There was only one
point on which these close calculators of events were at fault. So
thoroughly had everything been removed from the chiente, and so
carefully the traces of its recent occupation concealed, that no one
among them suspected that the family had left the place only an hour
before their own arrival. The bee-hunter, moreover, was well assured
that the savages had not yet blundered on the hiding-place of the
furniture. Had this been discovered, its contents would have been
dragged to light, and seen around the fire; for there is usually
little self-restraint among the red men, when they make a prize of
this sort.
Nevertheless, there was one point about which even those keen-
scented children of the forest were much puzzled, and which the bee-
hunter perfectly comprehended, notwithstanding the distance at which
he was compelled to keep himself. The odor of the whiskey was so
strong, in and about the chiente, that the Pottawattamies did not
know what to make of it. That there should be the remains of this
peculiar smell--one so fragrant and tempting to those who are
accustomed to indulge in the liquor--in the hut itself, was natural
enough; but the savages were perplexed at finding it so strong on
the declivity down which the barrels had been rolled.
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