University of Virginia Library

16. CHAPTER XVI.
CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES.

“I think our friends are having a little sport up
yonder,” said Hampton, glancing up the hill: “suppose
we go up and join them and see what it is!”

“Oh, yes,” returned Isaline, starting forward
with an eagerness that too clearly betrayed her feelings.

Hampton was instantly by her side, but an angry
frown was on his brow.

“One might almost fancy you were anxious to get
away from me!” he said.

Isaline saw at once the mistake she had made, and
the tell tale blood sprung into her cheeks, as she
rejoined:

“I am anxious to see what is taking place.”

“I suppose there is one there who interests you
more than myself!” said the other, watching her
closely.

“I will not deny, Mr. Hampton,” returned Isaline,
frankly, “that I take a great interest in Henry Colburn;
and I could not do otherwise without being
ungrateful; for he has not only been very kind to
me, but has perilled his life to save mine.”

“Yes, first got you into difficulty and then tried

to get you out—wonderful magnanimity!” sneered
the other.

“It was my fault that I turned off from the train,”
said Isaline quietly.

“Of course—I understand—he is always right in
your eyes—a paragon of excellence!”

To this Isaline made no reply, feeling that nothing
she could say would tend to make matters any
better.

“I must get rid of that fellow!” was the dark
thought now uppermost in the mind of Hampton.

Nothing more was said till they reached the top
of the hill, where Isaline was pained beyond measure
at seeing Henry, with a face red and swollen, as if
from blows, bound to a sapling, with his arms
tightly corded behind his back, and the Indians and
the white men standing together in a group, a short
distance from him, evidently holding a serious consultation.

“What is it, Blodget?” asked Hampton, as he
drew near.

The latter turned around, and showed a bloody,
swollen nose, and an eye nearly closed.

“See where the — scoundrel struck me!” he
said, gnashing his teeth.

“Oogh! him down go!” grinned Methoto.

“Did he really knock you down?” inquired
Hampton, in a condoling tone, but scarcely able
to repress a smile at the doleful appearance of the
decoy.

“He struck me, my foot slipped, and I fell!” replied
Blodget, not caring to admit what might have
seemed to compliment too highly the strength and
skill of his adversary.

“And that is what the Indians were laughing
at!”

“Yes!” snapped Blodget.

“But what caused him to strike you?”

“Oh, just a little playful joke of mine! I was just
feeling his arms, and telling him how nice they'd
crackle when he'd come to be burnt at the stake—
that's all!”

“It is strange he should have got angry at a
little innocent fun like that,” smiled Hampton,
“and I am surprised you didn't punish him on the
spot!”

“I'd have killed him,” returned Blodget, fiercely,
“only the Indians wouldn't let me; but I pummeled
his face to my satisfaction!”

Isaline, who heard all this, groaned in spirit; but
she made no remark, feeling how useless were mere
words with such villains.

The savages, who were evidently holding an
important consultation when thus interrupted, waited
patiently till Blodget had finished his conversation
with Hampton, and then said something to him in
their own language, to which he replied, and immediately
gave his whole attention to them. After
this, not many words were exchanged, for they all
appeared to be of one mind; and the matter, which

evidently related to their next movements, was soon
settled. They then released Henry from the tree,
but kept his arms corded, and, forming themselves
in single file, placed him in the centre, with Blodget
close behind him and Methoto next, leaving Hampton
to bring up the rear with his prisoner, or follow
in what manner he might choose.

“Look'e here,” said Blodget to Colburn, with the
spiteful malice of a brutal wretch, “I don't owe you
any good will, as you know, and some day I'll make
you feel it! What I want of you now is, to mind
and keep the file, or I'll just rap you over the head;
and if you attempt to run, or dodge one side, I'll
send a bullet through your back! Do you understand?”

“I understand!” replied Henry, quietly.

“And this to show you I'm in earnest!” added the
cowardly villain, giving the other a rousing box on
the ear.

Henry started, with a fierce strain on the cords
that confined his wrists together behind him; but
finding himself powerless to act, he immediately
became very quiet; and the hot blood, which had
sprung to his face, suddenly retreated and left it
very pale.

“Oh, sir, can you permit such cruelty to a bound
and unarmed prisoner?” said Isaline, almost convulsively
clutching the arm of Hampton, and turning
her white face pleadingly to his.

“I have no power over him; he is not my

prisoner; my stipulation only extended to your own
sweet self!” coolly replied Hampton.

“But you certainly have some influence with that
man, and the Indians also, and you should use it for
humanity's sake!”

“You mistake the extent of my influence, my
dear girl, which, as I have already told you, only
reaches to yourself,” he quietly answered. “If I
were to attempt to interfere with them, in their
affairs, I should open the door for them to do the
same in mine, and that might some time be the
worse for you.”

“And what are you going to do with me?” inquired
the poor girl, making a great struggle with
herself to appear calm and composed: “where are
you taking me to now?”

“I do not exactly know what the Indians have
decided on; but I judge they intend striking off
across the country, with the view of joining the main
body.”

“And are you going to keep with them?”

“Why, where else should I go?”

“I thought you were at liberty to separate from
them!”

“Hardly that, I think!” answered Hampton; “and
if I were, where should I go?”

Isaline shuddered and turned deadly pale. The
horrible truth was dawning upon her. Hitherto,
seeing Hampton and herself with so much freedom,
she had not exactly felt herself a prisoner, except to

him, and had contemplated for herself nothing more
annoying and fearful than a solitary journey with
him, instead of Henry, through the wilderness, to
her father's home; but now she became truly alarmed,
for his language led to the conviction that he intended
going with the savages back into their own
country.

“Surely, Mr. Hampton,” she said, with trembling
eagerness, “you will take me to some place—some
station—where I can be sent forward to my father?”

“Why, as to that,” he coolly replied, “I think not,
under the circumstances. In fact it would hardly
be prudent for me at present to put myself in the
power of your rough Kentuckians, who have a very
unpleasant fashion of shooting or hanging any man
they don't happen to fancy. Besides, I have risked
everything to get possession of you—whom, I am
sure, your father don't love with half the devotion
I do—and to part with you now, and lose you forever,
would render me perfectly miserable.”

“Oh, my God!” groaned Isaline, clasping her
hands; “am I really to be carried off among the
Indians?”

“Why, that is nothing, my dear girl; they will
not harm you; you see how friendly they are to us
now, leaving us to do as we please; and besides,
you must not forget that, wherever you go, I shall
be with you—the true friend you have so long
known—the man who, though I say it myself, loves
you above all others!”

It was too much for poor Isaline; in spite of herself,
nature would have its way; and suddenly
covering her face with her hands, she burst into
tears.

Charles Hampton did not chide her rudely; he
continued the outward seeming of a gentleman; and
he offered her a mock consolation, which was more
difficult for her to bear up under than the sharpest
words of displeasure would have been. For several
minutes she cried and sobbed as if her heart would
break; but at length her tears ceased to flow, and
she gradually became calm again, at least in external
appearance. After this a deadly pallor settled
upon her beautiful features, which became rigid and
marble-like, and she moved on steadily and uncomplainingly,
asking no questions, making no remarks,
seemingly undisturbed by any occurrence, and only
speaking when so pointedly addressed that she
could not well evade a brief answer.

The day was clear and warm, but not uncomfortable
for travelling, and the Indians pushed
forward at a brisk walk, in single file, evidently
aiming to strike the great buffalo trace by a line
nearly due east. In a little over an hour they
reached it, and then all examined it eagerly for such
signs as would give them information concerning
their friends and decide their own course. They
appeared to be rather disappointed—for, instead of
yells of triumph, they soon collected together for

consultation, and spoke eagerly and gesticulated
rapidly, often pointing in the direction of the ford.

“Well, Blodget, what is it? what do they make
out?” asked Hampton, as soon as he could get an
opportunity to call the decoy aside.

“Why, it seems the whites and Indians both have
passed here, going toward the Blue Licks,” was the
reply; “but there are no signs that the latter have
returned, and it's feared the warriors didn't get up
in season to attack them before they crossed the
river.”

“I am sorry for that,” said Hampton. “Surely
they had time enough after we left them, for the
train was only a short distance ahead.”

“I'm afraid they waited too long for the storm to
pass over, while the others maybe pushed on, and
perhaps crossed the river before the water got too
high.”

“A curse on the storm!” snarled Hampton; “and,
saving your presence, a curse on their laziness! If
they had attended to their business, as we did to ours,
they would have had them all before this! You are
sure they have passed this way?”

“Look for yourself! Don't you see the moccasin
tracks?”

“But the whites wore moccasins too!”

“You don't know much about wilderness life,”
returned Blodget, with a rather contemptuous smile,
“if you can't tell these tracks were left by Indian
feet, and after the storm had nigh gone over too!

Look at the horse tracks—they're nearly all washed
out, while the moccasin prints are a good deal
plainer.”

“I can see the difference now,” rejoined Hampton;
“but, according to your showing, both must
have gone over this ground while it was still raining,
though the last some time later than the first.”

“Yes, now you've got it,” said Blodget.

“But you are sure they have not returned?”

“Not by here, anyhow. There, see! the Indians
are separating now, to strike off on either side and
hunt for other signs!”

As he spoke, the savages indeed flew off in different
directions from the beaten route, and were
soon lost among the trees and bushes, Methoto also
joining them, leaving only Blodget and Hampton
with the two prisoners. Had Henry's arms then
been free, he would have bounded away, at the risk
of being shot down; but as it was, he leaned his
back against a tree, and remained as passive as the
most ordinary spectator, saying nothing, and apparently
taking little or no interest in what was going
on. Blodget kept his eye on him in a suspicious
manner, and his rifle in his hands, ready for an
instant shot, in case he should make the slightest
attempt at escape. That there might be no mistake
about it, he growled out:

“If you want to run, you young whelp, you can
try it; but I tell you now I'm dead sure for a hundred

yards, and I only want a good excuse for
sending a bullet through your cursed head!”

Henry apparently took no notice of this threat,
and kept perfectly silent. He did not even look at
poor Isaline—who, for some time, stood like a
marble statue, only a few paces from him—and she
in turn scarcely glanced at him. The last two hours
seemed to have worked a wonderful change in both.

At length, as if she felt the fatigue of standing,
Isaline stepped back to a stone, seated herself upon
it, buried her face in her hands, and remained perfectly
quiet.

“She gets along very well, all things considered!”
said Hampton, nodding toward his victim.

“A right sensible girl!” responded Blodget. “I
wouldn't mind if I had her myself; for I want a
good wife; and somehow, you see, I suppose it's
nature, I prefer a white one to a squaw.”

“And have you no wife?” asked Hampton.

“Oh, yes, a couple of squaws; but they're too
coarse and vulgar for me, and I've determined on
picking up a white one somewhere.”

“How long have you been with the Indians?”

“Well, I've been among them, off and on—trader,
agent, and so on—about ten or twelve years; but for
the last five I've lived with them straight along.”

“Of course you have a good deal of influence
with them?”

“Some, I flatter myself.”

“Well, I hope you will see that they make sure

work of that fellow yonder!” said Hampton, with a
meaning smile. “That girl loves him, I am certain,
and of course he stands in my way; but if I were to
do anything to him, and she were to find it out, it
might set her too much against me. Not but that I
could bend her to my will,” added Hampton, as if
he thought the matter needed some explanation;
“but brute force, in these love affairs, you know, is
not exactly the thing one likes most to try.”

“Oh, I understand!” smiled the other villain; “it's
all right. Well, don't you have any fear, Hampton!
I'll see him settled, if only to pay off my own score.
I'd like to take his heart's blood now!” he pursued,
with a wicked gleam of his leaden eyes; “but I
know, if we keep him, he'll be put to the tortures,
and so I'll try to keep myself down till then.”

These two villains stood conversing together till
the Indians returned, dropping in one after another;
and then another consultation was held, which resulted
in a positive decision.

“What is it?” again asked Hampton of Blodget.

“They're satisfied their friends haven't returned
this way,” replied the latter, “and they're for going
on to overtake them.”

“What! further into the heart of the country?”
exclaimed Hampton. “I do not like that—I am
afraid we shall get into trouble! If we cross the
Licking, and the country over there gets roused, it
will not be the easiest thing for us to escape!”

“Oh, we've nothing to fear, with nearly fifty Indians
ahead of us!” laughed Blodget.

“I don't know that; these border fellows are
perfect devils when their blood is up!”

“Well, the Indians are going forward, so there's
no use in talking!” said Blodget. “See! they're
already forming their file; so fall in! fall in!”

Henry quietly took his place in the file as before;
but Isaline seemed not aware of what was going on
till Hampton touched her on the shoulder. Then
she slowly lifted her white, marble-like face, and
arose without a word.

“You have become wonderfully quiet all at once!”
said Hampton, as he walked along by her side.

Isaline made no answer.

“Why don't you speak?” he said, rather sharply.

“You did not ask me a question!”

“Oh, then you are only to speak when I ask you
a question, eh?”

“I would rather not speak at all,” returned Isaline,
with a sort of icy calmness; “but I do not like
to refuse to answer you a direct question.”

“I suppose if you had that fellow Colburn here
in my place, it would make a wonderful difference!”
sneered the other. As Isaline made no answer to
this, he shortly added, in a cold, offended tone: “I
beg you will not trouble yourself to address me any
oftener than may suit your ladyship's pleasure and
convenience!”

The Indians went forward at a brisk pace; and

in little more than an hour the whole party reached
the Blue Lick ford—a wild, gloomy place—which
they approached along the bare, rocky ridge, where
the famous battle was fought which resulted so
disastrously to the Kentuckians. Here the Indians
halted, and again looked for signs. They found
what satisfied them that both their friends and enemies
had passed over the river, and they immediately
plunged into the ford and waded across, the water
being now only breast high. Henry, with his wrists
still bound together behind his back, only kept his
feet with great difficulty; and Isaline would have
been carried down the stream but for the support
of Hampton. This was the second time that day
that she had found herself struggling in the waters
of the Licking; and she almost regretted she had
not perished at first—for death with Henry, she felt,
would be far preferable to a life with him who was
now by her side.

On reaching the other bank of the Licking, the
Indians struck off so rapidly through the country,
that Isaline found a good deal of difficulty in keeping
up with them. In something like three miles
from the ford they came to a small clearing and the
smoking ruins of a cabin, which showed that the
foremost party had already begun their work of destruction.
On seeing this, the savages present gave
a few yells of triumph, for to them it was a proof
that their friends were successful, and led them to
believe they had nothing to fear. They made

no halt, being eager to overtake the advance and
share in the victory which they supposed awaited
them.

Hampton did not feel so sanguine. It was evident
to his mind that the whites had made a rapid march,
probably because of some of the scouts having discovered
the foes behind them; and he reasoned that,
in the event of their reaching a station before being
assailed by the savages, matters might soon take a
very different turn from what the latter expected or
wished. He had now with him all he had sought;
and therefore, with everything to lose and nothing
to gain by a further advance into the country, he
was in a mood to be highly displeased with the present
pursuit, and now and then vented an idle curse
on the folly of the savages. This, however, altered
nothing and amounted to nothing—for the Indians
kept steadily on, as unmindful of him and his secret
opinions as if he had not been in existence. At
length, from some cause, perhaps from a premonition
of approaching peril, he suddenly left Isaline and
darted to the side of Blodget.

“Speak to the Indians,” he said, “and tell them
this foolish pursuit is leading them into danger!”

Blodget looked at him with an air of surprise.

“What danger? where?” he asked, glancing
quickly around him.

“I only know this — country from hearsay,”
returned Hampton, with an oath; “but I have been
told there is a fort or station within half-a-day's

journey of the Blue Licks, and you may be sure the
parties we are pursuing have got possession of it
before this time!”

“The more lucky for them, if they have!” replied
the other; “though it don't follow they won't come
out of it, for all that!”

“But don't you see that if we attempt to lay siege
to it, we shall give the borderers time to collect
together and turn on us?”

“No, I don't exactly see it before it's tried,” said
Blodget; “and even if they should, they might get the
worst of it. Stations have been taken before now,
with less numbers than we've got in the country,
and I'm not a bit afraid!”

“If we should happen to be overpowered,” rejoined
Hampton, “it would be all up with us; for
we are already so far into the country that there
would be no hope of our ever getting out of it!”

“Of course, when we set out for revenge, plunder
and glory, we've got to risk something! You yourself
were fierce enough about coming, and through
me urged this very undertaking upon the Indians,
promising them an easy victory and a great amount
of booty!”

“Yes, provided they could overtake the whites
and attack them in the wilderness; and which they
might have done, if they had only pushed on and
struck the blow at the right time!” said Hampton;
“but since they have missed their chance, I think
they had better change their plan.”

“Well, what do you want them to do now?”

“Turn back and secure a safe retreat.”

“Then you'd better hurry up and tell them so!”
rejoined Blodget, with a quizzical look.

“I am not responsible for the main body, since I
am not with them,” pursued Hampton; “but I think
you ought to warn the present party of the probable
danger ahead.”

“Not before I see it myself!” dryly responded the
decoy.

“Then, if anything should happen, I hope you
will remember that I gave you fair warning!” said
Hampton, in a cold, offended tone; and he immediately
fell back to the side of Isaline.

“He's got what he wanted, and now he'd like to
put back!” muttered Blodget; “but he might as
well learn, first as last, that we didn't make this long
journey just to please him!”

The Indians of course understood nothing of this
conversation, and kept steadily hastening forward,
in good spirits, expecting soon to come up with
their friends in advance.

They soon reached a point where it was evident
the train had turned off to the right of the main
route to Lexington, and had been followed by their
pursuers; and, with a few exultant yells, our little
band of savages pushed on without stopping.

During the next three hours they passed the black
and still smoking ruins of three isolated cabins, and

soon after the reports of musketry began to be distinctly
heard.

A quarter of an hour later they ascended, with
great caution, a sharp little knoll, on the edge of a
broad clearing, and beheld a strong block-house on
the opposite side, with a large cornfield stretching
between it and them, and Indians here and there
skulking about, some firing and some yelling. This
was a sight to delight the hearts of the newly-arrived
savages; and they immediately gave two prolonged
scalp halloos, followed by several quick, short yells
of triumph, and heard more than forty voices in
jubilant response, some near and some far, showing
that the stronghold of the whites was completely
surrounded.