"You wait here," ordered Sam, "while I get two or three more men and we will soon look up that kettle."

Peleg suspected that the white Shawnee, in order to delay the quest of the hidden canoe and thereby give his foster-father and brother an opportunity to escape from the region, had suggested a visit to the tree where the cry of the owl had alarmed his father.

In a brief time, however, Sam and his companions returned, and the hunter roughly ordered the stranger to lead the way.

CHAPTER XIV

THE HIDDEN CANOE

While Sam Oliver had been gone to the fort to secure a few of his comrades to accompany him, the young Indian, or white, or white Indian--Peleg was uncertain to which cla.s.s his visitor really belonged--entered with apparent confidence into conversation with the young scout. In his broken English he related many things concerning the life which he had lived in the wigwam of his foster father.

Peleg was impressed by the increasing facility with which the white Shawnee, as the young brave preferred to call himself, was using the language of the whites.

It may have been that the words he now heard recalled to his mind expressions which had almost faded from his memory. At all events he talked more freely and with an increasing ability to express himself.

"Me fader hear owl cry. He know from strange cry that some die or be pris'ner. He old man. He 'fraid. He say go back up river. Me broder he say no. Me say no. Me fader still 'fraid, but he keep him promise."

"What was his promise?" inquired Peleg.

"He say he take us on warpath to help keep palefaces from going into Kantuckee. He no wan' go, but he say he go. We all lie down sleep.

Pretty quick me fader wake up. Me fader wake me broder. Wake me, too."

"What was the trouble?" asked Peleg.

"Me fader have sleep and see----"

"What do you mean, he had a dream?"

"That so," replied the visitor, nodding his head. "Me fader have dream."

"What did he dream?"

"He say we go to Kantuckee, we die. Me fader cry. He no wan' go on warpath."

"But you came," suggested Peleg.

His visitor nodded and continued: "Me fader say he keep him promise. But he say more. He say we go back to wigwam. Go quick. He good man. Heap good man. He keep him promise. Me broder say me fader mus' keep him promise now."

"So you came?"

"We go on warpath. Me fader say he go quick. No stay any more where we sleep."

"So you started right away, did you?"

"We go on warpath all night. When light come we turn to place where white man build fort."

"Are there many Shawnees here?"

The young visitor, nodding, said: "Pretty quick, heap Shawnee come."

He held up three and then four fingers to express the idea that the Indian bands were advancing in parties of three or more, and at some prearranged place or by some well-known signals the scattered little parties would be brought together and one large band formed.

The information was startling to the young scout and seemed to him to be altogether probable. It was in accordance with the well-known methods of Indian fighting, and agreed with experiences which the young hunter already had had.

He deeply regretted the absence of the great leader. The gentleness and firmness, the courage and resource of Daniel Boone would be greatly needed if the Shawnees attacked the little fort. Boone, however, was not near and his help could not be relied upon.

Meanwhile Peleg was awaiting the return of Sam Oliver. He was well aware of the excellent qualities which the hunter possessed, and he was familiar also with the intense bitterness with which Sam looked upon the Indians. For him they possessed no good qualities. They were simply enemies of the whites and to be exterminated like the rattlesnake and the panther. He recognized no feeling of patriotism on their part, and, because the method of their warfare was cruel, he judged their motives accordingly.

"Me no wan' go where canoe is," said the young brave earnestly. "Me love Shawnee fader. Me no betray him. Him good man. Me fader kind to me. No wan' him lose scalp."

"It is too bad," acknowledged Peleg. He was distressed by the fear that Sam Oliver and his companions would have little mercy upon the Indian father to whom they were compelling the young man to conduct them. In his heart there was a desire to help the young stranger who had felt the call of his own people so strongly that he had even deserted the family which had cared for him since his early childhood.

Peleg's thoughts were interrupted by the return of the hunter and four of his comrades. It was evident that all five were suspicious of treachery, and also that they were determined to put the strange visitor's words to the test.

"Now, then!" ordered Sam, as he turned sharply upon the white Shawnee.

"You take us straight to that place where you say your canoe was hid."

Apparently unmoved by the brutal demand, the young visitor answered, "Me no wan' you hurt me fader. Him good fader. Him take care me."

"Why didn't you stay with him then?" laughed Sam.

"Me wan' see white fader's people, too. Me wan' find white moder's people," said the visitor simply.

"You will have time enough to look them up after we have found out whether you are telling us the truth or not," declared Sam. "I have my suspicions that you are trying to get us into some trap, and as I told you before, if you are I shall fill you full of lead the first thing. If I find you are trying to trap us, you cannot complain if I do just what I tell you I shall do."

"Me no wan' go," repeated the young man.

"You are going whether you want to go or not," retorted Sam Oliver brutally. "Are you coming with us, Peleg?" he inquired, turning to the young scout.

"I am," said Peleg quietly. He had made his decision instantly in his desire to protect or help the young visitor, whose suffering in the prospect of being compelled to betray his father had deeply stirred the heart of the young hunter. Aware that there was no escape from the demand, the white Shawnee turned and led the way into the forest.

The men who were following him were continually alert, suspicious as they were of the treachery of their guide, and fearful of the presence of other Shawnees in the forest through which they were moving.

The confidence of Sam Oliver, who followed close upon the heels of the stranger, in a measure strengthened the courage of his followers.

Peleg, who was next behind the leader, was as observant of the hunter as he was of the signs in the woods. He was convinced, too, that the young stranger was using time either to delay his followers or to give them an opportunity to abandon their demand for him to be false to the foster-father who had cared for him since his childhood.

If such thoughts had been in the mind of the young white Shawnee they were not expressed and certainly were not fulfilled. There was no escaping the demands of Sam Oliver and his companions.

At last, when an hour or more had elapsed, the guide stopped and, raising his hand in token of silence, in a low voice explained that they were approaching the tree in which the iron kettle had been concealed.

Instantly the demeanour of the settlers changed and they began to creep forward more stealthily. Every man was alert to discover the presence of the Indian who still might be near the place where the kettle had been hidden.

After a few moments Peleg perceived two Indians not far before him.

Both were seated before a fire cooking some venison. One of the warriors was an old man and his companion not much more than a boy.