But in one instance in this same year and same neighborhood the assailed settlers retaliated, with effect.

It was near Wheeling.

A lad named John Wetzel, one of a noted border family of coarse, powerful, illiterate Indian fighters, had gone out from the fortified village in which his kinsfolk were living to hunt horses.

Another boy went with him.

There were several stray horses, one being a mare which belonged to Wetzel's sister, with a colt, and the girl had promised him the colt if he would bring the mare back.