Passing the Osages, he came back to Ethelston, and said to him, while the missionary filled a small tin cup with water, “My brother’s eyes have been shut, let him be ready now; one of the prisoners is free, and has almost cut the bands of a second.”
Accustomed to dangers and emergencies, Ethelston did not start nor take any outward notice of the young Delaware’s observation; but he replied, “It is true, I have been heedless; but it is not too late to repair the error: seize him while he is drinking, I will secure the others; do not take life if it can be avoided.”
Wingenund took the hint and carried the cup round, offering a draught to each of the pinioned Osages, without appearing to notice the severed thong hanging from the wrist of the one who had freed himself.
Thus thrown off his guard, and thinking he was unsuspected, the Osage stooped to drink from the cup, when Wingenund seized him with his left hand, and, presenting a pistol to his breast, said to him in his own tongue, “If you stir, you die.”
Reckless of consequences, and despairing of mercy in the Delaware camp, the fierce Osage sprang upon the youth, and strove to wrench the pistol from his grasp. Being a powerful man, he might have succeeded in the attempt, had not a blow from the butt end of Ethelston’s rifle laid him stunned and prostrate on the ground.
The three other prisoners, seeing their comrade’s helpless condition, ceased from the violent efforts which they had been making to free themselves, and by the time that he had recovered from the effects of the blow, his arms were pinioned more strongly than before, and the thongs by which the others were fastened were re–examined and secured.
While engaged in this operation, Wingenund showed to Ethelston a sharp flint with which the Osage had cut his own bands, and had begun to separate those of his next comrade in the line of march: a few minutes more and his hands would also have been free, in which case the task of our two friends would not have proved so easy.
Ethelston well understood Wingenund’s meaning as the latter showed him the half–cut thong on the wrist of the second Indian, and he said, “I confess I was blind, my young friend, and am ashamed of myself! you will have but a low opinion of my talents as a warrior.”
“My brother’s eye may have wandered a little,” replied the youth, smiling, “because he is not skilled in the Washashee tricks; but his heart is in the right place, and his hand knows how to strike; a few suns will rise and set before the skull of that dog forgets what my brother bestowed upon it.”