w not what. For
himself he was not afraid, and it is not strange that in the wildest
flights of his lively fancy he did not for a moment imagine under what
startling circumstances he was destined to next behold the fugitive
criminal.

CHAPTER III.

The Beginning of a Perilous Journey.

"Hitch yer cheers up t' the blaze; it's a cool night fer September," said
Captain Bowen, drawing his own splint-bottom chair toward the great
fire-place of his homely but thoroughly comfortable home, and slowly
sipping new cider, just old enough to sparkle, from the bright pewter mug
containing it.

"An' help yerselves to some more cider, naow dew; I like a man to feel at
home," he went on as Return Kingdom and John Jerome gave heed to his
kindly bidding.

"Naow as I was a sayin'," Captain Bowen continued, "I r'ally kent advise
yeu youngsters t' undertake these plans yer minds air set on. The Injuns
hev hated us whites worse than ever sence the British turned their back
to 'em after the war was over, an' comin' so soon after their hevin'
helped the pestiferous Redcoats so much--they fit fer 'em tooth an'
toe-nail as the sayin' is, ye know--as I was sayin' it rankles in their
in'ards. General Washington--peace to him--he's did all he kin toward
pacifyin' 'em, an' it ain't no wonder they call him the 'Great Father';
but so many other men hev cheated 'em, an' so many settlers air crowdin'
into their huntin' graounds thet they air jist ready to lift the hair of
any white man they catch sight on, a'most. Ye air takin' long chances,
boys, I do tell ye."

"We want to hear both sides of the matter," Ree answered, and Captain
Bowen resumed, saying in his own slow, homely but kindly way, that it was
into the very thick of the savages that the boys were planning to go. He
reminded them of the barbarous cruelties the Indians had practiced as
allies of the King's troops in the war, and told them briefly the story
of the battle Col. Crawford had fought with the savages in the Ohio
country, ending with the burning of Col. Crawford at the stake.

He cautioned his young friends further of the hazardous nature of the
journey through an unsettled country, a long part of the way lying over
the Allegheny mountains. He told them of the cutthroats they would be
likely to encounter--rough men, who, for adventure's sake, had gone into
the war, and had never been satisfied to settle down to lives of peace
and respectability after the close of the