THE ESCAPE.
How it may have been with Alec Perry while we stood inside that pen,
listening eagerly, and yet fearing lest we might hear something, I know
not. As for myself, it was as if the blood in my veins was at boiling
point, and I could hardly breathe because of the sense of suffocation
which had come upon me.
At first I began to count as rapidly as it was possible to speak the
figures in my thoughts, and then came the knowledge that by hastening
the time ever so little I might be destroying our chances for escape.
In case the fall of the timber had been heard, and one of the soldiers
came out to learn the cause of the noise, it was possible he would fail
to observe what had been done, for the snow was so light that the log
must be concealed from view in its frosty bed.
I say again, it was possible, even probable, that one or more of the
Britishers might come out and yet fail to detect what we had done;
but if Alec and I should begin the attempt a few moments too soon,
all would be lost. Better waste half the night than try to gain sixty
seconds of time, and in the doing cut ourselves off from all hope of
gaining liberty.
Similar thoughts must have been in my comrade’s mind; for when I had
counted up to thirty, and then waited ten seconds to give fair measure,
he clutched my arm as if advising that we remain yet a little longer.
And so we did, standing there hand in hand, looking toward the narrow
aperture through which lay home and freedom.
While we thus hesitated there came into my mind the fear that after we
gained the outside some of the more kindly hearted Britishers would
enter the prison-pen in order to bring us coverings, lest we freeze to
death; and I literally shivered with dread, fearing so much of charity
might be bestowed upon us.
Then, when we had waited fully two minutes, I could restrain my
impatience and my nervousness no longer.
Surely the very beating of my heart would betray us unless flight was
begun at once.
I dared not so much as whisper, so great was the fear of discovery upon
me, and pressing Alec’s hand yet more vigorously, I pointed to the
aperture.
He, understanding the gesture, motioned for me to go ahead; but that I
would not do, and rather than play so cowardly a part as to seek my own
safety first, I ventured upon speech:--
“You shall lead the way, Alec, lad,” I whispered, my voice trembling
despite every effort to render it steady; “and if it so be that when
you have gained the outside the Britishers enter here, I beseech you to
strain every muscle in the attempt to escape, regardless of what they
may be doing to me.”
“I will never leave a comrade alone in danger,” he said stoutly; and
for a moment it seemed as if we should come to a quarrel then and
there, while halting ’twixt liberty and imprisonment.
“You must leave me, should the flight be discovered before I am out
of here,” I said earnestly, gripping his arm so hard that twenty-four
hours later I saw the imprints of my fingers upon the flesh where the
blood had settled. “It is neither your life nor mine that is to be
considered now, but the safety of Presque Isle; and I charge you, dear
lad, make your way to the settlement without loss of time, once you are
free. I pledge myself to do the same, leaving you wherever it may be
that we are halted by the enemy, in order to save the village and the
vessels, upon which so much of our country’s safety depends.”
Now he understood what I would have him bear well in mind, and
whispered:--
“One or the other of us must live to reach the village; but I pray
earnestly, Dicky, that if either falls, it be me.”
This sort of a conversation was not calculated to make a timorous
fellow overly bold, and I realized at once that an end must be put to
it, else we might become so faint-hearted as to retreat even before the
advance was begun.
Therefore, clasping him by the legs, I lifted him straight up until his
head and shoulders were through the aperture; and then, pushing at his
feet, I literally forced him out of the pen.
Instantly this was done I reproached myself for having been so hasty,
fearing lest he, like the log, might fall, failing to find support on
the sides of the hut, and thus an alarm be given.
Alec Perry was not a lad to be guilty of a blunder, even though his
comrade did his best toward forcing him into one; and in some way,
I know not how, he contrived to drop from the top of the timbers as
lightly as a cat.
Listening intently, I began to clamber up the wall, gripping my fingers
into the crevices between the logs until the blood came from under my
nails, and when I was nearly at the top, the thought flashed upon me
that we had left our skates behind.
They lay in one corner of the pen, and so great was our excitement,
when the way of escape had been opened, that neither of us so much as
thought of them.
Without skates we might as well remain where we were, for it would not
be possible to walk across the lake in eight-and-forty hours.
I lowered myself down, losing the advantage I had gained at the
expense of so much suffering, and thrust a pair of skates into each
coat-pocket, after which the painful task of scrambling up the side of
the pen was begun again.
It seemed to me of a verity that a full hour had been spent before I
looked down from the top of the wall to see Alec making an effort to
clamber back.
The time had dragged heavily with him also, and fearing lest some
mishap had befallen me, he was returning, forgetful of the promises
made to push forward at all hazards.
I heard plainly the sigh of relief which escaped his lips when he saw
me, and in another instant I was lowering myself down on the outside.
Free, so far as concerned the walls of the pen!
Now the storm was little less than a blessing to us, for the wind,
howling and shrieking as it dashed the frosty particles against the
walls of the huts, must have drowned any sound which we made while
floundering through the snow.
A start of five minutes was all I had asked for, and this we surely
would gain, unless it so chanced that a sentinel was stationed on the
shore, in which case we stood every chance of being recaptured.
