The Indian fires showed dimly in the heavy dusk, and they
knew that sentinels were on watch in the woods, but still keeping in
the shadow of the palisade they went to the far side, where the Indian
line was thinner. Then they dropped to hand and knee and crept toward
the forest.
They stopped at intervals, lying flat upon the ground, looking with
all their eyes and listening with all their ears. They saw ahead but
one fire, apparently about four hundred yards away, and they heard
only a light damp wind rustling the dry boughs and bushes. But they
knew they could not afford to relax their caution by a hair, and they
continued a slow creeping progress until they reached the woods. Then
they rested on their elbows in a thicket, and took long breaths of
relief. They had been a quarter of an hour in crossing the open and it
was an immense relief to sit up again. They kept very close together,
while their muscles recovered elasticity, and still used their eyes
and ears to the utmost. It was impossible to say that a warrior was
not near crouching in the thicket as they were, and they did not
intend to run any useless risk. Moreover, if the alarm were raised
now, they would escape into the fort, and await another chance.
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