t a grip on the mink's
neck. They must have tried that same thing before, because this time he
heard the mink scream, too, though he was doing something besides. For
about half a minute Sam said he couldn't hear or see much of anything
except the fracas. Then just about as swiftly as the two ermine had
jumped into the fight, they jumped out and began to circle around the
mink again. The next time they tried to get the neck hold only one of
them slipped back. The other got his teeth fastened right where he
wanted them, and you know they are like needles. Then the other ermine
came back and he, too, got a throat hold. In just a few minutes the
whole affair was ended and the ermine came out ahead. Sam said he could
have walked up to them and picked them up, they were so excited,
squeaking like mice, and trying to tear the dead mink all to pieces."

"Sam got the two ermine then, didn't he?" inquired Israel.

"Yes. I told him, though, I thought they had earned their right to live,
but Sam never feels that way about such things."

The reference to Sam Oliver had brought a scowl to the face of Henry and
caused him to become silent as long as the hunter was a topic of
conversation.

In the succeeding days reports of the presence of Indians steadily
increased. Several men toiling in the fields were fired upon by Shawnees
who had crept up to the border of the forest.

Steadily the Indians showed their determination to do their utmost to
prevent the settlers from making homes in their hunting grounds. The
hostilities of the Shawnees became more marked with every passing month.
Indeed, so many were the manifestations of their plan to attack the
settlements that finally Colonel Clark, who at this time had been given
the command of all military forces in Kentucky, became so convinced
that there was a plan in the minds of the Indians to assemble a great
body of their warriors to destroy the border forts and their inhabitants
that he begged the pioneer scout to act as a spy and to assume charge of
other spies that were to be sent among the tribes to learn their numbers
as well as their designs.

Daniel Boone, fully aware of the danger, and in spite of his desire to
remain at home, responded to this new call because he looked upon
himself as in a measure answerable for the safety of the people whom he
had induced to come into Kentucky. At this time the region was known as
the "dark and bloody ground," so many had been the attacks