"Considerable which has been picked up from the marines who've been on duty aft. There won't be any move made for two or three days, an' then they're goin' to strike Washington an' Baltimore at the same time. Sir Peter Parker goes to our home, an' Captain Gordon will run up the Potomac. Leastways, that's what we of the gun-deck have heard, an' you know that what leaks through the sentries is most generally to be counted on."
"Ever been up the Patuxent river?" Darius asked abruptly.
"Only two or three times."
"Well that's where you ought'er be, tellin' the commodore all you know, an' if the three of you agree, here's a plan we'll try."
Darius looked at Jerry and me as he spoke, therefore I understood that we were counted as two of the three to whom he referred.
"I'm agreeable to anythin' you figger out, Darius," Bill Jepson said as he wrung the water from his scanty clothing.
"Well then, Amos an' Jerry shall take you in the canoe, an' start for Nottingham within the next ten minutes. Since they left to look for you I've been fixin' up a sail for the craft, an' with a breeze like this you ought'er be well across the Potomac by sunrise."
"Don't you need the lads with you?" Jepson asked as Jerry and I looked at each other in surprise, and, perhaps, displeasure.
"Yes; but not so much as I need to hear from the commodore after he knows what you've got to say."
"The Britishers are certain to search this craft 'twixt now an' to-morrow night, an' seein' the canoe is gone, may smell a rat," the deserter suggested.