***




Produced by Al Haines.




[Illustration: Cover art]




[Illustration: "Jack saw that it was a boy not much older than himself"
(_see page_ 43).]




                                  *THE
                              BOY HUNTERS
                              OF KENTUCKY*


                                   BY

                           *EDWARD S. ELLIS*

  _Author of "Red Feather," "Blazing Arrow," "The Forest Messengers,"
                   "Wolf Ear, the Indian," etc, etc._



                           SIXTIETH THOUSAND



                        CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD
                 London, Toronto, Melbourne and Sydney
                                  1889




                        Uniform With This Volume

                          _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

                          Lost in the Rockies
                          Captured by Indians
                     The Daughter of the Chieftain
                              Red Feather
                          Wolf Ear, the Indian
                          Astray in the Forest
                              Bear Cavern
                            River and Forest
                             The Lost River
                      The Boy Hunters of Kentucky



                       _Printed in Great Britain_




                              *CONTENTS.*


                               CHAPTER I.

A YOUNG PIONEER

                              CHAPTER II.

TRAINING A KENTUCKY RIFLEMAN

                              CHAPTER III.

THE MEETING ON THE BRIDGE

                              CHAPTER IV.

THE HOME OF JACK

                               CHAPTER V.

THE YOUNG WYANDOT

                              CHAPTER VI.

THE WRESTLING BOUT

                              CHAPTER VII.

JACK RESUMES HIS JOURNEY

                             CHAPTER VIII.

TRAVELLING SOUTHWARD

                              CHAPTER IX.

ROYAL GAME

                               CHAPTER X.

HUNTING THE HUNTERS

                              CHAPTER XI.

GEORGE MAKES A SHOT

                              CHAPTER XII.

THE STRANGE CAMP FIRE

                             CHAPTER XIII.

CAPTIVE AND CAPTORS

                              CHAPTER XIV.

THE SIGNAL AND ITS REPLY

                              CHAPTER XV.

ANOTHER ARRIVAL

                              CHAPTER XVI.

HOW TO CONQUER AN ENEMY

                             CHAPTER XVII.

A FRIEND AT COURT

                             CHAPTER XVIII.

CONCLUSION




                                  *THE
                       BOY HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY.*



                              *CHAPTER I.*

                           *A YOUNG PIONEER.*


There was no happier boy in all Kentucky than Jack Gedney on the morning
that completed the first twelve years of his life, for on that day his
father presented him with a fine rifle.

Now, you must know that some of the best riflemen in the world have been
born and reared in Kentucky, where the early settlers had to fight not
only the wild beasts, but the fierce red men.  The battles between the
Indians and pioneers were so many that Kentucky came to be known as the
Dark and Bloody Ground.

Some of you may have heard that the most famous pioneer in American
history was Daniel Boone, who entered all alone the vast wilderness
south of the Ohio, and spent many months there before the Revolution
broke out.  The emigrants began flocking thither as soon as it became
known that the soil of Kentucky was rich, and that the woods abounded
with game.

Among those who went thither, towards the close of the last century,
were Thomas Gedney and his wife Abigail.  With a dozen other families,
they floated down the Ohio in a flat boat, until a short distance below
the mouth of the Licking, when they landed, and, taking the boat apart,
used the material in building their cabins.

It happened at that period that there was less trouble than usual with
the red men.  Some of the settlers believed that the Indians, finding
themselves unable to stay the tide of immigration that was pouring over
the west, would move deeper into the solitudes which stretched beyond
the Mississippi.  Instead of putting up their cabins close together, a
part of the pioneers pushed farther into the woods, and began their
houses where they found better sites.  Most of them were near natural
"clearings," where the fertile soil was easily made ready for the corn
and vegetables, without the hard work of cutting down the trees and
clearing out the stumps.

Thomas Gedney and his wife were among those who went farther than the
spot where they landed from the flat boat.  Indeed, they pushed deeper
into the woods than any one else who helped to found the little
settlement that was planted a hundred years ago on the southern bank of
the Ohio.  Their nearest neighbours were the members of the Burton
family, who lived a mile to the eastward, while a mile farther in that
direction were the little group of cabins that marked the beginning of
one of the most prosperous towns of to-day in Kentucky.

Mr. Gedney was fortunate enough to find a clearing of an acre in extent,
with a small stream running near. Since he had helped his neighbours to
put up their cabins, they in return gave him such aid that in a few days
he had a strong, comfortable structure of logs, into which he moved with
his wife and only child, Jack, then but six years old.

The sturdy men who built their homes in the depths of the wilderness a
century ago were never in such haste that they forgot to make them
strong and secure. The red men might be peaceful, and might make
promises to molest the white people no more, but the pioneers knew
better than to trust to such promises. There are no more treacherous
people in the whole world than the American Indians, and no man is wise
who places much faith in their pledges.

But I have not started to tell you the history of the pioneers who came
down the Ohio in the flat boat, but to give an account of some strange
adventures that befell Jack Gedney, shortly after his rifle was given to
him by his father.  Jack had been trained in sighting and firing a gun
as soon as he could learn to close his left eye while he kept the other
open.  His father's rifle was too heavy for him to aim off-hand, but
kneeling behind a fallen tree, or a stump, or rock, his keen vision was
able to direct the little bullet with such precision, that Daniel Boone
himself, who one day watched the little fellow, gave him much praise.

In those days there was nothing in which a Kentuckian took more pride
than in his skill with his rifle. Thomas Gedney had never met his
superior, and he meant that if his boy Jack lived the same should be
said of him.  And so, while the mother gave the boy instruction in
reading and writing, the father took many long tramps with him through
the woods, and taught him how to become a great hunter.  He showed him
the difference between the tracks of the various game, and told him of
the peculiar habits of the wild animals and the best method of
outwitting them. More than all, he did his best to teach Jack how to
guard against his most dangerous of all foes--man himself.

Mr. Gedney was a man who took great precautions when constructing his
cabin.  He built it just as strongly as it was possible to make it.  The
windows were so narrow that no grown person could force his body
through, the roof was so steep that the most agile red man could not
climb it, and the heavy door, when closed and barred inside, was really
as stout as the solid walls of logs themselves.

I have not time to tell you about several incidents that proved his
wisdom in taking so much pains to guard himself and family against their
dusky foes the Indians, but the time came when the woodcraft thus taught
to the boy proved of the greatest value to him.

Among the important rules laid down by the father for the son