he woods, Nathan imparted his story,
acquainting them, in the same words, of the presence of enemies so much
nearer at hand than was dreamed, and of the unfortunate dilemma of
Forrester and his helpless party,--an account that fired the blood of the
hot youths as effectually as it could have done if expressed in the blast
of a bugle. A council of war being called on the spot, it was resolved to
gallop at once to the rescue of the travellers, without wasting time in
seeking additional assistance from the emigrants or their neighbours of
the Station just left; which indeed, as from Nathan's observations, it
did not seem that the numbers of the foe could be more than double their
own, the heroic youths held to be entirely needless. Taking Nathan up,
therefore, behind him, and bearing him along, to point out the position
of the Indians, the gallant Tom Bruce, followed by his equally gallant
companions, dashed through the woods, and succeeded by daybreak in
reaching the ruin; where, as Nathan averred, so judiciously had they laid
their plans for the attack, the Indians, if still there, might have been
surprised, entirely worsted, and perhaps the half of them cut off upon
the spot; "which," as he rather hastily observed, "would have been a
great comfort to all concerned." But the ruin was deserted, besiegers and
besieged had alike vanished, as well as the bodies of those assailants
who had fallen in the conflict, to find their graves under the ruins,
among the rocks, or in the whirling eddies of the river. The tracks of
the horses being discovered in the ravine and at the water's edge, it was
inferred that the whole party, too desperate, or too wise, to yield
themselves prisoners, had been driven into the river, and there drowned;
and this idea inflaming the fury of the Kentuckians to the highest pitch,
they sought out and easily discovered among the canes, the fresh trail of
the Indians, which they followed, resolving to exact the fullest measure
of revenge. Nathan, the man of peace, from whom (for he had not thought
proper to acquaint the young men with the warlike part he had himself
taken in the battles of the night) no further services were expected, was
now turned adrift, to follow or protect himself as he might; and the
young men betook themselves to the pursuit with as much speed as the wild
character of the woods permitted.

But it formed no part of honest Nathan's designs to be left behind. His
feelings were too deep