"Of course I won't."
"Whatever happens, promise that you will stick by me."
"I will, Ben."
"That's a good fellow, Harry. On that, we will take a bit of luncheon, and have a good time of it."
As he spoke, Ben drew out from under the seat in the bow a box filled with bread and cheese.
"You see we are provisioned for a cruise, Harry," added Ben, as he offered the contents of the box to his companion. "Here is enough to last us two or three days."
"But you don't mean to keep on the river so long as that?"
"I mean to stick to the boat as long as the navigation will permit," replied Ben, with more energy than he had before manifested, for he was recovering from the perturbation with which the crime he had committed filled his mind.
"There is a factory village, with a dam across the river, six or seven miles below here."
"I know it; but perhaps we can get the boat round the dam in the night time, and continue our voyage below. Don't you remember that piece in the Reader about John Ledyard—how he went down the Connecticut River in a canoe?"