This done, the first duty was to learn whether there might be any of the enemy in the vicinity, and scouts were sent out at once, while the remainder of the company set about getting supper, or, perhaps I should say, eating it, for such food as we carried at that time was already cooked.
There was no thought of immediate danger in my mind; as a matter of course I realized that we were surrounded by enemies, but after the battle of the morning I was confident the enemy had been driven to a respectful distance.
I had ceased to think of Simon Kenton, save as pushing on down the river at his best pace, scolding because we were not with him to share in the labor, and I counted on spending the night in rest.
It so chanced that Major Clarke was seated very near Paul and I when the first of the scouts returned, and the information he brought was sufficient to drive from the minds of every man on board all thought of idling.
It appeared from the story we heard, that this scout, seeing a faint glow as of a light on the opposite side of the river, a mile below where we were lying, had taken a canoe from the nearest flat-boat and paddled across.
There, after having landed, he crept noiselessly through the foliage an hundred yards or more from the bank until he saw that which explained to me, at least, why Paul and I failed to find the dugout when we returned after our foolish tramp.
A party of fifty Indians, most likely a portion of the same band we whipped that morning, had halted for the purpose of torturing a prisoner to death, and that prisoner, so the man declared, was none other than Simon Kenton.
He also had been rash and foolish when going ashore in search of information, and at about the time we heard the reports of the firearms he must have been made a prisoner.
Even as I shuddered at the possibility that those who would go to the rescue might arrive too late, I thought with a certain sense of relief that now he could not find fault with us for having abandoned our post.
Had we remained in the canoe, as we should have done, then beyond a peradventure we had been captives with him, and the flat-boats, not having been delayed by the battle, might at this time be too far down stream for their occupants to render any aid.