“We are not going to stay in the river, you know,” answered Jones. “We shall get out of it as soon as we can.”
“I know that; but Enoch said last night that we shall be in danger as long as we remain this side of Oxford, and the boy who takes us down the river ought to be one who knows how to handle boats in close places. I don’t know much about schooners, for, as I told you long ago, my yacht was a cutter.”
“What’s the difference?” asked Jones.
“There is a good deal of difference the first thing you know,” exclaimed Lester; and fearing that he might be asked to tell what it was, he hastened to say: “Williams is a good fellow and a good sailor too, if I am any judge, and I think I will ask him to take command. Of course I could manage the schooner, and perhaps I will take her in hand after Enoch gets her out of the river.”
“All right,” said Jones. “I guess Enoch will take her if you ask him. That’s Coleman.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he waved his hand in reply to my signal, and is now coming off in his boat.”
In a few minutes Coleman rowed up to the wharf in his dory. He did not get out, but stood up in his boat and kept it in its place by holding fast to a ring-bolt.
“I wanted to make sure that everything is just as it should be,” said Jones, who saw that the boat-keeper was waiting to hear what he had to say. “Can we go on our cruise to-night?”
“Are you one of the deserters?” asked Coleman.