"If he was down here he'd be certain to make trouble."
"Pontiac isn't thinking of us just now, Henry. I believe he is plotting to attack the big forts. He'll leave the under chiefs to attack the little posts and the settlements."
For several days after Sanderson's departure for the east, matters ran along smoothly at the trading-post. Only a few well-known Indians came in, to exchange furs for other commodities. These Indians reported having seen some Ottawas on the Ohio, moving to the northward.
"Perhaps they have left the vicinity," said James Morris, and breathed a short sigh of relief. He had seen so much of excitement he wanted no more of it.
On the following day Henry went out to do some fishing. He had with him a strong pike pole and also the necessary lines and bait. He traveled a short distance down the river, and finding a spot that suited him, cut a circular hole in the ice with his pike pole and then started to fish.
It was a clear, cold day, and as the fish did not bite very lively the youth occasionally walked around to keep his blood in circulation. Once he walked a short distance up the shore, to look around a bend, and there to his surprise saw six Indians, hurrying into the depths of the wilderness with a heavy bundle among them.
"Can they be going to our post?" he asked himself. "If so, they are taking a roundabout way of getting there."
He watched the Indians out of sight and then returned to his fishing. But he had lost interest in the spoil, and soon wound up his lines and hurried back to the post, where he told his uncle of what he had seen.
"Six Indians, and all strainers, eh?" said James Morris. "If they are coming here they ought to arrive soon."
He hurried out and made his preparations to receive them. At the post at the time were Tony Jadwin and three other frontiersmen—all the others, and the friendly Indians, being out hunting or trapping. James Morris called the crowd together.