His conjectures were in part just, and occasionally
the bee-hunter was absolutely accurate in his notions of what was
said. The frequency with which different individuals knelt on the
ground, to scent an odor that is always so pleasant to the red man,
would of itself have given a clew to the general character of the
discourse; but the significant and expressive gestures, the rapid
enunciation, and the manner in which the eyes of the speakers
glanced from the faces near themselves to the spot consecrated by
whiskey, pretty plainly told the story. It was while thus intently
occupied in endeavoring to read the singular impression made on the
minds of most of those wild beings, by an incident so much out of
the usual track of their experience, that le Bourdon suddenly found
the bow of his canoe thrusting itself beyond the inner margin of the
rice, and issuing into open water, within ten feet of the very spot
where the two nearest of the savages were still conferring together,
apart. The buckskin thong which served as a fastening had got
loosened, and the light craft was again drifting down before the
strong southerly wind, which still continued to blow a little gale.
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