Show TALES OF f 0 I 1 1 THE OLD 1 1 1 I 1 FRONTIER 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON 0 0 union A RESCUE AND A ROMANCE I 1 0 NN NL avi nals LUZ evening in a 1771 1774 1 a young girl janwa rebecca martin was paddling a blich bark canoe along the ohio river rhe she he was returning to tier her honie home tit at the lie mouth of grove creak after visiting a sister 60 miles ties up tile tha river ifer relative re lather had tried to persuade tier hor not to attempt the trip alone but she Idu laughed glied tit nt their fears shortly after sundown she approached pro ached it a clearing where sho she ex peeled to spend the night in tile tho cabin of a friend hut as aa silo she drew near she saw sa a war party of indians daull ing and yelling around tile tho blazing cabin tho the river was bri brightly ghaly il illuminated by the flames find and at t any moment moa inoa ment meat she ibe might be discovered it it she attempted either cither to advance or retreat so she silently paddled close to the bank and hiding ns as best sho she could breathlessly waited finally the lire fire died down tin and tile tho indians departed some of them going upstream in their canoes by tills this time the moon hail had risen and made traveling dangerous but slie she know knew sho must try to escape shedid Shel ld not tr try y to paddle but trusted 0 t the current to carry tier her butof danger eling several miles thus silo she felt sate pate to begin paddling again suddenly like a drifting shadow another canoe emerged from tile the opposite shore followed immediately by three others other seeing being that she was discovered rebecca pegan began to paddle desperately when whan the indians saw that the only occupant of the canoe was awo a woman ninn they hurst burst into inan laughter laught dr dut but as the swift strokes of tile the girl began to leave them behind they bent to their work to overtake her ber bullets began to sing bing over her head and to whip the water around tier her finally one of them struck tier her paddle and shattered it the girl tried desperately tely to guide tier her bark toward tile the shore but its progress was agonizingly slow the savages had almost surrounded her when there was a blinding lightning flash and a roar as of thunder one of the indian canoes was vas torn to pieces anti its occupants thrown struggling into tho the river A big canoe swept out into the stream and from the swivel gun mounted on its prow a raking fire was poured into the other indian akion boats As tile the survivors frantically paddled out of range the big boot boat drew up alongside rebeccas canoe and a brawny arap arm swept tier her from where she cron crouched clied half unconscious in pic ithe bottom of the bark her saylor savior was capt isaac williams the noted hunter and scout anaas and as an appropriate aftermath to this rescue a few weeks latera wondering wandering mi minister alster performed a wedding ceremony nt at which rebecca martin became rebecca williams T TIM M MURPHY THE ORIGINAL I 1 TAMES COOPERS J the super fron was not entirely a child tit of the novelists brain for there was a leath er stocking in real life ind and many of its his exploits during the revolution far outshone anything that cooper ever had bad his hero do ile he was tim murphy a virginian lind and lie he was the premier sharpshooter of gen daniel morgans riflemen who marched north to fight burgoyne with the wo words ads liberty or death on the front of their buckskin hunting shirts at the battle of saratoga it was murphys Murp hys deadly aim that brought down general frazer the real military genius of Bur goynes army whose death proved the wilting turning point in that campaign so perhaps it would not be far wrong to say that the title of eftim tim murphy won the american revolution after the saratoga campaign murphy was sent to tryon coun county on scout duty and here biere ns as nit an indian fighter he won his greatest fame ills name soon became a word of dread mincing the iroquois warriors for his fleetness fleet nesa of foot his daring and his fils skill at fighting them in their own way made him an enemy to bo be both admired rind dreaded part of this was due to his favorite weapon weapon a rifle w with ieli two barrels rind his ability to tire two shots in succession without reloading mato made them believe that lie enjoyed supernatural powers when they finally learned the pie fechet of his hi success tift they become became more cageful about exposing themselves se ives too much until he had fired telee but even this did not always rave tham ohwn ne day he was pursued by on an iroquois war party and succeeded in all except one warrior lie ile killed this indian and stopped only long enough to scalp him but before lie he had finished the job the lie other sav ages appeared snatching up the rind of fit the dead cind warrior murphy shot flown down another the remainder of the party larty now mire that his We dicine gun w was as powerless erless rushed forward to take him prisoner morphy haq nearly ex er hausted hau fint turn taming ing only lie he dis charged tile the second cond barrel of his ale rifle and killed the foremost of his pur mrs aers the other indians astonished lit at hla his firing three times in succession fled crying to eacia i ther that the white roan man could shoot moot n all ifray day without reloading hotl 19 |