The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-03-25
CHAPTER XIII.

IN WHICH A PILGRIMAGE BEGINS.
As you have guessed before you turned
this page, the men who charged so oppor-
timely to cut me out of peril were my cap
tors only in the saving sense.
Their overnight bivouac was not above a
mile beyond the glade of adjustment. 1t
was in little dell. cunningly hid; and the
embers of the campires were still alive
when we of the horse came first to this
agreed-on rallying point
Here at this rendezvous in the forests
heart I had my first sight of any fighting
fragment of that undisciplined and yet un-
conquerable patriot homeguard that even
in defeat proved too tough a morsel for
British jaws to masticate.
They promised little to the eye of
trained soldier, these border levies In
fancy 1 could see my old field marshal-he
was the father of all the martinets-turn
up his nose and dismiss them with a con-
temptuous ZACH; mein Gott,' And, truly.
there was little outward show among them
of the sterling metal underneath.
They came singly and in couples. stragg-
ling like a routed band of brigands; some
loading their pieces as they ran. There
was no hint of soldier discipline. and they
might have been leaderless for aught / saw
of Difference to their captain. Indeed, at
first, / could not pick the captain out by
any sign. since all were clad in coarsest
homespun and well-worn leather, and all
wore the long, fringed hunting shirt and
raccoon-skin cap of the free borderers.
Yet these were a handful of the men who
had fought so. stoutly against the Tory
odds at Ramsour's mill, their captain being
that Abram Forney of whom you may read
in the histories; and though they made no
military show, they lacked neither hardi-
hood nor courage, of certain persevering
sort.
than that, stranger? drawled one of them.
a grizzled borderer, lank, lean and wealth
er-tanned, with face that might have
been a leathern mask for any hint 1t gave
of what went on behind 1t. I'll swear
that little whip-snap officer cub had the
word fire. sticking in his teeth when l
gave him old Sukeys mouthful O. lead to
chaw on
/ said / had come as near my exit
time or two before. though always in fair
fight; and thereupon was whelmed in an
avalanche of questions such as only SIM
ple-hearted folk know how to ask.
When / had sufficiently accounted for
myself, Captain Forney-he was the linn
ber-backed young fellow / had ridden be-
handicapped my hand and gave me
hearty welcome and congratulation.
my father and yours were handfast
friends, Captain Ireton. More than that.
I've heard my father say he owed yours
somewhat on the score of good turns. I'm
master glad I've had chance to even up
both thank the Indian" At which he
looked around as one who calls an eye
muster and marks a missing man. Where
is the chief, Ephraim?'-this to the
grizzled hunter who was methodically re-
loading his long rifle.
Hes back yonder, gathering in the hair
crop, 1 reckon. Never you mind about him,
cap'n. He'll turn up when he smells the
meat a-cooking, immejitly, II not sooner"
Here, as I imagine. looked all the ques-
lions that lacked answers; for Captain
Forney took it in hand to fit them out with
applications
"'Tis Uncanoola. the Catawba," he said;
lone of the friendlies. He was out a-scout-
ing last night and came in an hour before
daybreak with the news that Colonel Tarle-
ton was set upon hanging spy Of ours.
From that to our little adjustment"
at see," said 1, wanting space to turn the
memory leaves. This Catawba; is he a
man about my age?' Captain Forney
laughed. God He only knows an Indians
age. But Uncanoola has been man grown
these fifteen years or more. can recall his
fot w I
but a little cadger.''
At that, l remembered, too; remembered
a tall, straight young savage. as handsome
as a figure done in bronze, who used some
times to meet me in the lonelier forest
wilds when / was out a-hunting; remem-
bered how, at first, 1 was afraid Of him;
how once would have shot him in fit of
boyish race antipathy and sudden fright
had he not flung away his firelock and
stood before me defenseless.
Also, l recalled little incident of the
terrible scourge of go. when the black pox
babe fair to blot out this tribe of the Ca
tawbas; how when my father had found
this young savage lying in the forest.
plague-stricken and deserted by all his
tribesmen, he had saved his life and earned
an Indian friendship.
81 know this Uncanoola." / said. "My
father befriended him in the plague of go,
and was never sorry for 1t, as / believe"
Then | would ask If these Catawbas had
question which led the young militia cap
tain to give me the news at large while
his borderers were breaking camp and
making their hasty preparations for the
days march
'''Tis liberty or death with us now;