Rhode Island, and cut
off from all possibility of immediately joining him. Still, the
intrepid captain adopted the resolve to march in pursuit of the enemy,
though he was aware that he might meet them in overwhelming numbers.

The Indians expressed some reluctance to go unaccompanied by English
soldiers; finally, however, they consented. Skulking through almost
impenetrable thickets, they came to a salt meadow just north of the
present town of Bristol. It was now night, and though they had heard
the report of two guns in the woods, they had met no Indians. A part
of their company, who had been sent out on a skulk, had not returned,
and great anxiety was felt lest they had fallen into an ambush and
been captured. The night was dark, and cold, and dreary. They had not
a morsel of bread, and no food to cook; they did not dare to build a
fire, as the flame would be sure to attract their wakeful enemies.
Hungry and solitary, the hours of the night lingered slowly away. In
the earliest dawn of the morning, the Indian scouts returned with the
following extraordinary story, which proved to be true. They said that
they had not advanced far when they discovered two Indians at a
distance approaching them upon one horse. The scouts immediately hid
in the brush in parallel lines at a little distance from each other.
One of the Indians then stationed himself as a decoy, and howled like
a wolf. The two Indians immediately stopped, and one, sliding from the
horse, came running along to see what was there. The cunning Indian,
howling lower and lower, drew him on between those lying in wait for
him, until they seized and instantly gagged him. The other, seeing
that his companion did not return, and still hearing the faint
howlings of the wolf, also left his horse, and soon experienced the
same fate.

The two captives they then examined apart, and found them to agree in
the story that there were eight more Indians who had come with them
into the Neck in search of provisions, and that they had all agreed to
meet at an old Indian burying-place that evening. The two captives
chanced to be former acquaintances of the leader of the scouting
party. He told them enticing stories of the bravery of Captain Church,
and of the advantages of fighting with him and for him instead of
against him. The vagabond prisoners were in a very favorable condition
to be influenced by such suggestions. They heartily joined their
victors, and aided in entrapping