“Boat!” he says. “Boat! There’s a boat comin’ down the lake.”
We hustled out to see, pretty hopeful all of a sudden. It looked like the siege was ended and reinforcements were coming. The boat was way down at the far end of the lake and we could just see it and two figures sitting in it, rowing. It was headed our way.
“I’ll bet it’s Mr. Ames come ahead of time,” Binney says, beginning to dance up and down, he was so excited.
Mark didn’t say anything, and he didn’t look glad, only worried and puzzled.
“What’s the matter?” says I. “Come on and join the celebration.”
“I never s-s-shoot firecrackers till the Fourth of July,” says he, which was as much as to tell us we were getting happy ahead of time.
The boat didn’t come very fast, because the wind was blowing right in its face. When it came near enough so we could make out to see men in it we could tell they were pretty poor boatmen. They did more splashing than they did rowing. And then we saw they were Japanese! Somewhere around the lake they had found an old scow.
“Well,” says Mark, with a long breath, “the enemy’s got a n-navy.”
“Yes,” says I, “and we’d better strengthen our shore-defense batteries.”
“I t-think,” says Mark, “that The Man Who Will Come will try to take the citadel by s-storm—once. He’s due to load his army aboard his navy and attack. If we can beat them back once he won’t try it again. It’ll be stratagems we’ll have to look out for.”