CHAPTER XI.
THE SECRET DISCLOSED.
“Gentlemen of Kentucky and Virginia,” began the colonel, “for six long years have we striven on the dark and bloody ground to keep a foothold on the inheritance we are earning for our children. For three years of that time, our whole land has been fighting against fearful odds on the side of the unnatural mother country. Not content with hiring Hessians to come over and murder us, they have bribed the savages to fire our houses and scalp women and children, from Cherry Valley to Harrodsburg.”
Here there was a growl of assent, “That’s so.” “Cuss ’em.” “We’ll get square, some day.”
“Soldiers,” continued Clark, addressing them by the title he knew they were most proud of, “the time has come when we must turn the tables on the British. Saratoga has shown them that we can beat their best troops, and all along the Atlantic States they are running like whipped hounds!”
A tremendous yell greeted the reference.
“Now,” cried the colonel, “since we are safe on the east, let us turn to the west. The Indians have tormented us long enough. We chase them, and ’tis like attacking a swarm of wasps. We can not catch them. Well, boys, what do you do when the wasps get too troublesome?”
He paused, as if to await a reply. There was an awkward silence for near a minute. Then Daniel Boone, who stood near Clark, and out of the ranks, observed in his clear, quiet tones:
“We hunt for the nest, and burn it up, some night, colonel.”
“Right, old comrade!” exclaimed the young leader, amid a whispered chorus of excited comments; “we find the nest, and burn it up. Well, gentlemen, these wasps come not from one nest, but three: and their names are Detroit, St. Vincent’s,[2] and Kaskaskia. Detroit is a fortified town, beyond our reach. St. Vincent’s is too strong for us as yet. Kaskaskia, the furthest of all, is the most dangerous to Kentucky. Secure in their distance from us, the British think they need fear nothing. Gentlemen, I have orders from Governor Henry of Virginia to take Kaskaskia and save Kentucky forever. Who will volunteer to go with me, and strangle the snake in his den?”
There was a deep silence following this speech, at the end of which Captain Harrod stepped forward and made a characteristic speech: