f the waters down to the base of
the hills, they came to a sloping hollow of some considerable extent,
where the stream ran shallow over a smooth, beautiful bed. Into this
latter the whole company now entered, for the purpose of breaking the
trail, as previously arranged by Girty; and here they divided, according
to his former plan also.

If the unhappy prisoners regretted meeting one another in distress,
their parting regrets were an hundred fold more poignant; for to them
it seemed evidently the last time they would ever behold on earth each
others faces; and this thought alone was enough to dim the eyes of Ella
and her adopted mother with burning tears, and shake their frames with
heart-rending sobs of anguish; while the old man and Algernon, though
both strove to be stoical, could not look on unmoved to a similar show
of grief. Since their meeting, the captives had managed to converse
together sufficiently to learn the manner of each others capture, and
give each other some hope of being successfully followed and released
by their friends; but now, when they saw the caution displayed by their
enemies in breaking the trail, they began to fear for the result. Just
before entering the stream, they passed through a cluster of bushes
that skirted the river's bank; and Ella, the only prisoner whose hands
were unbound, by a quick and sly movement succeeded in detaching a
portion of her dress, which she there left as a sign to those who might
follow, that she was still alive, and so encourage them to proceed, in
case they were about to falter and turn back.

The separation being now speedily effected, the two parties were quickly
lost to each other--Girty and his band going down the bed of the stream
some two hundred yards before touching the bank; and the others, headed
by Wild-cat, going up about half that distance.

Leaving each to their journey, let us now return to the band already in
pursuit.

[Footnote 5: Some historians have stated that the Indians here alluded
to were Mingoes, and _not_ Senecas; and that they were a remnant of the
celebrated Logan's tribe.]

[Footnote 6: Sometimes Big Knife--first applied to the Virginians by the
Indians.]

[Footnote 7: Great Chief--a term sometimes given to Girty by the
Indians.]

CHAPTER IX.

THE PURSUERS.

About a hundred yards from where Boone and his young companions set
forth, the dog, which was running along before them, paused, and with
his nose to th