The Pioneer Boys of the Mississippi; or, The Homestead in the Wilderness

by St. George Rathborne

Great was the rejoicing among the settlers when they saw how successful had been the chase after the rascally trappers belonging to that league of French Canadians who were employed all along the great river in catching the rich pelt-bearing animals inhabiting that region, or else trading with the Indians for their furs.

When Mrs. Armstrong found almost all of her little belongings returned to her, she was of course delighted; though this circumstance was of small value in her fond eyes as compared with the safe home-coming of her brave boys.

When the story of the missing belt was told, few believed what the Frenchman had advanced as the truth.

The general opinion seemed to be that, for some unknown reason, the pair had secreted the wampum belt somewhere, meaning to get it again at a later time. And some of the settlers were loud in their demand that the men be forced to confess what had been done with the belt, which, if only possessed again, was certain to be a great source of security to the new settlement. They believed it would be a talisman calculated to act as a bar upon the passions of the Indians, as long as the name of Pontiac was held in reverence by the confederated tribes of the middle West.

So the two men were tightly bound and thrust into a cabin that was nearly completed, being told that their fate would be decided at a council later on. They acted in a sullen manner, declaring they had told only the truth; and that, even though the English put them to the stake, they could say nothing different. At the same time Larue took occasion to say that, should their fate ever become known to the commandant of the nearest trading post, an expedition would assuredly be fitted out against the new settlement that would wipe it from the face of the earth.

Mr. Armstrong was uneasy. He knew that the men deserved death, according to the law of the border; and yet, for many reasons, he was personally averse to meting out such judgment upon them.

He was far from being a bloodthirsty man to begin with. Then Kate had really not been injured when in their hands, and he had that to be thankful for; though their method of annoying the English settlers by setting the girl adrift on the river was a cowardly proceeding that surely merited severe punishment.

Last of all, Mr. Armstrong was really desirous of making a truce with the French traders in charge of the posts along the Mississippi. He could see far enough ahead to realize that, when the Colonies split with the Mother Country, the natural allies of the rebels would be the French. And, as far as possible, he did not wish to do anything calculated to defer this adjustment of past differences between the two nations.

And so it was decided to keep the two men shut up for a few days, in order that they would suffer the tortures of uncertainty concerning their fate. Then, if they did not confess concerning the disposal of the precious wampum belt, the English settlers could hold back their weapons, and cast them adrift, to make their way back to the nearest post as best they could; perhaps with a message to the commandant pertaining to the news from the seacoast, and the threatening rupture that was surely coming between England and her rebellious child in America.