When the weather grew frosty they were dressed in doe skin clothing and moccasins, ornamented as those of a chief's children; and slept on a bear skin wrapped in a vividly colored blanket, purchased from a French trader at Chicasaw Falls.
One morning in early November they were roused from sleep by Logan and told they were to be carried home across the great mountain. Many of the tribe gathered to see them off. Tecumseh gave John a bow, quiver and arrows and to Dorothy beaded moccasins. The priest took the old girdle from around him and in its place substituted a new one; which in sign language recited that he had been adopted into the family of the Panther and belonged to the Mingo priesthood. He was told to preserve and wear it and that no Indian henceforth would harm him.
The children were placed upon a doe skin pallet in the bottom of the canoe; then Logan and the two Indians who had helped kidnap them took their seats in the canoe, which, shoved from the shore, glided out into the river, and was soon paddled out of sight around a bend of the river; their Indian friends standing on the bank and watching until it disappeared.
Twelve days later they reached the head of canoe travel on the Kanawha and rested for the night. The next morning at first light, Logan with the two children, leaving the two Indians, traveled eastward along a narrow trail, following the stream until it became a mountain torrent, dashing in spray over boulders and down declivities. At night they slept at its very head under an overhanging cliff, from the foot of which the river's first waters gurgled forth.
Mid-afternoon of the next day they crossed the divide through the pass; and from a projecting rock on the eastern slope saw again their own home and below in the Valley, the church and school house of the settlement.
Richard Cameron was milking the cows. He saw Jerry run up the mountain path and heard several glad, sharp barks. He looked up and saw an Indian, whom he recognized as Logan, and accompanying him two small Indian children.
The children ran forward, the dog barking and frisking at their heels. When they were near they called out: "Hello, Richard! Hello, Mr. Mason!" and together they all ran to the house.