Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber Note

Text emphasis denoted by _Italics_.

WHEN WILDERNESS WAS KING

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WHEN WILDERNESS WAS KING

A Tale of the Illinois Country

By RANDALL PARRISH

_With six pictures in full color and other decorations by Troy and
Margaret West Kinney_

Third Edition

Chicago

A. C. McClurg & Co.

1904

Copyright

By A. C. McClurg & Co.

1904

Published March 36, 1904
Second Edition, April 20, 1904
Third Edition, July 2, 1904

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London All Rights Reserved

University Press John Wilson and Son Cambridge. U. S. A.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. A Message from the West 1

II. The Call of Duty 9

III. A New Acquaintance 19

IV. Captain Wells of Fort Wayne 33

V. Through the Heart of the Forest 41

VI. From: the Jaws of Death 54

VII. A Circle in the Sand 66

VIII. Two Men and a Maid 77

IX. In Sight of the Flag 86

X. A Lane of Peril 95

XI. Old Fort Dearborn 105

XII. The Heart of a Woman 119

XIII. A Wager of Fools 133

XIV. Darkness and Surprise 141

XV. An Adventure Underground 150

XVI. "France wins, Monsieur!" 161

XVII. A Contest of Wits 171

XVIII. Glimpses of Danger 182

XIX. A Conference and a Resolve 191

XX. In the Indian Camp 201

XXI. A Council of Chiefs 212

XXII. The Last Night at Dearborn 224

XXIII. The Death-Shadow of the Miamis 236

XXIV. The Day of Doom 248

XXV. In the Jaws of the Tiger 261

XXVI. The Field of the Dead 269

XXVII. A Ghostly Vision 278

XXVIII. An Angel in the Wilderness 292

XXIX. A Soldier of France 306

XXX. The Rescue at the Stake 314

XXXI. A Search, and its Reward 325

XXXII. The Pledge of a Wyandot 337

XXXIII. An Intervention of Fate 347

XXXIV. A Stumble in the Dark 358

XXXV. The Battle on the Shore 368

XXXVI. In the New Gray Dawn 378

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"'Toinette!' I whispered, 'I would call you by a
dearer name than that!'" Frontispiece

"The obsequious darkey was deliberately combing
out his long hair" Facing page 56

"There was a rustle of paper, and Heald read
slowly: 'Evacuate the post if practicable'" 192

"She had reined her horse back against a wheel
of the halted wagon" 268

"'You shall not torture this man--he is a soldier
of France!'" 313

"'Don't, John! The savage has a gun hidden
beneath his robe'" 338

"I saw a dot upon the map, and a housefly's filmy wing--
They said 'twas Dearborn's picket-flag, when Wilderness was King.

* * * * *

I heard the block-house gates unbar, the column's solemn tread,
I saw the Tree of a single leaf its splendid foliage shed
To wave awhile that August morn above the column's head;
I heard the moan of muffled drum, the woman's wail of fife,
The Dead March played for Dearborn's men just marching out of life;
The swooping of the savage cloud that burst upon the rank
And struck it with its thunderbolt in forehead and in flank,
The spatter of the musket-shot, the rifles' whistling rain,--
The sandhills drift round hope forlorn that never marched again."

--_Benjamin F. Taylor._

When Wilderness Was King