“But I have heard of men living after having been scalped,” said John. “Poor fellow!”
“It’s a bad business; but we must pull him through,” Kingdom replied with determination. “I’ll watch him and the camp till midnight or after. You get some sleep, John, while you can.”
As Jerome had fully expected, though he knew it was useless to remonstrate, Ree did not call him until almost daylight. Getting up, he hitched up Neb and saddled the stranger’s horse, which came up to him with perfect gentleness when he called “Phœbe,” the name he had heard the master use. A little later he broiled some venison steaks, and then called Ree to breakfast.
Theodore Hatch, if such was the stranger’s name, though the boys doubted it, had been very restless during the night. Often in his delirium he had spoken of a letter and twice had mentioned the name of Ichabod Nesbit. How so gentlemanly appearing a man could be connected with the dead robber was more than the boys could guess, though they now considered it certain that he, as well as the precious pair of rogues they had met at the Eagle tavern, had some mysterious interest in the man whom the Indian, Black Eagle, had killed.
As the stranger was still unconscious Ree and John had no fear of giving offense as they spoke of these things in his presence. Indeed, he had not the least understanding of what was taking place around him.
How to continue their journey, carrying the sick man with them, was considerable of a problem for the young travelers, as their cart was already heavily loaded; but they solved the difficulty by making a pack-horse of the stranger’s mare, thus providing room under the canvas of their covered wagon to prepare a bed for the injured stranger. They raised him up and placed him upon the blankets with much effort but successfully, and before the sun was an hour high, were once more on their way.
Fifty miles ahead of them was the lonely cabin by the Cuyahoga river. A somewhat greater distance on the backward trail was Pittsburg. To the south and west almost an equal distance was the only other semblance of civilization in all the surrounding wilderness—the missionary settlement of the Moravians.
Whether to take the wounded man to the latter place or back to Pittsburg or straight on to the cabin was a question the boys discussed at some length. The result was their decision to push on toward the Cuyahoga, and before nightfall they had traveled a good twelve miles. They saw no sign of an enemy during the day or the night which followed. The stranger continued insensible of all that was taking place, though he called out frequently, often speaking to his horse, his tones showing the deepest love for the animal. And the mare, pricking up her ears at every sound of her master’s voice, exhibited for him an attachment far beyond anything of the kind the boys had ever seen.
It may have been this very love the unhappy animal had for its stricken master which resulted in the mare’s giving the alarm when the two boys had almost forgotten the dangers constantly surrounding them. For suddenly, as the sun was going down in the afternoon of the second day after the discovery of the unconscious form of Theodore Hatch, when preparations were being made to camp in a convenient gully, the horse sniffed the air and snorted and neighed violently.
Quick to realize that something was wrong, Kingdom leaped for his rifle, and had no more than secured the weapon when a bullet shrieked close to his shoulder and buried itself in a tree behind him.