"Look at that fellow who is standin' on his tiptoes to look in at the window!" my partner whispered, and obeying, I saw that miserable cur whom we had twice captured, and who had contrived to escape us the same number of times.
"Elias Macomber!" I cried involuntarily.
"Ay," Jerry replied, "an' now I can read you the whole riddle. Darius came around this way when the prisoners were set free; Macomber saw him, and gave information to the enemy, thus causin' the old man's arrest. Now the villain is tryin' to get a glimpse of the sailor in order to crow over him!"
I had no doubt but that the lad had come very near the truth in his guessing; but I did not speculate upon it very long, for the question in my mind was whether we could be of any service to the old man who had served us so truly and faithfully.
"What's to be done?" Jerry asked as we stepped behind a clump of bushes in a nearby garden where we might not be seen by the fellow who would have rejoiced if he could have put us in the same place with Darius.
At the moment Jerry spoke I had never an idea as to what might be done; but I replied as if the plan was plainly mapped out in my mind:
"You shall go back to the smoke-house and tell father and the lads what we have learned. Say that we may not be back until dark; but they are to stay under cover no matter what happens, short of being discovered by the British. I'll watch here till Macomber goes away, for he isn't likely to play at that game all day, and you should be back within an hour."
Jerry started off without stopping to argue the question, and I was left alone to keep in view the man who could do us so much mischief if he had an inkling that we were in the vicinity.
Twice he spoke with the sentinel, as if asking some favor, and each time the man shook his head decidedly, therefore I concluded that the cur had tried to enter the building that he might jeer such of the prisoners as had been friends of his in the past.
Then he peered in at the window again, never making an effort to look through any other, and I concluded that from such position he could see the prisoner he had most reason to hate, which, of course, must be Darius.