“We are free, Dicky, lad! Free!” Alec cried, speaking so loudly that I covered his mouth with my hand, lest in his joyous excitement he work us the greatest mischief which could come upon two lads in our situation.
It can well be imagined that not a second was lost in fastening on our skates, and when we stood erect, shod with those thin plates of steel which would enable us to glide over the surface of the ice with the speed of a race-horse, it was with difficulty that I could repress a shout of triumph.
We two, who had never before known by experience the horrors of war and its usages,—we who had through carelessness allowed ourselves to be made prisoners,—were escaped without a scratch within a few hours of capture, and by escaping would be able to prevent Presque Isle from being taken by surprise.
When I bent my body in striking out on that long, swinging stride which had served me time and time before, I thought with exultation that that which had seemed the direst calamity that could come upon two lads, was, in fact, a blessing in disguise, as are many of the troubles which for the time bear us down in sorrow. Save for Alec Perry’s foolhardiness in continuing on toward the Canadian shore, we would never have known of that gathering of soldiery at the North Foreland, and the people of Presque Isle, lulled into a sense of security, might have fallen easy victims to the first assault of the redcoats.
“It has been a good day’s work, Alec, boy!” I said, when we were a mile or more from the shore, and escape was absolutely certain unless we lost our lives in the whirl of snow, for no man in that camp could overtake me on skates. “A good day’s work, because we have scouted to a purpose, even though it was done ignorantly!”
The dear lad’s mind went farther afield than mine, as I understood when he added quietly, yet with a certain ring of satisfaction in his tone:—
“So that we reach the village, Dicky, we have made a name for ourselves which shall be spoken in years to come, long after we are dead, for we will be known as the boys who saved Presque Isle and the beginnings of the American navy. It is what Oliver has been praying might be his good fortune, to come into some adventure which would give him an opportunity of making a name that should live in history; and God grant he succeed, for my brother is a hero, Dicky Dobbins, and some day he will prove it to those of the king’s forces who come against him.”
Fortunately at this moment I remembered that there must be an end to this self-glorification, and a speedy one, else were we likely to come to grief.
I had heard the bravest men in Presque Isle say that the one thing they feared the most was to be overtaken by a snow-storm while on that vast field of ice which imprisoned the waters of Lake Erie; for few there be who can walk or skate in a straight line amid the falling, whirling particles of snow.
We had come two miles, perhaps, from the shore by this time, and I caught Alec’s arm, that he might take the better heed to my words, as I explained the dangers which were before us, begging that he put from his mind all else save the aim of moving forward as nearly in a straight line as might be.