The last thing Doo remembered was walking off the cliff to get away from the Shawnees. He misjudged how far above the river he'd been, instead of 50 feet it was probably three times that.

He hit the water hard. If it hadn't of knocked him out, the panic of not knowing how to swim might have killed him.

Laying there something didn't feel right to him; he was on something solid. 'Water ain't solid,' Doo thought.

"He's awake pa, " a young female voice said.

Doo opened his eyes to find he was lying on the deck of a flatboat; a big man with the muscles of a man who spent his life poling a boat up and down rivers came over and looked down at Doo. He removed a pipe from between his teeth.

"Awake are ye? Mister, ye must have drank half of the Ohio before we fished ye out," the giant said.

"My name is Jed Wolfe and this here's my daughter Janie, and who might you be?" Wolfe asked.

"I might be Dan'l Boone but I ain't, I'm Doo Carter, "Where am I?"

"Why yore on my boat about two days out of Pittsburgh." Wolfe said. "How did ye come to be in the water?"
Doo related the story of the Shawnees chasing him, losing his rifle, and walking off of the cliff to avoid capture.
"I was about halfway down afore I remembered I couldn't swim," Doo finished the tale.

Wolfe let out a huge belly laugh at that. "Hell man yore lucky the fall didn't kill ye."

Doo laughed too.

"I reckon so," he said.
****
Swooping Eagle watched the man on the big canoe fish the white man from the river. He pointed this out to Lonesome Owl.

"We will follow them," Swooping Eagle said.
Lonesome Owl grunted.

"He's dead, let it go."

"They wouldn't have pulled a dead man from the river," Swooping Eagle insisted. "If you won't go with me, I'll go alone."

"The other two won't want to go on," Lonesome Owl observed.

"Let us ask them." Swooping Eagle turned to Black Hoof and Stalking Panther.

"The white man we seek is on that big canoe, I say we follow it and take him, what say you?"

Black Hoof shrugged. He couldn't care less one way or another.

Stalking Panther felt the opposite, he wanted to get back and loot the white man's camp.
He wanted the horse, he knew the exact maiden he'd trade it for.

"I want the horse! Let's go back he's dead."

"The horse is mine, he killed my brother but if you stay with us you can have the horse," Swooping Eagle said.
That made Stalking Panther's mind up. He started following the river south. He spoke over his shoulder as he walked. "Let's go."

Swooping Eagle silently thanked Our Grandmother for Stalking Panthers' greed.

****
"Well now what am I to do with ye?" Wolfe asked Doo.
"If you'd feed me I'd be mighty obliged, I ain't et nuthin in four days," Doo said. "I'd take my turn on the poles until we get to Pittsburgh."

"That sounds fair to me, there's a pot of stew and some bread in the cabin, help yerself."

The smell of the savory stew hit Doo as soon as he opened the door to the shanty that Wolfe had called a cabin.

His mouth watered, his stomach was reminding him the last thing he'd eaten was green apples and a raw fish he'd caught two days ago.

Filling the bowl and grabbing a spoon he greedily started shoveling the food into his mouth. He didn't care if it was skunk meat; it was more exquisite to him than pheasant under glass.

All of a sudden his stomach started to rebel, he barely made it to the side of the boat before expelling what he'd just ate into the river.

"Tried to eat too fast didn't ye," Wolfe chuckled.

Wiping his mouth, Doo nodded.

"I reckon so."

"Ye might do well to start off with some bread first."

"Sound like a good idee," Doo said.

The bread was dark and coarse, but a few bites settled his stomach.

"When you pulled me out of the river did you see the Shawnees that were follering me?"

"Nary a hair," Wolfe answered. "And we pulled ye out yesterday mornin', ye kin thank the girl, I was ready to push ye back in but she stopped me."

Doo looked over at Janie and nodded. "Much obliged ma'am."

Janie blushed. Doo was probably the most handsome man she ever saw even though he looked like a drowned muskrat.

"Janie will do fine sir, you needn't call me ma'am."

Wolf caught the look Janie was giving Doo and his eyes narrowed.

He didn't want his 14-year-old daughter getting too attached to this rolling stone.

"If ye are done with your repast, grab a pole and put your back into it." Jeb commanded them.

Doo sighed and got a pole and started the tedious job of poling from the front and moving to the back then doing it over.

Doo wasn't a stranger to hard work, he didn't like it, but he wasn't a stranger to it.

His pa owned a mercantile store in Pittsburgh, but Doo and his two brothers were expected to work the family farm, as well as hunting to put meat on the table.

At an early age Doo found his hands fit a rifle a whole heap better than a plow. Being the best shot, he took over the hunting chores.

"We have about six more hours of daylight before we stop for night, we should reach Pittsburgh by early afternoon tomorrow," Wolf shouted from the tiller.

Doo thought Wolfe was a no good lazy lout for letting his daughter do the poling while he manned the tiller.

"Not my affair, a free ride is a free ride," he thought.

After the first hour, Doo's shoulders started to ache. The second hour brought the blisters. By the time they stopped for the night his hands were almost raw.

"Oh my, you're hands look a sight let me fix them for you," Janie exclaimed.

She went in the shanty and re-emerged with a small crock and some cloths.

"This bear grease should ease the pain some," Janie said.

Janie put generous dollops of the grease on each hand then wrapped them with the white linen cloths. She was right; Doo's hands were feeling a little better.


"Thankee Janie that helps some," Doo said.


The fact that Janie let her hands linger on Doo's didn't escape Jed's attention.

