St. Clair and Wayne 105 



found three Indians roasting venison by a fire, on 

 a high open piece of ground, clear of brushwood. 

 By taking advantage of the cover yielded by a fallen 

 treetop the three scouts crawled within seventy 

 yards of the camp-fire ; and Wells and Miller agreed 

 to fire at the two outermost Indians, while McClel- 

 lan, as soon as they had fired, was to dash in and 

 run down the third. As the rifles cracked the two 

 doomed warriors fell dead in their tracks; while 

 McClellan bounded forward at full speed, tomahawk 

 in hand. The Indian had no time to pick up his 

 gun; fleeing for his life he reached the bank of the 

 river, where the bluffs were twenty feet high, and 

 sprang over into the stream-bed. He struck a miry 

 place, and while he was floundering McClellan came 

 to the top of the bluff and instantly sprang down 

 full on him, and overpowered him. The others 

 came up and secured the prisoner, whom they found 

 to be a white man; and to Miller's astonishment it 

 proved to be his brother Christopher. The scouts 

 brought their prisoner, and the scalps of the two 

 slain warriors, back to Wayne. At first Christopher 

 was sulky and refused to join the whites; so at 

 Greeneville he was put in the guard house. After 

 a few days he grew more cheerful, and said he had 

 changed his mind. Wayne set him at liberty, and 

 he not only served valiantly as a scout through the 

 campaign, but acted as Wayne's interpreter. Early 

 in July he showed his good faith by assisting Mc- 

 Clellan in the capture of a Pottawatomie chief. 

 On one of Wells' scouts he and his companions 



