"After swimming so far I reckon you'd better lay still," I replied, and from that time until we ran alongside the Avenger not a word was spoken between us. If I had expected to see anything affecting in the meeting between the two old shipmates, I was mistaken. Darius, who was on the lookout for us as may be supposed, said when he saw that the canoe had three occupants: "So you got him, eh? Well, Bill Jepson wasn't born to be drowned, that's certain." Then the old man passed us a line, and the deserter said as he went over the rail: "I knew I could depend on you, Darius." "You made a mistake this time, Bill, for if the boys hadn't hogged up agin it, I'd left you to do the best you could, seein's we're down here on a bit of work for Commodore Joshua Barney, whose fleet is in the Patuxent river, as perhaps you have heard." "Well there! I knew you wouldn't be foolin' round here oysterin' while able seamen are likely in good demand. I'd be well fixed if I could run across the commodore just now." "That's what I've been thinking'. Of course it don't stand to reason you can stay here a great many hours." "I must be off before daylight, an' am countin' on your tellin' me where." "What do you know about the Britishers?" "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. "I reckoned all that in with my figgerin'. If you start for the Patuxent river I shall run over to the Delaware shore an' pick up a boat somewhere."