Then she slyly tore off small bits
of her dress, and dropped a piece from time to time.
Boone and his men followed the Indians like bloodhounds. They picked
up the bits of dress, and so easily found which way the savages had
gone. They came up with the Indians just as they were sitting down
round a fire to eat their supper. Creeping toward them behind the
trees as softly as a cat creeps up behind a mouse, Boone and his men
aimed their rifles and fired. Two of the Indians fell dead, the rest
ran for their lives, and the girls were carried back in safety to
the fort.
152. Boone is captured by Indians; they adopt him as a son.--Later,
Boone himself was caught and carried off by the Indians. They
respected his courage so much that they would not kill him, but
decided to adopt him; that is, take him into the tribe as one of their
own people, or make an Indian of him.
They pulled out all his hair except one long lock, called the
"scalp-lock," which they left to grow in Indian fashion. The
squaws[5] and girls braided bright feathers in this lock, so that
Boone looked quite gay. Then the Indians took him down to a river.
There they stripped him, and scrubbed him with all their might, to
get his white blood out, as they said.
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