"Do you think Darius managed to give them the slip, or did they capture him?"
"It seems to me that the officer would have told Elias if he had taken a prisoner," I replied, and such fact gave me great satisfaction. "At all events he must be here soon if nothing has happened to his disadvantage."
Even as I spoke the canoe came out of the shadow, gliding lightly and noiselessly as thistledown, and we knew that Darius was safe, for the time being at least.
"Did you run across the boat when you went down?" I asked in a whisper as he came over the rail, and he stood silent as if with surprise.
"Didn't you see a boat?" Jerry asked impatiently, and the old man replied:
"I met with nothing either goin' or comin' an' I've brought back two muskets with a mighty small lot of powder an' ball; but it's better'n nothin'. What do you mean by a boat?"
Then we told him what we had heard, and when I mentioned the name of the traitor, he brought his hand down on his leg with a resounding thwack that might have been heard some distance away, as he said incautiously loud:
"We'll have that snake, lads, if we don't do anythin' more, an' he shall have a chance to see how the commodore looks when the Britishers come up the river!"
"Then it is for you to take command of the Avenger, Darius. The boat has not been gone from here above ten minutes, therefore it is likely to be some time before the traitor comes down stream."
"We won't wait here for him, lads. There's breeze enough stirrin' now to send the pungy against the current, an' we'll push ahead."