He was quite within the range of a
rifle, but trusted to the darkness of the night for his protection.
That scouts were out, watching the approaches to the hut, he felt
satisfied; and he did not doubt that some were prowling along the
margin of the Kalamazoo, either looking for the lost boats, or for
those who had taken them away. This made him cautious, and he took
good care not to place his canoe in a position of danger.
It was very apparent that the savages were in great uncertainty as
to the number of their enemies. Had not the rifle been fired, and
their warrior killed and scalped, they might have supposed that
their prisoner had found the means of releasing his limbs himself,
and thus effected his escape; but they knew that the Chippewa had
neither gun nor knife, and as all their own arms, even to those of
the dead man, were still in their possession, it was clear that he
had been succored from without. Now, the Pottawattamies had heard of
both the bee-hunter and Whiskey Centre, and it was natural enough
for them to ascribe some of these unlooked-for feats to one or the
other of these agents. It is true, the hut was known to have been
built three or four years earlier, by an Indian trader, and no one
of the party had ever actually seen Gershom and his family in
possession; but the conjectures on this head were as near the fact,
as if the savages had passed and repassed daily.
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