It happened that at the time he met the two young pioneers the brave carried his customary bow and arrows. Few of his race equalled Blue Jacket in the use of this old-time Indian weapon. He could send a feathered shaft with wonderful accuracy, whether aimed at a human foe or a wild animal of the forest.
Debarred from using their noisy guns on account of the dangers that an explosion might bring upon them, the boys would have suffered from lack of fresh food but for the dexterity with which their dusky ally used his hickory bow, with its flint-tipped arrows, feathered with quills from the wild goose.
Once he brought down a bounding deer that seemed in a fair way to escape, much to the admiration of both white lads, who had never before witnessed such an exhibition of fine shooting.
On another occasion he had discovered several wild turkeys roosting on the branch of a big pine tree on a knoll, and, after considerable creeping, managed to get close enough, on the leeward side of the wary birds, to bring a haughty gobbler to the ground, pierced through and through with an arrow, so that they feasted that night right royally.
Then Blue Jacket also knew just how to build a fire with very dry wood that might not give forth any smoke, such as keen and suspicious eyes would discover. It was always started in a cleft, or a hole in the ground, nor did they ever keep it going after night set in.
All these precautions were absolutely necessary, for they were in a hostile country, where every human being must be considered an enemy, whether he might be a red man or a French Canadian trapper.
The summer was now gone. Touches of frost appeared each morning, now that the pilgrims of the great forest ascended continually further north. But they were young, hardy and vigorous, so that little they cared for this. The thought of the mission that drew them thus far away from their Ohio River home proved sufficient to make their pulses throb, and all minor troubles be ignored.
An hour passed. Blue Jacket plodded on, showing not the faintest sign of weariness. Indeed, it seemed to Sandy that the young Shawanee brave must be made of iron to be able to stand up under all they had passed through without exhibiting the least symptom of fatigue.
Even the brothers by now seemed to feel a peculiar dampness to the air, that in a way betrayed the near presence of a large body of water.