"If it does you any good, keep right on thinkin' so," Darius replied mildly, "an' in the meantime we'll keep our eyes on you. Give way, lads, the sooner we're with the fleet now, the better it will be."
We had no more than settled well to work when Darius ordered us to cease paddling, as he half rose to peer steadily ahead, and, quite naturally, all of us glanced in the same direction.
A canoe carrying four men was coming down stream, and while I was asking myself if we might not have come upon more British spies, the old man settled back with a sigh of relief.
"It's the Byard boys goin' home," he announced, and then, as the other canoe came within hail, he gave them information of what was happening at Benedict.
"It don't look as if we'd better go back there," Sam Byard said thoughtfully when Darius had come to an end of his news. "I reckon the Britishers might make trouble for us, eh?"
"They'd be apt to if it was known you'd just come from our fleet," the old man replied with a laugh. "The best thing you can do is to turn around an' follow us. Did you get your money?"
"Oh yes, the commodore handed that over all right."
"Where is Jim Freeman?" I asked.
"The commander allowed it wouldn't be many hours before all hands of you came back, so he went aboard the pungy to keep ship."
"There!" Darius said triumphantly. "You can see how near Joshua Barney comes to the truth when he makes a guess! I believe he could stay at Nottingham without ever gettin' a report from anybody, an' tell just what the enemy was doin'."