CHAPTER XVFIGHTING THE FLAMES
“Stop, you rascal, stop!”
Such was Harry’s exclamation as he saw the flare of fire and realized what the person outside of the log cabin was bent upon doing.
He knew that the cabin was dry from the hot sun of the day before, and that the timber, once started, would burn like tinder. Moreover, he knew that to obtain sufficient water to put out such a conflagration would be difficult.
Without stopping to think of possible peril, he leaped for the door and threw it open.
In the dim moonlight he made out the form of a man running across the dooryard to the nearest patch of timber.
“Stop!” he called loudly. “Stop, or I will fire on you!”
Instead of heeding the command the fellow ran faster than ever.
Up came Harry’s gun, and, taking a low aim at the retreating form, he fired. A yell of painfollowed, and he saw the man stagger and fall headlong.
By this time the cabin was in an uproar, and Ezra Winship and Peter Parsons came rushing from the bedroom, followed by Joe, and all leaped for their guns, thinking that an attack by the Indians had been begun. A moment later the girls and Mrs. Parsons followed, wrapped in such garments as had been handy.
“Harry, who are you firing at?” demanded the youth’s father.
“Some rascal who set the cabin on fire,” was the answer. “Quick, get some water, or the place will be burnt down!”
The others now saw the fire, which was burning fiercely in a heap of pine brush stacked against the side of the cabin. Rushing for a pitchfork, Ezra Winship threw the burning brush away from the building.
While this was being done Mr. Parsons and Joe hurried for buckets of water from the spring. They had to work lively, for the flames were creeping up the whole side of the log cabin toward the highly inflammable roof.
“The house will be burnt down!” screamed Cora, while Harmony wrung her hands in mute despair.
Mrs. Parsons was more practical, and, catchingup a blanket, she saturated it in a pail of water, and then began to beat out some of the flames with this.
A few minutes of energetic work and the danger was over. But the smoke filled the cabin, and all the windows and the two doors had to be opened wide to clear the interior.
While this was being done, Harry, having slipped on some of his clothes, ran forward to where the unknown had fallen. He was followed by his father.
As they neared the spot they saw that the intruder was limping away, casting anxious glances backward as he did so.
“Come back here!” cried Harry, raising his gun once more. “Come back here, or I’ll give you another shot.”
Upon hearing this threat the unknown hesitated for an instant. Then he dove into the bushes.
But Harry and Peter Parsons were too quick for the evildoer, and in a moment more they were beside him, and each had a gun pointed at the fellow’s head.
“Yellow Blanket!” exclaimed the young pioneer. “I suspected as much.”
“Is this the redskin who tried to rob you of the buck?” questioned Mr. Parsons.
“The same, father. He got mad because Joe and I stopped him, and because we took his arrows away and broke them up. He was going to revenge himself by burning down our cabin.”
At these words Yellow Blanket scowled, but to them he made no reply. Indeed, having been caught red-handed, as the saying is, it was impossible for him to make any defense.
The Indian had been wounded in the right thigh, and was undoubtedly suffering much pain. Regardless of this, however, he was made to march back to the cabin and a rope was brought forth.
“We ought to shoot him on the spot, and have done with the viper,” said Ezra Winship. “But we’ll be a little more merciful and merely make him a prisoner. In the morning we can lay the case before Colonel Boone.”
The shot and the fire had aroused a number of the neighbors, and soon several came to the place to learn the trouble. When they heard of Yellow Blanket’s actions they were thoroughly enraged, and a number wanted to kill the Indian immediately, but Ezra Winship told them of what he had decided to do, and there the matter rested.
Daniel Boone came over himself at dawn, having just learned of the affair.
“It was a dastardly piece of business,” saidthe great hunter. “And I must say I didn’t think it of Yellow Blanket. He is a cur, but not so cowardly as I imagined. We will march him over to the fort and see what he has to say for himself.”
Colonel Boone’s orders were carried out, and the Indian was subjected to a rigid examination, lasting fully an hour.
At first Yellow Blanket would not talk, but when he was given to understand that he might suffer death for his crime he shrank back with fear.
Then he begged Boone to spare him, and intimated that he could tell a great deal concerning the raid on the late expedition to Boonesborough if the great hunter would promise him his life and his liberty.
At first Daniel Boone was not inclined to listen to the rascal, but he remembered how anxious Ezra Winship was concerning the whereabouts of Mrs. Winship, and how much the Parsons were worried over the loss of Clara Parsons, and he at last consented to be easy on the Indian provided he would tell the plain truth.
“And remember,” he said, “I shall not let you go until I have proved your words.”
