CHAPTER VIII
BOONE IN A TIGHT PLACE.
Earnestly and with anxious faces the settlers discussed the chances of the coming war.
With one voice Colonel Boone was selected as the commander of the station.
Messengers were dispatched to warn the neighboring settlements.
Then Boone, taking Kenton and Lark aside, suggested that they should make a scout into the Shawnee country and discover, if possible, against which settlement the Indian attack would be directed.
The suggestion suited well with the bold and daring spirit of the border, and both Kenton and Lark gladly expressed their willingness to accompany the skillful and daring woodman.
Boone gave Jackson a hint as to his intention, and then the three left the settlement and entered the forest, heading toward the Ohio.
Reaching the river, Lark drew from a little tangled thicket near the river’s bank a canoe. He had previously hidden it there when he had crossed the Ohio on his way from the Shawnee country to Point Pleasant.
By means of the canoe the three crossed the river. On the northern bank they concealed the canoe in the thicket, and then, striking to the north-west toward the Scioto river, they plunged into the wilderness and took the trail leading to the villages of the Shawnee nation.
On through the tangled thickets went the three rangers, all their senses on the alert to discover traces of the hostile red-skins.