I were lookin'
at him through the sight o' my ol' Marier which I'd managed to git it
loaded ag'in. He were runnin' towards me. He tuk jest one more step,
if I don't make no mistake.

"The ol' brute that Jack had knocked down quivered an' lay still a
minit an' when he come to, we turned him, eround an' started him
towards Canady an' tol' him to keep a-goin'! When he were 'bout ten
rods off, I put a bullet in his ol' wooden leg fer to hurry him erlong.
So the wust man-killer that ever trod dirt got erway from us with only
a sore belly, we never knowin' who he were. I wish I'd 'a' killed the
cuss, but as 'twere, we had consid'able trouble on our hands. Right
erway we heard two guns go off over by the house. I knowed that our
firin' had prob'ly woke up some o' the sleepers. We pounded the ground
an' got thar as quick as we could. The two wimmen wa'n't fur behind.
They didn't cocalate to lose us--you hear to me. Two young braves had
sprung up an' been told to lie down ag'in. But the English language
ain't no help to an Injun under them surcumstances. They don't
understan' it an' thar ain't no time when ignerunce is more costly.
They was some others awake, but they had learnt suthin'. They was
keepin' quiet, an' I sez to 'em:

"'If ye lay still ye'll all be safe. We won't do ye a bit o' harm.
You've got in bad comp'ny, but ye ain't done nothin' but steal a pair
o' wimmen. If ye behave proper from now on, ye'll be sent hum.'

"We didn't have no more trouble with them. I put one o' Boneses' boys
on a hoss an' hustled him up the valley fer help. The wimmen captives
was bawlin'. I tol' 'em to straighten out their faces an' go with Jack
an' his father down to Fort Stanwix. They were kind o' leg weary an'
excited, but they hadn't been hurt yit. Another day er two would 'a'
fixed 'em. Jack an' his father an' mother tuk 'em back to the pasture
an' Jack run up to the barn fer ropes an' bridles. In a little while
they got some hoofs under 'em an' picked up the childern an' toddled
off. I went out in the bush to find Buckeye an' he were dead as the
whale that swallered Jonah."

So ends the letter of Solomon Binkus.

Jack Irons and his family and that of Peter Bones--the boys and girls
riding two on a horse--with the captives filed down the Mohawk trail.
It was a considerable cavalcade of twenty-one people and twenty-four
horses and colts, the latter following.

Solomon Binkus and Peter Bones and his son Isr