CHAPTER VI.
PLANS FRUSTRATED--ESPIONAGE.
Durant, who considered himself a perfect genius in contriving strategetical
measures, now turned all his attention to the execution of the secret plans
he had matured. He first accompanied a body of Indians, who were ready to
march upon the settlements of Kentucky, with a select few, to whom he had
confided his intentions of capturing a white squaw. With these villains he
intended to attack the house of the Waltons, while the main body of the
savages made their onset upon the bulk of the settlement, including the
block-house. This measure failed, for the simple reason that he had
mistaken the house, and a family by the name of Scraggs suffered in the
stead of his intended victim.[A]
[Footnote A: "Western Adventure," page 179-182.]
He next resolved to go, with a few of his renegade followers, in a secret
manner, and steal Ellen at night, or during some of her daily walks, when
alone. Soon after crossing the river, he was taken sick, and his followers,
mistaking his directions, went another way, and made a worse blunder than
on the first occasion; and a party of whites coming into the vicinity of
his camp, the villain hastened to recross the river to the Ohio side, not
yet knowing the fate of the expedition, that portion of the band who had
been commissioned with the execution of the plot not having returned when
he was forced to retreat.
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