le shattered by a bullet, Boone was lifted by Simon Kenton and
borne away upon his shoulders to the haven of the stockade amid a
veritable shower of balls. The stoical and taciturn Boone clasped
Kenton's hand and gave him the accolade of the wilderness in the
brief but heartfelt utterance; "You are a fine fellow." On July
4th of this same year the fort was again subjected to siege, when
two hundred gaudily painted savages surrounded it for two days.
But owing to the vigilance and superb markmanship of the
defenders, as well as to the lack of cannon by the besieging
force, the Indians reluctantly abandoned the siege, after leaving
a number dead upon the field. Soon afterward the arrival of two
strong bodies of prime riflemen, who had been hastily summoned
from the frontiers of North Carolina and Virginia, once again
made firm the bulwark of white supremacy in the West.

Kentucky's terrible year, 1778, opened with a severe disaster to
the white settlers--when Boone with thirty men, while engaged in
making salt at the "Lower Salt Spring," was captured in February
by more than a hundred Indians, sent by Governor Hamilton of
Detroit to drive the white settlers from "Kentucke." Boone
remained in captivity until early summer, when, learning that his
Indian captors were planning an attack in force upon the
Transylvania Fort, he succeeded in effecting his escape. After a
break-neck journey of one hundred and sixty miles, during which
he ate but one meal, Boone finally arrived at the big fort on
June 20th. The settlers were thus given ample time for
preparation, as the long siege did not begin until September 7th.
The fort was invested by a powerful force flying the English
flag--four hundred and forty-four savages gaudy in the vermilion
and ochre of their war-paint, and eleven Frenchmen, the whole
being commanded by the French-Canadian, Captain Dagniaux de
Quindre, and the great Indian Chief, Black-fish who had adopted
Boone as a son. In the effort to gain his end de Quindre resorted
to a dishonorable stratagem, by which he hoped to outwit the
settlers and capture the fort with but slight loss. "They formed
a scheme to deceive us," says Boone, "declaring it was their
orders, from Governor Hamilton, to take us captives, and not to
destroy us; but if nine of us would come out and treat with them,
they would immediately withdraw their forces from our walls, and
return home peacably." Transparent as the stratagem was, Boone
incau