me together,
with guns loaded and hatchets sharpened, to await the Shawnees, the
Miamis and the British Rangers guided by Matthew Elliott, and wipe the
Americans from the trail.

The Long Knives moved fearfully on. To them, the air was full of
threat. The Delawares and Hurons met them, and held them in check.
June 5 the Shawnees, Miamis and the Rangers tore in. Matthew Elliott,
in his brilliant uniform, had taken command; his comrade renegade,
Simon Girty, as his lieutenant raged hither-thither on a white horse.
Beset amidst the timber islands and the cranberry swamps the Long
Knives broke in retreat. Their horses mired. The best efforts of
Jonathan Zane, Lewis Wetzel, brave Colonel Crawford the Continental,
other men and officers, availed little.

Four hundred and eighty, the flower of the border, were over-matched by
one thousand, the full strength of the Northern Confederacy.

The battle ended on the night of June 6. Three hundred of the Long
Knives remained together, and reached the Ohio. By ones and twos and
threes others straggled in. But many did not come. Among them were
Colonel Crawford, his son John Crawford, Major John McClelland of a
famous border family, Dr. Knight, John Slover, young James Paull--and
he, and he, and he, a score of them whose fate might be guessed at only
with a shudder.

Of these, few ever did return. The noble Colonel Crawford had been
captured. He was the "Big Captain"--he must die, and Chief Pipe,
another "Big Captain," ordered him to terrible torture. Boyish John
Crawford and Major McClelland also were killed in the Indian way. But
little Doctor Knight the surgeon, Guide John Slover and young James
Paull finally turned up, at home, with remarkable stories now to be
told.

Doctor Knight had been taken, along with his colonel and several
comrades. They were eleven in number, prisoners to the Delawares.
Captain Pipe had marched them to his own town. Their hopes had been
flickering, they thought that Simon Girty might help them, but on the
way Chief Pipe and Chief Wingenund had painted them black. Then nine
of them were killed by a mob. And at Pipe's Town Doctor Knight had
sickened in watching his colonel burned before his eyes. That was an
afternoon and night of horror.

"You," said Chief Pipe to him, "will be taken to the Shawnee towns to
see your friends."

To see his friends! Doctor Knight did not know whether this meant his
"friends" the Shawnees, or his o