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Updated: May 17, 2025
Hast seen or heard anything on thy watch?" "Nothing. I had better have been in my warm bed and asleep, considering the hoeing I must give my corn-field to-morrow, than be watching a skeary Indian and a woman." "Thou hast little need to trouble thy gizzard on that score," returned Cowlson; "for, an' I mistake not greatly, the rain will fall heavy enough to spoil thy chance at hoeing.
Cowlson! friend Cowlson!" he asked, "art thou dead, or only scalped?" He listened for an answer, but none was returned. Proceeding round the little building, he soon found what he sought the soldier, tied by the neck and heels, in a most uncomfortable posture, and soaked with the rain. "Humph!" ejaculated Bars; "these salvages be learning civilization fast.
They had proceeded at a slow pace, on account of the females, and in silence, broken only by an occasional question and answer, for perhaps half an hour, when one of the men observed that either the moon had risen or the morning was breaking. "There is no moon, Cowlson," said a soldier; "nor, according to my reckoning, can it be much past midnight.
"Then, why did you admit them?" demanded Cowlson. "A fine question for you to ask, Jim Cowlson. An' I had not, the chance is they would have bowled you off with them, as a hostage for the sachem, and like as not burned us up besides. But the fact is, I was half asleep. An' I had been wide awake, perhaps I would have discovered the trick.
Soon after the departure of the first sentinel, his successor, Cowlson, seemed to consider it of very little importance to make his rounds with much diligence, and to be more intent on protecting himself from the rain, which began to fall, than to perform his duty.
And who would have guessed that Indians knew anything about countersigns? I wonder how they found it out." "I must report this night's work forthwith," said Cowlson, rising; "but I had almost as lief have lost my scalp as my musket."
An' I had done it myself, I could not have tied the knot with more judgment." Bars pretended to believe that the party consisted entirely of Indians; of which, however, Cowlson could by no means be persuaded; "for how," asked he, "could they learn our countersign?" "They be cunning vermin," said Bars. "But now, that I recollect, methinks that when they deceived me it sounded a little heathenish."
The colonists were exasperated at the breaking of the prison, justly concluding that it was not entirely the work of Indians, notwithstanding Bars, faithful to the impression made on him by the gold pieces, stoutly maintained such to be the fact; and that Cowlson was unable to contradict him. But it was, after all, only suspicion a suspicion, too, that pointed at various persons.
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