“The smell of burnin’ powder is gettin’ into your head, lad,” old Silas said, in a tone of reproof. “Don’t run away with the idee that the Britishers won’t, or can’t, fight. We shall have proof of that later, and he would be a fool who should try to gain any more of an advantage than we’ve already got by sheer luck.”
“They don’t show any inclination to fight, whatever it may be possible for them to do!” I replied hotly.
“There’s some good reason for it, you may be certain, although it ain’t likely we’ll ever know what it is. Let well enough alone, you young fire-eaters,” he added, addressing Alec also, who by this time was giving audible vent to his displeasure. “It’s satisfaction in plenty that we’ve driven ’em away, when it seemed sure we’d all be sent to the bottom, for I wouldn’t have given a brass sixpence for our chances half an hour ago.”
Having said this the old man turned toward his gun, as if he could not afford to waste more time on such as us, and we two lads watched in silent sorrow the enemy’s vessels as they increased the distance between themselves and the American shore.
Before landing again, however, we came to understand that it would have been the height of folly for us to have pursued the squadron; but from that hour we, as well as the majority of our people, had more confidence in Captain Perry’s ability to hold Presque Isle against the enemy.
“If the government would only send a force sufficient to man our vessels, we’d soon give the Britishers such a lesson as could not fail of proving that we hold control of this lake!” Alec said to me after a time. “Every vessel in the squadron would have been ours had we gone against them with the brigs!”
It was useless to keep repeating such ideas, and I held my peace. During the past two weeks they had been put into words by every man in Presque Isle, and yet no reinforcements arrived.
The vessels built to defend the coast were lying idle at their moorings, armed and provisioned; but useless because we could not raise sufficient force to so much as man one of them.
Alec and I went back to the work of fort-building; but now we had more stomach for the labor, because we had seen what might be done, and because we had greater faith in the qualities of our small force than was really warranted by the facts.
Two days after this encounter a sailing-master in the navy, by name of Champlin, arrived with seventy men, and our hopes arose once more, for now one of the brigs could be sent out if need arose, and we believed more sailors would speedily follow.