Hither and thither they passed, searching among the ruins for plunder, occasionally turning up some trifle upon which they pounced with the avidity of children, and examining the half-burnt remnants of chairs, tables and stands, etc.  Here and there they pulled the black, twisted nails forth, that looked like worms burnt to a cinder, and carefully preserved them for future use.  Every metallic substance was seized as a prize, and some of the wooden portions of instruments were also appropriated.  Thin twists of smoke still ascended from different spots in the clearing, and the ashes when stirred showed the red live coals beneath them.

“Yah! yah! dat feller’s got sumkin’ nice,” said Cato, laughing heartily and silently at one of the Indians, who had pulled forth a long board with evident delight.  Turning it over, he balanced it on his shoulder and was walking rapidly away, when suddenly he sprung several feet in the air with a yell of agony, and jumped from beneath it, rubbing his shoulder very violently as if suffering acute pain.

“Yah! yah! knowed ’twould do dat.  Lower part all afire, and reckoned it burnt him a little.”

The Indian continued dancing around for several moments, not ashamed to show to his companions how much he suffered.  He by no means was the only one who was caught in this manner.  Very often, a savage would spring from the ground, with a sharp exclamation, as some coal pierced through his moccasin, and now and then another could be seen, slapping his fingers against his person, after he had hastily dropped some object.  One eager Shawnee attempted to draw a red-hot nail from a slab with his thumb and finger, and roasted the ends of both by the operation, while a second seated himself upon a board which set fire to the fringe of his hunting-shirt.  He did not become aware of it until a few minutes later, when, in walking around, the fire reached his hide.  Placing his hand behind him, he received unmistakable evidence of its presence, when he set up a loud whoop and started at full speed for the spring, reaching which, he seated himself in it, before he felt entirely safe.

These, and many other incidents, amused the Lieutenant for the time being, while the delight of Cato was almost uncontrollable.  He seemed in danger of apoplexy several times from the efforts he made to subdue his laughter.  But, all at once there was a sudden cessation in his mirth, and a visible lengthening of his visage.  Grasping the shoulder of the soldier, he exclaimed: 

“Look dar!  Look dar!  See dem!”

“I see nothing to alarm us.”

“Look dar whar we went into the clearin’.  Don’t you see dem Injines dar?”

Lieutenant Canfield did see something that alarmed him.  The whole eight Indians had followed the track of himself and the negro to the edge of the wood, where they had halted and were consulting together.  They certainly must have noticed it before, but had probably been too busy to examine it particularly.  It had never once occurred to the white man that this evidence of his presence would tell against him, but he now saw the imminent peril in which he and the negro were placed.