It was not likely, he reasoned, that men
coming with hostile designs, would have suffered first
the boy to be despatched on a mission which, obscurely
as he had worded his directions, must in some measure
have been understood by the chief; and, secondly, permitted
Ephraim Giles to leave the house in the manner just
seen--particularly when the suspicion entertained by him
as well as by Le Noir and himself, must have been apparent.
But the Canadian drew no such inference from these facts.
Although he could not speak the Winnebago language, he was
too conversant with the customs of the Indians, to perceive,
in what they permitted in this seeming confidence, anything
but guile. He felt assured they had allowed the boy to
depart on his errand SOLELY that they might have a greater
number of victims in their power. Nothing was more easy,
numerous as they were, than to despatch THEM, and then,
lying in ambush among the trees that skirted the banks, to
shoot down every one in the fishing boat before a landing
could be effected, and preparations made for defence; while,
in the indifference of their conduct in regard to the
departure of Ephraim Giles, he saw but a design to disarm
suspicion, and thus induce them to lay by their arms, the
reports of which would necessarily alarm the party expected,
and so far put them on their guard as to defeat their plans.
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