“And father? Tell me of father? Never mind the rest.”
“Your father fit as hard as any of us, Dave, and I saw him bring down two redskins and shoot the sneaking Bevoir in the leg. Then he got a ball in his arm and an arrow in his shoulder and keeled over too weak to stand. This was about at the end of the fight, which lasted over an hour. Right after your father went down an Injun struck me with a club and I went down too, all in a heap, and I didn’t know a thing more until the whole jig was up and we were prisoners.”
“Who were prisoners?”
“Your father, me, Putty, Tony, and the others who wasn’t killed. White Buffalo was in the fight, with six of his braves, and they fit well, too. One brave was killed and the rest got away, along with the chief, although how they did it is an amazement to me.”
“Then the cabin was burnt down?”
“Not entirely. After the fight was over the Frenchmen went to work to save the property, for that was what Jean Bevoir was after, according to your father’s notion and mine. The Frenchmen didn’t pay any attention to us, but jest handed us over to the Injuns.”
“And you were separated from father?”
“I was, two days later, along with Putty and old Tony. The Injuns were afraid to keep us together for fear we would hatch out a plot to git away from ’em.”
“But how did you get away?”
“I got away two days after I last saw your father. I was a captive of two of Fox Head’s band who were marching me northward. I knew well enough what that meant—burning at the stake as soon as the Injun village was reached. I made up my mind I’d rather die fighting than be tortured to death. So I watched my chance and pretended to be very weak from my wounds. We got further and further away from the others and at last I grabbed up a rock and let one redskin have it in the skull and it finished him. Then I jumped on the other and knocked him down. But he fired a pistol, and while the ball didn’t hit me, I knew it would bring others down on me, so I started and ran like greased lightning, straight into the forest. I got lost and nobody found me, and it has taken me ever since to get to Will’s Creek. I was almost starved and my buckskin suit was in tatters. I borrowed this suit from the man who loaned me the hoss.”