"Not if everything was in your favor; but how if you met a boat-load of Britishers such as we captured the other night? It ain't safe to be foolin' 'round the river alone just now, an' that's a fact."
"Meaning that there is more of fear in your mind lest we come upon spies of the enemy, than expectation Commodore Barney might need our services?" I asked, and the old man finally admitted that perhaps such was the case.
Then, in my pigheadedness, I declared we would stop in the village, and he gave proof of what he could do when things did not go exactly to his liking.
"I shall stop you from leavin' the pungy!" he said doggedly, without looking towards us.
"Do you mean to say, Darius Thorpe, that you'd prevent us from goin' ashore?" Jerry cried hotly.
"That's exactly the size of it, lad. I never'd let a shipmate of mine run his nose into danger when there was nothin' to be made by so doin'."
"But how would you stop us?" Jerry asked, his anger rapidly giving way to mirth as he pictured to himself Darius, the man whom we had hired to help us in the fishing, setting himself up to say what we should or should not do.
"I'd knock you down, with a belayin' pin if it was handy, but if not, with my fist, knowin' Joshua Barney would uphold me in bringin' back at any price the same crew I took away."
I felt certain that the old man believed it his duty to do exactly as he had said, in case we persisted in going contrary to what he thought was prudent, and I also came to realize that to his mind the danger was great, otherwise he never would have spoken in such a strain.
However, I did not let him know what was in my mind; but stood well forward when we sailed past Benedict, as if I was too angry to have further speech, and, probably, acted like a sulky school-boy thinking that I was upholding my dignity.