Yellow Blanket then went into many details of the late raid. He said that the news of the expeditionhad been brought in by Long Knife, and that it was this chief who induced Red Feather to join in an attack on the whites. Long Knife was particularly anxious to carry off some pretty white maiden whom he might make his squaw. After the fight he had tried to carry off Harmony Winship, but she had been rescued, and Long Knife had been seriously wounded by some white person, the Indian had supposed was Paul Broker, but who, later on, proved to be Joe Winship, as already related.
“And what has become of Mrs. Winship and Clara Parsons?” questioned Daniel Boone. “And of the other captives?”
“They are at the lodges of Long Knife, Leaping Waters, and Elk Head,” answered Yellow Blanket. “But remember, the great hunter has promised not to tell anybody that Yellow Blanket revealed this,” he added.
“Where are those lodges located?” went on Boone.
At this Yellow Blanket described the spot as best he could. It was a place entirely new to Colonel Boone, and one not yet visited by any of the settlers at Boonesborough.
“How long do they expect to stay at the lodges?” was Boone’s next question.
Yellow Blanket could not answer definitely,but said he supposed they would remain there during the winter, at least.
After the examination, the news the Indian had imparted was told to Ezra Winship and Peter Parsons.
“If you wish you may head an expedition against the Indians,” said Daniel Boone. “I would go myself, but at present that is impossible. More settlers are coming in every day, as you can see, and Colonel Henderson is anxious to open a regular land office and form a permanent local government.”
What Boone said about new settlers was true. Nearly every day some pioneers came straggling in, and once or twice a month a body of six or eight families would appear. These settlers located at various points, but all looked to the fort at Boonesborough for aid in time of peril. A government was formed, which, though crude, succeeded in preserving some sort of law and order. Various officers were elected, but the majority of the settlers looked to Boone as their most reliable leader, especially when dealing with the ever-present Indian question.
From Yellow Blanket it was learned that the Indians under Long Knife and the other chiefs now amounted to perhaps a hundred all told. Of these less than thirty were full-fledged warriors,the balance being women, children, and old men incapable of fighting.
“Fifteen or twenty good shots ought to be able to whip them, and whip them well,” said Ezra Winship to Peter Parsons.
“I believe you,” answered Mr. Parsons. “And if we can get together that many pioneers I am willing to go out with you and see if we cannot rescue my daughter and your wife, and also the other captives.”
It was no easy matter to find so many good shots willing to enlist for the venture. Those who had members of their families missing were eager enough, but others held back, saying that they must remain at home to protect their own folks and provide food for the coming fall and winter. Many had not yet built their cabins, having lived during the summer under tents, and these felt that their first duty was to provide suitable shelters against the snow and cold weather that was coming.
“We should have started sooner, when the feeling against the redskins was more bitter,” said Peter Parsons. “Now the folks have grown accustomed to what has been, and it doesn’t look so cruel to them.”
But he and Ezra Winship persisted, and at last they gathered together seventeen men who werewilling to undertake the trip. Of this number, four were men who had lost various members of their families by death during the raid, five, including Mr. Winship and Mr. Parsons, wanted to find, if possible, relatives who were lost, and the others went merely from a sense of duty, or for the excitement.
“We’ll teach ’em a lesson they won’t forgit in a hurry,” said old Pep Frost, who was of the number. “We’ll come down on ’em like a reg’lar hurricane, hear me!” The prospect just suited this man, and he went around whistling gayly as though getting ready for a pleasure outing.
Joe and Harry had both begged hard for permission to go along, but their fathers would not listen to their pleadings.
“I know you are brave enough to go, Joe,” said Mr. Winship. “But I want you to remain behind and look out for Cora and Harmony.”
“And you, Harry, must look after your mother,” put in Peter Parsons. “And, besides, both you boys want to prepare all the food you can for the long winter that will soon be on us. If by some cause we do not get back as soon as expected, we don’t want anybody here to starve to death.”
“Ah, husband, if thee will take good care of thy body we will take care of ours,” answeredMrs. Parsons. “And the same to thee, friend Winship.”
“We’ll try to come back safe and sound,” answered Mr. Parsons. “And, God willing, we will bring back the lost ones with us.”
The last night together in the log cabin was a sober one. Mrs. Parsons, a truly good woman, insisted on holding a Quaker meeting, and she and her husband prayed most earnestly for all present, that they might pass through the coming months unharmed, and might at last come together again with the lost ones with them.
The expedition started at sunrise. Joe and Harry saw them a mile or more on the way. Then came a final handshake, and the expedition continued on its way to the northwestward, while the two young pioneers turned back toward the log cabin, never dreaming of all that was to happen ere they should see their fathers again.