Our sweepers and the other sections of the raft were nowhere in
sight.




III

We left the logs, and walked to Cornwall, and took a sloop down the
river. It was an American boat, bound for Quebec with
pipe-staves. It had put in at Cornwall when the storm began. The
captain said that the other sections of our raft had passed safely.
In the dusk of the early evening a British schooner brought us to.

"Wonder what that means?" said the skipper, straining his eyes in
the dusk,

A small boat, with three officers, came along-side. They climbed
aboard, one of them carrying a lantern. They were armed with
swords and pistols. We sat in silence around the cockpit. They
scanned each of us carefully in the light of the lantern. It
struck me as odd they should look so closely at our hands.

"Wha' d' ye want?" the skipper demanded. "This man," said one of
them, pointing to D'ri. "He's a British sailor. We arrest him--"

He got no farther. D'ri's hand had gone out like the paw of a
painter and sent him across the cockpit. Before I knew what was
up, I saw the lank body of D'ri leaping backward into the river. I