The Border Watch

TABLE OF CONTENTS


CHAPTER PAGE

I PASSING FLEET 1

II THE SILVER BULLET 16

III THE HOT SPRING 30

IV THE SEVEN HERALDS 39

V THE WYANDOT COUNCIL 51

VI THE RUINED VILLAGE 63

VII THE TAKING OF HENRY 79

VIII THE NORTHWARD MARCH 96

IX AT DETROIT 109

X THE LETTER OF THE FOUR 126

XI THE CRY FROM THE FOREST 143

XII THE CANOE ON THE RIVER 157

XIII ON THE GREAT LAKE 173

XIV A TIMELY RESCUE 188

XV THE PAGES OF A BOOK 205

XVI THE RIVER FIGHT 226

XVII THE ROAD TO WAREVILLE 241

XVIII THE SHADOWY FIGURE 265

XIX A HERALD BY WATER 282

XX THE COUNTER-STROKE 316

XXI THE BATTLE OF PIQUA 336

XXII THE LAST STAND 359




THE BORDER WATCH




CHAPTER I

THE PASSING FLEET


A late sun, red and vivid, cast beams of light over a dark river,
flowing slowly. The stream was a full half mile from shore to shore, and
the great weight of water moved on in silent majesty. Both banks were
lined with heavy forest, dark green by day, but fused now into solid
blackness by the approach of night.

The scene was wild and primordial. To an eye looking down it would have
seemed that man had never come there, and that this was the dawn of
time. The deep waters lapped the silent shore until a gentle sighing
sound arose, a sound that may have gone on unheard for ages. Close to
the water a file of wild ducks flew like an arrow to the north, and, in
a little cove where the current came in shallow waves, a stag bent his
head to drink.

The sun lingered in the west and then sank behind the vast wall of
forest. The beams of red and gold lasted for a little space on the
surface of the river, and then faded into the universal night. Under the
great cloak of the dark, the surface of the river showed but dimly, and
the rising wind blew through the forest with a chill and uncanny sound.

The ordinary soul would have been appalled by the mighty isolation of
the wilderness, yet the river itself was not without the presence of
human life. Close to the northern shore, where the shadow of the tall
forest lay deepest, floated a long boat, containing five figures that
rested easily. Two of the crew were boys, but as tall and strong as men.
The other three were somewhat older. The boat carried four pairs of
oars, but only one man rowed, and he merely pulled on an oar from time
to time to give direction, while the current did the work. His comrades
leaned comfortably against the sides of the boat, and with keen eyes,
trained to the darkness, watched for a break in the black battlement of
the trees.

It was Henry Ware who first saw the opening. It was nearly always he who
was the first to see, and he pointed to the place where the dark line
made a loop towards the north.

"It's a wide break," he said a moment or two later. "It must be the
mouth of the river."

"You're shorely right, Henry," said Shif'less Sol, who sat just behind
him, "an' from the looks o' the break thar, it's a good, big river, too.
S'pose we pull up in it a spell afore we make a landin'."

"It seems a good idea to me," replied Henry. "What say you, Paul?"

"I'm for it," replied Paul Cotter. "I'd like to see this new river
coming down from the north, and it's pretty sure, too, that we'd be
safer camping on it for the night than on the Ohio."