“To-night,” he said, “the ice upon the lake will bear us. To-morrow morning it may be so that we could not venture across.”
NO TIME WAS LOST BY KNOX
The oxen were being yoked and the horses harnessed to the sledges when Ezra approached his commander with a salute.
“Colonel,” said he, anxiously, “would it not be well to send out an advance? The ice, even now, may not be as safe as you think.”
There was something in his tone that attracted Knox’s attention.
“What has made you think that?” asked he.
Ezra flushed in the light of the pine torches.
“Since the night of which I told you,” said he, “I have been so anxious that my nerves and senses often play me false. It may be so now, but a while ago,” and his eyes went out across the frozen stretch of water, striving to pierce the darkness that overhung it, “I thought I saw a glimmer of light out there.”
“It was probably the ice throwing back the flashing of the torches,” said Colonel Knox. “But,” kindly, “if you have any doubts in the matter it would be as well to settle them at once. Suppose you take a few men and look about before we start with the guns.”