The words had hardly pa.s.sed from the lips of the British officer, when Blair laid his hand calmly on the railing, and exclaimed, "Now, G.o.d helping me, you may tear me limb from limb, and I will be true to my country and my home."

"It's no use. He'll keep his word. You can't force 'im," shouted Hal Hutchings, the tears coursing down his cheeks.

The wild winds swept through the rigging, and the storm came on with sudden violence.

This was no time for contention with such a spirit as Blair had displayed, and the captain at once gave orders to make for the open sea, where he might the more safely abide the approaching tempest. The Fairport channel had been strewn with too many wrecks to be ventured without a careful pilot, and of that the English captain had been fully warned.

Blair and Hal were hastily thrust below, while rapid preparations were made to meet the coming hour of danger.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE STORM.

The place in which Blair and his companion found themselves was a small strongly built closet, used as a "lock-up" for refractory sailors. A single bull's-eye admitted a mere glimmer of light for a while, but that soon died away in utter darkness as the night came rapidly on. It was well for the boys that they knew something of ocean's rough rocking. A land-lubber would have had all the miseries of sea-sickness added to the horrors of that dreary dungeon.

A new exaltation of spirit had come over Blair. Difficulties and dangers seemed as nothing to him while in the path of duty. He feared neither the raging elements nor the power of angry enemies. He had the promise that those who trust in G.o.d shall never be moved, and in this strong refuge he was safe.

Not so with poor Hal. The dread of death had seized him, and absorbed all other thoughts. He could not but think of the horrors into which he should be plunged if he suddenly found a watery grave. Prayer seemed impossible for him, as in a kind of agonized waiting he met every plunge and reel of the storm-tossed ship.

Ah, the time of peril is not the best time to make one's peace with G.o.d.

When heart and flesh fail, the soul shrinks in dismay before its coming doom. Even the wild prayers for deliverance which may burst from the affrighted soul, what will they avail at the judgment? Are they the cries of the contrite heart mourning for its sins against a holy, loving, and beneficent heavenly Father? Are they not rather but as the shrieks of the criminal who sees no escape from his merited retribution?

Alas for him who postpones his day of repentance till face to face with the king of terrors. It is he only who is strong in his great Deliverer who can see that icy beckoning hand, and amid the shrinking of human nature find himself calm in the strength which only G.o.d supplies. If the agonies or the stupor of the sick-bed unfit the soul to seek peace with G.o.d in the dying hour, even so does the anguish of such fear as now bowed poor Hal to the earth.

As the English lad crouched in his terror, Blair knelt at his side and prayed earnestly for him to that G.o.d who seemed to the young Christian but the more surely at hand, for the tokens of his power that made that mighty ship quiver like a leaf in the autumn wind.

Worn out with the excess of his own strong emotion, Hal at length sank into a deep slumber, and rolled and tossed with the vessel like a lifeless thing. Blair feared the poor boy had actually died of terror; but he soon convinced himself that there was yet motion in that heart which had throbbed so truly for him.

There was no sleep for Blair during that long wild night. In the intensity of his excitement, his thoughts flew through his mind with a vividness and a swiftness that made him almost feel that he was tasting a new and higher kind of existence. Spiritual things were as real to him as his own ident.i.ty, and the G.o.d in whom he trusted seemed at his side as a familiar friend. Of his mother too he could think without a tear.

He was sure that if left childless, she would be comforted and sustained and gently led along her lonely pathway. Had he not been fulfilling her oft-repeated counsel, to fear nothing but sin? Had he not vindicated that love of his native land, which she had taught him should be next to his allegiance to G.o.d? She might never know his fate. Yet she would mourn for him as for one who died in his effort to fulfil the duties of his absent father, and risked his own life to save the human freight of a ship from wreck and sure destruction.

Daylight brought but a feeble glimmer to Blair's dark prison-house, yet he welcomed it as the a.s.surance of dawn--dawn which is ever welcome to the watcher, though it may usher in a day of double danger.

CHAPTER IX.

A REWARD.

Hal was still in the deep sleep into which he had fallen, when the bolts of their place of confinement were withdrawn. Blair's clear bright eyes looked full in the face of the English commander, who now stood before him.

"Give me your hand, my boy," said the captain. "I can respect bravery wherever I find it. I honor you for your determined courage. Tell me, who taught you so to love your country?"

