Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/292

 lay their hands on; particularly at night, when the workmen were buried in sleep after the labour of the day.

Judge and three others were lodged together; and one night, when it was supposed they were fast asleep, one of them heard the noise of footsteps outside approaching the tent. Through a slit in the canvas he ascertained they were natives, and without awaking his comrades, he cautiously unsheathed his sword, and waited a few minutes in silence, watching their motions, until they at length reached the tent, the lower part of which they were in the act of raising, when, by a desperate blow of the sword, he severely cut one of their arms. The savage gave a dreadful yell, and the Canadian rushed out, when he distinctly perceived two Indians running away quickly, and disappear in the gloom of the forest behind. This circumstance made some noise at the time; the parties were not discovered, and in a few weeks the event was forgotten by our people; but it was not so with the savages. They harboured the most deep and deadly revenge; and thinking that Judge was the person who had inflicted the wound, they determined to wreak their vengeance on him. For this purpose they had been