Certainly they had every
reason for thinking so. It was not likely that white enemies
were within a hundred miles of them, and, if so, it could only be
a wandering hunter or two, who would flee from this fierce band
of Senecas who bad taken revenge for the great losses that they'
had suffered the year before at the Oriskany.
They kept very little watch and built only a small fire, just
enough for broiling deer meat which they carried. They drank at
a little spring which ran from under a ledge near them, and gave
portions of the meat to the woman and children. After the woman
had eaten, they bound her hands, and she lay back on the grass,
about twenty feet from the camp fire. Two children lay on either
side of her, and they were soon sound asleep. The warriors, as
Indians will do when they are free from danger and care, talked a
good deal, and showed all the signs of having what was to them a
luxurious time. They ate plentifully, lolled on the grass, and
looked at some hideous trophies, the scalps that they carried at
their belts. The woman could not keep from seeing these, too,
but her face did not change from its stony aspect of despair.
Then the light of the fire went out, the sun sank behind the
mountains, and the five could no longer see the little group of
captives and captors.
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