"That won't happen for three or four days yet, if all I've heard be true."
"It makes no difference to us when the vessels come. What we want is Elias Macomber!"
"What would you do with him, supposin' he was here this minute?"
"Carry him to Commodore Barney, of course."
"Can the four of us get along in the canoe?"
Jerry and I looked at each other in perplexity. It was a fact that the little craft would not carry four, particularly when one was a prisoner who might struggle against being taken up the river, and yet it seemed to me as if we were in duty bound to effect the capture.
"Now this is the way it looks to me," Bill Jepson said slowly, as if talking with himself, "though, of course, I ain't countin' on interferin' with you lads in any way: What I've got to tell the commodore is of more importance than the yarn Macomber can spin for the admiral, an' Darius Thorpe seemed to think I couldn't see the old man any too soon. Now if this 'ere sneak is goin' to wait where he is till the fleet comes, what's to prevent our keepin' on as we started, an' then comin' back to pull him in? This wind will set us up the river in great shape, an' within four an' twenty hours we should be at Nottingham, unless the town has been moved from where I saw it last."
I understood at once that the sailor's advice was good, and should be followed, yet it went sadly against the grain to go away from that place leaving the cur free to do us harm if the opportunity presented itself.
Jerry had much the same struggle in his mind as I, but, watching his face, I soon saw that he was ready to act upon Bill Jepson's suggestion, and without waiting for him to give his thoughts words, I said:
"Very well, if we're to go up the river first, there is no time to be lost. We must paddle the canoe close inshore until we get around the point, so that we may not be seen from Jenkins' house, and then we'll push her for all she's worth."