ABOARD THE FIRE-BOAT
THE edge of the woods was gained when a shot rang out, but whether
directed at Henry or the sharpshooter neither could tell.
“They will be after us hot-footed in another minute,” said the young
soldier. “How shall we turn?”
“It will be folly to turn to the river just yet,” answered Silvers.
“They will be sure to hunt for us there. Let us hide in the opposite
direction until the alarm is over.”
As the pair passed into the wood they saw a man coming along a
well-beaten path. He carried a bundle under one arm and two bottles
under the other. As he came closer they recognized the soldier who had
taken the gold piece. He had brought food and some wine from a chateau
not far away, where he was well known. He started to yell, but Silvers
stopped him.
“Silence!” he cried. “Silence, if you value your life.”
But the peasant was too frightened to listen, and yelling loudly he
dropped his bundle and bottles and ran for the soldiers’ camp as swiftly
as his slim legs would carry him.
“This may come useful,” said Henry, as he picked up the bundle, which
was done up in a bit of white cloth.
“Ditto one of these,” added Silvers, and slipped a bottle of wine into
his coat pocket.
The wood passed they came in sight of the chateau, a pretty place, built
of stone, covered with ivy, and set in a park of shrubbery. Back of the
chateau were a barn and several other outbuildings.
A light was burning in an upper room of the chateau, but otherwise the
entire place was dark.
“Let us make for the barns,” whispered Silvers. “They ought to afford
some sort of a hiding place.”
Henry was willing, and in a trice they had leaped the fence fronting a
road and were running to the nearest of the outbuildings, which loomed
up vaguely in the darkness. The shelter of the structure gained, they
found an open door and ran inside.
The barn was divided into two parts, one for the horses, of which there
were four, and the other for hay and grain. Back of the barn were a
cow-shed and a milk house.
“Shall we get into the hay?” whispered Henry. They could already hear
the pursuers on the roadway.
“They will be sure to search that,” answered Silvers. “Wait a second.”
The sharpshooter bent down and tried several of the boards of the floor.
As he had hoped, one was loose, and beneath was an opening of no mean
size.
“Just the thing. In you go,” he went on, and Henry dropped down,
followed by his companion, and the board was lowered into place over
them.
It was a damp, foul-smelling hole, but to this they did not just then
pay attention. With bated breath they strained their ears to catch some
sound of those who were after them.
It was a good five minutes before anybody came into the place, to tramp
loudly directly over their heads. There were four or five soldiers, and
the two in hiding heard them move among the horses and through the grain
room and the hay mow. The soldiers spoke in French, so neither Henry nor
Silvers knew what was said.
Following the examination of the barn, the soldiers looked over the
other buildings, and even into the water vat of the milk house. Then
they went outside and looked around the trees in the chateau park, and
among the bushes.
“They must have gone further,” said the corporal in charge, in French.
“They were afraid to stay here.”
“Unless we catch them it will go hard with Gaston and Pasmont,” said
another. “The captain said they must keep a good watch over the sly
rascals.”
After the French soldiers had gone the barn became as silent as a tomb.
“What an escape!” whispered Henry half joyously.
“Hush, lad,” warned Silvers. “We are not yet out of the woods.”
For half an hour they remained under the flooring of the barn, and then,
unable to endure the smell any longer, they left the hole and moved up
into the hay mow, now half filled with the summer crop.
Henry had brought the food in the cloth with him, and, being hungry,
both proceeded to make a meal in the hay, Silvers drinking from the
bottle of wine and the young soldier procuring some water from the milk
house.
“What shall be our next move?” asked Henry, feeling that the
sharpshooter was the leader.
“Better stay here until to-morrow night,” answered Silvers.
“As long as that!”
“Why not? It’s more comfortable here than in prison, and by to-morrow
night the excitement will have blown over and we’ll have a much better
chance to get away than we’ll have now.”
Henry could not help but see the force of this argument. Yet to wait
twenty-four hours under such circumstances appeared to be a never-ending
period of time.
Slowly the balance of the night wore away and day came on. A farmhand
came to feed the horses and hitch one to a cart, and a maid came out to
milk three cows, but otherwise they did not see or hear a soul. As she
worked around the milk house the maid sang a gay song in French, as if
no such thing as a war existed.
“It takes a French girl to do that,” observed Silvers. “No English girl
could sing so happily with danger at the very door of the home.”
“The French are a gay people,” answered Henry. “But, just the same, they
can fight when they want to.”
At last the sun went down and night came on. They had eaten the last of
the food brought along, and Silvers had long since finished his bottle
of wine. It was somewhat cloudy, which promised to be in their favor.
