KENTON.  I know, sir, that if there were game to be had you would have bagged it.  But since we’ve come to the Blue Lick Springs the buffalo and deer seem to have gotten wind of us.  There’s not so much as a rabbit scampering across the grass.  It seems as if nature herself were in league against us.

BOONE.  Nonsense, lad.  There’ll be game enough soon, when I’ve foraged further.  Such times as these were sent to us to see whether we be of iron or putty.

KENTON.  All the same, sir, I’ll be glad when the boiling is done and we can pack our salt, and start through the forest for home.  Long as the trail is, I would sooner have it than——­

BOONE (clutching rifle).  Hark!  The crack of a branch—­in the forest.  On the defense, lads.  I’ll investigate.

[Goes into woods at right.

KENTON (in a low voice, as the lads seize their rifles).  If it should be those venomous Shawnees!  Before we left Boonesborough ’twas said that they’d already passed the war-pipe through their villages.  They have been still so long, ’tis time for an uprising.  (Approaching footsteps are heard.) Who comes?

COLBY (on the alert).  Just Boone himself.

RIGDON. 
What signs, sir?

BOONE.  No signs at all, unless for the first time in their lives the Indians are shrewder than the Long Knives.  There’s not so much as a broken branch, or a newly fallen leaf.  Now, lads, off to the spring with you.  I’ll tend this last kettle, and when ’tis boiled, I’ll start on the trail again.  There must be bison and deer for the followers of Daniel Boone.  Lads, stay!  If because we are unmolested you should sometimes think that tending the kettle is work for girls—­remember that we and our guns are all that stand between the Indians and the fort at Boonesborough, where all the women and children are.  Will you remember?

ALL (speaking vehemently).  Aye, sir.

BOONE.  And as I take the trail I will remember the lads who’ve lived on dry bread and the paring of bacon rinds, and who’ve tasted naught but parched buffalo meat in three weeks.

RIGDON. 
You’ve gone hungry yourself, sir.

BOONE. 
Well, lads, ’tis all in the day’s luck.  We’ll not suffer for meat if I
can shoot an elk or a bear. (Lads exeunt through trees in background,
Boone watching them.) Brave lads they are, and true!

[He tends the kettle, facing audience.  After a moment Indians stealthily appear in background.

EAGLE’S FEATHER
(as two of the braves seize Boone). 
Long Knife, surrender!

[There is a brief struggle between Boone and the braves; but the former finds, that it is useless to resist.

HAWK EYE. 
Shawnees on warpath.  Long have watched Boone and tried to trap him.  Now
have got him.  Boone show trail to Boonesborough.

BOONE
(to himself, in a tense whisper). 
Boonesborough?

BLACK FISH (majestically).  What answer does Long Knife Boone make?  If Long Knife joins tribe, Long Knife will be treated with honor.  All at Boonesborough will be killed; but Boone’s life will be spared if he joins tribe.  What answer does Long Knife Boone make?