Whilst preparations were in progress for the death of Kenton, Simon Girty, the renegade white man, came into Waughcotomoco with a settler’s wife and her children, whom he had captured. Curious to see the prisoner under sentence to be burned at the stake, he went to the wigwam where Kenton was confined. Great was the surprise of Girty to find his old companion and benefactor. Since they had last seen each other, Girty had forsworn his race, and his name had become execrated along the border as that of an unnatural creature devoid of pity and destitute of principle.
Girty’s conduct on this occasion proved that he was not utterly abandoned, but it is the sole redeeming feature of his life as we know it. With the utmost difficulty, he induced the chiefs to defer their purpose, and for three weeks Kenton was left unmolested. At the end of that time he was sent to the village of the great chief Logan, who despite the wrongs he had suffered at the hands of the whites, befriended the scout and treated him as kindly as possible.
Even Logan’s influence did not, however, seem sufficient to save Kenton from the doom with which the Indians appeared to be determined to visit him. After a short while he was sent under escort to Sandusky, which place had been selected as the scene of his death by torture. Here, when the sturdy scout had abandoned hope, a British agent named Drewyer contrived his removal to Detroit.
At Detroit Kenton was held as a prisoner of war and well treated. He was required to work, but received half wages, the other half being applied to the cost of his keep. Some months were passed under these conditions, when Kenton and another Kentuckian contrived to escape with the aid of the wife of a trader. This woman secured and secreted on the outskirts of the town two rifles and a supply of ammunition. At a favorable opportunity the prisoners stole out of the fort, possessed themselves of the weapons and, after a month of travel through the wilderness, found themselves at last among friends in Kentucky.
[XV.]
THE YOUNG SCOUT
The whites suffer great reverses at the hands of the Indians—Kenton and Hardy go on a scout to old Chillicothe—The surprise and the flight—Kenton’s wonderful leap and escape—Hardy falls into the hands of the savages—The midnight visitor to the camp—Hardy fears a snake and finds a friend—The escape to the river—“I reckon we’ve shaken your last night’s friends”—The journey through the Indian country—Hardy has some new experiences and is initiated to the calling of the scout—The companions encounter dangers and feel hunger—Kenton continues the education that Boone began—At last they come in sight of Chillicothe.
During the year 1779 the settlements of Kentucky were free from attack by large bodies of Indians but several fierce fights took place between the whites and their implacable foes. One of these occurred early in the spring and resulted in a fearful loss to the Kentuckians.