he
utmost precipitation, seeking to gain the mountainous region which
bordered upon the Licking River.

A hound accompanied the pursuing party. The sagacious animal was very
eager in the chase. As the trail became fresh, and the scent indicated
that the foe was nearly overtaken, the hound rushing forward, began to
bay very loudly. This gave the Indians the alarm. Finding the strength
of their captive failing, so that she could no longer continue the rapid
flight, they struck their tomahawks into her brain, and left her
bleeding and dying upon the snow. Her friends soon came up and found her
in the convulsions of death. Her brother sprang from his horse and tried
in vain to stop the effusion of blood. She seemed to recognize him,
gave him her hand, uttered a few inarticulate words, and died.

The pursuit was then continued with new ardor, and in about twenty
minutes the avenging white men came within sight of the savages. With
considerable military sagacity, the Indians had taken position upon a
steep and narrow ridge, and seemed desirous of magnifying their numbers
in the eyes of their pursuers by running from tree to tree and making
the forest resound with their hideous yells. The pursuers were, however,
too well acquainted with Indian warfare to be deceived by this childish
artifice. They dismounted, tied their horses, and endeavored to surround
the enemy, so as to cut off his retreat. But the cunning Indians,
leaving two of their number behind to delay the pursuit by deceiving the
white men into the conviction that they all were there, fled to the
mountains. One of this heroic rear-guard--for remaining under the
circumstances was the almost certain surrender of themselves to
death--was instantly shot. The other, badly wounded, was tracked for a
long distance by his blood upon the snow. At length his trail was lost
in a running stream. Night came, a dismal night of rain, long and dark.
In the morning the snow had melted, every trace of the retreat of the
enemy was obliterated, and the further pursuit of the foe was
relinquished.

Colonel Boone, deprived of his property by the unrelenting processes of
pitiless law, had left Kentucky impoverished and in debt. His rifle was
almost the only property he took with him beyond the Mississippi. The
rich acres which had been assigned to him there were then of but little
more value than so many acres of the sky. Though he was so far away from
his creditors that it was almost