The two clasped hands, their eyes full of pleasure.
“We came upon your tracks yesterday,” said Squire Boone, who was Daniel’s junior by some years. “But we had more trouble in following it than if you’d been a couple of black foxes anxious to save your pelts.”
Daniel and John Stuart looked at each other.
“We took a lot of trouble to cover those tracks up from time to time,” said Stuart, grimly. “And we did it to save our scalps.”
“Ah!” said Squire. “Injuns?”
“Shawnees!” answered his brother.
The companion of Squire Boone now came forward with the packhorses and was greeted by the two explorers. This man’s name is not known to history, but he had ventured much in attempting that long journey over mountains, across rushing rivers and through the vast forests, and so he will go down as one of the great unknown pioneers of the great west—a goodly army and a stout-hearted one.
Just how Squire Boone came to appear so opportunely in the wilderness at the time he did will perhaps always remain a mystery. Some have it that he had brooded long over the absence of his brother, finally concluded that he must be hard put to it across the Laurel Ridge, and so went to his aid. Others hold the theory that it was all arranged for at the beginning. If Daniel was not back in the settlements at a given time, Squire was to set out upon a sort of relief expedition.
But, however that may be, there he was, and with two packs of necessary things, the more important of which were powder and ball, and flints for their gun-locks.
A new time set in for the hardy adventurers; in their increased numbers there was less danger of attack; in their possession of plenty of ammunition they were better able to make a defense in case the Shawnees should reappear. However, their vigilance did not relax; they were but four, after all, and they must be as saving of good black powder as they could, so they made their camps in the thick of the cane-brakes and masked their fires and covered their tracks.