CHAPTER 6
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Among the Pottawattomees
THE tepee of wise, old Shaubena, noted sachem of the Pottawattomees, and father of the dauntless Bright Star, was pitched some distance west of Fort Dearborn. When within a mile of the Indian village, Bill Brown and the two Gordons came upon a section of the regular foot-trail that was covered with water, as the spring freshet was now at its height. A slight detour to the north was thus made necessary.
“Look there!” exclaimed Ben Gordon, with a low cry, as the three came to the crown of a sloping ridge, giving them a view up an open glade that led off in a north-westerly direction.
“Down!” called Bill Brown, as his keen eyes followed the boy’s pointing finger. “Down! this may mean danger!”
Quickly throwing themselves prostrate behind some nearby rocks, the three whites looked up the narrow glade, directly upon an Indian camp of a half-dozen tepees. Well hidden behind the great, gray boulders, the trio occupied a splendid point of vantage, and, while secure from observation themselves, they could easily see all that went on in the savage encampment.
The six Indian tepees had been pitched in a rough circle, and, in the open, level space within, ten dusky braves, naked to the waist, were doing a dance of singular violence.
“Sacs!” declared Bill Brown, almost at once.