d to your brother,
and the Village of Peace. Let us go in to tell the others."

The Huron runner's report proved to be correct. Shortly before noon
signals from Indian scouts proclaimed the approach of a band of
white men. Evidently Girty's forces had knowledge beforehand of the
proximity of this band, for the signals created no excitement. The
Indians expressed only a lazy curiosity. Soon several Delaware
scouts appeared, escorting a large party of frontiersmen.

These men turned out to be Captain Williamson's force, which had
been out on an expedition after a marauding tribe of Chippewas. This
last named tribe had recently harried the remote settlers, and
committed depredations on the outskirts of the white settlements
eastward. The company was composed of men who had served in the
garrison at Fort Pitt, and hunters and backwoodsmen from Yellow
Creek and Fort Henry. The captain himself was a typical borderman,
rough and bluff, hardened by long years of border life, and, like
most pioneers, having no more use for an Indian than for a snake. He
had led his party after the marauders, and surprised and slaughtered
nearly all of them. Returning eastward he had passed through
Goshocking, where he learned of the muttering storm rising over the
Village of Peace, and had come more out of curiosity than hope to
avert misfortune.

The advent of so many frontiersmen seemed a godsend to the perplexed
and worried missionaries. They welcomed the newcomers most heartily.
Beds were made in several of the newly erected cabins; the village
was given over for the comfort of the frontiersmen. Edwards
conducted Captain Williamson through the shops and schools, and the
old borderman's weather-beaten face expressed a comical surprise.

"Wal, I'll be durned if I ever expected to see a redskin work," was
his only comment on the industries.

"We are greatly alarmed by the presence of Girty and his followers,"
said Edwards. "We have been warned to leave, but have not been
actually threatened. What do you infer from the appearance here of
these hostile savages?"

"It hardly 'pears to me they'll bother you preachers. They're agin
the Christian redskins, that's plain."

"Why have we been warned to go?"

"That's natural, seein' they're agin the preachin'."

"What will they do with the converted Indians?"

"Mighty onsartin. They might let them go back to the tribes, but
'pears to me these good Injuns won't go. Another thing, Girty is
af