The Riflemen of the Ohio A Story of the Early Days along "The Beautiful River"   By: Joseph Alexander Altsheler (1862-1919)

A Story of Early Days along "The Beautiful River"

by

JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER

Author of "The Young Trailers," "The Forest Runners," "The Free Rangers," Etc.

New York and London D. Appleton and Company 1922

Copyright, 1910, by D. Appleton and Company

Printed in the United States of America

"The Riflemen of the Ohio," while a complete story in itself, continues the fortunes of Henry Ware, Paul Cotter, and their friends, who were the central characters in "The Young Trailers," "The Forest Runners," "The Keepers of the Trail," "The Eyes of the Woods," and "The Free Rangers."

[Illustration: "The head came up on the other side."]

CONTENTS

I. THE EYE OF THE FLEET

II. THE WYANDOT CHIEF

III. THE SONG OF THE LEAVES

IV. THE FOREST VILLAGE

V. PLAY AND COUNCIL

VI. THE GANTLET

VII. ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS

VIII. THE SHADOW IN THE WATER

IX. THE GATHERING OF THE FIVE

X. THE GREAT BORDERER

XI. THE RACE OF THE FIVE

XII. THE ONE WHO ARRIVED

XIII. AT THE FORT

XIV. SIX FIGURES IN THE DUSK

XV. THE DEED IN THE DARK

XVI. THE RETURN TRAIL

XVII. PICKING UP THE STRANDS

XVIII. THE HALTING OF THE FLEET

XIX. THE WATERY PASS

XX. THE TRUMPET'S PEAL

XXI. FORCES MEET

XXII. THE SPEECH OF TIMMENDIQUAS

XXIII. ON THE OFFENSIVE

XXIV. THE DECISIVE BATTLE

THE RIFLEMEN OF THE OHIO

CHAPTER I

THE EYE OF THE FLEET

The fleet of boats and canoes bearing supplies for the far east turned from the Mississippi into the wide mouth of the Ohio, and it seemed, for a time, that they had come into a larger river instead of a tributary. The splendid stream, called by the Indians "The Beautiful River," flowed silently, a huge flood between high banks, and there was not one among the voyagers who did not feel instinctively the depths beneath him.

A single impulse caused every paddle and oar to lie at rest a few moments, and, while they swung gently with the slow current just beyond the point where one merged into the other, they looked at the two mighty rivers, the Mississippi, coming from the vast unknown depths of the northwest, rising no man knew where, and the Ohio, trailing its easy length a thousand miles through thick forests haunted by the most warlike tribes of North America. The smaller river small only by comparison bore the greater dangers, and they knew it.

It was the fleet of Adam Colfax, and the five who had gone to New Orleans and who had come back, triumphing over so many dangers in the coming and the going, were still with him. Henry Ware, Paul Cotter, and Shif'less Sol Hyde sat in the foremost boat, and the one just behind them contained Silent Tom Ross and Long Jim Hart. After the great battle on the Lower Mississippi in which they defeated the Indians and desperadoes under Alvarez, the voyage had remained peaceful as they pulled up to the Ohio.

"It's our own river again, Henry," said Paul. Both felt a sort of proprietary interest in the Ohio.

"It's so, and I'm glad to look on it again," replied Henry, "but the Shawnees, the Miamis, the Wyandots, and others will never let us by without a fight."

He spoke with gravity. But a boy in years, the many stern scenes through which he had passed and his natural instinct for the wilderness made him see far. He was thinking of the thousand miles, every one with its dangers, that they must travel before they could unload their supplies at Pittsburgh for the struggling colonists.

No concern of the future troubled the soul of Long Jim Hart. He was once more in the region that he loved. He looked at one river and then at the other, and his eyes glowed.

"Ain't it fine, Henry?" he said. "These two pow'ful big streams! Back uv them the firm, solid country that you kin tread on without the fear uv breakin' through, an' then the cool steadyin' airs that are blowin' on our faces!"