"Now, let all the Pottawattamies stand back," added le Bourdon,
earnestly. "It might cost a warrior his life to come forward too
soon--or, if not his life, it might give a rheumatism that can never
be cured, which is worse. When it is time for my red brothers to
advance, they will be called."
As the bee-hunter accompanied this announcement by suitable
gestures, he succeeded in ranging all of the silent, but excited
savages on three sides of his fire, leaving that next his mysterious
spring to himself, alone. When all was arranged, le Bourdon moved
slowly, but unaccompanied, to the precise spot where the cask had
broken. Here he found the odor of the whiskey so strong, as to
convince him that some of the liquor must yet remain. On examining
more closely, he ascertained that several shallow cavities of the
flat rock, on which the cask had been dashed, still contained a good
deal of the liquor; enough to prove of great assistance to his
medicine character.
All this while the bee-hunter kept one portion of his faculties on
the alert, in order to effect his escape. That he might deceive for
a time, aided as he was by so many favorable circumstances, he did
not doubt; but he dreaded the morning and the results of a night of
reflection and rest.
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