“It is necessary to go forward slowly, and by a devious way,” Alec
whispered. “It seems most likely some of the men are on guard, and it
would be a sad blow to our hopes if we ran across them now.”
“We must take the chances,” I said, bolder grown since we were free
from the pen. “To leave this path would be to flounder about in the
snow or the bushes, where we must necessarily make so much noise
that any sentinel, however dull, could not fail to hear us. There is
no other course than to push ahead and trust to chances, Alec, lad.
Besides, the danger in advance is less than that behind, and if we come
upon a soldier near-by the edge of the ice, surely the two of us ought
to be more than a match for him, half stupefied by the cold as any man
must be who has remained long outside on this night.”
There was no need for him to make answer. He stood ready to do
whatsoever was needed, and I venture to say, however great the perils
which menaced, he would not have flinched from braving them.
We went forward swiftly, yet making no noise that could be avoided, and
when finally we were arrived at the shore of the lake no living thing
could be seen.
“We are free, Dicky, lad! Free!” Alec cried, speaking so loudly that
I covered his mouth with my hand, lest in his joyous excitement he
work us the greatest mischief which could come upon two lads in our
situation.
It can well be imagined that not a second was lost in fastening on our
skates, and when we stood erect, shod with those thin plates of steel
which would enable us to glide over the surface of the ice with the
speed of a race-horse, it was with difficulty that I could repress a
shout of triumph.
We two, who had never before known by experience the horrors of war
and its usages,--we who had through carelessness allowed ourselves to
be made prisoners,--were escaped without a scratch within a few hours
of capture, and by escaping would be able to prevent Presque Isle from
being taken by surprise.
When I bent my body in striking out on that long, swinging stride which
had served me time and time before, I thought with exultation that
that which had seemed the direst calamity that could come upon two
lads, was, in fact, a blessing in disguise, as are many of the troubles
which for the time bear us down in sorrow. Save for Alec Perry’s
foolhardiness in continuing on toward the Canadian shore, we would
never have known of that gathering of soldiery at the North Foreland,
and the people of Presque Isle, lulled into a sense of security, might
have fallen easy victims to the first assault of the redcoats.
“It has been a good day’s work, Alec, boy!” I said, when we were a
mile or more from the shore, and escape was absolutely certain unless
we lost our lives in the whirl of snow, for no man in that camp could
overtake me on skates. “A good day’s work, because we have scouted to a
purpose, even though it was done ignorantly!”
The dear lad’s mind went farther afield than mine, as I understood when
he added quietly, yet with a certain ring of satisfaction in his tone:--
“So that we reach the village, Dicky, we have made a name for ourselves
which shall be spoken in years to come, long after we are dead, for we
will be known as the boys who saved Presque Isle and the beginnings
of the American navy. It is what Oliver has been praying might be his
good fortune, to come into some adventure which would give him an
opportunity of making a name that should live in history; and God
grant he succeed, for my brother is a hero, Dicky Dobbins, and some day
he will prove it to those of the king’s forces who come against him.”
Fortunately at this moment I remembered that there must be an end to
this self-glorification, and a speedy one, else were we likely to come
to grief.
I had heard the bravest men in Presque Isle say that the one thing they
feared the most was to be overtaken by a snow-storm while on that vast
field of ice which imprisoned the waters of Lake Erie; for few there
be who can walk or skate in a straight line amid the falling, whirling
particles of snow.
We had come two miles, perhaps, from the shore by this time, and I
caught Alec’s arm, that he might take the better heed to my words,
as I explained the dangers which were before us, begging that he put
from his mind all else save the aim of moving forward as nearly in a
straight line as might be.
“You shall go ahead, lad, keeping in advance so far as I am able to see
you, and perhaps by this means it will be possible for me to know when
you turn to the right or the left, as it is said one is ever inclined
to do under such circumstances.”
Perhaps if it had not been for our having foolishly run into the arms
of the Britishers, Alec would have insisted that I was making a great
cry when no danger threatened, because he seemed to think it a simple
matter to go ahead in a straight line without anything to guide his
movements; but now that the knowledge of his foolhardiness was sharp
upon him he obeyed readily; and thus we set out on our thirty-mile
journey in the darkness, our faces stung until they burned by the icy
particles which were flung against them on the wings of the east wind.
Here again did that which seemed to be a danger and a discomfort prove
a blessing. But for the wind we should have had nothing to give us the
slightest idea of the direction in which Presque Isle lay. As it was,
I could not say to a certainty that these furious blasts came from
the east, because the direction might have changed since we were made
prisoners; but I knew beyond a peradventure it had not swung around
either to the north or the south, and, therefore, if our left cheeks
were stung by the driving snow more bitterly than our right, we must be
advancing somewhere near on the desired course.
During the first half-hour Alec went straight forward, and then,
growing weary, perhaps, he would swerve to one side or the other,
insisting, when I checked him, that it was I, rather than himself, who
mistook the direction.
