“Good. I’m glad of that. We are patriots also, and members of the army of General Greene, who is about one hundred miles north of here.”
“Ah, we are glad to hear that,” said Holden. “I wish that General Greene would come down here and give the Indians a thrashing.”
“That is what he is figuring on doing if there is need,” said Dick.
“He sent us to do some scouting and reconnoitering,” put in Tom. “He had heard that there were lots of Indians down here, and that they were murdering patriots and burning their homes, and if we learned that this was the case, he would come down here and put a stop to their work.”
“Well, you can return to him and tell him that his presence in this part of the country is sorely needed. The Indians are pillaging and burning homes, and they have committed a number of murders. They attacked us, here in Peaceful Valley, this afternoon, and drove us to the shelter of this fort and then burned our houses.”
“That was bad,” said Dick.
“Yes, but they were overtaken by the flood, while they were sitting on the ground, about halfway between here and the mouth of the gulch, and three of them were struck by logs and knocked senseless, and were drowned.”
“That was good,” said Tom, his eyes shining.
“We were in the flood, too, as we told you before you let us in,” said Dick. “We were chased by Indians, and were trying to escape. We swung down on the end of a tall tree, and dropped into the gulch, then suddenly a torrent came rushing down upon us and bore us a considerable distance before emptying into a river several miles from here. We swam ashore, dried our clothes and then came here.”
“You were fortunate, in that you were not hit by any of the logs,” said Mr. Perkins.