depart on his errand SOLELY that they might have a greater
number of victims in their power. Nothing was more easy,
numerous as they were, than to despatch THEM, and then,
lying in ambush among the trees that skirted the banks, to
shoot down every one in the fishing boat before a landing
could be effected, and preparations made for defence; while,
in the indifference of their conduct in regard to the
departure of Ephraim Giles, he saw but a design to disarm
suspicion, and thus induce them to lay by their arms, the
reports of which would necessarily alarm the party expected,
and so far put them on their guard as to defeat their plans.
The very appearance of Giles, moreover, crossing the water,
if seen by the descending boat would, he thought they
imagined, be a means of lulling the party into security,
and thus rendering them a more easy prey.

While the master and the servant were thus indulging
their opposite reflections, without, however, making any
intercommunication of them, Ephraim Giles, who had now
thrust his knife and stick into the pocket of his short
skirt, shoved off the only canoe that was to be seen,
and stepping into it, and seizing the paddle, urged it
slowly, and without the slightest appearance of hurry,
to the opposite bank, where, within less than ten minutes,
he had again hauled it up. Then, as coolly ascending the
bank, he approached one of the haystacks, and drew from
it a few handfuls of fodder which he spread upon the
ground, continuing to do so, as the cattle assembled
around, until he had gained the outermost haystack
bordering immediately upon the wood. This reached, he