d, "What occasion is there for more
beating of him--the black dog is dead enough."

I looked about for the person whom I supposed to have been wounded,
in vain--the whole mass was in motion. As soon as the tumult had
subsided, however, I was glad to find that no one had received any
serious injury; the ball had grazed the thigh of a youth (who had
arrived from Montreal on a visit to his father), and lodged in a log
of the building.

The uproar occasioned by the men soon brought the Indians from the
camp about the hut; and perceiving the apparently lifeless body
stretched on the floor, they raised a yell that was reverberated by
the surrounding hills. "Revenge! revenge!" shouted every savage
present. We mustered too strong, however, to permit their threats
being put into execution without great hazard to themselves; which
fact pressed itself so powerfully on their minds, that for the present
they discreetly vented their rage in abuse, and returned to their
quarters. Satisfied by the feeble beating of the Indian's pulse that
the vital spark was not extinct, I would not allow his kinsmen to
remove him. Towards morning, recovering the use of speech, he
inquired, in a voice scarcely audible, if he "had shed the blood of a
white man?" I replied in the affirmative. "Then," said he, "it would
have been better had you despatched me at once, for I shall certainly
be hanged."

With the view of pacifying the natives, I deemed it advisable to
represent the young man's wound as very severe, and exercised my wits
to give my representation the semblance of truth. I caused the young
man's leg to be carefully bandaged; and, luckily, happening to have
a fresh beaver in the house, the bandage was speedily besmeared with
its blood, and the sound patient placed in bed, with instructions how
to act his part. The Indians returned early on the following morning
to inquire after their young chief, and being all perfectly sober,
I descanted on the calamity of the previous night, describing _my_
young man's case to be of such a serious nature as to induce the
apprehension that death, or at least amputation of the limb, would be
the consequence. In confirmation of the veracity of this statement,
the afflicted leg was exposed to view, while the patient's groans,
which impressed on the minds of the bystanders the conviction of the
pain he endured, prevented too close a scrutiny.

"Alas!" they exclaimed, "it is all very true. Wagh! this is indeed