he said, speaking slowly as if to prolong
his enjoyment at giving information which would not be pleasing to
hear, "Admiral Cochrane, the Britisher, has passed the capes with
twenty-one vessels, an' Commodore Malcolm is below with a fleet
loaded with soldiers. Tom Harrison swears there were more'n ten
thousand men."

"Somebody has been stuffin' you, Jim," I said, not crediting his news.

"Then they've stuffed Commodore Barney too, an' when he runs I allow
the rest of us had better be huntin' a hole."

"Commodore Barney don't run!" Darius cried angrily, for he never
allowed anything disparaging to be said in his presence of the man
whom he believed to be the greatest naval commander who ever lived.

"Perhaps he don't very often; but he has this time," Jim said in a
tone so decided that we could not but believe he was convinced of the
truth of his own words.

"Did you see him?" Darius demanded, and I expected that when he
answered this question Jim's story would fall to pieces; but the lad
replied bold as a lion:

"Of course I did! All the boats laid here after the fight in St.
Leonard's bay, an' it was only yesterday they scooted up the river!"

Here was news with a vengeance, and I no longer felt the same desire
to punch Jim's head which had come over me when he first came aboard
with what I believed was a cock and bull story.

Then, with first one and another asking questions, we learned from
Jim that while we were in Baltimore the British frigate Loire had
chased Commodore Barney's flotilla into St. Leonard's bay, and
blockaded it there until Colonel Carberry's artillery came down from
Frederick and drove the enemy away.

Then, having learned of the enormous force at the mouth of the bay,
Commodore Barney sailed to Benedict, where he remained four and twenty
hours, or till word was brought that ten or twelve of the enemy's
vessels were bound up the bay, bound most likely for Baltimore or
Washington, when he sailed for Nottingham, further up the river.

Darius was more concerned than either of us, for he firmly believed
that Joshua Barney would not have beaten a retreat without first
having been positive that an overwhelming force was near at hand, and
if there were Britishers near enough to drive the commodore away, we
had got ourselves in a pickle by coming up the river.

The first thought which came to my mind was that the Avenger was in
great danger of being captured in short order, for I made no quest