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Page 19
"Pity they don't make a general of you, corporal," remarked
Collins, as he proceeded quietly with Green to the execution
of the duty assigned to them. "I guess Washington himself
couldn't better command a little army. Is your battle order
finished, general?"
"None of your nonsense, master Collins, this is no time
for jesting. Go and dry these arms, and when you have
them so that they can send a bullet from their throats,
join Jackson and Philips in covering the boat. Weston
and I will take up our first station."
And in less time than we have taken to describe the cause
of the alarm, and the instructions given in consequence,
the men had hastened to execute the several duties assigned
to them on shore, while Cass remained, not only with a
view of showing the Indians that the boat was not wholly
unguarded, but to be enabled to inform his comrades, who
could distinctly hear him without rendering any particular
elevation of the voice necessary, of any important movement
on the part of the former. This quietude of arrangement
on the part of Corporal Nixon had, seemingly, been not
without effect. It was evident that the Indians had no
suspicion that they had been seen, and even when the men
coolly quitted the boat, they showed no impatience
indicative of an impression that the party were seeking
to shield themselves from an impending danger.
"This silence is strange enough," said the corporal to
his companion, after they had been some minutes secreted
in the cavity from which the departure of the Indian with
the boat had been arrested. "I almost wish they would
fire a shot, for that would at once tell us how to act,
and what we are to expect, whether they are friendly
Indians or not."
But no shot was fired, and from the moment when the men
quitted the boat, and took up their positions, everything
had continued silent as the grave on the opposite shore,
and not the vestige of an Indian could be seen.
"But for that scalp," again remarked the corporal, "I
should take the party to have been friendly Indians,
perhaps just returned from a buffalo hunt, and come down
to the water to drink. They are surely gone again."
"Look there," said Weston, in a subdued tone, while he
placed his hand on the shoulder of his superior, as both
lay crouched in their hiding-place, "look there, corporal,"
and he pointed with his finger to the opposite bank.
"Do you see that large, blackish log lying near the
hickory, and with its end towards us?"
"I do--what of it?"
"Well, don't you see something crouching like between
the log and the tree--something close up to both. See!
it moves now a little."
Corporal Nixon strained his gaze in the direction indicated,
but was obliged to admit that, although he distinctly
enough saw the log and the tree, he could not discern
any between thing them.
"NOW, do you see it?" again eagerly inquired Weston, as,
at that moment, the same animal was seen to turn itself
within the very limited space which had been indicated.
"Yes, I see it now," replied the Virginian, "but it's as
likely to be a hog as a man, for anything I can make of
that shape; a hog that has been filling his skin with
hickory nuts, and is but now waking out of his sleep.
Still, as the Injins were there just now, it may be that
if they're gone, they've left a spy behind them. We'll
soon know how matters stand, for it won't do to remain
here all night. Cass," addressing the man in the boat
who was seated low in the stern, only occasionally taking
a sly peep, and immediately withdrawing his head, "place
your cap on the rudder, and lie flat in the bottom. If
they are there, and mean to fire at all, they will try
their hands at THAT."
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