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Episode Number: 3, according to broadcast order.
Elizabeth is alone in the woods near Fort Bennington, picking berries. As she goes deeper into the woods, she hears a noise, and finds a wildcat ensnared by a trap. Gingerly she frees it, but hears what sounds like a huge bear stalking her. She begins to panic, and runs headlong through the woods, tripping over brush and fallen trees, until she sees Hawkeye come out of the shadows with a deer he has killed over his shoulders. Humiliated at her panic, she follows him back to safety at the fort. There they learn that a wagon train of supplies for her trading post, and gunpowder for the British, was attacked by a large force of French and Hurons. Captain Taylor Shields, upon learning from the wagoners’ leader, Falke, that it was his powder that was captured, confiscates Elizabeth’s trading post supply, to her fury and dismay.
Shields sends a scout to find his missing powder, but his scout finds not the stolen powder, but a company of French regulars at nearby Bear Creek. Shields prepares to follow them with a squad of soldiers, while in the fort, the settlers begin to buy up all the supplies in apprehension of the nearness of the enemy.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth, shaken by being lost and helpless, realizes that if she is to survive in the wilderness while waiting for her husband William’s rescue, she must learn survival skills like shooting a musket and tracking game. A letter comes for Hawkeye, and she takes it to him in the woods, but it is an excuse to apologize to him for her anger in him having to rescue her when she became lost. He points out that all she need do is to watch her tracks when she is in the woods, as he did when he saw her encounter the bobcat. He tells her that if she needs him, he will be hunting in a certain part of the wood tomorrow. She leaves him, and is delighted to find her way back to the fort unassisted by following his advice and watching her foot tracks.
Hawkeye and Chingachgook meet by a stream, and when Chingachgook asks why he does not read his letter, Hawkeye is too ashamed to tell him that he cannot read the white man’s words. Chingachgook then tells him an Indian story of a brave and a bear, and how they changed their ways to become friends. He suggests that Hawkeye can change, too.
Elizabeth meets him the next day at his canoe with her musket and supplies, and asks Hawkeye to teach her the ways of the wilderness and survival. He agrees, in exchange for her teaching him to read. They go off by canoe for a hunting trip to Warika island, unaware that Falke, with Stye, Bart and Wilkes, the other wagon train guards, lied about the stolen powder, and cached it to sell later to the French. They arrive also by canoes, with the kegs of gunpowder for the French soldiers who are going to meet them there.
Hawkeye begins to teach Elizabeth to read tracks and shoot, and she is amazed at the kick of her musket. Falke hears the shot, and sends Stye is sent to kill them, while Bart finds and destroys their canoe. He fires at them, but Hawkeye captures and ties him up. Hawkeye finds the other wagoners’ with the gunpowder awaiting the arrival of the French. He realizes that there are too many, and that he and Elizabeth, who he thinks would be of little help, must hide until they can escape. They take refuge in an abandoned cave. That evening, Elizabeth starts to teach Hawkeye his letters before they rest, and while she is impressed at how quickly he learns, each realizes that they are becoming more attracted to one another. She sleeps while Hawkeye guards the cave entrance, knowing she is safe with him. But while Hawkeye goes out to set traps against the wagoners’ at dawn, Elizabeth is awakened a hand stroking her hair, and is startled to find she has captured by Bart. She is brutally dragged out into the forest, where she is rescued by Hawkeye, who has also knocked out Wilkes. Realizing that they have whittled them down one by one, Hawkeye lays a plan against the remaining wagoner, Falke, and the French. When he tells her to return to safety, she insists in helping him, even though her aim is still poor.
When the French Captain and his men arrive to get the gunpowder from Falke, Hawkeye and Elizabeth “surround” them. By firing at them from different positions in the woods, the two make the French think there are two hundred, and hold them until Taylor arrives with his men to complete the capture. The dismayed Falke and the French and Indians lay down their arms and surrender.
Taylor is amazed to see Elizabeth holding the prisoners with a musket, and asks what she is doing there. “I’ve found my missing powder” she replies with satisfaction. Back at the fort, Hawkeye finds Elizabeth, with a sore shoulder from her musketry, in the trading post now empty of supplies from the panic, sipping a cup of tea. He tells her that when an Indian brave performs a great feat of courage, he receives an eagle feather as a sign of his bravery, and presents one to Elizabeth. Touched, she in turn presents him with her fathers’ dictionary to further his reading skills, inscribed ‘To my teacher, Hawkeye.’
Later that day, she writes in her diary “since William’s capture I have wondered how I will survive until he is freed; how I can exist in this place that fills me with fear. This week, I heard an answer. This is the time that has been given me, my time to learn, to grow, to face the things that have frightened me all my life. Like
the dawn rising over this savage wilderness outside my window, I also feel a new spirit arising within me. Once again, it is Hawkeye I have turned to for help, and he’s agreed. But I have come to realize who teaches by example, and just by watching him I will grow. Just by coming to know him, I will learn.”
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