Boone's Reckoning

Daniel returned to his canoe, alone, and started back upriver for home. The day-lit blue sky changed the black river to a warm emerald green. The dark violets and blues of the night wood had transformed into shades of gray punctuated by scattered golden-leafed saplings clinging to their leaves protected from the winter wind. Patches of snow blanketed the green mossy banks of the river and dressed the bare tree limbs. The long hunter was weary from lack of sleep but unable to rest. He worried about his family, about Mingo. Would he find them alive? If alive, would Becky and the children be there or had they returned to North Carolina and the safety of Becky's family?

After several hours on the river, he reached a point where his arms could no longer pull the oar. Leaning back in the canoe, Daniel fell asleep under a noon sky.

A thunderclap startled Daniel awake. Rain pelted his face. He was disoriented and uncomfortable, lying in a pool of water in the canoe. The noise had awakened him from a nightmare—the image of his father angry, approaching him with a belt and closed fists. Daniel knew that as a bad omen in his life. Deep despair covered his thoughts like a death shroud.

It was day, but the clouds were dark and ominous. He had fallen asleep at noon with a bright blue sky above his head. Had a day passed? Or two? He sat up in the canoe and looked around trying to get his bearings. The canoe was snagged on dead trees along the shore. He was thankful for that or he would have returned to the Shawnee. Blackfish might have changed his mind if given a second chance.

Daniel pulled some stale bread out of his haversack and chewed on the crust. He reached out for a handful of the cold river water and took a drink, then splashed two handfuls on his face. He felt the whiskers on his cheeks that told him he was at least two days from his last shave. They must all think me dead. Becky will surely have left for her family in North Carolina…if she is alive.

Picking up his oar, he freed the canoe from the debris then leaned it to one side and pushed as much water out as he could. He continued his journey home.

When he reached the place where he had embarked with Breeden on the river, he pulled into the shore and stepped out on to the muddy bank. There were tracks all around, but the rain had nearly erased them. In a near fit of madness, he studied the tracks closely, dashing about trying not to obliterate them. His heart leapt in his chest when he made out the children's and Becky's small prints. He fell to his knees in the mud and cried out to the heavens, "Are they safe or dead at the bottom of the river? Almighty let me find them all alive. If I've made a mistake, I will gladly pay, but not this, not now. You know I cherish that family and my dearest friends. Let me see their smiling faces again though I don't deserve it."

Guilt rattled his mind. Had he sacrificed everyone that mattered to him with his insane desire driven by years of guilt to make Ahner Breeden see the truth? He remembered Mingo's painful words telling him to shoot Breeden. Had he forsaken his closest friend by leaving him behind? Mingo, whose father apparently wanted his son killed—that thought sickened Daniel.

He arose from the muddy bank of the river and climbed stiffly back into his canoe just as the rain turned to sleet that stung his exposed face and hands. The temperature had dropped below freezing. On his knees, he forced the oar through the water, fighting the strong current. He felt alone in the world and sadder in his heart than the day he had buried his oldest son, James.


Daniel stepped through the open door of the tavern at the fort into warmth. He leaned Tick-licker against the wall then pulled off his coonskin cap and found it frozen stiff. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, they fell upon the soft face of his red-headed pretty wife, Becky.

"Dan! Thank God!" Becky ran to her husband and threw her arms about him. Jemima followed close behind her mother. Both were too tearful to speak. Jemima laughed and cried all at once.

"Oh Becky," Daniel said with a sob, his face buried in her hair. "I'm so sorry. Can you forgive me? I didn't expect you to even be here. I thought you and the children might be…"

"Poor Dan," Becky said with a sigh and a shake of her head. "We were about to send out a search party for you. No one had given up hope that you would return." Becky looked up into Daniel's eyes and smiled. "Dan, you have good friends looking out for you and your family. Why must you always think it's all about you?" She ran her hand through Daniel's disheveled hair and down the nape of his neck. "You've come home. That's all I ask." The tears fell freely from Becky's bright blue eyes.

