"You'll find that he's bound up river spyin', an' we count on goin' in the same direction."
Now I understood! Elias was to reconnoiter the river for his very good friends, and we could catch him on his return, as we had done once before.
I was near to crying aloud with joy when I realized that once he set out as Darius predicted, nothing could save him from our clutches, therefore I literally held my breath as he took his seat in the canoe and pushed off.
Just for one instant my heart sank within me, for it seemed as if he was bound down river; but it appeared that he was simply making a flourish to exhibit his skill with the paddle, and then he pulled up stream, thereby doing Jerry and me the greatest possible favor.
"Yes, he's our meat," Darius said with an odd smile as I looked at him questioningly. "He'll go somewhere near the fleet, to make certain it yet remains at the place where he made his escape, an' we won't press the villain. Give him plenty of time to get well away from his friends."
Then the old man settled back amid the foliage as if counting on remaining quite a while, and I no longer thought of anything save the pleasing fact that we would once more present to Commodore Barney the miserable renegade.
Darius soon learned that it would not be well to prolong his halt; we could see the soldiers pointing toward the thicket in which we were hidden, as if suggesting it as a pleasant camping place when the day was so hot as to bring perspiration to a negro's face, and a few moments later some of the lighter boats were pushed out from the shore.
"I reckon it's time for us to make a move," Darius said as he arose to his feet lazily. "We may as well be movin' toward the canoe, though I had counted on stoppin' here till it was a bit cooler."
According to my way of thinking we had no more than time enough in which to get away, for now at least an hundred soldiers were coming across, and in case we were discovered lurking amid the underbrush there would be such a hue and cry that we could not hope to escape.
Darius, however, would not move one whit more quickly because of my urging; in fact, it seemed much as if he walked the slower to test my nerves, and instead of parleying with him further, Jerry and I went ahead at full speed, having due care, of course, to caution.