thwest to the United States. The man by whom
this was to be done was a brave Kentuckian named George Rogers Clark. He
came of a daring family, for he was a brother of Captain William Clark,
who, years afterward, was engaged with Captain Lewis in the famous Lewis
and Clark expedition across the vast unknown wilderness between the
Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean.

Kaskaskia was one of the settlements made by the French between the
Great Lakes and the Mississippi. After the loss of Canada this country
passed to England, and there were English garrisons placed in some of
the forts. But Kaskaskia was thought so far away and so safe that it was
left in charge of a French officer and French soldiers. A gay and
light-hearted people they were, as the French are apt to be; and, as
they found time hang heavy on their hands at that frontier stronghold,
they had invited the people of the place, on the evening in question, to
a ball at the fort.

All this is by way of introduction; now let us see what took place at
the fort on that pleasant summer night. All the girls of the village
were there and many of the men, and most of the soldiers were on the
floor as well. They were dancing away at a jovial rate to the lively
music of a fiddle, played by a man who sat on a chair at the side. Near
him on the floor lay an Indian, looking on with lazy eyes at the
dancers. The room was lighted by torches thrust into the cracks of the
wall, and the whole party were in the best of spirits.

The Indian was not the only looker-on. In the midst of the fun a tall
young man stepped into the room and stood leaning against the side of
the door, with his eyes fixed on the dancers. He was dressed in the garb
of the backwoods, but it was easy to be seen that he was not a
Frenchman,--if any of the gay throng had taken the trouble to look at
him.

All at once there was a startling interruption. The Indian sprang to his
feet and his shrill war-whoop rang loudly through the room. His keen
eyes had rested on the stranger and seen at a glance that there was
something wrong. The new-comer was evidently an American, and that
meant something there.

His yell of alarm broke up the dance in an instant. The women, who had
just been laughing and talking, screamed with fright. All, men and women
alike, huddled together in alarm. Some of the men ran for their guns,
but the stranger did not move. From his place by the door he simply
said, in a quiet way, "Don