"Just what I was thinking," echoed the younger lad. "After all, there is nothing like home, no matter if it be in Virginia or in the wilderness, so long as she is there. But, oh! listen! Is that not the signal agreed upon with the sentinels out in the timber? Can the enemy be coming down on us now?"
"Impossible," said Bob, after listening intently. "According to all we have ever heard about their ways they do not make an attack before late in the night, and never at dusk. It must mean something else."
"But there it goes again, and closer. One of the men is coming in. Perhaps he does not wish to take chances of being fired upon by some hasty fellow."
"Now I hear voices," declared Bob, raising his hand, "and some of them do not sound familiar, though they speak good English. Oh! I wonder if it can be—look at Pat hurrying forward, and see how his face is covered with a broad grin! Brother, it must be he recognized a familiar sound in—Look, several men are coming, and they are hunters, too!"
"That one in front, Bob, with the bold air—I have not forgotten that Pat told us how one man he knew seemed born to command. Did you ever see a face like that? It is,—it must be Colonel Boone himself!"
All was now excitement in the emigrant camp. Dogs barked, horses neighed, men shouted, and women laughed; while children added their shrill cries to the general clamor. Just the coming of five men clad in buckskin had caused this uproar; but such men!
"Come!" cried Sandy, seizing hold of his brother by the sleeve. "Let us go forward and meet them. See, there is father shaking hands with Colonel Boone, just as if he had known him before. And look at Pat dancing around like a crazy man! Did you ever know him to be so happy? Now we shall surely reach the Ohio without being set upon again by the red men."
It was a period of great rejoicing. Daniel Boone ([Note 5]) and his fellow hunters were once more on their way to the region where the great pioneer had determined to locate his future home, in the heart of the country below the Ohio, and to be known later on as Kentucky.
As the hunters had not supped, the women were soon employed getting them a good meal. Meanwhile the story of the recent fight was told.
But there was little that was new to these readers of Indian signs; for they had passed over the scene of the fight just a few hours back, and, not finding any signs of fresh graves, knew that death could not have visited the pioneers.