a moment before, their confined and cheerless position had taught them a feeling of despondency not calculated to improve the comforts of their case.
The Indians had made their arrangements, on the other hand, with no little precaution. But they had been deceived and disappointed. Their scouts, who had previously inspected the fortress, had given a very different account of the defenses and the watchfulness of their garrison, to what was actually the fact upon their appearance. The scouts, however, had spoken truth, and but for the discovery made by Hector, the probability is that the Block House would have been surprised with little or no difficulty. Accustomed to obey Harrison as their only leader, the foresters present never dreamed of preparation for conflict unless under his guidance. The timely advice of the trader's wife, and the confident assumption of command on the part of Walter Grayson, completed their securities. But for this, a confusion of counsels, not less than of tongues, would have neutralized all action and left them an easy prey, without head or direction, to the knives of their insidious enemy. Calculating upon surprise and cunning as the only means by which they could hope to balance the numerous advantages possessed by European warfare over their own, the Indians had relied rather more on the suddenness of their onset and the craft peculiar to their education than on the force of their valor. They felt themselves baffled, therefore, in their main hope, by the sleepless caution of the garrison and now prepared themselves for other means.
They made their disposition of force with no little judgment. Small bodies, at equal distances, under cover, had been stationed all about the fortress. With the notes of the whippoorwill they had carried on their signals and indicated the several stages of their preparation, while, in addition to this, another band,—a sort of forlorn hope, consisting of the more
