With the intuition of a born strategist, he
posted his force on the bank of the creek where it jutted boldly into
the water, and there constructed a parapet of stone about thirty feet in
length, and masked it with young pine-trees in such a manner that they
appeared to be a part of the natural forest growth.
The provisions of the party running short, and a big buck opportunely
appearing, Putnam departed from a rule he himself had always insisted
upon--of never firing a gun when waiting for an enemy or in the enemy's
country, and shot him. The result was as he might have anticipated. He
and his men got the deer and replenished their stores; but the wily
leader of the Indian hostiles, Marin, heard the report, and came with
his men in search of the cause of it. He came at night, so cautiously
and silently that some of the canoes which held his men, about five
hundred in number, were abreast the fort before the sentinels
discovered them.
The creek at this point was scarcely a hundred feet in width, the banks
about fifteen or twenty feet in height. A full moon was shining in the
heavens, illumining spaces of water here and there, so that the oncoming
Indians were plainly visible to the men behind the parapet, there
awaiting, with fast-beating hearts, the signal to fire.
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