While making salt at the "Blue Licks," Boone and twenty-seven of his men were captured by the Indians and marched all the way to Detroit, the headquarters of the British army in the Northwest. The British offered the Indians five hundred dollars for Boone, but the savages were too proud of their great prisoner, and marched him back to their towns in what is now Ohio. [Sidenote: =Adopted by an Indian family=] Here he was adopted by an Indian chief. They plucked out all of Boone's hair except a "scalp lock," which they ornamented with feathers. They painted and dressed him like an Indian. His new parents were quite proud of their son. Sometimes he went hunting alone, but the Indians counted his bullets and measured his powder. But Boone was too shrewd for them. He cut the bullets in two, and used half charges of powder. [Sidenote: =Steals away to Boonesboro=] One day he saw four hundred fifty painted warriors getting ready to march against Boonesboro. He went hunting that day, but he did not come back. What excitement in that Indian town! Soon the woods were full of Indians hunting for Boone. In five days--with but one meal--he reached Boonesboro. All hands fell to repairing the fort. The horses, cattle, and provisions were brought inside the fort, and water was brought from the river. The Indians came, and Boone's Indian "father" called on him to surrender. Boone asked for two days to think about it, but he used this time in getting ready to fight. At the end of the two days Boone told him that his men would fight to the last. [Sidenote: =An Indian trick spoiled=] The Indians then proposed that twelve from each side meet to make a treaty of peace. Boone took his strongest men. While parleying, each Indian suddenly seized a white man. The white men broke away, and ran for the fort. Boone's riflemen were ready, and poured a hot fire into the Indians. [Sidenote: =The Indians cannot capture Boone's fort=] The Indians climbed into trees to shoot down into the fort. They tried to set the fort on fire, but failed. They then tried to dig a tunnel under the fort, but failed in that also. [Illustration: DANIEL BOONE _From a portrait made in 1819 when Boone was 85 years old, painted by Chester Harding, and now in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts_] After nine days of failure, and after losing many warriors, the Indians gave up the fight and recrossed the Ohio. Although the settlers had to keep a daily watch for Indians, and had to fight them in other parts of Kentucky, they never attacked Boonesboro again. [Sidenote: =Boone's reason for again moving west=] During the Revolutionary War other brave men came as pioneers into Kentucky, and built forts, and defended their settlements against the Indians. As the settlements grew thicker, game grew scarcer. Boone resolved once more to move farther west. When asked why, he replied: "Too much crowded. I want more elbow room." [Sidenote: =Moves to Missouri=]