the shame of the thumping that makes one feel vicious; thar's the thing
no Kentuckian can stand, sir. To be murdered, whar thar's ten Injuns to
one white man, is nothing; but whar it comes to being trounced by equal
numbers, why thar's the thing not to be tolerated. Howsomever, Captain,
we're no worse off in Kentucky than our neighbours. Thar's them five
hundred Pennsylvanians that went out in June, under old Cunnel Crawford
from Pittsburg, agin the brutes of Sandusky, war more ridiculously
whipped by old Captain Pipe, the Delaware, thar's no denying."

"What!" said Roland, "was Crawford's company beaten?"

"Beaten!" said the Kentuckian, opening his eyes; "cut off the _b_, and
say the savages made a dinner of 'em, and you'll be nearer the true
history of the matter. It's but two months ago; and so I suppose the news
of the affa'r hadn't got into East Virginnie when you started. Well,
Captain, the long and short of it is,--the cunnel _war_ beaten and
exterminated, and that on a hard run from the fight he had hunted hard
after. How many ever got back safe agin to Pittsburg, I never could
rightly h'ar, but what I know is, that thar war dozens of prisoners
beaten to death by the squaws and children, and that old Cunnel Crawford
himself war put to the double torture and roasted alive; and, I reckon,
if he war'nt eaten, it war only because he war too old to be tender."

"Horrible!" said the young soldier, muttering half to himself, though not
in tones so low but that the Kentuckian caught their import; "and I must
expose my poor Edith to fall into the power of such fiends and monsters!"

"Ay, Captain," said Bruce, "thar's the thing that sticks most in
the heart of them that live in the wilderness and have wives and
daughters;--to think of _their_ falling into the hands of the brutes, who