"Yadkin and Mingo? Tell me they are alive and well."

"Yes and new friends, Meriwether and Percy Cleves."

Yadkin called out from the bar with a big grin on his face, "Of course we're alive, Dan'l. What do you take us for? Greenfish?"

Daniel looked around and saw Percy Cleves telling a story to some new friends, patrons of the tavern. On the opposite side of the room, white-haired Dr. Cleves sat near the fire in Cincinnatus's best chair. A chair that Cincinnatus only dragged out of his own quarters for very special visitors. The doctor looked up and smiled at Daniel.

"Where's Mingo?" Daniel asked.

"Over by the fire," Cincinnatus said from behind the bar, "I thought I best keep him down here where we can keep an eye on him."

Daniel separated from Becky and Jemima.

Jemima laughed. "Pa you best put some of that Kentucky mud back or we won't have anything to plant the corn in this spring."

Daniel didn't understand his daughter at first until he saw she was looking him up and down. He looked down and saw the source of her mirth—mud covered him from head to toe. He slipped out of his heavy coat and hung it along with his haversack and powder horn on a hook by the door. "Better, 'Mima?" he said with a wink.

She giggled and ran off to sit next to Percy.

Daniel stepped to the fire where he found Mingo lying on a pallet, apparently asleep with a sleeping Israel in his arms. He gazed upon Mingo's cut and bruised face, the wrapping about his ribs. His heart sank at the sight. It looked much worse in the firelight than it had in the moonlight, though the absence of the blood provided some relief.

"Mr. Boone," Dr. Cleves said, "I am most pleased to see you alive and well, though you appear to be greatly fatigued. Perhaps you should take this chair awhile." The doctor arose and helped Daniel to the chair.

The frontiersman smiled. "Thank you. I believe I owe you fellers a 'round o' drinks."

"That can wait until you are rested." The doctor followed Daniel's worried gaze. "Your friend will mend. I gave him a painkiller that has the unfortunate side effect of profound drowsiness. He has been asleep for nearly two days."

"Two days? Thundering rabbits. Can I have some of that?"

The doctor laughed. "I think that would be in order."

The doctor placed his hand on Daniel's shoulder. "He's very strong. He'll be fine."

"Yes, of course. It's the state of his mind that has me worried. He was facing death head on for hours with those men before I got to him, and still willing to sacrifice his own life for me. Breeden was going to kill him just for spite... and believe it or not, that's not the worst of it."

"Well," Doctor Cleves said, "I believe he has a truly good friend--a brother--equal to the task of assisting in his recovery." The doctor smiled and walked off to join his nephew.

Israel awoke and looked sleepily at his father for a moment. "Pa?"

"Yep. It's me, hon."

Israel got up and climbed into Daniel's lap.

"You all right, boy?" Daniel asked gazing into his son's clear blue eyes.

"Yep. They tried to kill Mingo, Pa."

"I know."

"Did you go see Chief Blackfish?"

"Yep." Daniel's eyebrows cocked upwards. "He said to tell you howdy-do."

Israel grinned. "No he didn't. Don't be tellin' whoppers, Pa."

Daniel frowned in mock outrage.

"Daniel, good to see you alive," Mingo said in a quiet voice.

"I can say the same about you--though, I've seen you a mite better looking. Too bad it's not spring, we could plant you in the corn field to scare off the crows."

Mingo smiled. "We could put you at the hen house. The foxes would mistake you for a bear that's been rolling in a pig sty."

Daniel frowned and sniffed. "That bad, eh?"

Israel laughed

"I bet I am a scary sight," Daniel said. "At least Israel still knows me."

"Did you bring that outlaw wolf back into the pack?" Mingo asked.

Daniel looked puzzled at his friend.

The native's one good eyebrow rose. "I can see that self-satisfied look upon your face as well as any man."

"Mingo, you are mistaken. That is relief you see on my face. Relief that Almighty Providence saw fit to let me find my family and friends safe and sound. I thought you were the sacrificial lamb for my errant past for a very long dark moment that I shan't soon forget."

