“Why, sir?” I made bold to ask. “Think you any in this town would carry information to the enemy?”
“That I am not prepared to say, but with some people gold is a weighty argument, and has been known to buy the conscience of many an apparently honest man.”
Then it was that I spoke of the suspicion which had been troubling me, and having come to an end, my father said reflectively:—
“Many have left Presque Isle since last winter, and it may be that among them was the one who then supplied the enemy with information. I do not recall to mind any who would play the spy, but yet there are several here whom I do not know sufficiently well to answer for their honesty.”
“Is there no way by which such a possibility could be guarded against?” Alec asked, and my father replied:—
“We have taken due precautions. The guard-boats at the entrance of the bay will stop any craft attempting to put out into the lake without written authority signed by those in command, while the sentinels from here to Fort Wayne have orders to stop citizens trying to leave without a pass. Yet all these might be avoided by him who had it in his heart to work us mischief.”
Such words as these were not calculated to set my fears at rest, and when Alec and I went to bed we discussed the matter in all its bearings, for since my father had spoken in such a tone I was not ashamed to give words to my fears.
However, we could do nothing more than talk, and in due course of time slumber put an end to all forebodings.
When morning dawned bright and clear I quite forgot the troubles of the previous night, and went with Alec to visit his brother on board the Lawrence.
Captain Perry was yet so ill that Dr. Parsons had forbidden his going on deck; but many officers were in his cabin when we arrived, and one could guess from the expression of gravity on the faces of all that some important subject was under discussion.