“Ay; but we can do it with four oars out, and even though we pull at them twenty-four hours, the labor should count as nothing so that we arrive in good time.”
“But the garrison there is weak?”
“They should be able to hold out until assistance can arrive. We can muster fifty men for them within two hours; but standing here talking isn’t doing the work, and it’s important we set off without unnecessary delay. Ezra, you go down the shore, and Matthew up, each searching for a boat, and when one has been found pull to this point, where I will stay with the prisoners.”
“Is it to your mind that I shall take the craft from opposite the fort, running the risk of being overhauled?”
“Better that than remain here wasting time in talk.”
Matthew White was of the opinion that it would be wisest to make the journey afoot rather than take the risk of being overhauled by the “rebels;” but to this Master Wentworth would not listen, and, he evidently being the leader of the party, carried his point.
The two men set out, and immediately after their departure Jason Wentworth ordered his prisoners back into the underbrush a short distance from the shore, where he stood guard over them, and at the same time could keep close watch for the return of his companions.
CHAPTER IX. A BOLD STROKE.
Isaac’s heart beat hard and fast when he and Nathan were thus left with but a single man to guard them, for he believed the time had come when they might succeed in turning the tables, because surely it would be easier to overpower one than three.
In this, however, he soon came to understand that he was mistaken.