"It is the order of the commodore that every vessel in the fleet move up to Pig Point without delay. Rations will be served there at noon to-morrow."
Then I heard the sound of oars as the messenger-boat was pulled to the next craft, and Darius said hurriedly:
"Lads, I'll admit that there are a good many vessels in this 'ere fleet what can sail clean around the Avenger; but let's show the commodore that there's no crew under him who will obey orders more smartly. Turn out lively, my bully boys! Jim, you an' Dody get home the anchor, an' the rest of us will tail on to the halliards!"
Darius had a willing crew if there was any opportunity to win the praise of the commander, and he was not yet at an end of giving his orders when we began work.
I venture to say that within sixty seconds from the time we were hailed, the Avenger was making way, rubbing past this craft and that as she literally forced a passage through the fleet, and all this before any signs of life could be seen on the other vessels. Even the Scorpion was yet lying idly at her moorings.
"That's what I call a good start, lads," the old man said when we were well clear of the flotilla, and the pungy forged ahead in good style under the force of a fairly strong night breeze. "We're first under sail, an' it'll go hard if we don't come to anchor off Pig Point ahead of any one else."
"Why do you suppose this move is being made?" I asked, for it smacked much of running away from the enemy, to retreat so far up stream, and Darius had made us believe that Joshua Barney never retreated.
"The commander has got some good plan in his head, an' it'll come out before we're many days older," the old man replied confidently.
"But surely we're tryin' to get away from the enemy," Jerry suggested.
"Ay, it has that look just now, I'll admit; but you'll see some big scheme in it very soon, or I'm a Dutchman, which I ain't."