"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. "Then why do we go alongside? It wouldn't take many minutes to run out of range," I said excitedly. "They'd sink us in a twinkling, an' even though I knew we might give 'em the slip, it shouldn't be done, 'cause we couldn't come here again, which never'd suit the commodore." The possibility that any of our crew might be pressed into service on board the ship frightened me, as may be imagined; but I understood even while making the suggestion, that we could not hope to escape, and the fate of poor Tom Sackett was pictured before me. There was no way out of it, however, but my knees were very weak when we ranged up under the starboard guns, waiting like criminals until his majesty's officers should work their will regardless of right or wrong. Darius was the one who stood in the most danger, for it could readily be seen that he was an old sailor; but he never turned a hair. One would have said to see him that nothing was more pleasant than to thus be overhauled, and he made a most awkward flourish by way of a bow when we were come into position. Jim Freeman passed a hawser, and when it was made fast a midshipman, who acted as if he owned the whole of Chesapeake Bay, came aboard with two marines. The little whipper-snapper poked his nose into the cuddy, and pretended to be nearly overcome by the odor of the place, therefore he sent the marines below to overturn everything in the bunks, as if believing we had somebody hidden there. The soldiers came up with our three old muskets, and the little whifflet demanded in a tone of authority to be told why we went so well armed.