The Wood King

Catalog Note *The Wood King; or, Daniel Boone's Last Trail: A Romance of the Osage Country* by Jos. E. Badger Jr. (Beadle and Adams, 1878). A frontier action narrative set in spring 1814 Missouri during Native American uprisings. Daniel Boone, an aged but physically formidable hunter, rescues Lightfoot, a Kickapoo chief and friend, from pursuing Osage warriors at a river ford. Lightfoot reveals that he killed Osage chief Huspah during a tribal council debate over attacking white settlements, making him a hunted fugitive. The two take refuge in a riverside cave as Boone realizes a coordinated assault on frontier settlements may be imminent. The narrative culminates in a desperate defensive battle within the cave as Osage warriors attempt to overwhelm them through underwater approach, with Boone wielding rifles and knives while Lightfoot deploys bow and arrows against overwhelming numbers.