XIV. UNEXPECTED AID 252 XV. A FORTUNATE FIND 270 XVI. ELIAS SHENDLE’S PLAN 289 XVII. FORTY FORT 308 XVIII. THE REFUGEES 327 XIX. FREEING THE VALLEY 349 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE “‘SO TRUE AS I LIVE, I WILL SHOOT’” (_page 25_) _Frontispiece_ “I WAS ABLE TO GET A GRIP UPON THE NAKED MURDERER’S THROAT” 51 “‘WATCHING HIS CHANCE, DANIEL WENT UP TO HER’” 76 “THE THIRD MOHAWK FELL, NEVER TO RISE AGAIN” 94 “GILES MARCH AND I EACH TOOK HIM BY THE HAND” 121 “‘STAND FIRM ... AND THE VICTORY IS OURS’” 167 “ONE OF WHOM A PAINTED BRUTE HELD HIGH IN HIS HAND” 219 “TAKING STEADY AIM ... I PULLED THE TRIGGER” 241 THE MINUTE BOYS OF THE WYOMING VALLEY CHAPTER I. THE COMPANY I am not claiming even to myself that I, Jonathan Ogden, who was just turned sixteen years of age on the first day of June, in the year of grace 1778, was any more ardent in the desire to do whatsoever I might toward breaking the shackles which the king had forged upon us than any other of my acquaintance in or around Wilkesbarre, but it so chanced that when we learned of the doings of the Indians nearabout Conewawah, which was seemingly good proof the red villains had their faces turned toward the valley, the idea of us lads banding ourselves together came into my mind before my comrades had hit upon it. As a matter of course, even while we were having a war of our own and among ourselves, we had heard of the Minute Boys of the Green Mountains and of Lexington, and more than once had I burned with the desire to start some such organization in the valley; but what with writs of ejectment here, and attacks by the Tories there, it seemed as if we lads had our hands full in obeying the commands of our elders, without scheming to push ahead for ourselves. When we learned that Brant and his warriors, with the Johnsons, the Butlers, and their Tory following, were looking with unfriendly eyes toward our little settlements, it seemed of a verity that then was come the time when we few lads might do the work of men, and truly was it needed. We of the valley had sent forth as soldiers an hundred and sixty-four men, who had already done brave work in New Jersey. When that force marched away, I question if an able-bodied man, of sufficient age to be liable for military duty, had been left at home. We had old men, cripples, and invalids, numbering perhaps seventy-five, and they, with the women, made up the entire list which could be counted on for the defence of our homes.