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Page 72
"Ah! you horrid wretch--I see it all now, yet could I
have been so imposed upon? You then were the pretended
drunken Indian I let out that night? Upon my word, Master
Ronayne. I never will forgive you for that trick."
"Yes you will, old fellow. It was the only way to save
you from a scrape, but I confess I have often since
laughed in my sleeve at the recollection of the manner
in which I deceived you."
"Hang me if you didn't play your part to admiration, but
the best of the jest is, that on reporting the circumstance
to Headley, on the following morning, he said I had acted
perfectly right; so had you known this when you had that
scene on the parade, you might have pleaded his sanction.
However, all that is over. Now then for your adventure."
"The tale is soon told," began Ronayne. "On the evening
when you and Von Vottenberg were so busy, the one in
concocting his whisky-punch--the other in cutting up the
Virginia, I was sacking my brain for a means to accomplish
my desire to reach the farm, where I had a strong
presentiment, from the lateness of the hour, without
bringing any tidings of them, the fishing-party were,
with Mr. Heywood and his people, in a state of siege,
and I at length decided on what seemed to me to be the
only available plan. I was not sorry to see you leave
after taking your second glass, for I knew that I should
have little difficulty in sewing up the doctor, whose
tumbler I repeatedly filled, and made him drink off after
sundry toasts, while he did not perceive--or was by no
means sorry if he did--that I merely sipped from my own.
When I thought he had swallowed enough to prevent him
from interfering with my project, I bade him good night
and left him, knowing well that in less than ten minutes
he would be asleep. Instead, however, of going to bed,
I hastened at once to preliminaries, having first got
rid of my servant whom I did not wish to implicate, by
making him acquainted with my intended absence. But tell
me, did you examine my room at all the next day?"
"I did."
"And found nothing missing?"
"Nothing. I scouted everywhere, and found only yourself
wanting--the bed unrumpled, and everything in perfect
bachelor order."
"And that leather dress, my dear fellow, in which I once
paid a visit to the camp of Winnebeg, from whose squaw,
indeed, I had bought it. You know it generally hangs
against the wall at the foot of my bed."
"Ah! now I recollect, that was not there certainly,
although I did not notice its absence then--so then, that
was the dress you went out in, and I such a goose as not
to remark it."
"Because you know that I had had the precaution to throw
a blanket over it in the most approved Pottawattamie
style, while my features were colored with gambouge and
Indian ink."
"Well, say no more about that--I am ashamed to have been
so taken in by a Johnny Raw. We will now suppose you
kicked out of the Fort. Did I not kick you out," he added
humorously, "and say, begone, you drunken dog, and never
show your ugly face here again!"
"On the contrary," returned his junior in the same mocking
strain, "you were but too glad to be civil when I threatened
you with the 'gubbernor!'"
"Once out of the Fort," he gravely continued, "my course
was plain. I immediately went to the wigwam of Winnebeg,
whom I found seated, with his toes almost in the embers
of an expiring fire, and smoking his last pipe previous
to wrapping himself up for the night in his blanket. You
may imagine his surprise, when, after some little
difficulty, he recognized in that garb, and at that hour,
particularly after the events of the day, with which he
had been made acquainted by Mr. Frazer, before the latter,
with his family, took refuge in the Fort. Still, true to
the dignified reserve of his race, he concealed as much
as possible what was passing in his mind, and made me
sit by his side, near which, I have omitted to say, was
an extremely handsome young Indian, whom he presented to
me as his son, and then bade me tell him the object of
my visit.
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