“You let an ‘old coon’ alone,” said Earth, “for I reckon that perhaps, I should hate it a little worser than you.”
“Earth, I'll tell you a notion that strikes me.”
“What is it?”
“Why, that this party has not gone to the camp.”
“What makes you think so?”
“Because, if Tecumseh is there, they would be afraid to go, for people generally say that he sticks to the treaty, and discountenances these things; and what every body says, you know, is right apt to have some truth in it. Another reason. If the Prophet is there, they would not go, because he preaches peace, and you know what a disturbance we have already had, about his refusing to give up a murderer.”
“There is something in what you say, Rolfe, but these Ingens are sly dogs; they are mighty tricky. If they are not here, where could they have gone?”
“They may have avoided the camp,” said Rolfe, “and have gone up the Wabash, where they are always assembling, or else have turned off, and gone to the west.”
“We'll see presently,” said Earth, and stretching themselves out they awaited the approach of night.
Several hours had now passed, when Earth rousing himself from a troubled sleep, left Rolfe, and proceeded cautiously to reconnoitre the camp. Cutting an armful of long prairie grass, and wrapping it about his body, so as to conceal, in some measure, the outlines of his person, he approached fearlessly until the fires of the Indians showed their exact position; when, crouching down, he gently stretched himself out, and began to pull his body slowly along. Feeling before him, he carefully removed every stick or reed which, if broken, would make the least noise, and crawling cautiously, continued his perilous task. Stopping every moment, he listened with suspended breath, to discover if his approach was heard, and proceeded in this way until he reached the southern edge of the encampment, where, by drawing his head down beneath his shoulders, and by a proper arrangement of the grass, a species of tact only known to a genuine hunter, he almost imperceptibly rose up, and appeared darkly shadowed forth as an old stump. At a few yards, and just before him were reposing a group of Indians half dosing, and whiffing in silence, their fumes of smoke to the midnight air. Earth gazed upon them for a short time and soon saw that from them, nothing was to be learned. Then, although not even the gentle waving of the grass disturbed the scene, he disappeared as though he had sunk into the ground.