el
did not come until after the lapse of many years, when the scenes such
as we are describing had long passed away.

A strange and for a time wholly unaccountable occurrence took place near
the stem of the flatboat, only a moment before Jim Deane was mortally
smitten.

Simon Kenton had just withdrawn his attention from Jethro Juggens and
his canoe, and was looking toward the bank at his elbow, when he uttered
an exclamation, the meaning of which no one caught, or, if he did,
failed to notice it in the tumult and hullabaloo. At the same moment the
ranger gathered his muscles into one mighty effort, and made a leap
toward shore.

Superb as was his skill in this direction, the distance was too great to
be covered, and he stuck in the water, but so near land that he sank
only to his waist. He struggled furiously forward, seemingly in the very
midst of the Shawanoes, and was immediately lost to sight.

There was no time to inquire the meaning of this extraordinary action,
and no one suspected it, but it became apparent within a brief space of
time.

It was at this juncture that several noticed the wind had risen again.
It was blowing not so strongly as before, but with sufficient power to
start the flatboat slowly up stream. Boone called to all to keep down,
while he, crouching close to the stern, held the oar so that it helped
steer the craft into mid-stream.

The missionary did the same with the forward sweep, and, impelled by the
wind, the craft slowly forged away from the Kentucky and toward the Ohio
shore.

All hearts were beating high with hope and thankfulness when a piercing
cry came from Mrs. Ashbridge.

"Where is Mabel? What has become of Mabel? Oh, where is she?"

Dismay reigned during the minute or two of frenzied search of the
interior of the craft. The space was so small that the hunt was quickly
over, with the dreadful truth established that little ten-year old Mabel
Ashbridge was not on the flatboat.

Missionary Finley announced the fact when he said:

"She has fallen into the hands of the Shawanoes; that was the cause of
Simon Kenton leaping ashore."

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE SHAWANOE CAMP.

How it all happened was never clearly established, but it is not to be
supposed that in the tumult, the swirl, the confusion, the firing,
shouting and dashing to and fro, that the coolest-headed Shawanoe or
most self-possessed ranger could any more than keep a general idea of
the hurricane rush of