glowered at us like an angry cat.

"We reckoned you wanted to see Barney's fleet, when you put off from
Benedict, an' it ain't jest right to make you paddle a heavy canoe so
far," Darius said grimly. "You're goin' back with us, Master Macomber,
an' this time you'll stay."

"Not very long," the reptile said with a snarl. "Admiral Cochrane
declares that he'll destroy Barney's fleet Friday, an' dine in
Washington Sunday. So you see I'm not likely to stay with you any
great while after the British come up the river."

"That is as may be; now I'm countin' that when your admiral gets as
far up the river as Nottingham, if he ever does, you'll be somewhere
else, for we've taken you in charge."

"My time will come, an' then I'll pay off a good many old scores,"
Macomber cried with a look on his face which was not pleasant to see.

"If it does you any good, keep right on thinkin' so," Darius replied
mildly, "an' in the meantime we'll keep our eyes on you. Give way,
lads, the sooner we're with the fleet now, the better it will be."

We had no more than settled well to work when Darius ordered us to
cease paddling, as he half rose to peer steadily ahead, and, quite
naturally, all of us glanced in the same direction.

A canoe carrying four men was coming down stream, and while I was
asking myself if we might not have come upon more British spies, the
old man settled back with a sigh of relief.

"It's the Byard boys goin' home," he announced, and then, as the other
canoe came within hail, he gave them information of what was happening
at Benedict.

"It don't look as if we'd better go back there," Sam Byard said
thoughtfully when Darius had come to an end of his news. "I reckon the
Britishers might make trouble for us, eh?"

"They'd be apt to if it was known you'd just come from our fleet," the
old man replied with a laugh. "The best thing you can do is to turn
around an' follow us. Did you get your money?"

"Oh yes, the commodore handed that over all right."

"Where is Jim Freeman?" I asked.

"The commander allowed it wouldn't be many hours before all hands of
you came back, so he went aboard the pungy to keep ship."

"There!" Darius said triumphantly. "You can see how near Joshua Barney
comes to the truth when he makes a guess! I believe he could stay at
Nottingham without ever gettin' a report from anybody, an' tell just
what the enemy was doin'."

"He'll have a chance to see what they're doin', as soon as some o