"Which of course you will do!" I cried hotly.
"We must make some kind of a turn to favor him; but we're here on the commodore's business, an' the question is whether we'll be warranted in doin' what may turn all the plans upside down. Bill reckons to slip over the side, an' swim ashore. If we're roundabout here, the Britishers will count it for certain that we had a hand in the desertion, an' the Avenger may be taken from us before we've got well into our work. The king's officers ain't noways easy in handlin' them as tries to get the best of 'em."
"But if the man swims for the islands expectin' to find us, and we're not there, he'll be retaken."
"Ay, lad, an' most likely dance at the yard-arm for desertion."
"Then of course we must help him," and I beckoned to Jerry, knowing full well he would fall into my way of thinking.
Before anything could be said between my partner and me, however, the Avenger had come off the Severn, and we received peremptory orders to heave to.
"Why didn't you remain alongside, as you were told?" an officer asked angrily when the pungy was at a standstill, and Darius replied:
"The current carried us down the bay durin' the night, an' when mornin' came the captain of that other ship ordered us alongside, sir. He bought our cargo an' agreed to take more, so if you'd like to trade with us, we can have fifteen or twenty bushels here by to-morrow night, in case the wind holds."
I could see that two or three of the gentlemen on the quarter-deck put their heads together, as if talking about us, and then the one who had first spoken ordered us to lay alongside.
"They're goin' to search us, an' it may be I'll have an invite to stop aboard quite a spell." Darius said half to himself as he swung the pungy around preparatory to obeying orders.