The New Englanders had been more industrious.  A stoutly palisaded fort had been completed on young Gillam’s island, and 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 was need to serve my friends.”

Young Gillam had begun to suspect the weakness of the French.  When the two were safely out of the Hudson’s Bay Company fort, he offered to go home part of the way with Radisson.  This was to learn where the French fort lay.  Radisson declined the kindly service and deliberately set out from the New Englanders’ island in the wrong direction, coming down the Nelson past young Gillam’s