ian side of the river
camped Allan McNab with {426} twenty-five hundred loyalist troops.
Looking across the river with field glasses, McNab sees the boat
landing field guns on Navy Island for MacKenzie.

"I say," exclaims the future Sir Allan, "this won't do! Can't you cut
that vessel out, Drew?" addressing a young officer.

"Nothing easier," answers Drew.

"Do it, then," orders McNab.

In spite of the fact "nothing was easier," Drew's men came near
disaster on their midnight escapade. The river below Navy Island was
three miles wide, and only a mile and a half from the rapids above the
Falls, with a current like a mill race. Secretly seven boats, with
four men in each, set out at half past eleven, a few friends on the
river bank wishing Drew Godspeed. Out from shore Drew draws his boats
together, and tells the men the perilous task they have to do: if any
one wishes to go back let him do so now. Not a man speaks. Halfway
across, firing from the island drives two of the boats back. The rest
get under shadow from the bright moonlight and go on. The roar of the
Falls now became deafening, and some of the rowers called out they were
being drawn down the center of the river astern. Drew fastens his eyes
on a light against the American shore to judge of their progress. For
a moment, though the men were rowing with all their might, the light
ashore and the boats in mid-river seemed to remain absolutely still.
Finally the boats gained an oar's length. Then a mighty pull, and all
forge ahead. A strip of land hides approach to the _Caroline_. The
Canadian boatmen lie in hiding till the moon goes down, then glide in
on the _Caroline_, when Drew mounts the decks. Three unarmed men are
found on the shore side. Drew orders them to land. One fires
point-blank; Drew slashes him down with a single saber cut. The rest
of the crew are roused from sleep and sent ashore. The _Caroline_ is
set on fire in four places. She is moored to the shore ice; axes chop
her free. She is adrift; Drew the last to jump from her flaming decks
to his place in the small boats. The flames are seen from the Canadian
side, and huge bonfires light up the Canadian shore; by their gleam
{427} Drew steers back for McNab's army, and is welcomed with cheers
that split the welkin. Slowly the flaming vessel drifted down the
channel to the Falls. Suddenly the lights went out; the _Caroline_ had
either sunk on a reef or gone over the Falls. On