On his way up stream, Pigeonswing met several more Indians; runners
like himself, or as he seemed to be; or scouts kept on the lookout
for the fugitives. He had no difficulty in deceiving these men. None
of them had been of Crowsfeather's party, and he was a stranger to
them all. Ignorant of his real character, they received his
information without distrust, and the orders he pretended to convey
were obeyed by them without the smallest hesitation. In this way,
then, Pigeonswing contrived to send all the scouts he met away from
the river, by telling them that there was reason to think the pale-
faces had abandoned the stream, and that it was the wish of Bear's
Meat that their trail should be looked for in the interior. This was
the false direction that he gave to all, thereby succeeding better
even than he had hoped in clearing the banks of the Kalamazoo of
observers and foes. Nevertheless, many of those whom he knew to be
out, some quite in the rear of the party, and others in its front,
and at no great distance from them, he did not meet; of course he
could not get his false directions to their ears. There were, in
fact, so many of the Indians and so few of the whites, that it was
an easy matter to cover the path with young warriors, any one party
of whom would be strong enough to capture two men and as many women.
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