Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 8).djvu/106

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102
MILITARY ROADS

camp an Indian was pursued and killed. A little later a second solitary Indian scout was killed—after wounding one of his assailants. Trotter moved hither and thither with apparent aimlessness until nightfall when he returned to camp—to Harmar's disgust. The militia in camp had scattered in various directions searching for corn and other plunder which the savages had buried. The gun fired to call these into camp, Trotter affirmed, was thought to be an alarm signal for him to return. The men under Trotter displayed no more military characteristics than the prowling militia left at the encampment. Such men, it was sure, would suffer at the hands of the fierce, watchful enemy, if ever their turn should come.

It came on the very next day! It was now Colonel Hardin's turn to strike a blow, and he was ordered out on the Indian path which ran northwest toward the Kickapoo towns. Proceeding about eleven miles from camp (Fort Wayne, Indiana) to near the point where the Goshen state road crosses the Eel River, the keen scouter John Armstrong saw important "signs" and