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Page 10
Better, he thought, that they who received the pay of
the Government, for upholding its interests and dignity,
should be subject to a frequent recurrence of duty--not
in itself particularly irksome-than that an important
post--the nucleus of the future prosperity of the
State--should be perilled by the absence of that vigilance
which ought to characterize the soldier. If he allowed
to be retrenched, or indeed left unemployed, any of that
military exhibition, which tends to impress upon the many
the moral superiority of the few, where, he argued, would
be their safety in the hour of need; and if those duties
were performed in a slovenly manner, and without due
regard to SCENIC effect, the result would be to induce
the wily savage to undervalue that superiority which
discipline chiefly secured to the white warrior. Captain
Headley was discriminating and observant. He had, more
than once, remarked the surprise and admiration created
among the Indians who had access within the stockade, at
the promptness and regularity of the system introduced
into it, and this, of itself, was a sufficient motive to
cause him to persevere in the course his judgment had
adopted.
Such was the condition of affairs at the moment when
Ephraim Giles, breathless with speed, and fancying the
party of Winnebagoes close upon his heels, made his entry
into the Fort. The news he brought was of a nature to
assemble the officers, as well as many of the men and
women, all anxious to hear the details of an occurrence,
which now, for the first time since their arrival at the
Fort, had created serious apprehension. But there was
one of the party who manifested more than ordinary
uneasiness. His impatience was great, and, after having
whispered a few words in the ear of Captain Headley, and
received an affirmative reply, coupled with an injunction
of caution, he left the building in haste, and proceeded
towards the block-houses, where, selecting half a dozen
men, and ordering them to arm on the instant, he passed
with them through the gate--sprang into a large scow
which was unchained from its moorings, on the bank of
the river, and pulled in the direction of the house
already said to have been occupied by the wife and
daughter of Mr. Heywood.
Meanwhile, Captain Headley closely interrogated the
fugitive as to the number and appearance of the Indians
who had created all this alarm, their probable object in
visiting the farm in this seemingly hostile manner, and
the number of shots he had heard fired. To all these
questions the soldier, who had now, in some degree,
recovered from his panic, replied in the usual drawling
tone, his stick and knife, which had been drawn forth
again from his pocket, in which he had deposited them in
crossing from the farm-house, affording him his usual
amusement, but nothing, of course, was elicited beyond
what has already been related. Whether any one had been
killed in the house, or the guns merely discharged to
frighten the fugitive, or that the reports had proceeded
from the fishing party that had been sent for, with a
view to alarm the Indians, and deter them from the
commission of outrage, were surmises that severally
occurred to Captain Headley, but without enabling him to
arrive at any definite opinion. That there was cause for
apprehension, there was no doubt. The appearance of a
band of strange Indians in the neighborhood, however
small in number, dressed in their war-paint, gave earnest
of coming trouble, not only through their own acts, but
through the influence of example on the many other tribes
whom they had been accustomed to look upon as friends
and allies. In the midst of these reflections arose a
feeling of self-gratulation that he had preserved that
discipline and strict attention to duty, which, he knew,
that all must now admit to have been correct, and which,
if any difficulty did occur, could not fail to prove of
the utmost importance.
His first consideration now was the safety of the small
fishing party, to which allusion has more than once been
made in the preceding pages, and which it was a source
of satisfaction to him to recollect were, in accordance
with an order never departed from on these and similar
excursions, furnished with the necessary arms and
ammunition, although only in their fatigue dress.
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