We didn't have much trouble to find a grapnel.
We bought a small one, but it was strong enough.

We talked the matter over a great deal, and went to the fort several times, making examinations, and measuring the height of the wall, from the top, with a spool of cotton.
It was two or three days before we got everything ready, and in our trips to the fort we saw a good deal of the Indians.

We often met them in the town, too, for they were frequently allowed to go out and walk about by themselves.

There was no danger, I suppose, of their trying to run away, for they were several thousand miles from their homes, and they probably would not care to run to any other place with no larger stock of the English language than one word, "How ?" Some of them, however, could talk a little English.

There was one big fellow--he was probably the largest of them all--who was called "Maiden's Heart." I couldn't see how his name fitted, for he looked like an out-and-out savage, and generally wore a grin that seemed wicked enough to frighten settlers out of his part of the country.