"I pray you, sir, that we be allowed to join the party, if for no other reason than because the scout was our comrade."
"It shall be as you say, lads," Major Clarke replied; "but I warn you against being too eager for such frays. An attack in the night, while it may sometimes be less dangerous than in the daytime, is likely to prove far more hazardous."
The major might have convinced me that it was my duty to remain aboard the flat-boat; but Paul Sampson was as headstrong once he had resolved, as he was quiet in manner, and I understood, without the necessity for words, that he would not be turned from his purpose.
It can well be supposed that after this word was brought in every man gave due heed to silence, for should the savages who were making ready to torture the prisoner, discover that we were near at hand, Simon Kenton's death would speedily follow.
To make any attempt to gain the opposite shore with one of the large flat-boats would be folly, therefore all the dugouts which we towed, or carried aboard, were brought into line, and those men selected for the enterprise clambered into them, Paul and I among the others.
Now to my surprise, instead of putting directly across the river, the boats were allowed to drift down on the same side where the heavy craft were moored, keeping well within the shadow of the trees, and not until we were a mile or more below where it was said the Indians had halted, was any effort made to cross.
By the time the opposite side was gained we were fully two miles down stream, and even a greater distance from the place it would be necessary to gain in order to rescue Kenton.
Here we landed, Major Clarke and one of the older men taking the lead, while the remainder followed in single file.
Paul and I were midway of the line, and because strict orders had been given that no word should be spoken, he pressed my arm from time to time as if to convey by such means the thoughts that came into his mind.
I could not divine of what he might be thinking; but I knew it was a very disagreeable fact that at any moment we might fall into an ambush, for no man could say with certainty that the Indians had failed to note our coming.