"If he shows any intention of returning her interest I'll kill him and throw him over the side," Jed thought.

"Gal go rustle us some grub," Jed growled the command at Janie.

As Janie left to get supper, Jed glared with eyes filled with warning and lowered his voice so only Doo could hear.

"I'm only gonna say this just once, that gal is my shinin' jewel and if ye touch her I'll make what the Shawnees were going to do to ye seem like a church picnic."

"I'm only here for the ride to Pittsburgh, unless you want me to get off before hand."

"No, I wouldn't put an unarmed man into the wilderness, to fend for himself." Jed said, "We'll be in Pittsburgh sooner than I thought."

"What are you two talking about?" Janie asked.

"I was just tellin' Doo we should be in sooner than I thought," Jed changed his tone to talk to his daughter.

"Oh that's wonderful!" Janie squealed.

Janie filled bowls with stew, and then passed around hunks of bread.

"May I ask what kind of stew this is?" Doo said.

"Possum, they're plentiful along the shore," Jed answered. "Ye ain't picky are ye?"

"No sir, best thing I've had to et in a week."

After they finished eating Janie took the bowls to the side and washed them out then took them back into the cabin.

"Doo ye can use a couple of blankets and bed down there," Jed pointed to a spot on the deck. "Janie will be in the cabin and I'll bed down in front of the door."

There was a dark promise in his voice warning Doo again against any foolish notions where his daughter was concerned in case the first caution did not sink in.

"I'll take the first guard shift," Doo volunteered.

Jed let out a loud belly laugh. "Are ye daft lad!? We're less than a day from Pittsburgh, there's nuthin to guard from."

Janie shivered as she looked towards the shore. A foreboding feeling filled her at her Pa's words. She thought about speaking up and telling Pa but did not want her Pa laughing at her "feelin" trouble was coming.

She'd never been wrong following her "feelins" even if Pa didn't cotton to them. She also didn't want to get a beatin in front of Doo for sassing her Pa.

In her short experience, men wanting revenge do not simply give up. She turned and looked with troubled eyes at the shore again praying that she was wrong and ran to the cabin.
*****
Swooping Eagle watched as the foolish white men started to bed down and the girl ran to the cabin.

He grinned, the girl was listening to Our Grandmother warning that trouble was following them but he also knew the men were not smart enough to follow a woman or believe in Our Grandmother; this was going to be easier than he thought.

"Remember the big brown haired one is not to be killed," Swooping Eagle said.

"What about the rest?" Black Hoof said

"I want the woman," Stalking Panther proclaimed.

"She is barely more than a child," Lonesome Owl said.

"I don't care, I can get a wife without buying her," Stalking Panther said.

"White woman make poor wives, they can't work and they complain too much," Black Hoof said.

"It doesn't matter, I want her," Stalking Panther insisted.

Swooping Eagle grinned to himself Stalking Panther would never be able to handle that special white girl who knew how to speak with Our Grandmother.

He thanked Our Grandmother again for making Swooping Eagle greedy and foolish.

He quietly led them towards the bank.
****
Doo snapped awake. He didn't know what, but something wasn't right. He looked over at Jed and saw a figure too big to be Janie hovering over him.

'Injuns, Boy I'm glad we're too close to Pittsburgh to post guards,' Doo thought to himself.

As quietly as he could he got to his feet, then drew his knife. He started around the other side of the shanty, if he hadn't smelled the bear grease in Black Hoof's hair he would have bumped into him.

Doo wrapped his left arm around Black Hoof's throat, then shoved the knife at an upward angle between the second and third rib.

Once the knife was almost hilt deep he wiggled it back and forth into the heart. Doo felt the flood of warm liquid wash over his hand. He waited a few seconds before gently lowering the body to the deck.

He figured Jed for a goner, but he wasn't sure about Janie. Doo didn't have much time to wonder about Janie.

Just as a Shawnee brave pulled open the shanty
door a geyser of flame and the unmistakable sound of a rifle shot
*****
No one was more surprised than Stalking Panther when the shot came from inside.

"Thwack."

Stalking Panther stared down with disbelief at the hole in his chest before he fell to the floor asking Our Grandmother why.

The bullet hitting flesh took both Swooping Eagle and Lonesome Owl by surprise.

"There must have been more than we thought," Swooping Eagle yelled to Lonesome Owl.

"Where is Black Hoof?"

"Dead."

A rush of feet sounded as Swooping Eagle watched his quarry run to the door of the shanty, grab the girl, run for the side closest to the shore and jump off.

Swooping Eagle was in a tight spot, losing over half of his party on this chase of the white man. If he was lucky he'd only be banished from the tribe.

He silently asked Our Grandmother for forgiveness. Stalking Panther might have been greedy but he himself was guilty of thinking this would be easy and that he was all knowing, only Our Grandmother was all knowing.

"Now what?" said Lonesome Owl.

Swooping Eagle sighed and shook his head.

****
Doo took advantage of the confusion caused by the rifle shot. He rushed over to the door of the shanty. Janie was standing there still holding the empty rifle.

"Drop it," he barked.

"But we'll need it," Janie said.

"You have powder and shot?"

Doo didn't wait for an answer, he grabbed Janie's arm in an iron grip and half pulled, half dragged the girl to the side of the boat.

He didn't look back at the Shawnees, half afraid of what he'd see.

"Jump!"

And for the second time in as many days, Doo felt the Ohio swallow him up.

Halfway down with a sign of disbelief Doo remembered, "Still can't swim."