Blair's hand still hung at his side as he answered, "My mother, sir; the best of mothers. She would rather have me die in the right cause, than live a traitor."

"You will not give me your hand? Perhaps I do not deserve it; but it was not cruelty which prompted me to act as I did last evening. I felt our danger, and scrupled not to use any means which should bring you to terms. Your constancy triumphed. I knew that no threats could force such a spirit. You shall not lose your reward, in the knowledge of the service you have done your home and your kindred. My orders were to get into the harbor of Fairport, to take possession of the naval stores there belonging to privateersmen, and then to reduce the town to ashes."

For the first time Blair's eyes filled with tears, and his chest swelled with strong emotion as he exclaimed, "Thank G.o.d, I have been able to be useful to my country and my home. This will fill my mother's heart with joy. To her I owe all in me that is worthy of praise."

"I believe I can trust you, my lad," said the captain. "I would not willingly have my name go out as one who would maim and torture a brave lad. My desperation is my excuse for my expedient of last evening. I want you to promise to keep that scene a secret. You may perchance some day have your own sins to cover. I have been reckoned brave and honorable, and I would not have my fair name tarnished. Will you promise?"

"I forgive you from my heart. I promise," said Blair, frankly extending his hand.

"Such a mother as yours can be trusted," said the English commander, warmly grasping the offered hand. "She must know how her son did her honor in his hour of danger. Tell her the story, but let her keep it to herself. The true patriot, my boy, is willing to suffer for his country, though he win no glory from his sufferings. Are you equal to such a sacrifice?"

"I own I should like to be known as one who had done something for his native land," said Blair; "but it will do me good, and make me the purer patriot, I trust, to have only my mother's praise, if we ever meet again."

"_You_ shall be released at the earliest opportunity; but this your companion must stay with us. I wish he was of the stuff that you are. We would make a British tar of him, who would do us honor. His tongue tells the story of his birth, even if we could doubt the witness of his Saxon eyes and hair."

"He chose to be an American. He worked his way to a home with us, and to us he ought to belong," said Blair boldly.

"He is English, unnaturalized of course, as he is under age. He belongs to us by all law. I wish he were a better prey," said the captain.

"You do Hal Hutchings injustice. A truer heart never throbbed. Timid as he is, he ventured with me in the boat because he would not see me go alone. Let him once love his duty as he loves me, and there will be no post of danger from which he will shrink."

Blair's eyes flashed and his cheek glowed as he spoke.

"He shall be kindly cared for. We will make the best of what is in him.

You are both free to go your way on board the ship. There is no chance of escape where we now are. You will see how our good vessel has suffered by the storm. Yet she weathered it bravely. You shall have food here presently, and then you are at large, prisoners on parole."

With these words the captain took his leave.

Blair's first impulse, when left alone, was to throw himself on his knees beside his sleeping companion. From the depths of his heart he thanked G.o.d for enabling him to be firm to his duty; and earnestly he prayed that he might be made humble in the midst of the honor which had been allowed him. For his dear mother too rose a fervent prayer that she might be kept in the hollow of her Maker's hand during the absence of her son, whom she had striven to train as a Christian patriot, whose watchwords are ever, "G.o.d and my native land."

CHAPTER X.

A NEW DECK.

The British vessel had indeed suffered much damage in the fearful storm.

The crashing and wrenching that had so overwhelmed poor Hal with terror, had been the destruction of mast and yard and bulwark. Yet, though sorely dismantled, the good ship was able to keep bravely on her way.

She had been several days heading for the distant sh.o.r.es of England, alone on the wide ocean, which like a sulky child bore the marks of its late outburst of pa.s.sion long after the sky above was all smiles and sunshine.

The appearance of three sails along the far horizon caught the captain's wary eye. That they were Americans he did not doubt--privateers, against which singly he could have won an easy victory; but disabled as his vessel now was, he could not dare to cope with such a trio.

They gained rapidly upon him. His resolution was taken at once. He wrote a few lines hastily, sealed them, and summoned Blair to his side. "My boy," he said, "I want to send you on a dangerous mission. Dare you trust yourself in your boat upon the sea, chafing as it still is from the late storm? I want a messenger to send to yonder craft so swiftly nearing us. Dare you go? Your courage shall set you free."

"I will go. G.o.d will watch over me, and bring me safe to my mother,"

said Blair promptly.