He chose, therefore, to trust to
his own ability to succeed; and supposing the fugitives would not be
particularly on their guard at this point, had little doubt of
intercepting them here, should they succeed in eluding those he had
left above.
The bee-hunter distrusted that island, and used extra caution in
passing it. In the first place, the two canoes were brought
together, so as to give them, in the dark, the appearance of only
one; while the four men added so much to the crew as to aid the
deception. In the end it proved that one of Bear's Meat's canoes
that was paddling about in the middle of the river had actually seen
them, but mistook the party for a canoe of their own, which ought to
have been near that spot, with precisely six persons in it, just at
that time. These six warriors had landed, and gone up among the
cottages of the French to obtain some fruit, of which they were very
fond, and of which they got but little in their own villages. Owing
to this lucky coincidence, which the pretty Margery ever regarded as
another special interposition of Providence in their favor, the
fugitives passed the island without molestation, and actually got
below the last lookouts of Bear's Meat, though without their
knowledge.
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