He apparently gathered courage from despair, or else grief and remorse overpowered him, for he remained silent and motionless, seeming to give no heed whatsoever to us. As if he had been no more than a bundle of merchandise, and not very valuable at that, we packed him into the boat and rowed back toward the brig whereon we knew was Captain Perry, feeling quite certain we had done a good forenoon’s work in our country’s behalf. CHAPTER XI. CROSSING THE BAR. If we lads had expected to be greeted with enthusiastic praises when we pulled alongside the _Caledonia_, near that portion of the deck where my father was standing, we were doomed to disappointment. “Who have you there?” he asked sharply, not for the moment recognizing his old neighbor and professed friend. “A spy whom we found on the lake front, having just come over, or about to put across,” Alec replied, and I would have added more but that my father asked sternly:-- “How do you know he is a spy?” “First, because of his suspicious movements when we hove in sight,” Alec replied, still continuing to act as spokesman. “Dicky Dobbins and I went along the shore for a stroll, and, having come near to a clump of bushes grown close by the water’s edge, saw a boat half concealed therein; also this man in hiding. When we came up he greeted us with two pistol bullets, and but for my comrade I would have been killed. Then, when we had him bound fast, he tried to bribe us into giving him his liberty. If all this be no token of his guilt, then am I much mistaken.” “It is Nathaniel Hubbard,” I interrupted, understanding that as yet my father had not recognized the man. “Nathaniel Hubbard!” he repeated. “And you have taken him for a spy?” “If he was an honest citizen, sir, there would have been no such scene as I described,” Alec said stoutly. Perhaps if Master Hubbard had made any loud claim of innocence at this moment he might have been believed, so great was my father’s confidence in the man. But, as I have already said, it was as if he collapsed entirely when we had gotten the best of him, and now could not utter a lie in his own defence. Instead of giving us orders concerning the prisoner, my father wheeled abruptly around, disappearing almost immediately down the companionway, and I knew he had gone to acquaint Captain Perry with the painful intelligence that one of Presque Isle’s most trusted citizens had proven himself a traitor. We waited in the boat, Alec and I, until perhaps ten minutes had passed, and then one of the guards came to the rail and said:-- “The captain commands that the prisoner be taken on shore by a force of men from the brig, and you boys are to remain here.” Now it was that Nathaniel Hubbard found his tongue. He who should have welcomed death as a means of hiding him from view of those who had trusted him, begged piteously for life, knowing full well the people of Presque Isle would take the law in their own hands once his perfidy was known.