At any rate, they had
learned enough to satisfy themselves that a rich prize was within their
grasp. Leaving one of their number in the strange canoe, they had
passed on down-stream, concealing the absence of their comrade with
such skill, that the watchful eye of the Huron failed to detect it.
Beyond a doubt they were lingering in the vicinity, ready to come to
his assistance at the first signal.
The instructions of the warrior who remained behind were to shoot the
savage at the moment of his appearance, and, in case he had a
companion, to put out in the stream at once and call to his friends,
who would immediately come to him. A brief glance at the situation of
the Miami will show that his task was one of no ordinary peril,
especially if the returning Indian should have any apprehension of
danger. If he chose, the latter could swim out to the rock, and walk
over its surface to its outer edge, when he would be directly above the
Miami, and could brain him with his tomahawk in an instant. As the
physical exertion thus incurred would be greater than the simple act of
swimming out to the canoe, it was not likely such a thing would take
place, unless, as we have said, the suspicions of the approaching
savage be aroused. The probability was that the latter would take
precisely the same course that we have seen the Huron take, that is, if
he believed the coast clear; but as there was no certainty of this, the
Miami was compelled to keep watch both up-stream and down-stream, and
it was thus it happened that his back was turned to Oonomoo at the very
moment he came around the edge of the rock.
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