I am making this story of our escape from the North Foreland overly
long, for it may be that what then seemed, and seems now, to me most
thrilling, will be dry reading to others. Therefore it is best I come
to a halt in this play of words, although it would be possible to fill
page after page with what we thought, and said, and did during that
long, painful night’s journey; for, although we had set out, as nearly
as we could judge, at about eight o’clock in the evening, the sun was
two hours high in the heavens before we were come to Presque Isle, so
nearly exhausted that Alec fell upon the shore, unable to move hand or
foot, when we were arrived in front of my home.
Despite all our efforts we went so far astray as to strike the American
shore near Indian Bend, full eighteen miles above the village, and
arriving there during the hours of darkness, I was not able to say
positively where we were; therefore it became necessary to wait until
daylight.
This halt, while it refreshed us in a certain degree, allowed our limbs
to stiffen until, when we arose to our feet again, it seemed almost
impossible to advance one foot before the other.
But we were arrived at last, and could give the information which it
was so necessary our people should have; therefore was the work done
well, even though death had come upon us after the story was told.
Strange as it may seem, we found it difficult to repeat that which we
had learned. Every man was so engrossed with the work in hand that
it appeared like a waste of time to listen to two lads who had been
pleasuring on the Point, as was supposed; and we, fatigued beyond power
of further movement, could not run from one to another insisting upon
being heard.
But for the fact that Noah Brown chanced to pass near by where I was
trying to induce one of the shipwrights to listen to me, it might have
been a full hour before we gained the ear of any in authority.
Once I began to speak, however, and he realized from whence we had
escaped, it can be fancied that no further entreaties on our part were
necessary.
It was he who pleaded with us to tell more, and when the story of
the adventure had been repeated twice over, an alarm was given which
aroused every man, woman and child in Presque Isle.
What was done toward defending the place during the first four and
twenty hours of excitement I know not, because, when our work had been
accomplished, Alec Perry and myself were given the needed opportunity
to sleep, and until the morning after our arrival we realized nothing
of what was passing around us.
It is now well known that the Britishers did not make an attack upon
the village; but--and here I must go ahead of my story for a moment--we
learned five months later, from a prisoner, that the expected
reënforcements arrived twelve hours after our escape, and save for the
fact that we had succeeded in giving them the slip, the assault would
have been made without delay. The commandant decided, however, that the
news which we carried regarding the assembling of the forces at that
point would be sufficient to give an alarm, and concluded, with good
cause, that it was no longer possible to take Presque Isle by surprise.
There was no lack of scouts on the lake from the day of our return
until the ice broke up, and in the meanwhile my father had come back
from Buffalo with a twelve-pound cannon, four chests of small arms, and
a limited supply of ammunition.
It was a scanty store toward fitting out the vessels which were nearing
completion; but it served to put us all in better spirits, because,
with these much needed munitions, we could the better defend the bay.
Lest it should seem that I am vainglorious, the words which my father
spoke to Alec and myself when he learned what we two had done shall not
be set down here; but this much is necessary in order that what follows
may be understood. He agreed, in the name of Captain Perry, that we
lads should be allowed to enlist on whatsoever vessel pleased us; and
promised also, in the name of Alec’s brother, that a full report of our
adventure be sent to the Government at Washington.
We still continued, so long as it was possible, to skate back and
forth on the lake within half a dozen miles of the American shore, and
perhaps I need not say that never again did Alec make any attempt at
venturing farther across than seemed absolutely necessary.
When not thus employed we watched eagerly the building of the ships,
and had much discussion between ourselves as to which one we should
volunteer to serve on. For my part I was wholly at a loss to decide,
until Alec settled the question by saying:--
“Where my brother is, there must be the hottest fighting, for I assure
you he will seek out the enemy whether they be disposed to give battle
or not; and when he returns from Pittsburg we shall know on which craft
we are to sail.”
Captain Perry came back on the 10th day of April. The ice was out of
the lake, and the forces in the blockhouse at the entrance of Presque
Isle Bay were redoubled, for now we had every reason to expect the
British fleet.
Two weeks after his return the three gunboats were launched, and I dare
venture to say not one person in Presque Isle, old or young, missed the
spectacle.
It was a gala day in the village, and when we saw the little craft
swinging at their cables just off the landing-place, there came
to every one, I believe, to myself I know, an additional sense of
security, although these vessels were as yet uncompleted, and without
guns or ammunition.
The two brigs would be ready for leaving the ways in three weeks, it
was said, and Alec and I looked forward to that day with the keenest
interest, for Captain Perry had told us that upon one of these he
should sail, while at the same time he ratified the promise made by my
father.
We promised ourselves that nothing should prevent us from seeing these
two craft, which both of us felt certain would make the bravest showing
against the Britishers, leap into the water, and yet we failed of being
present.
This is how it was:--
One week before the day set for the launching a message came from
Commodore Chauncey, who was then at Buffalo, ordering Captain Perry to
join him in a certain secret enterprise against the enemy.
Now Alec’s brother was not minded to take two lads with him, and would
have kept the matter secret, but that it came to us quite by accident.
Emboldened by the service already rendered, we decided that it was our
right to accompany the expedition.
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.