I need not repeat the arguments which we used to persuade the captain to receive us as volunteers. He objected to our proposition; first, because it was not expected he should bring any force with him, and secondly, because he must journey from Presque Isle to Buffalo in an open four-oared boat, which, in itself, was like to be a perilous undertaking at that season of the year. Alec had a persuasive tongue, fortunately, as I then thought, and the result of our pleadings was that on the evening of the 23d of May, the day before the brigs were to be launched, we two lads embarked in what was hardly more than a skiff, manned by four oarsmen, with Captain Perry, exulting in the thought that now were we bearing men’s parts in the war against the enemies of our country. CHAPTER IV. THE ATTACK. What might be the enterprise in which we were embarked on this 23d day of May, in the year 1813, neither Alec nor I could so much as guess, and we were not troubled because of our ignorance. So that it was an attack upon the enemy, and a venture in which was somewhat of danger, we gave no heed. As a matter of course we speculated upon it among ourselves, and, knowing that Captain Perry proposed to set out alone, we believed it was something in the nature of a reconnoissance, which in itself would have been comparatively trifling but for the fact that Alec’s brother was making it, and he, we understood full well, would lead us as near to the Britishers as might be agreeable. As I have said, it was evening when we set out from Presque Isle, embarking at the old French Fort, and before having sailed a distance of ten miles the boat was headed in for the shore. To my mind there was good reason for this manœuvre. The wind was blowing from the north and east a full half-gale, and it was such weather as appeared too heavy for our small boat. Immediately after we had rounded the point on which was located the blockhouse, and were come out into the lake, I believed the captain would decide that it was dangerous in the extreme to make any attempt at continuing the journey, and my relief was great when the bow of the craft grated upon the sand. “If this is to be the end of our travels we need not have wasted so much breath in asking permission to join the party,” Alec whispered to me, laughingly, but ere I could reply my father stepped out from the bushes, pushed off the boat as he leaped into it without speaking, and the voyage was resumed before we had fully come to a halt. Now it was we understood that some plan of operations had been decided upon beforehand, else would Captain Perry and my father have held converse with each other; but, instead, they sat in the stern-sheets intent, so far as we could see, only upon the progress which we might make by aid of oars.