All this seemed very funny to the Britishers, and they cracked many a quip and joke at our expense, as I guessed by the roars of laughter which could be heard so long as we were within earshot.
Darius came on deck once we had filled away; but he kept his hat pulled well down over his face as he walked aft from the main-hatch, and when he had taken the tiller I asked:
"What were you afraid of that you kept under cover so close?"
"It was a mighty snug shave, lad," he replied with a long indrawing of the breath. "I knew one of the men on the forecastle deck, 'cause I was shipmate with him on the privateer Honest Ben, when Joshua Barney was in command. I'm not sayin' that he'd given me away; but I feared he might sing out on seein' me."
"What is his name?"
"Bill Jepson. He's a Baltimore man; but whether he's there owin' to fallin' in with a press-gang, or on account of his own free will, it's hard to say, though I never believed Bill would willingly have served the king."
"He wants you to be to the eastward of the Tangiers this night," I said, and the old man started as if he had been struck by a bullet.
"How do you know, lad?"
Then I told him when the sailor had had speech with me, and again repeated the message.
"That shows as how poor Bill was pressed into the service," Darius said sympathetically, "an' now he's countin' that an old shipmate will lend a hand."