me any time."

"To stay there?" inquired Peleg.

"That is what I mean, lad," replied the great scout, his face lighting
up with the occasional smile that appeared upon it. "My wife and
daughters feel toward him as I do. Do you know that they were the first
white women ever to stand on the banks of the Kantuckee River?"

"I had not thought of that," replied Peleg.

"There are many others coming soon. Already I have received word that
Mrs. McGary, Mrs. Hogan, and Mrs. Denton are on their way here."

The arrival soon afterward of more than a score of white men to join the
settlers aroused great enthusiasm, because now it was confidently
believed that, after so many had passed safely over the roadway which
Boone and his companions had opened to the beautiful region, many more
would surely follow. These expectations were soon fulfilled.

The continued labours of the whites, however, had increased the intense
hostility of the Indians, who naturally believed all these lands
belonged to them. When they saw the settlers felling the trees and
erecting their houses and planting their crops, a spirit of
determination to drive the whites from the region spread among the
tribes.

There was just now, however, a lull in the direct warfare. Dusky faces
occasionally were seen in the forest, but there was no open attack.

Daniel Boone, however, was not to be deceived. He was confident that it
was simply the hush which at times precedes the coming of the tempest.
In his own mind he was convinced that the Indians simply were reserving
their strength until they could rally a sufficient number to make an
attack worth while. And Boone in the midst of all his labours--for he
was toiling with the men of the settlement--was forming plans by which
he hoped to meet the fierce attacks he expected the Shawnees to make.

Frequent sallies upon the men when they were at work in the fields now
began to be made. While they were plowing, the stealthy warriors did
their utmost to waylay and shoot them. When they were hunting they were
chased and sometimes fired upon. Sometimes an Indian would creep up near
the fort in the night and fire upon the first of the garrison to appear
in the morning. The little settlement soon was in a state of continual
and increasing alarm.

Even many of the ordinary duties of life were performed only at great
risk. But the determination in the hearts of the hardy people to defend
their new homes in the wonderful regio