The young warrior looked down into the face of the white boy long and intently; then he spoke.
“It may be,” he said, “that the time will come when you and I will run a race. And if it should, see to it that you are as swift as the antelope of the plains; for it may be that you will have much at stake.”
And with that Long Panther rode off along the trail after his fellow braves.
CHAPTER IV
IN THE WILDERNESS
That Boone had in mind an adventure beyond the Laurel Ridge was soon noised abroad.
“Going on a big hunt,” said one of the settlers to another. “Taking John Finley, who some years ago led a party to the Louisa River[3] region, and some others.”
“Means to stay for some time, too, I hear,” said the other.
The first speaker nodded.
“Dan’l’s boys are big enough to look after things now,” said he. “And I guess they have money enough to last a while. And besides the fun of the hunt, Boone’ll bring back rich furs, for they say the country he’s going into just swarms with game.”
But that Boone had any thought other than hunting was not known to the settlements; that Colonel Henderson contemplated having the backwoodsman inspect the wilderness as a preliminary to planting colonies therein was kept a close secret.