We knew the enemy was in sight, otherwise the signal would not have been made, for Captain Perry had threatened direst punishment upon him who should give a false alarm, and we also believed the town would be speedily destroyed, for both my father and Alec’s brother had privately said that we could not hope to successfully oppose the British squadron while our force was so small. I do not set this down that it may be believed I felt unusually brave at the moment when it seemed certain Presque Isle was about to fall into the hands of the enemy, for at the time I gave no heed to possible danger. My eagerness to be on board the gunboat overshadowed all else, causing me to forget for the moment what probably would happen, in the fear that it might be thought I remained on shore through cowardice. “At last we shall have a chance to show that we can play the part of men!” Alec said, as we ran, and I, vain of the small share we had already taken in defence of our town, replied boastingly:-- “It seems to me that we have already done as much. Who else can lay claim to having been twice inside the British lines?” “Perhaps no one would care to admit being so foolish,” he said, with a laugh. “We might have been among the redcoats a dozen times, and yet it would count for but little if we had accomplished nothing more than has already been done.” “Was it not of some service when we reported the number of men on the North Foreland?” “If such was the case neither your father nor my brother gave us any credit. It strikes me they treated our adventures as childish pranks, rather than the work of men; but now the case will be different, for we are to help man the gunboat.” I might have reminded him that we probably would not remain long on board, once the enemy came within range, for the three small craft with which Captain Perry proposed to meet the British squadron were not calculated to make much of a fight against heavily armed, well-manned vessels of war; but I held my peace, for this was not the time to say what might possibly dampen his enthusiasm. We gained the water’s edge at the same moment as did my father, who had come from the barracks, and leaped into the boat close at his heels, I rejoicing that chance had thrown us in his company, since now we must serve under him rather than one of the other commanders. “How many of the Britishers are in sight?” he asked of the man in charge of the boat, and the latter replied, as his crew pushed the light craft off from the shore:-- “I have not seen the fleet, sir; but it was said by those on Hospital Point, who had a full view of the lake, that there were six sail bearing directly down upon us.” “Is Captain Perry on board the _Tigress_?” (This was the name of the gunboat on which it had been decided Captain Perry, as commodore of the fleet, should remain, and she was to be commanded by my father.)