228 •WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



always came back mth some of their number missing. They 

 had never been able to overtake, or even to approach the 

 mysterious and terrible Medicine Spirit. 



After this report got abroad, men began to mention the 

 name of Bill Smith again — but it was with a feeling of unac- 

 countable dread, and in low voices that they spoke. The 

 timidity and uncertain movements of desultory attack which 

 began to characterize the warfare of the Shawanees, once the 

 best organized and most formidable of the tribes, came now 

 to attract attention, too. But all conjecture was set to rest, 

 when, after awhile, Smith was seen to make his appear- 

 ance at the Forts occasionally — ^but this was only when the 

 Shawanees were knQwn to be engaged in a foray. He usually 

 came in ahead of the Indians, or after some unaccountable 

 fashion, suddenly appeared in the midst of a battle with them. 



He was at the Blue Lick, at the Raisin, threw himself into 

 Brian's Fort when it was stormed; and, indeed, he was known 

 to have been in nearly all the principal battles in which 

 Boone was present. 



He was never heard to speak to any one — ^he came without 

 a greeting and went without farewell. He was regarded with 

 a curious feeling of dread and respect by the Border people, 

 none of whom ever ventured to address a word to him. The 

 Shawanees were driven first across the Kan-tuck-ee River, 

 then across the Green River. 



Bill Smith disappeared, and never crossed Green River 

 again ; they thought towards the North that he must finally 

 have fallen a sacrifice to his monomania of vengeance. It 

 will be remembered by what accident I found his grave, and 

 heard from old Uncle Jake Latham something with regard to 

 his latter years. 



After seeing the last canoe of the Shawanees launched 

 upon the Ohio, and sending a death-messenger in farewell 

 after it, the old man had built him a hut in the most inacces- 

 sible part of the Green River Hills, and there the remainder 



