gs an' barges, with nobody givin' any attention to us. We'd been
hove to half a musket shot from the ship, an' when I saw they had
other fish to fry an' plenty of 'em, I run close aboard as I yelled
like a countryman, 'Any orders for us, sir?' It was quite a long spell
before anybody answered, an' I'd sung out two or three times, when
that little midshipman squealed, 'You are to go about your business
with that pungy, an' we'll overhaul you again when we have more time!"

"Then you started for the Patuxent the best you knew how," I said,
thinking I understood just what should have been done under the
circumstances.

"I wasn't such a bloomin' fool," Darius replied. "We run down to the
Narcissus bold as lions, an' I told 'em we'd brought some more
oysters; but they threatened to fire into us if we didn't sheer off,
an' then I coaxed for 'em to take what cargo I had, offerin' to sell
at six cents a bushel, till they must have thought I was a stark
natural fool."

"But why didn't you get away when you had the chance?" Jerry asked in
surprise.

"I didn't want 'em to think I was anxious to go, an' meanwhile I had
my eye on what they was doin', which told plain as the nose on your
face that the signals were as I had thought. I almost cried when I
said I'd have to run all the way to Baltimore to sell the oysters, an'
the best I got from them was more threats. Then we could steer
straight up the bay without givin' rise to suspicion that we was jest
naturally hankerin' to come."

"You played a fine trick on 'em!" I cried, filled with admiration at
the old man's method of getting away from unpleasant neighbors. "It
couldn't have been done better."

"I'm not so certain of that," Darius replied, but I could see that he
was pleased by the praise. "I didn't have time to think up anythin'
different, for the whole business come about so sudden like.
Howsomever, we've got news that Joshua Barney needs to hear, an' our
cruise to the lower bay will pay if we can get to Nottingham half a
dozen hours ahead of the Britishers, which seems to be a settled thing
with this wind."

Then I told him that the commodore felt convinced the enemy would
advance sooner than was generally believed, and he said in a tone of
admiration:

"There's a man for you! He can smell more'n the most of folks can see,
an' when he says it's in his mind that a thing is so or so, you can
set it down as comin' mighty near to bein' a fact."

Then the old man as