The Riflemen of the Ohio: A Story of the Early Days along "The Beautiful River"Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
General
The Riflemen of the Ohio: A Story of the Early Days along "The Beautiful River"
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Juvenile fiction; Ohio River -- Juvenile fiction
At three in the morning a dozen boats went forth upon the river. They
contained the two commanders, Boone, Kenton, Henry, and others, besides
the divers and the men with grappling hooks. It was a dark night, and,
in addition, Simon Kenton and a dozen good men went upon the northern
shore to search the woods for a watching enemy.
Henry and Seth Cole were in the boat with Adam Colfax and Major
Braithwaite, and the two sought to mark the exact spot upon the water at
which the cannon had been sunk. This might seem a most difficult task,
but the last detail of that eventful night had been photographed upon
Henry's mind. It seemed to him that he could remember, within a foot,
the exact spot at which the guns had gone beneath the current of the
Ohio.
"It is here," he said to Adam Colfax, and the scout nodded. All the
boats anchored, and the divers dropped silently into the muddy stream.
Henry watched eagerly, and in a minute or so they came up sputtering.
Their hands had touched nothing but the bottom. Adam Colfax and Major
Braithwaite looked disappointed, but both Henry and the scout insisted
that it was the right place.
"Try again," said Adam Colfax, and the divers went down a second time.
The last of them to come up looked over the side of their boat, and when
he wiped the water from his eyes, triumph showed there.
"They are here," he said. "I touched one of them. It is sunk in the mud,
but we can raise it."
They uttered a little suppressed cry of triumph, and presently the
divers touched the other, also. The grappling hooks were sent down, and
those in the boats watched eagerly to see if the cannon could be raised.
Every big gun was precious in those early days of war, and if Adam
Colfax could add two such prizes to those he already had on the fleet he
would be repaid for much that they had suffered on their great voyage.
The hooks at last took hold. The gun was lifted two or three feet, but
it slipped from their grasp and buried itself deeper than ever in the
mud. A second trial was made with a like result, but the third was more
successful, and the gun was lifted from the water. It came, muzzle
first, presenting a grinning mouth like some sea monster, but the
suppressed little cry of triumph broke forth again as the cannon was
loaded, with toil and perspiration, upon one of the larger boats. Their
joy increased when they saw that it was practically unharmed, and that
it would be indeed a valuable addition to their armament.
Salvage was also made of the second gun, which was damaged somewhat, but
not so much that the armorers of the fleet could not put it in perfect
condition within a week. Fortunately they were not interrupted in their
task, and when Kenton and the scouts rejoined them, and they started
back to Fort Prescott, Adam Colfax and Major Braithwaite shook hands in
mutual congratulation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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