The result of it was that after partaking of a supper cooked in an outlandish fashion, although most palatable, we three lads set out to reconnoitre the British camp, I saying to myself meanwhile that it was not only a hazardous, but a foolish proceeding, for what could we hope to learn more than was known already? The British were there in force, for Leon had good proof of such fact, and were threatening Presque Isle, which to my mind was as much as we needed to ascertain. I did not venture to dissuade Alec from the reconnoissance, knowing full well that it would be useless, but believing we were venturing more recklessly into danger than when we had skated straight toward this same encampment three months before. Leon led us by a roundabout way, skirting here along the shore, and again making a detour across the wooded lands until we were come to what was seemingly the rear of the camp, and here lay all the proof we needed. So far as eye could see in the darkness, there appeared to be twice one thousand soldiers in the camp, and off the shore lay four vessels which I doubted not belonged to Captain Finnis’s squadron, rendezvoused here ready to transport troops when the moment had come for the attack upon Presque Isle. Leon, knowing full well all the paths through the woods, and the places where the sentinels were stationed, conducted us in safety from one point to another until I came to a halt, whispering to Alec:-- “There is no reason why we should continue this investigation any further. We already know as much as is necessary, and ought to be well on our way toward the American shore before day breaks.” “It was said that we should be absent two or three days, and I am not minded to leave here with no more information than has been gained,” my comrade said stoutly, and in such a tone as told me that argument on my part would be useless. “You will wait here to no further end than that we may be made prisoners,” I replied hotly, and perhaps might have said what would have caused bad blood between us but that we were suddenly confronted by what seemed to me most imminent danger. We were standing on one side of a broad path which ran, so Leon had declared, directly through the camp, when without warning a group of men appeared in the distance, coming directly toward us. To have made any effort then at running away would have simply been to betray our whereabouts, for the rustling of the foliage must have told plainly where we were, and instinct prompted my companions as well as myself to step quietly back a few paces, where we might be screened by the leaves. It was as if we had been led to the spot by some invisible power, for perhaps nowhere else could have been learned what we then heard. The officers, for such we soon made out the strangers to be, were walking leisurely up the path in earnest conversation, as if strolling in the night simply to find relief from the heat; and soon we could distinguish their words.