CHAPTER XIV.
DON OBTAINS A CLUE.
“How have you succeeded with Coleman?” continued Enoch. “Are we going to get rid of him as easily as we hoped?”
“Coleman is all right,” was Jones’s encouraging reply. “I laid a neat little trap for him, and he fell into it just as easy! I told him that we had been followed nearly all day, and he said he knew it, for he had seen Mack and some of his squad on the dock. I told him, too, that Mack knew all about the party at Windsor, and that I was afraid he would go down there and lie in wait for us; and Coleman offered to go ashore in the dory and reconnoiter.”
“Good!” exclaimed Enoch. “Just the minute he is out of sight we’ll fill away for the bay. Now let’s post the other boys, so that they may know just what is expected of them.”
The deserters did not at all enjoy their ride down the river, for they were thinking about something else. They were impatient to see the last of Coleman, and trembling for fear that something would happen to excite his suspicions. They were strong enough to take the schooner from him by force, and there were some reckless ones in the band who openly advocated it; but the majority would not listen to them. They had enough to answer for already, they said, and they would not countenance any such high-handed proceeding. While they were talking about it they sighted Windsor.
“I guess I had better run in and tie up to the wharf,” said Coleman, who stood at the wheel.
“Don’t do that,” said Enoch, quickly. He wanted to keep the schooner out in the river so that when the proper time came he could fill away without the loss of a moment. If she were made fast to the wharf and the sails were lowered, it would be a work of some difficulty to get under way again, and if Coleman were the active and quick-witted man they took him for, he would upset all their plans in an instant.
“That wouldn’t do at all,” chimed in Jones. “How do we know but that Mack and his men are hidden there on the wharf all ready to board us as soon as we come alongside?”
“Couldn’t you fight ’em off?” inquired Coleman.
“We might, but we’ll not try it,” said Enoch. “There’s no law that prevents a deserter from hiding or taking to his heels, but if he should resist arrest, they’d snatch him bald-headed. We don’t want to fight, for we’re deep enough in the mud already.”