d cannon commanded all
approach. Radisson fired a musket to notify the sentry, and took care
to beach his canoe below the range of the guns. Young Gillam showed a
less civil front than before. His lieutenant ironically congratulated
Radisson on his "safe" return, and invited him to visit the fort if he
would enter _alone_. When Radisson would have introduced his four
followers, the lieutenant swore "if the four French were forty devils,
they could not take the New Englanders' fort." The safety of the
French habitation now hung by a hair. Everything depended on keeping
the two English companies apart, and they were distant only nine miles.
The scheme must have flashed on Radisson in an intuition; for he laid
his plans as he listened to the boastings of the New Englanders. If
father and son could be brought together through Radisson's favor,
Captain Gillam would keep the English from coming to the New England
fort lest his son should be seized for poaching on the trade of the
Company; and Ben Gillam would keep his men from going near the English
fort lest Governor Bridgar should learn of the contraband ship from
Boston. Incidentally, both sides would be prevented from knowing the
weakness of the French at Fort Bourbon. At once Radisson told young
Gillam of his father's presence. Ben was eager to see his father and,
as he thought, secure himself from detection in illegal trade.
Radisson was to return to the old captain with the promised provisions.
He offered to take young Gillam, disguised as a bush-ranger. In
return, he demanded (1) that the New Englanders should not leave their
fort; (2) that they should not betray themselves by discharging cannon;
(3) that they shoot any Hudson's Bay Company people who tried to enter
the New England fort. To young Gillam these terms seemed designed for
his own protection. What they really accomplished was the complete
protection of the French from united attack. Father and son would have
put themselves in Radisson's power. A word of betrayal to Bridgar, the
Hudson's Bay governor, and both the Gillams would be arrested for
illegal trade. Ben Gillam's visit to his father was fraught with all
the danger that Radisson's daring could have desired. A seaman half
suspected the identity of the bush-ranger, and Governor Bridgar wanted
to know how Radisson had returned so soon when the French fort was far
away. "I told him, smiling," writes Radisson, "that I could fly when
there