“Now we’ll see what fate has in store for us,” said Silvers, after a
long look around the outbuildings. “Shall I carry the musket, or will
you?”
“As you are the best shot, you had better take it,” answered Henry.
“Then I’ll give you the knife,” went on the sharpshooter, and passed
over the dagger.
The gun was in the same condition as when taken from the prison, and
they had taken care to preserve the powder for priming.
They left the barn by a back door and lost no time in crossing a turnip
and onion lot to a row of berry bushes skirting a ditch. Once at the
ditch, they crawled along until they gained the shelter of the woods.
“Now we can make for the river,” said Silvers. “But how we are to get
across remains a problem still to solve.”
“Perhaps we can find a canoe or a rowboat. Or, on a pinch, we can build
a raft.”
“Not so easy, lad, without tools.”
The woods were thick with underbrush, and it was no mean task to push a
way through. Soon, however, they came to a well-beaten path, and along
this they moved faster, Silvers in the lead, and both with eyes and ears
strained to the utmost, for a possible sign of an enemy.
“There is a building ahead,” said the sharpshooter, after a quarter of a
mile had been covered.
It proved to be a fair-sized summer house, standing on a rocky cliff.
Beyond was a series of rough stone steps, leading to the river bank, far
below. At the shore was a rude dock, and here rested a long,
strange-looking object, half boat and half raft, piled high with some
straw and several barrels of pitch.
“Some kind of a craft,” murmured Henry, as he looked forward in the
uncertain light.
“Be quiet, there may be soldiers on guard here,” whispered Silvers in
return.
Making certain that they were not observed, the pair stole down the
rough steps. They were almost at the bottom when a loose stone turned
under Silvers’ foot and went crashing downward.
The crash of the falling stone was followed by a cry from a sentry
stationed on the cliff. The cry was answered by another sentry, and soon
several forms appeared.
“We must hide!” cried Henry, and ran away from the steps.
“To the boat!” answered Silvers, and ran for the rude craft.
The young soldier followed, and just as they gained the boat a shot rang
out. Then two soldiers came rushing down the rough steps.
“That will keep you back,” muttered the sharpshooter, and fired the
musket. One of the soldiers was hit in the breast and fell, and the
other lost no time in seeking cover.
Once on board of the boat, the pair untied the line which held it to the
rude dock. Poles were handy and they pushed off into the stream. Then
each took a paddle and did what he could to move the craft to the south
shore of the St. Lawrence.
“She’s a clumsy one, lad,” observed Silvers, as they pushed the craft
around only with the greatest of difficulty.
“I never saw such a boat before,” answered Henry.
“It’s a fire-boat, that’s what it is. The straw and pitch will make a
red-hot fire.”
“A fire-boat? What for?”
“To send out among the shipping. Most likely the French thought to burn
some of General Wolfe’s ships with it.”
“I see. Hadn’t we better dump the straw and the barrels overboard? She
will move quicker with no load.”
“No time now, lad. Pull, and pull for all you are worth, if you want to
get away.”
Both did their best, and as they worked they heard a dozen or more of
their enemies running up and down the river bank.
“They are looking for another boat,” said Silvers. “I trust to luck they
find none.”
Suddenly they heard the cry of a number of Indians, who had joined the
French sentries. Then came several shots, one striking a barrel of pitch
and causing the stuff to overflow upon the straw.
“Keep out of range, lad,” cried Silvers.
“Yes, and you do the same,” panted the young soldier. He was working
with might and main to move the fire-boat further from the shore. “Do
you see anything of another boat?”
“Not yet. But it can’t be that there are none somewhere about,” went on
the sharpshooter.
Presently they beheld what looked like several torches flashing through
the night. They were a dozen or more feet apart.
“By Joseph! but I don’t like that!” cried Silvers.
“Don’t like what?” queried Henry.
Scarcely had he spoken when he understood what the sharpshooter meant.
There was a whizzing, and the flaming arrows—for they were nothing
less—flew all around the fire-boat. One touched the straw, but Silvers
caught it instantly and hurled it into the water.
“They mean to fire the boat!” gasped Henry. “If one of them plants
itself in that pitch——”
He got no further, for at that moment came another flight of the flaming
arrows, seven or eight in number. Four fell on the boat, one in the very
spot where the pitch had overflowed upon the straw.
The pair on the craft did their best to put out the flames, and two of
the arrows went overboard the instant they landed. But the others could
not be removed, and in two seconds more there was a flash and a roar,
and the fire-boat burst into flames from end to end!
------------------------------------------------------------------------