"Ahoy ho!" he cried in return, pulling up his mule. "Who be that
a-calling of Joe?"

I broke away from Cludde's detaining arm, and ran to my old friend.

"Ahoy ho!" he shouted jovially when he saw me; but when I put my
fingers to my lips he dismounted clumsily, and met me with the
whispered question, "What be in the wind, Master Bold?"

I could not have taken ten minutes to possess him with the
necessary facts, so rapidly did I tell the gist of my story.

"Bless my buttons!" he ejaculated, "I reckoned there was somewhat
amiss. When I heard talk of you being ill, I was most desperate
uneasy, knowing you was in the latitude o' Vetch. And I said so to
my captain, and begged him to let me fetch a course this way to
make sure as you weren't run aground or wrecked on a sunken reef.
My captain he laughs and says you'd steered clear so often that
he'd no fears of you not coming safe to port; but seeing I was set
on it, he give me leave, and to make things reg'lar, as he said, he
told me being in these parts to keep an eye lifting for the
buccaneers as are said to be somewheres on this coast. And sink my
timbers, it do seem as how I'm on a rare voyage of discovery!"

I told him quickly of the purpose I had in view, and he at once
volunteered to join our party. But this I could not allow. I had no
doubt that the horseman whom I had previously seen riding to the
house was carrying thither news of his approach, as my own arrival
had been heralded. He would be expected, and if he did not appear
Vetch would be suspicious, and might despatch men in search of him,
and the footprints of his mule would bring them upon our track. I
urged him to go forward with his guides to the house, where it was
possible, if they left him free, that he might prove a useful
auxiliary if our ruse succeeded. To this he readily agreed,
declaring he would anchor at Vetch's door, and would not slip his
cable until I came up on his quarter. And he clambered to the
saddle again, called to the negroes to come on astern, and set
forth again towards the house, and as I rejoined my party among the
trees I heard his jolly voice ringing out:

"I 'llow this crazy hull o' mine
At sea has had its share;
Marooned three times an' wounded nine,
An' blowed up in the air."

We had wasted some eight or ten minutes on this interview, and
'twas high time to speed on our journey if we were to reach the
place of ambush before the convoy. As we marched, I told Cludde