! I could 'a' gone back an' made a mess o' the hull party with
the toe o' my boot but I ain't overly fond o' killin'. Never have
been. I took my time an' slopped erlong toward shore with the runt
under my arm cussin' like a wildcat. We got ashore an' I made the
leetle sergeant empty his pockets an' give me all the papers he had. I
took the strip o' rawhide from round my belt an' put a noose above his
knees an' 'nother on my wrist an' sot down to wait fer dark which the
sun were then below the tree-tops. I looked with my spy-glass 'crost
the bay an' could see the heads bobbin' up an' down an' a dozen men
comin' out with poles to help the log rasslers. Fer some time they had
'nough to do an' I wouldn't be supprised. If we had the hull British
army on floatin' timber the logs would lick 'em in a few minutes."

Solomon came in with his prisoner and accurate information as to the
force of British in the Highlands.

On the night of the fifteenth of July, a detachment of Washington's
troops under Wayne, preceded by the two scouts, descended upon Stony
Point and King's Ferry and routed the enemy, capturing five hundred and
fifty men and killing sixty. Within a few days the British came up the
river in great force and Washington, unwilling to risk a battle,
quietly withdrew and let them have the fort and ferry and their labor
for their pains. It was a bitter disappointment to Sir Henry Clinton.
The whole British empire clamored for decisive action and their great
Commander was unable to bring it about and meanwhile the French were
preparing to send a heavy force against them.

2

Solomon, being the ablest bush scout in the American army, was needed
for every great enterprise in the wilderness. So when a small force
was sent up the Penobscot River to dislodge a regiment of British from
Nova Scotia, in the late summer of 1779, he went with it. The fleet
which conveyed the Americans was in command of a rugged old sea captain
from Connecticut of the name of Saltonstall who had little knowledge of
the arts of war. He neglected the precautions which a careful
commander would have taken.

A force larger than his own should have guarded the mouth of the river.
Of this Solomon gave him warning, but Captain Saltonstall did not share
the apprehension of the great scout. In consequence they were pursued
and overhauled far up the river by a British fleet. Saltonstall in a
panic ran his boats ashore and blew them up wi