I had no desire to argue further within hearing of the commodore, and scrambled down into the boat, where my comrades were seated ready to begin the voyage. Now indeed was Darius the leader of the party, and after the conversation in regard to the muskets, I was prepared to obey him without a murmur. It is a large canoe which will carry six people comfortably, without sign of being overloaded, yet the boat we were in did it, and I would not have hesitated to put in a couple more had it been necessary, while she paddled as easily as a craft half her size. "It's a great little boat," Darius said approvingly as we began the voyage with a burst of speed which absolutely surprised me. "I reckon we could show our heels to the best that can be found on the river." "Where are we goin'?" Jim Freeman asked, impatient to know more regarding our purpose. "That's what I can't say, lad. We'll run down till we see somethin' of the Britishers, even though we come off the Tangiers again; but I'm thinkin' we'll do well if we make Hog Point this trip." Jim would have asked more questions; but that Darius cut him short by saying gruffly: "There's a decently good reason for believin' that the enemy may show himself any minute now, an' if we don't want to get into trouble it'll be safe to hold our peace. There'll be plenty of time for tongue-waggin' later." It can be fancied that we remained silent after such a remark and the old man kept four of us at the paddles constantly, himself doing twice as much work as any other, while the helmsman occupied that post only in order to rest himself, the steering blade being shifted from one to the other accordingly as we grew tired. For the fourth time we passed Benedict without making a stop, but on this occasion I made no protest, and when we had run a mile further down the river we came upon a pungy belonging to our village, the master of which was evidently doing his best to get all the speed possible out of the craft. "Better put back!" he shouted nervously, and Darius gave the word to cease paddling as he asked: "What's the news?" "The Britishers are comin' this way thicker'n spatter, an' I made up my mind it was time to get under cover." "Where were the foremost ships when you saw them?" "Less'n a mile below Hog Point; it looked like there was more'n a hundred vessels." "You'd better not count on stoppin' long at Benedict," Darius cried as he motioned for us to take up the paddles again, and before the captain of the pungy had time to ask a question, we were beyond earshot. "It may be the fleet that's bound for Baltimore," I suggested, not being prepared at that time to believe the enemy would attempt to take large vessels far enough up the river to disturb our fleet. "I allow some of 'em are headin' Baltimore way," Darius replied grimly; "but you'll find that a good many of the fleet will make a try at stirrin' up Joshua Barney."