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Page 60
"Well, lads, one o' our party's gone to his last account, I perceive,"
and he pointed mournfully to the still body of Beecher, some three or
four paces distant; "another I see is wounded, and a third's missing.
I hope no harm's befallen him, the noble Master Harry Millbanks!"
"Alas! he's dead, Colonel!" answered Isaac, covering his eyes with his
hand.
"Dead?" echoed Boone.
"Dead?" cried the others, simultaneously.
"Yes," rejoined Isaac, with a sigh; "He and I war chasing that thar
infernal renegade Girty, who war running away with Ella thar; and he'd
jest got up to him, and got him by the arm, when Girty shuk him off like
it warn't nothing at all, and then shot him dead on the spot. Ef he
hadn't a bin quite so quick about it, I think as how it wouldn't a
happened; for the next moment I hit him a rap on the head with the
butt-end o' my rifle, that sent him a staggering off, and would ha'
fetched him to the ground, ef it hadn't first struck a limb. Howsomever,
it made him let go o' Ella, and start up a new trail--jest leaving his
compliments for me in the shape of a bullet, which, ef it didn't do me
no harm, it warn't 'cause he didn't intend it to. I jest stopped to look
at poor Harry; and finding he war dead, I took Ella by the hand and come
straight down here."
"Who's that you said war dead, Isaac?" inquired his mother, who had
partially overheard the conversation.
"Harry Millbanks, mother."
"Harry Millbanks!" repeated the dame in astonishment. "What, young
Harry?--our Harry?--Goodness gracious, marcy on me! what orful mean
wretches them Injens is, to kill sech as him. Dear me! then the hull
family is gone; for I hearn from Rosetta, that her father and mother and
all war killed afore her eyes; and now she's bin taken on to be killed
too, the darling."
"Ha! yes," said Boone, as if struck with a new thought; "I remember
seeing the foot-prints of a child--war they made by this unfortunate
young man's sister?"
"I reckon as how they war," answered Mrs. Younker; "for the poor thing
war a prisoner along with us, crying whensomever she dared to, like all
nater."
"Well," rejoined the old hunter, musingly, "we've done all we could--I'm
sorry it didn't turn out better--but we must now leave their fates in
the hands o' Providence, and return to our homes. We must bury our dead
first; and I don't know o' any better way than to sink thar bodies in
the Ohio."
Accordingly, after some further conversation, four of the party
proceeded for the body of Millbanks--with which they soon
returned--while Boone conducted the ladies away from the scene of
horror, and down to where Ella informed him the canoes were hidden,
leaving his younger companions to rifle and scalp the savages if they
chose. In a few minutes from his arrival at the point in question, he
was joined by the others, who came slowly, in silence, bearing the
mortal remains of Millbanks and Beecher. Placing the canoes in the
water, the whole party entered them, in the same silent and solemn
manner, and pulled slowly down the Miami, into the middle of the Ohio;
then leaving the vessels to float with the current, they uncovered their
heads, and mournfully consigned the bodies of the deceased to the watery
element.
It was a sad and impressive scene--there, on the turbid Ohio, near the
midnight hour--to give to the rolling waters the last remains of those
who had been their friends and companions, and as full of life and
activity as themselves but an hour before;--it was a sad, impressive,
and affecting scene--one that was looked upon with weeping eyes--and
one which, by those who witnessed it, was never to be forgotten.
There were no loud bursts of grief--there were no frantic exclamations
of woe--but the place, the hour, and withal the various events which
had transpired to call them so soon from a scene of festivity to one of
mourning--together with the thoughts of other friends departed, or in
terrible captivity--served to render it a most painfully solemn one--and
one, as we said before, that was destined never to be forgotten.
For a short space after the river engulphed the bodies, all gazed upon
the waters in silence; when Boone said, in a voice slightly trembling.
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