152 DECOY FOR THE BED-SKINS. 



soon as the gloom prevented our actions being 

 perceived, we stripped off our hunting-shirts, 

 stretched them on rods, placed our caps on their 

 supposed heads, and deposited these figures in such 

 a way as to bear the greatest resemblance to our- 

 selves reclining in rest. We then piled some fuel 

 on the fire damp, decayed wood, that would make 

 at best only a fitful blaze, not burn with too great 

 brightness. 



' Having thus far uninterruptedly carried out our 

 purpose, we crawled from the scene on all-fours, 

 traversed a distance of a couple of hundred yards, 

 made a detour round the camp, and gained a position 

 to leeward, where we could see the dummies and 

 watch the success of our plot. 



' At length the fire commenced to flicker, and in 

 an hour or so the light it emitted caused the figures 

 to be seen indistinctly, yet sufficiently to shoot at. 

 The report of three guns fired close to us soon after 

 broke the silence of the night. One of our inanimate 

 representatives fell forward (for they were purposely 

 insecurely stationed, and the thick buckskin hunting- 

 shirt, as it yielded, was carried to the ground by 

 the force of the bullets). The Red-skins rushed out, 

 tomahawk in hand, to finish, as they supposed, their 

 work more thoroughly. Scarcely had they gained 

 our decoy sufficiently near to learn how they had 

 been tricked, when our turn to shoot came. We 

 both fired, and rushed from our ambush on our foes. 

 Two lay apparently dead, the third I pursued till I 



