e last moment, once through a sudden spasm of
mercy on the part of the renegade Girty, his old companion in arms at
the time of Lord Dunmore's war, and again by the powerful intercession
of the great Mingo chief, Logan. At last, after having run the gauntlet
eight times and been thrice tied to the stake, he was ransomed by some
traders. They hoped to get valuable information from him about the
border forts, and took him to Detroit. Here he stayed until his
battered, wounded body was healed. Then he determined to escape, and
formed his plan in concert with two other Kentuckians, who had been in
Boon's party that was captured at the Blue Licks. They managed to secure
some guns, got safely off, and came straight down through the great
forests to the Ohio, reaching their homes in safety. [Footnote: McClung
gives the exact conversations that took place between Kenton, Logan,
Girty, and the Indian chiefs. They are very dramatic, and may possibly
be true; the old pioneer would probably always remember even the words
used on such occasions; but I hesitate to give them because McClung is
so loose in his statements. In the account of this very incident he
places it in '77, and says Kenton then accompanied Clark to the
Illinois. But in reality--as we know from Boon--it took place in '78,
and Kenton must have gone with Clark first.]

Boon and Kenton have always been favorite heroes of frontier story,--as
much so as ever were Robin Hood and Little John in England. Both lived
to a great age, and did and saw many strange things, and in the
backwoods cabins the tale of their deeds has been handed down in
traditional form from father to son and to son's son. They were known to
be honest, fearless, adventurous, mighty men of their hands; fond of
long, lonely wanderings; renowned as woodsmen and riflemen, as hunters
and Indian fighters. In course of time it naturally came about that all
notable incidents of the chase and woodland warfare were incorporated
into their lives by the story-tellers. The facts were altered and added
to by tradition year after year; so that the two old frontier warriors
already stand in that misty group of heroes whose rightful title to fame
has been partly overclouded by the haze of their mythical glories and
achievements.

CHAPTER II.

CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE ILLINOIS, 1778.

Kentucky had been settled, chiefly through Boon's instrumentality, in
the year that saw the first fighting of the Revolution, a