commissary is ready, we can reach Cannondale in the
Splash by nine o'clock. It is half past seven now," I replied, looking
at my watch.

"The commissary is all ready," said Tom Rush.

"What time shall you return?" asked the general.

"By eleven or twelve. I think the fellows had better turn in, and
sleep till we return," I suggested. "There will be time enough then to
load the scow, and reach the island by daylight."

The general approved of this idea, but was afraid the boys were too
much excited to sleep. I called those who had been detailed to serve
as boatmen to assist in putting the Splash into the water, and, with
Tom Rush alone, started for Cannondale. The breeze was fresh, and
before the time I had mentioned we landed at our destination.

Since I had owned the Splash, I had spent all my vacations and
holidays, and indeed all my spare time every week day when boating was
practicable, on the lake. A spirit of adventure had prompted me to
make long trips, and I had sometimes spent half the night in my lonely
cruises. The darkness, therefore, was not an obstacle with me to the
navigation of those familiar waters. I knew every point, headland,
bay, and inlet, at midnight as well as noonday.

Lake Adieno, though a fresh-water lake, was not always the smoothest
of navigation. Its shores were nearly level land, and there was
nothing to shelter it from the blasts when the wind blew; and, with
an uninterrupted reach of twenty miles from east to west, old Boreas
had room enough to kick up quite a heavy sea. In a strong north-west
or south-west wind, boating on the lake was no child's play.

We landed at Cannondale, and secured the Splash at the steamboat pier.
For several years I had purchased the groceries for the cottage of my
uncle; and since I had owned the sail-boat, I had as often procured
them at Cannondale as at Parkville, and I was nearly as familiar with
the streets of the former as with those of the latter.

We found a grocer and a provision-dealer, of whom Tom Rush purchased
the supplies we needed. Of the former the commissary purchased ten
kegs of crackers, and a variety of small stores, and of the latter
sixteen hams, twenty pounds of salt pork, and twelve bushels of
potatoes. At the baker's we obtained all the soft bread on hand--about
a hundred loaves. These articles amounted to more than the assessments
levied on the members, but Tom and I made up the balance. The
provision-dealer harnessed his h