“It will be a long day before we return, unless this storm clears away very soon, and of that there is no likelihood,” I replied moodily. “We are risking our lives--and it is no less than that, I assure you--for nothing but a whim of yours, which, when gratified, is of no benefit.” “If you are taking it so much to heart, Dicky, we’ll turn back now,” and in a twinkling, as it were, Alec was the same cheery, honest lad I had believed him to be these two days past; but alas, his cheeriness, and his honesty, and his good comradeship had returned to him too late. “We must push forward now, for I dare not make the attempt to go back. The Canadian shore should be within four or five miles, and if it please God we’ll gain it before the smother thickens.” I think my words, and the tone in which they were spoken, gave the lad a sense of fear for the first time since we had set out. He looked about him with the air of one who suddenly discovers something, and then turning to me said softly, but with a manner that went straight to my heart:-- “I am sorry, Dicky, that I was so foolish. I have led you into this trouble, and you must lead me out; but my word upon it, that from this moment so long as we stay in this portion of the country, I will ever take your advice.” He clasped my hand as if to ask pardon, and at that moment I felt a breath of air from the northeast. The snowflakes were suddenly whirled with that giddy, dancing motion which so bewilders one, telling me how great the danger, and how short a time we had in which to escape. “Get up,” I said almost roughly. “Keep your wits about you and bend every energy toward going forward in a straight line; for once we become confused, there is little likelihood of our gaining either shore before the cold lulls us to sleep.” Then, and I can hardly realize now how it occurred, before he could rise to his feet it was as if we were completely surrounded by armed men, and it needed not their speech to tell both of us that we were prisoners. The Britishers were nearer than even I had imagined, and perchance by this mad trick of Alec’s, Presque Isle would be captured; for the people there were depending upon us to give an alarm in case the enemy appeared upon the lake. We had been false to the trust my father reposed in us, and who could say how much of harm to our country might result? FOOTNOTES: [1] Now known as the city of Erie. CHAPTER II. SNUG QUARTERS. It is true that when the enemy came into view from amid the whirling snow, Alec’s first thought, as he has since told me, was much the same as mine--that we had brought disaster upon our country. It is nothing of credit that at the time we gave no heed to the peril which menaced; but I here set it down as some slight plea in our favor, that once the mischief had been done we gave no heed to what might come out of it to us.