"So what happened?"

"It's a long story. I think it would be best for you to be well and recovered when I tell it."

"My father sent Breeden here."

Mingo's words surprised Daniel. He hesitated to reply. "You know then?"

"He had some involvement with it. I heard the pirates speak his name."

"Let's converse on that subject when you're well, all right? You look to me like you need a bit more than two days rest."

The Cherokee sighed and turned his dark eyes upon the crackling fire.

"So," Daniel yelled, "someone want to tell me what happened while I was gone? Mingo, seems like I remember telling you to stay put. I don't think anyone here did what I told 'em to do. Should I be thankful for that?"

"I can tell ya, Pa," Israel said. "I saw it all with my own eyes."

"What happened to Breeden, Dan'l?" Yadkin asked as he walked up with a hot rum and handed it to the weary frontiersman.

"Ah, perfect, Yadkin. And I feel like drinking it this time." Daniel took a long sip of the drink. "Blackfish decided to give Breeden another chance at life…as a Shawnee."

"No, you don't say?" Cincinnatus said, walking up beside Daniel, wiping his hands dry on his long white apron.

"Yep."

"Dan'l, is it true that Breeden ran a store just like mine back in the Carolinas?" Cincinnatus asked.

"Yep, among other things. He was an enterprising man."

"You just cain't trust them dry goods mercheents," Yadkin said. "They're all land pirates as far as I'm concerned." He looked smugly down his nose at Cincinnatus.

"Is that so?" Cincinnatus crossed his arms and faced Yadkin. "Well I'll tell you who cain't be trusted. It's yahoos like you that steal an honest man blind whenever his back is turned."

"'Natus, are you callin' me a thief?"

"If the shoe fits…I dare you t' empty your pockets."

Yadkin looked wearily at Daniel.

"It's just a little bit o' jerky, 'Natus," Yad said. "That's hardly goin' to break you."

"Humph." Cincinnatus slammed his fist to his hip, looked at Daniel in exasperation and stuck his thumb at Yad. "I tell ya, that there'll drive an honest man to savagery and pirating like nothing else."

Daniel smiled at his friends. He looked across the room at Percy who was swinging his arms about and talking to a group of locals hanging on his every word. "That boy don't look the same as I last saw him. Looks like he's got himself a story."

Yadkin laughed. "Yep, his mouth has been going non-stop since we got back to the fort. He's tellin' 'em how he…and a few friends," Yadkin winked at Daniel, "scared off a whole pack o' pirates by pretendin' to be Indians."

Daniel's jaw dropped as he realized what Yadkin had done. "You mean to tell me that was you sitting at that fire wrapped in that Indian blanket with those feathers in your…"

The trapper twirled the end of his blond moustache and smiled. "Yep, me and the fearsome Cleves."

"Well, I'll be--"

Israel sat up in his father's lap. "Pa, let me tell ya."

"That's right, Pa," Mingo said, "let Israel tell you. He filled your shoes while you were gone. He has practiced on me for hours but I keep falling asleep on him. He needs to tell his story."

"All right, Israel, I'm all ears." Daniel sat his rum down on the hearth and settled back in the soft leather chair.

"Well, Pa, you see there were these fierce pirates and …well, they grabbed me and Jemima and Ma…"

Daniel frowned. "Did your Ma open that door?"

Israel hesitated. "Huh? I didn't see that Pa…they marched us off into the woods…then they heard the wolves howling and I told 'em those wolves were going to eat them alive…"

Daniel chuckled as he closed his eyes.

"Are you listening, Pa?"

"Yep. I'm just listening with my eyes closed, Israel."

"All right then….them pirates had big swords and gold rings hanging off their ears…but they got all scared when they heard the wolf's howl…and then you know what happen then Pa? That big bad pirate didn't know to look for the north star, he got us lost, and then he got all mad at me for telling him how to find the north star…

"Do tell?"

"I'm telling it the way I know it. Well we came upon a whole herd of them pirates and they were mean and nasty…"