Ned went blindly into the bush, where a rough voice called him. He knew nothing and cared nothing. Coming to the shore, he was pushed upon a boat which dimly impressed him as a large schooner, and which set off at once across the lake. His brain clearing, he saw she was manned by a score of men, in the uniforms of both armies, deserters who instead of leaving one side to join the other, meant to form a gang with Sells for the leader, and hide in the woods near Niagara, plundering all they could. "And you want me to join you?" said Ned indifferently, as Sells explained their intentions to him. "We'll make you want to. We want you, for Dr. Tam on the 'Lightfoot' said you could do a little of his job quite decently. We won't hurt you if you do as you are told, and as you seem one of the coward sort, we'll leave you behind when there's any fighting going on. We're taking you to mend hurts, not to make them, and you can amuse us too--give us a mock Methodist sermon when we're dull. I wonder what Ferguson will say when he hears that his pet ran away in the first battle? I never thought till I saw you in the court that you were like that." In the darkness Ned's fists clenched, but he did not strike the mocking face before him. He felt that a blinded Justice had robbed him of the right to resent insult. So he answered sullenly, "Any man who was a coward would be glad to join you." They took that for his assent, and left him to pretence of sleep. He lay listening to the talk of these men who had dropped all thought of decency and were thieves, and there came to him the temptation to end his life. This scum of society was henceforth to be the only class open to him--no honest man would ever touch his hand again. Why not "Curse God and die?" In Kingston, the next morning, Ned's escape was discovered, but only Sells was blamed for helping him, and their names were posted together as deserters. No one paid much attention. Across the lake Fort George, the key to Niagara, was answering the heavy cannonade of the American fleet. And on that same day, May 27, the British war ships with a thousand men on board, left Kingston to attack Sackett's Harbour, hoping that the absence of the American fleet would enable them to capture the naval stores there. It was a day of double defeat. In the afternoon a carrier pigeon dropped into Kingston with a note that said Vincent, the commander at Fort George, running out of powder, had retired into the bush after spiking his guns and firing his stores. The Americans had not followed him, they having a very exaggerated idea of the number of Indians in the British service. They now held Newark, and the entire Niagara district. Then the fleet came back from Sackett's Harbour, leaving three hundred men, dead, wounded, and missing, behind them. Among them was Edgar, who had volunteered to join the landing party, which had been hemmed in and captured.