"There is little fear of that, mother," I replied confidently. "Commodore Barney is not the man Darius has pictured him, if he allows such a villain to escape."
After this we talked of family matters until I went up stairs to look at my sisters and brother who were asleep. Then the visit was come to an end, and I went out into the night with a heavy heart; but determined that my family should have no cause to blush for me.
I was the first to arrive at the shore, and, lying at full length in the canoe, I waited until my comrades returned from their visit.
Jerry and Jim came in company, and appeared to be excited over something, therefore to draw them on without asking any questions, I repeated what my mother had said concerning Elias Macomber.
"Ay, that was the talk in town this forenoon," Jerry replied; "but now people are saying that he came back just before sunset—"
"Back here to Benedict?" I cried in amazement.
"Ay, Jim's mother saw him as he went by her house on the way to his own. She saluted him, but he made no reply—"
"But to be here he must have escaped!" I interrupted, unable to hold my peace. "The commodore would not have set him at liberty without telling us!"
"That goes without sayin', an' now what shall we do?" Jerry asked as if he had some plan in mind.
"What can we do, except to get away before he brings some of his cronies down here to make a row?"