“We were midway betwixt here and the Indian town, but I scarce know what happened. A savage in hiding behind a tree leaped out upon me and would have seized me but Phœbe bounded beyond his reach, nor stopped till now. Thy beloved friend was behind me. His horse kept close up and I thought the lad was with me till but a few minutes since.”
“Were no guns fired? Did you hear John cry out?”
“Verily, I know not.”
“It may be that John was swept off his horse by the low limbs of a tree,” said Ree, hope coming to him with the thought. “Was it the lone Indian—the one you saw before, who attacked you?”
“I cannot say—I cannot say.”
The Quaker was trembling violently from his exertion and fright, and Ree pitied him, though he almost despised the man who could give only so wretched an account of what had happened, when information was so badly needed.
“Mount your mare and come after me. Show me the place where you were attacked.”
Kingdom seized his rifle, which was always within reach, and at one bound was upon Neb’s back. The Quaker began a protest, but the lad did not—would not—hear. It was now quite dark and the howling wind and penetrating cold added to the hardship of the work to be done and lessened the likelihood of success; but the man dared not disobey the boy’s command.
The sweeping gale was fast filling in the path the horses had made along the trail to the Indian town, but the animals themselves were able to find it, though in the darkness the men would not have been. The Quaker recollected the point at which he had first missed John and there Ree dismounted and walked. But it was no use; for, though often he mistook a half-buried log or stump for the body of him he sought, he discovered nothing in the darkness which would indicate whether John had been killed or carried off, or had only fallen, wounded, from his horse.
Not until they had reached the village of the Delawares did the searchers pause in their hunt. Theodore Hatch had been unable to locate definitely the spot at which he was attacked, and Ree pushed on to the Indian town hoping to find some tidings. But neither Gentle Maiden nor any of the others could give any information.