"There's a boat dead ahead, with four men rowin' an' one steerin'," Jim Freeman, who had stationed himself in the tow as a lookout, came aft to report.
"Some smarty who's tryin' to make the anchorage first," Darius growled; "but with this wind we can sail two miles to his one, so it won't be that craft which will beat us in."
By this time we were well up with the boat, and to our surprise it was Commodore Barney himself who hailed:
"Sloop ahoy! Pass a line, and I'll come aboard."
He got the line smartly enough, and when he came over the rail Darius saluted, as he said:
"We counted you were aboard the Scorpion, sir."
"That schooner won't get off for ten minutes or more, and I allowed that the other vessels would be handled in the same leisurely fashion, so, I pulled ahead, thinking to be at the rendezvous before the flotilla was well under way. You lads obeyed orders smartly."
"It's a way they have, sir," Darius said with a grin, as he looked over the rail to see that the commodore's boat was being towed where she would be the least drag on the pungy.
Then it was that I tried to play the host, by asking the commander if he would go into the cabin.
"It isn't a very nice place, sir; but it's clean, and you may be able to get some sleep."