es
established in the community, too, for among the continually arriving
settlers were many young women.

In the quiet labours on his clearing Boone found peace and comfort such
as he seldom had enjoyed. Peleg, who had secured some land adjoining the
farm of his friend, worked with the scout and Israel, and as they
assisted one another both places steadily improved.

The feeling of Boone, however, that he was still an object of hatred
among the Shawnees was confirmed repeatedly. His most critical
experience came one day when, all unknown to the scout, four athletic
Shawnees were detailed by Blackfish to approach the settlement without
arousing any suspicions of their presence, watch the movements of the
scout, and either bring him back to the tribe or bring his scalp.

On his farm the scout had erected, not far from his cabin, a little
house in which he dried the tobacco he cultivated. The little building
stood in the midst of his tobacco patch. Within the house there were
three tiers of timber from which the tobacco leaves were hanging to dry.

Boone and Peleg were busily engaged here one autumn day, almost
unmindful of peril, the younger scout believing that the fears of his
friend were without foundation.

"The tobacco on this lower tier," said Boone after he had made a careful
investigation, "seems to be entirely dry."

"Then we had better change the sticks to the tier above," responded
Peleg. "That will leave plenty of room for the leaves we have not
brought in as yet."

"That's a good suggestion," answered Boone, and together the two scouts
began to transfer the sticks from the lower to the second tier.

Peleg departed from the building to bring in more of the tobacco leaves
and left Boone standing on the poles that separated the upper tiers.

Suddenly as the scout glanced below him he saw four Shawnee warriors
stealthily enter through the door and laugh as they looked up to him.

"You no get away some more," said one of them whom Boone recognized as
Owaneeyo, "We take you to Chillicothe this time. You no cheat us some
more."

Every one of the savages was armed and looking up into Boone's face,
while the direction in which the guns were aimed added force to this
declaration.

Not for a moment losing his self-control, and aware that he was in the
greatest peril of his life, Boone's careful preparation now showed its
value. "Ah!" said he quietly. "Glad to see you, my friends. How have you
been this lo