Jerome was rather inclined to demur but Kingdom would not hear to arty plan but that he should remain carefully in hiding.
“Well, then, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” John suggested, as a final effort to gain more freedom than Ree believed wise, “I’ll take two or three days to myself and make a pilgrimage to the ‘salt lick’ over by the Mahoning river. Oh, I’ll be wary! I’ll look sharp enough, don’t you fear!” he added, seeing what Ree was about to say.
And so it was agreed that while Kingdom undertook to clear up the mystery of the death of Big Buffalo, Jerome should keep himself occupied and out of sight by the journey he proposed. The plan, like many another plan, far more carefully deliberated upon, had, as events proved, a most important bearing on the future.
But no man can tell what the next day, aye, the next hour, the next minute, will bring forth, however much our every act is constantly shaping the unknown fate and future.
CHAPTER VIII—THE SALT SPRINGS—A STARTLING DISCOVERY
Besides the much traveled path extending south from the river on which the cabin of the youthful pioneers was situated, to the main branch of the Muskingum, there was another thoroughfare of the Indians in the vicinity. The general direction of its course was east and west. This trail was not used a great deal, but it was, for the most part, along its route that the two boys had first made their way into the Ohio wilds two years before. At occasional intervals Delawares and others followed this path in traveling toward Fort Pitt, or in journeying from that point to Sandusky and the country of the Wyandots near the lake, farther to the west or to the Maumee which lay beyond.
At a distance of two days’ journey eastward from the cabin on the Cuyahoga, a branch of this trail forked off and led on to a much frequented “salt lick” or spring of salty water, near the Mahoning river. To this “lick” the Indians came from far and near to make salt. Settlers came from great distances, also, especially in later years, to boil the waters of the springs, and Kingdom and Jerome had known of the place for a long time.
Having first heard of the “big lick” from the Delawares, the boys had verified the information so obtained by talking with hunters and traders. Often had they planned to visit the place. During the winter, when work in their clearing was less pressing, they frequently had said they would obtain a year’s supply of salt for themselves. But that was before trouble had come to them. What they would do now must depend entirely upon future developments.
Kingdom saw no good reason for John’s proposed trip to the “lick,” but neither did he see a reason for not going; besides, maybe it would be better for Jerome to be away from the locality in which such grave danger threatened him, and the more especially so in view of the temptation he would have to try to find the secret lead mine of the outcast Seneca.
Thus the two friends parted. Kingdom had already lost much time. He feared being late at the council he was to have with Captain Pipe’s principal people and much as he would have liked to go a little way with John, he felt that he must hurry directly to the cabin.