“Believe it? I know it to be a fact, Alec. The redcoats are in strong force at the mouth of the Niagara, and certain it is that as soon as the ice breaks up, you will see them in such numbers as to make you alarmed for the safety of our works.”
“The Britishers outnumbered our people when the independence of this country was gained, but that did not frighten those who wore the Continental uniform.”
“Yet there were many dark days then, Alec, and I have heard my grandfather say that often and again did he believe we should be finally whipped into submission. I am unwilling to declare that there are any here who fear the result of this war; but yet I could point out twenty as brave men as might be found, who believe that we as a nation are all too weak to take up arms against so powerful a country as England. It is certain that unless our ships are built, launched, and gotten out of the harbor very soon after the ice breaks up, Presque Isle is in great danger of being captured; and that I have heard my father say a dozen times.”
“It is strange that the redcoats fail to show themselves,” the lad said musingly, as if ready to doubt my statement regarding the nearness of the Britishers.
“Yet you and your brother, while on the way from Buffalo, heard that the enemy knew what was being done here, and was about to make an attack.”
“Yes, and Oliver pressed forward hurriedly, fearing lest we might arrive too late. But now, because no movement has been made, I think he is inclined to doubt the correctness of the statement.”
At the time Alec made this remark we had covered two-thirds of the distance between Presque Isle and Long Point, having gone directly across the lake toward the Canadian side, and then it was that the snow began to fall.
My comrade was heedless of the danger which beset us, because ignorant regarding it, and when I proposed that we turn back at once, making all haste to gain the village or the blockhouse, he said in a tone bordering on that of contempt:—
“You may go if you please; but I count on keeping straight ahead until a good view of the enemy’s country can be had.”
“We are full twenty miles from home, Alec,” I replied, giving no heed to his tone, which at another time might have aroused me to anger. “It is thirty miles from Little Bay to Long Point, and you who are unaccustomed to skating such long distances cannot cover it and return in a single day.”