Near them they discovered a warrior who had crawled out of that death chamber in the rocks. He had been stunned and wounded about the shoulders. They helped him to his feet and led him away. He was trembling with fear. Solomon found a pine torch, still burning, near where the fire had been. By its light they dressed his wounds--the old scout having with him always a small surgeon's outfit. "Whar is t' other captive?" he asked in the Indian tongue. "About a mile down the trail. It's a woman and a boy," said the warrior. "Take us whar they be," Solomon commanded. The three started slowly down the trail, the warrior leading them. "Son of the Thunder, throw no more lightning and I will kiss your mighty hand and do as you tell me," said the Indian, as they set out. It was now dark. Jack saw, through the opening in the forest roof above the trail, Orion and the Pleiades looking down at them, as beautiful as ever, and now he could hear the brook singing merrily. "I could have chided the stars and the brook while the Indian and I were waiting for Solomon to bring the packs," he wrote in his diary. CHAPTER XIX THE VOICE OF A WOMAN SOBBING Over the ridge and more than a mile away was a wet, wild meadow. They found the cow and horses feeding on its edge near the trail. The moon, clouded since dark, had come out in the clear mid-heavens and thrown its light into the high windows of the forest above the ancient thoroughfare of the Indian. The red guide of the two scouts gave a call which was quickly answered. A few rods farther on, they saw a pair of old Indians sitting in blankets near a thicket of black timber. They could hear the voice of a woman sobbing near where they stood. "Womern, don't be skeered o' us--we're friends--we're goin' to take ye hum," said Solomon. The woman came out of the thicket with a little lad of four asleep in her arms. "Where do ye live?" Solomon asked. "Far south on the shore o' the Mohawk," she answered in a voice trembling with emotion. "What's yer name?" "I'm Bill Scott's wife," she answered. "Cat's blood and gunpowder!" Solomon exclaimed. "I'm Sol Binkus." She knelt before the old scout and kissed his knees and could not speak for the fulness of her heart. Solomon bent over and took the sleeping lad from her arms and held him against his breast. "Don't feel bad. We're a-goin' to take keer o' you," said Solomon. "Ayes, sir, we be! They ain't nobody goin' to harm ye--nobody at all." There was a note of tenderness in the voice of the man as he felt the chin of the little lad with his big thumb and finger. "Do ye know what they done with Bill?" the woman asked soon in a pleading voice. The scout swallowed as his brain began to work on the problem in hand. "Bill broke loose an' got erway. He's gone," Solomon answered in a sad voice. "Did they torture him?" "What they done I couldn't jes' tell ye. But they kin't do no more to him. He's gone."