Tiger-Heart, the Tracker

Tiger-Heart, the Tracker; or, The Trapper of the Twin Cascades *A Romance of Indiana in 1811* by Captain Charles Howard (Beadle and Adams, 1874) The story opens November 3, 1811, four days before the Battle of Tippecanoe, in a glen near Fall Creek in Warren County, Indiana, dominated by twin cascades. Silas Frost, a bearded trapper, discovers a Kickapoo warrior trapped in his bear-trap stealing beaver pelts. Upon confrontation, the captive reveals himself as Hiram Gleason, a white spy carrying intelligence for General Harrison against Tecumseh. Frost releases him, tends his mangled leg, and offers to deliver Gleason's urgent news to Harrison. He leaves Gleason in his hidden cavern behind the cascade, entrusting his care to Omeme, an Indian girl he claims as his own. Frost departs into the forest. Chapter II introduces a mysterious owl signal and suggests darker forces—including one called "Tiger-Heart"—threatening the cavern's inhabitants.