“Goodby,” uttered Scarouady; and he turned about and made off, and Robert followed close.
So they left Nemacolin the Delaware from the Monongahela to guide Colonel Thomas Cresap, blazing the trail known as Nemacolin’s Trail from present Cumberland upon the upper Potomac at Will’s Creek in northern Maryland to Redstone Creek of the Monongahela River far in the west.
By this trail the Ohio Company of the Washingtons and others, settling lands between the Alleghany Mountains and the Ohio River, intended to take their goods. By this trail George Washington marched against the French. By this trail General Braddock, with his aide George Washington, marched his army across rivers and over the mountains, to meet the French and Indians in battle near the Forks of the Ohio; and it was named Braddock’s Road. And in due time the trail of Nemacolin and the road of Braddock became the National Road of southern Pennsylvania, for travel between the Potomac and the Monongahela, and thence north to Pittsburgh.
So they took the eastward trail, which wended through ravines, through parks, dense forests, around hills, across creeks and over mountains where snow had fallen, until the second evening they were almost in sight of the Potomac of present Maryland.
“I smell smoke,” said Scarouady. “Somebody cooks meat.” Then they came out into a clearing for a cabin with smoke curling from the mud chimney.
Children ran, a woman screamed, and a man working outside jumped for his gun. But Scarouady shouted “Friend, No ’fraid,” and went in, with Robert close at his heels.
“He has a scalp!” the woman cried; and the man still kept his gun ready. Scarouady laughed.
“Mingo, friend of English. Cherokee scalp. Where Washington comp’ny?”
“Washington company?” uttered the man.
“Yep. Washington comp’ny. Will’s Creek. Where?”