to be
glad when they meet one another in these woods. Simon, fry some more o'
them buffalo steaks for our friends."

Kenton, who had said nothing but who had listened attentively, went
about his task, working with skill and diligence.

"Set down," said Boone.

Henry and Tom obeyed the hospitable invitation and took the crisp steaks
that Kenton handed to them. They were not hungry, but it was the custom
of the border for white men when they met to take meat together, as the
Arabs taste salt. But the steaks were uncommonly tender and juicy, and
they were not compelled to force their appetites.

Both Boone and Kenton looked admiringly at Henry as he ate. But a boy in
years, he had filled out in an extraordinary manner. He was not only a
youthful giant, but every pound of him was bone and muscle and lean
flesh.

"I've heard of you more than once, Henry Ware," Boone said. "You've been
a captive 'way out among the Indians o' the northwest, but you came
back, an' you've fought in the battles in Kentucky. I was a prisoner,
too, for a long time among the Indians."

"I've heard all about it, Mr. Boone," said Henry eagerly. "I've heard,
too, how you saved Boonesborough and all the other wonderful things that
you've done."

Boone, the simple and childlike, blushed under his tan, and Simon Kenton
spoke for the first time.

"Now don't you be teasin' Dan'l," he said. "He's done all them things
that people talk about, an' more, too, that he's hid, but he's plum'
bashful. When anybody speaks of 'em he gets to squirmin'. I'm not that
way. When I do a big thing, I'm goin' to tell about it."

Boone laughed and gave his comrade a look of mild reproof.

"Don't you believe what he tells you about either him or me," he said.
"Simon's a good boy, but his tongue runs loose sometimes."

Henry knew that an explanation of his and Tom's appearance there was
expected, and now he gave it.

"I've just escaped from the Indians, a Wyandot band, Mr. Boone," he
said, "and I was lucky enough to meet in the forest four old comrades of
mine. The other three are back about a mile. We came on ahead to scout.
Indians of different tribes are in great numbers behind us."

"We reckoned that they were," said Boone. "Me an' Simon have been takin'
a look through the woods ourselves, and we know that mighty big things
are stirrin'."

"The biggest yet," said Henry. "We've been to New Orleans, and we've
come back up the Mississippi into the Ohio with a