The Border Watch: A Story of the Great Chief's Last StandAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
General
The Border Watch: A Story of the Great Chief's Last Stand
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Juvenile fiction
They marched all day without interruption, eating their food as they
marched. Timmendiquas was at the head of the column, and he did not
speak again with Henry. The renegades, probably fearing the wrath of the
chief, also kept away. The country, hilly hitherto, now became level and
frequently swampy. Here the travelling was difficult. Often their feet
sank in the soft mud above the ankles, Briars reached out and scratched
them, and, in these damp solitudes, the air was dark and heavy. Yet the
Indians went on without complaint, and Henry, despite his bound arms,
could keep his balance and pace with the rest, stride for stride.
They marched several days and nights without interruption through a
comparatively level country, still swampy at times, thickly grown with
forest, and with many streams and little lakes. Most of the lakes were
dotted with wild fowl, and often they saw deer in the shallow portions.
Two or three of the deer were shot, but the Indians devoted little time
to the hunting of game, as they were well provided with food.
Henry, who understood both Wyandot and Shawnee, gathered from the talk
of those about him that they were at last drawing near to Detroit, the
great Northwestern fort of the British and Indians. They would arrive
there to-morrow, and they spent that last night by camp fires, the
Indians relaxing greatly from their usual taciturnity and caution, and
eating as if at a banquet.
Henry sat on a log in the middle of the camp. His arms were unbound and
he could eat with the others as much as he chose. Since they were not to
burn him or torture him otherwise, they would treat him well for the
present. But warriors, Shawnees, Miamis and Wyandots, were all about
him. They took good care that such a prisoner should not have a chance
to escape. He might overthrow two or three, even four or five, but a
score more would be on him at once. Henry knew this well and bore
himself more as if he were a member of the band than a captive. It was a
part of his policy to appear cheerful and contented. No Indian should
surpass him in careless and apparent indifference, but to-night he felt
gloomier than at any time since the moments that immediately followed
his capture. He had relied upon the faithful four, but days had passed
without a sign from them. There had been no chance, of course, for them
to rescue him. He had not expected that, but what he had expected was a
sign. They were skillful, masters of wilderness knowledge, but accidents
might happen--one had happened to him--and they might have fallen into
the hands of some other band.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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