Billy Caldwell[38] for it was he, entered the parlor with a calm step, and without a trace of agitation in his manner.  He deliberately took off his accoutrements and placed them with his rifle behind the door, then saluted the hostile savages.

“How now, my friends!  A good-day to you.  I was told there were enemies here, but I am glad to find only friends.  Why have you blackened your faces?  Is it that you are mourning for the friends you have lost in battle?” (purposely misunderstanding this token of evil designs.)

“Or is it that you are fasting?  If so, ask our friend, here, and he will give you to eat.  He is the Indian’s friend, and never yet refused them what they had need of.”

Thus taken by surprise, the savages were ashamed to acknowledge their bloody purpose.  They, therefore, said modestly that they came to beg of their friends some white cotton in which to wrap their dead before interring them.  This was given to them, with some other presents, and they took their departure peaceably from the premises.

Along with Mr. Kinzie’s party was a non-commissioned officer who had made his escape in a singular manner.  As the troops were about leaving the fort, it was found that the baggage-horses of the surgeon had strayed off.  The quartermaster-sergeant, Griffith, was sent to collect them and bring them on, it being absolutely necessary to recover them, since their packs contained part of the surgeon’s apparatus, and the medicines for the march.

This man had been for a long time on the sick report and for this reason was given the charge of the baggage, instead of being placed with the troops.  His efforts to recover the horses being unsuccessful, he was hastening to rejoin his party, alarmed at some appearances of disorder and hostile indications among the Indians, when he was met and made prisoner by To-pee-nee-bee.

Having taken from him his arms and accoutrements, the chief put him into a canoe and paddled him across the river, bidding him make for the woods and secrete himself.  This he did; and the following day, in the afternoon, seeing from his lurking-place that all appeared quiet, he ventured to steal cautiously into the garden of Ouilmette, where he concealed himself for a time behind some currant-bushes.

At length he determined to enter the house, and accordingly climbed up through a small back window into the room where the family were.  This was just as the Wabash Indians had left the house of Ouilmette for that of Mr. Kinzie.  The danger of the sergeant was now imminent.  The family stripped him of his uniform and arrayed him in a suit of deer-skin, with belt, moccasins, and pipe, like a French engage.  His dark complexion and large black whiskers favored the disguise.  The family were all ordered to address him in French, and, although utterly ignorant of the language, he continued to pass for a Weem-tee-gosh,[39] and as such to accompany Mr. Kinzie and his family, undetected by his enemies, until they reached a place of safety.