Besides these visits, the lovers found ready means for exchanging their expressions of affection through the faithful Huron, Oonomoo, who made stated journeys from Captain Prescott’s mansion to his post.  On these occasions, he went loaded with missives from one party to another, carrying back as many as he brought.  He was a great favorite with the whites, who appreciated his chivalrous faithfulness and fidelity, and loaded him with many expressions of their esteem.  He had the reputation of being the fleetest runner, the most successful scout and best hunter in the West.  Volumes would be required to record all the exploits told of him—­of the marvelous number of scalps which hung in his lodge, and of the many hair-breadth escapes he had had.  It was said he had a wife and child hid somewhere in the recesses of the forest, to whom he made stated visits, and whom his deadly enemies, the Shawnees, had sought in vain for years.  He was now about thirty-five years of age, and had been known as a scout and friend of the whites for full a dozen years.

Somewhat less than two years after the first meeting of Lieutenant Canfield with the daughter of Captain Prescott, the wife and eldest daughter of the latter made a journey of pleasure to a neighboring settlement.  Mary would have accompanied them, had she not received an intimation from Oonomoo that her lover proposed to make her a visit about that time.  She accordingly remained at home with the servants.

Two nights afterwards, when the darkness was almost impenetrable, a large war-party of Shawnees suddenly attacked the place.  The negroes had no time for defense, and only sought their own safety in flight.  But one, however, escaped, the rest falling beneath the merciless tomahawk.  Mary Prescott was carried off a prisoner.

CHAPTER III.

OONOMOO AND THE SHAWNEES.

  Through forty foes his path he made,
  And safely reached the forest-glade.—­SCOTT.

After parting from Hans Vanderbum, the Huron sped noiselessly through the woods, taking a direction that would lead him to a point on the river fully three hundred yards below where he had signaled the German.  The stream making a bend there, he would thus escape the observation of the Shawnees along the bank, at the point where the fisherman had been engaged in his labors.

So silent, yet rapid, was the motion of Oonomoo, that his figure flitted through the rifts in the wood like a shadow.  His head projected slightly forward, in the attitude of acute attention, and his black, restless eyes constantly flitted from one point to the other, scarcely resting for a second upon any single object.  In his left hand he trailed his long rifle, while his right rested upon the buckhorn handle of the knife in his belt.

He had progressed a considerable distance thus, when the Huron’s gait decreased very rapidly.  He was now in the vicinity of the river, where he had left his canoe drawn up on the bank.  It was necessary to reconnoiter thoroughly before venturing to approach it.  Accordingly, he halted.  The movement of the panther in approaching his foe was not more stealthy and cautious than was his.