The Spirit of the Border: A Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio Valley

specks against the green background. Then came the last wave of a white scarf, faintly in the distance, and at length the dark outline of the fort was all

between high, wooded bluffs, rol

asting with green-clad hills on the other, there hovered over land and water something

e floating rafts. The sandhill crane, stalking along the shore, lifted his long neck as the unfamiliar thing came floating by, and then stood still and silent as a statue until the rafts disappeared from view. Blue-herons feeding along the bars, saw the unusual spectacle, and, uttering surprised "booms," they spread wide wings and lumbered away along the shore. The crows circled above the voyagers, cawing in not unfriendly excitement. Smal

of jutting, broken cliffs with scant evergreen growth; of long reaches of sandy bar that glistened golden in the sunlight, and over all the f

rimson-crowned for another, shaded and darkened as the setting sun sank behind the hills. Presently the red rays disappeared, a pink glow suffuse

e head of a small island. "All off now, and' we'll hev' supper. Thar's a fine sprin

imes during the journey, and he had found time before the early start to arrange for her a

with her bright smile. "I am a

at once swung his axe upon a log of driftwood. Mr. Wells and Jim walked to and fro under the birches, and Kate and Nell sat on the grass watching with great interest the old helmsman as he came

d cuttin' and cookin'. You're slicin' it too thick. See-thar! No

an white-oak chips Bill's axe had provided. The simple meal of meat, bread, and afterward a drink of the cold spring

yit, we kin hev a fire. I'll allow ye'll all be chilly an

r. Wells, his mind always intent on reach

, thet's sartin, but we'll pick up termorrer. We've

enly breaking the silence that fo

swered her; he did not speak; indeed he had said little to her since the start, but his gl

e young minister. "I feel an almost overpowering sense of loneliness.

life-Nature as it was created by God,"

e old frontiersman, as he once mor

beamed in answer to the girl's request. He drew a long and audible pull at his black pipe, and send forth slowly a cloud of white smoke. Deliberately poking the fire with a stick, as if stirring

day. Some years agone I was comin' up from Fort Henry, an' had on board my slow old scow a lass named Milly-we never learned her other name. She come to me at the fort, an' tells as how her folks hed been killed by Injuns, an' she wanted to git back to Pitt to meet her sweetheart. I was ag'in her comin' all along, an' fust off I said 'No.' But when I seen tears in her blue eyes, an' she puts her little hand on mine, I jest wilted, an' says to Jim Blair, 'She goes.' Wal, jest as might hev been expected-an' fact is I looked fer it-we wus tackled by redskins. Somehow, Jim

which the old frontiersman sat ga

t smile, an' died. Ever since then the river has been eatn' away at this island. It's only half as bi

ister looked again, as he had many times that day, at Nell's winsome face. The girls cast grave glances at the drooping birch, and their bright tears glistened

particular the lasses, to know somethin' of the kind of country ye're goin' into. The frontier need

e kill him?" was J

's got Simon Girty, his brother, an' almost the whole redskin tribe behind him. Injuns stick close to a white man that has turned ag'inst his own people, an' Jim Girty hain't ever been ketched. Howsumever, I heard last tri

the raft, returning shortly afterward with his blanket. This he laid down and

n, an' I advise ye

For a long time the young couple sat close togethe

his protest against the loneliness; but now his dismal croak was no longer heard. A snipe, belated in his feeding, ran along the sandy shore uttering

e gave no heed to her slight resistance, and finally her he

force of an emotion which he could not analyze. Some power, some feeling in which the thought of Nell had no share, was drawing him with irresistible strength. Nell had just begun to surrender to him in the sweetness

Then, realizing that she was tired with her long day's journey, he reproached himself for keeping her from the needed rest, and instantly decided to carry her to the raft. Yet such was the novelty of th

me one. He remembered then she had once told him that she talked in her sleep, and how gr

ill go-Kate, w

He distinguished his own name, and presently she ca

me. Yet I wish he were-like Jim-Jim who loo

and carrying her down to the raft, g

cknowledged in her waking hours had been revealed in her dreams. He recalled the glance of Jim'

adually that cold bitterness died out from his face, as it passed from his heart, and once more he became engrossed in the si

ry cloud, Jeff Lynn rolled out of his blanket, stretched his long limbs, and gave a hearty call to the morning. His che

d Jeff as he saw Joe. "Up afore

Joe, holding up sever

big feller is a lammin' hef

hed fo

ore reluctantly yielding to his admiratio

hree deer swim from the mainlan

arations for that meal. "Wal, wal, if he ain't surprisin'! He'll do somethin' out here on the fro

, which he had cut loose from his own, and, giving a few direct

ned and was more skillfully taken advantage of by Jeff, the larger raft

ttention was given to quieting the horses. Mose, Joe's big white dog, retired in disgust to the hut, where he watched

en the sun had disappeared behind the hills, he saw ahead a gray rock protruding from the green foliage. It was ponderous, overhanging, and seemed to frown down on the river. This was Shawnee Rock. Joe look

cross the raft, and pushing his oar amidships he looked ahead for the other raft. T

bend, and as it did so Joe sa

he lifted it and ran back across the raft for another push. Joe scanned the river ahead. He saw no rapids; only rougher water whirling over some rocks. They were where t

d Bill, observing Joe'

look so,"

float logs, an' the river's run out considerable. I'm only afeerd

he rocks several times, but finally gained the channel saf

in the channel, and swung round so that the steering-oar pointed t

elled Bill. "Somethin's wron

ther, rolled and then pitched loose again, but the s

of the oar, he failed to see a long length of grapevine floating like a brown snake of the water below. In the excitement they heeded not the barking of Mose. Nor did they see the grapevine stra

led her halter loose and plunged into the river. But

with his free hand. Lance trembled violently and strain

AC

rifle rang out above th

is head striking the almost submerged log. A dark-red fluid colored the wa

cried Jim, in

ark forms of several Indian warriors. From the rifle in the foremost savage's hand a slight veil

that ax! We're ca

an from the for

now standing naked but for his buckskin breech-cloth, with his perfectly proportioned form disclosed in all its s

he steadily regarded the young man; but if he expected to see fear i

d in his deep voice. "Fool pal