keen to learn about
individuals, especially about Daniel Boone. He asked how many men Boone
could lead against the Shawnees. I told him all the border men would be
glad to serve under him, that he was collecting fighting men when I was
taken prisoner.

"Your tongue is split," Cornstalk warned. "Be careful, or we will say that
young medicine-woman does not need a liar to care for her. Be careful, or
your tongue will be pulled out. The Shawnees will be glad to warm
themselves at your fire. That man was sent to the Falls of the Ohio. He
has returned to the settlements. He commands three forts in the lower
valleys. Will he head riflemen to battle, or stay at the forts?"

I truthfully answered that I believed he would be given an important
command. And I explained how Colonel Lewis would be over him as he would
be over many other brave leaders. They knew Lewis and feared him. Their
faces were very glum until I repeated Connolly's message to Charles Lewis
that peace with the tribes was very possible. Then they smiled grimly and
Cornstalk informed me.

"Your Dunmore ordered his Long Knives to march against Shawnee towns ten
sleeps after you were captured."[5]

I was startled at the information and glanced through the opening of the
wigwam as if expecting to see the lean militia men breaking from the
woods. The chief added:

"But they seem to have trouble in starting. Perhaps they are very old men
and can not walk fast. I shall send my young men across the Ohio to dig
them out of the mud."

"The Cherokees will not join the Shawnees," I ventured.

Cornstalk eyed me menacingly.

"They will not because they have old women among them. They put their
powder in bags, and put the bags in caves. Their powder is spoiled. After
I whip your army the Cherokees will carry their axes into the Carolinas."

I believed the Cherokees would do this, if our army were whipped. Turning
to Black Hoof, Cornstalk asked:

"How long before you roast this white man?"

"After we have whipped the army of Dunmore and Lewis and Boone. Now he
waits on the medicine-woman. After the battle there will be many white
women to wait on her."

I was dismissed and on reaching the open air I discovered I had left all
my apathy behind me. The importance of time and the imperative need of
immediate action was burned into my brain by Black Hoof's words. I sought
Patricia and found her seated on the bank, staring into the sluggish
waters.

"I was thinking o