Meanwhile, Captain Headley had kept his glass almost constantly directed towards that part of the common adjoining the fort, where the great body of the Indians had now collected, and appeared to be in earnest deliberation. Among the number of those assembled he could distinctly make out Winnebeg, Waubansee, and Tee-pee-no-bee, the former of whom seemed to be addressing the younger Pottowatomies in energetic terms, while he frequently pointed to the blanket which contained the body of the slain Chippewa. At length, when he had been succeeded by the two other chiefs just named, who seemed to deliver themselves in a similar spirit, a yell apparently of assent and approval came from the dark mass, and in a few minutes a party of about a hundred detached themselves from the group, and preceded by the same flag that had been raised by the immediate followers of Pee-to-tum, slowly advanced towards the little square. "Courage, men," said Captain Headley, "we have not fought our steady battle for nothing; but let us give the credit of success where most it is due, We owe our preservation, if we are preserved, wholly to the gallantry of Ensign Ronayne. Had he not removed the spike from that gun, and fired it at the eventual sacrifice of his own life--nay more, had he not slain Pee-to-tum, our most bitter and relentless enemy--we should all have slept upon this field--that sight we should never have seen;" and he pointed to the rude flag of which Winnebeg was the bearer, and which was then half way from the point of departure of the band. "Even so," observed Lieutenant Elmsley--"to poor Ronayne, if this rag means anything pacific, and, from the fact of its being borne by Winnebeg, I have no doubt it does, must be ascribed our exemption from the fate of our unhappy comrades. Your ball was well aimed, Captain Headley, and hastened the death of the loathsome and vindictive savage; but never could he have survived that bayonet wound. Life must have ebbed away with the blood that followed its removal; yet," and this was said with a significance which his commanding officer seemed to understand, "it must be not a little satisfactory to you to know that your shot saved him from the tomahawk that was already raised to dispatch him." "Would that in doing so I had saved his life," returned Captain Headley, seriously. "How doubly unfortunate is our position--without a surgeon to attend the wounded. Von Voltenberg I have not seen during the day--I greatly fear he has fallen also." At this moment the Indians had come within about twenty paces of the square, one face of which Captain Headley had ordered to be opened to make a display of the gun behind which stood a man with a lighted match. Here they halted, looking with mixed regret, awe, and anxiety upon what they had so recently had in their own possession, while Winnebeg advanced a few paces to the front.