me. I fell from the limb,
but he fell too and Tige killed him and Sam stuffed him for me."

"Noah, you are quite a valiant hunter," said Betty. "Now, Jonathan,
remember that you promised to tell me of your meeting with Daniel
Boone."

"It was over on the Muskingong near the mouth of the Sandusky. I was
hunting in the open woods along the bank when I saw an Indian. He
saw me at the same time and we both treed. There we stood a long
time each afraid to change position. Finally I began to act tired
and resorted to an old ruse. I put my coon-skin cap on my ramrod and
cautiously poked it from behind the tree, expecting every second to
hear the whistle of the redskin's bullet. Instead I heard a jolly
voice yell: 'Hey, young feller, you'll have to try something
better'n that.' I looked and saw a white man standing out in the
open and shaking all over with laughter. I went up to him and found
him to be a big strong fellow with an honest, merry face. He said:
'I'm Boone.' I was considerably taken aback, especially when I saw
he knew I was a white man all the time. We camped and hunted along
the river a week and at the Falls of the Muskingong he struck out
for his Kentucky home."

"Here is Wetzel," said Col. Zane, who had risen and gone to the
door. "Now, Betty, try and get Lew to tell us something."

"Come, Lewis, here is a seat by me," said Betty. "We have been
pleasantly passing the time. We have had bear stories, snake
stories, ghost stories--all kinds of tales. Will you tell us one?"

"Lewis, did you ever have a chance to kill a hostile Indian and not
take it?" asked Col. Zane.

"Never but once," answered Lewis.

"Tell us about it. I imagine it will be interesting."

"Well, I ain't good at tellin' things," began Lewis. "I reckon I've
seen some strange sights. I kin tell you about the only redskin I
ever let off. Three years ago I was takin' a fall hunt over on the
Big Sandy, and I run into a party of Shawnees. I plugged a chief and
started to run. There was some good runners and I couldn't shake 'em
in the open country. Comin' to the Ohio I jumped in and swum across,
keepin' my rifle and powder dry by holdin' 'em up. I hid in some
bulrushes and waited. Pretty soon along comes three Injuns, and when
they saw where I had taken to the water they stopped and held a
short pow-wow. Then they all took to the water. This was what I was
waitin' for. When they got nearly acrosst I shot the first redskin,
and loadin' quick