A rifleman so posted as to have his body
in a great measure covered by the trunk of a burr-oak tree, would be
reasonably secure against the missives of an Indian, and, using his
own fatal instrument of death, under a sense of personal security,
he would become a formidable opponent to dislodge. Nor was the
smallness of the work any objection to its security. A single well-
armed man might suffice to defend twenty-five feet of palisades,
when he would have been insufficient to make good his position with
twice the extent. Then le Bourdon had cut loops on three sides of
the hut itself, in order to fire at the bears, and sometimes at the
deer, which had often approached the building in its days of
solitude and quiet, using the window on the fourth side for the same
purpose. In a word, a sense of increased security was felt by the
whole party when this work was completed, though one arrangement was
still wanting to render it perfect. By separating the real garrison
from the nominal garrison during the night, there always existed the
danger of surprise; and the corporal, now that his fortifications
were finished, soon devised a plan to obviate this last-named
difficulty.
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