midnight
This resuscitation , however , as explained by Dodge himself , was , after all , no such wonderful matter . Swept from his horse by the violence of the flood , in the memorable flight from the ruin , a happy accident had flung him upon the raft of timber that bordered the fatal _ chute _ ; where , not doubting that , from the fury of the current , all his companions had perished , and that he was left to contend alone against the savages , he immediately sought a concealment among the logs , in which he remained during the remainder of the night and the greater part of the following day , until pretty well assured the Indians were no longer in his vicinity . Then , scaling the cliffy banks of the river , and creeping through the woods , it was his good fortune at last to stumble upon the clearings around Brace 's Station , at which he arrived soon after the defeated Regulators had effected their return . Here -- having now lost his horse , arms , everything but life ; having battled away also in the midnight siege some of those terrors that made Indians and border life so hateful to his imagination , and being perhaps seduced by the hope of repairing his losses , and revenging the injuries he had suffered -- he was easily persuaded to follow Colonel Bruce and the army of Kentuckians to the Indian territory , where Fate , through his arm , struck a blow so dreadfully yet retributively just at the head of the long-prospering villain , the unprincipled and unremorseful Braxley . It was mentioned , that when Nathan first burst upon the astonished Bruce , where he lay with his vanguard encamped in the woods , his appearance and demeanour were rather those of a truculent madman than of the simple-minded , inoffensive creature he had so long appeared to the eyes of all who knew him . His Indian garments and decorations contributed somewhat to this effect ; but the man , it was soon seen , was more changed in spirit , than in outward attire . The bundle of scalps in his hand , the single one , yet reeking with blood , at his belt , and the axe of Wenonga , gory to the helve , and grasped with a hand not less blood-stained , were not more remarkable evidences of transformation than were manifested in his countenance , deportment , and expressions .