake back four of our hosses and our three best Deckards.Tha's craft for ye.By sunrise we was riding south on the Warriors' Path but the hosses was plumb tired, and afore midday them pizonous Shawnees had cotched up with us.Ican tell ye, neighbours, the hair riz on my head, for I expected nothing better than a bloody sculp and six feet of earth....But them redskins didn't hurt us.And why, says ye? 'Cos they was scared of Jim.It seemed they had a name for him in Shawnee which meant the 'old wolf that hunts by night.They started out to take us way north of the Ohio to their Scioto villages, whar they said we would be punished.Jim telled me to keep up my heart, for he reckoned we wasn't going north of no river.Then he started to make friends with them redskins, and in two days he was the most popilar fellow in that company.He was a quiet man and for general melancholious, but I guess he could be amusing when he wanted to.You know the way an Indian laughs grunts in his stomach and looks at the ground.Wal, Jim had them grunting all day, and, seeing he could speak all their tongues, he would talk serious too.Ye could see them savages listening, like he was their own sachem."Boone reached for another faggot and tossed it on the fire.The downpour was slacking, but the wind had risen high and was wailing in the sycamores.
"Consekince was," he went on, "for prisoners we wasn't proper guarded.By the fourth day we was sleeping round the fire among the Shawnees and marching with them as we pleased, though we wasn't allowed to go near the hosses.On the seventh night we saw the Ohio rolling in the hollow, and Jim says to me it was about time to get quit of the redskins.It was a wet night with a wind, which suited his plan, and about one in the morning, when Indians sleep soundest, I was woke by Jim's hand pressing my wrist.
Wal, I've trailed a bit in my day, but I never did such mighty careful hunting as that night.An inch at a time we crawled out of the circle--we was lying well back on purpose--and got into the canes.I lay there while Jim went back and fetched guns and powder.The Lord knows how he done it without startling the hosses.Then we quit like ghosts, and legged it for the hills.We was aiming for the Gap, but it took us thirteen days to make it, travelling mostly by night, and living on berries, for we durstn't risk a shot.Then we made up with you.I reckon we didn't look too pretty when ye see'd us first.""Ye looked," said his brother soberly, "Like two scare-crows that had took to walkin'.There was more naked skin than shirt about you Dan'l.But Lovelle wasn't complaining, except about his empty belly.""He was harder nor me, though twenty years older.He did the leading, too, for he had forgotten more about woodcraft than I ever know'd...."The man Neely, who was from Virginia, consumed tobacco as steadily as a dry soil takes in water.
