To my mind it could benefit us but little if we approached a few miles nearer our destination, for unless these wretches could be beaten back within a reasonably short time, they would succeed in killing us before we could come within fifty miles of the point we most desired to gain.
However, while holding death at bay for a few hours more or less we might as well have our faces turned in the right direction, and I was ready to do whatsoever the scout suggested, for, as I have said, fear had fled from me now that our position was so desperate.
We alternately drove ahead at full speed, and stopped to take breath. The Indians fired at random now and then, hoping that the sound of our footsteps might serve as guide; but they inflicted no more injury on us by shooting, than we did on them while we refrained from discharging our weapons.
In such manner was the night passed. We had not fired a shot, while the painted crew in pursuit had wasted twenty bullets or more.
Having walked all day, this severe exertion throughout the night wearied me excessively, and when the first gray light of coming dawn filtered through the foliage, it seemed to me as if I was on the verge of exhaustion.
The labor had told even on Simon Kenton, and Paul was keeping the pace only through sheer force of will-power.
It was a wondrous relief to me when the scout pointed ahead to what appeared to be a dense growth of bushes, through which ran a tiny stream, as he said:
"I reckon we'll find no better place in which to make a stand, than there."
"Almost anything will please me so that we come to a halt speedily, for I'm well-nigh winded," I replied, speaking with difficulty because of my heavy breathing, and in another instant we three stood facing each other in the thicket, where as yet the light of a new day had not penetrated.
The savages might not approach very near during the darkness without taking more risks than such reptiles fancied, and during a certain time we need not fear molestation.