"Regarding that I am not so certain, because of the proof you have brought; it strikes me that your pungy and her crew will well serve my turn. You may deliver the prisoners to an officer whom I will send aboard, and later in the day we will have another chat." Then the commodore arose to his feet in token that the interview was at an end, and we lads went out, Joshua Barney saying to Darius as he went up the companion-way stairs: "Since your joints are so stiff it may be a good plan for you to stay aboard the sloop during the remainder of the day, and then you'll be on hand when I'm ready to see you." I was both surprised and pleased to know that the old man stood so well with the commander, I had looked upon Darius Thorpe as a broken-down sailor; but Commodore Barney appeared to have a far different idea on the subject. Darius was actually puffed up with pride when he gained the deck of the Avenger. His face was as red as a beet, and his mouth open so wide that I could have tossed a quart of oysters into it without spilling one. "Well, lads," he cried, turning on Jerry and me insistently, "you've seen the biggest man in this country, an' what do you think of him?" Neither Jerry nor I could do less than praise the commodore, for he had treated us in a friendly fashion; but although we spoke our minds emphatically, declaring that he was a very pleasant gentleman, Darius was not satisfied. "I tell you he's the greatest man in the country," he repeated, and I am not certain but that he would have insisted on our saying the same over and over again if an officer from the schooner had not come to receive the prisoners. The officer and the sailors went over the rail on being told that they were to change quarters; but it was necessary that the traitors be brought from the hold, and I proposed that Darius and Jim Freeman attend to such duty, for I had no desire to set eyes on Elias Macomber again. "Let's you and I deliver some of these packages and messages with which we are charged," I suggested to Jerry. "By so doing we shall meet many old friends, and I would, if possible, have speech with my father before seeing the commodore again." "Why?" Jerry asked as if in surprise, when we went into the cuddy to get the articles which were to be delivered. I was at a loss to make reply. It would not be pleasant to tell the lad that I wanted my father's advice before agreeing to serve under the commodore, since he might believe that to be a coward's trick, therefore I said after some hesitation: "It is for him to say what I shall do; surely a fellow's father should decide anything of this kind." "But your mother the same as told you to come." "Ay, and I am here; now I will see my father, which is but natural. Do not spend so much time in idle words for I would be out of the pungy before those curs are brought from the hold."