Commodore Barney's Young Spies

Darius stood to the eastward until we were in Pocomoke bay, and there we stood a good show of getting fifteen or twenty bushels before it would be time to be at the rendezvous appointed by Bill Jepson.

During all this while we had the enemy's fleets in fairly good view, for the vessels appeared to be to the northward of New Point; but, as a matter of course, it could be of little benefit to the commodore to know how many vessels there were, if we could not give him any idea of their weight of metal.

It was nearly noon before we got breakfast, and when the meal was come to an end we had struck some small oyster beds, therefore we were kept jumping from that time until dark, and then had on board a good twenty bushels of fair stock. Not enough from a money-making point of view; but plenty to serve our purpose, for it might not be well to let the Britishers think we could take on a cargo quickly.

Now the greater portion of this time we were in view of those aboard the two vessels we had visited, and by using their spy-glasses it would have been possible for them to make out what we were doing.

Once the night began to shut in, however, we were out of sight, and Darius said as we hauled in the drags for the last time:

"Now we'll run over for the Tangiers, lads, an' stay there till two or three o'clock in the mornin'. If Bill don't show up by that time we must count that he couldn't get away, or was caught in the act."

"Are you simply reckoning on laying off the islands?" I asked, understanding that a man might swim ashore at one point while we were at another, and easily fail of finding us.

"I reckon that some of us will take to the canoe, an' cruise off the western shore lookin' for him. His best time for makin' the try will be when the last dog-watch goes off duty at eight o'clock, or again at midnight. It won't be easy to paddle 'round so long; but it's a man's life that you're after."

"Jerry and I will go in the canoe," I said, thinking it no more than right for us to perform the greatest share of the labor since we were held, by Darius, responsible for making the attempt to aid the sailor.

We made a hearty supper that night, eating the last of the ham, and frying a generous quantity of oysters with it, and then the pungy was hove to on the westward side of the large island, as near inshore as we dared to run.

I proposed that she be anchored lest the wind set her on the beach; but Darius claimed that it was necessary for us to be ready to leave at a moment's notice, and promised to have an eye on the craft all the while we were absent.

Then Jerry and I took to the canoe, with good prospect of half a night's work before us, and paddled around to the eastward, after which we set about going back and forth for a distance of a quarter of a mile, since that seemed to be the place a man naturally would make for.

We could see the riding lights of the ship plainly, and although it would require considerable labor to swim so far, it should be readily done by one who was at all familiar with the work.

"We'd find ourselves in a pretty hobble if a boat put off from the ship just now," Jerry said in a low tone, and I was angry with him for having offered such a suggestion. There was enough in the venture to make a fellow nervous, without conjuring up all the possibilities at a time when one needed to have his wits about him.

"We won't think of anything except trying to pick the poor man up," I said sharply. "This isn't the kind of work that suits me, and I'm not so cold-blooded that I can picture out all the trouble which may come upon us."

"A fellow can't help thinkin'," Jerry replied grumpily, and I said yet more curtly:

"He needn't talk about it to mix others up." Then, angered with myself for having spoken so petulantly, I added, "To tell the truth, Jerry, I am as frightened as a lad well can be, and don't dare to talk overly much lest I should show the white feather in a way to make you ashamed of me."

"You can't be any worse off than I am," my partner replied, and then we both laughed softly. An acknowledgment of our timorousness seemed to hearten us, and we worked the paddles in a more whole-souled fashion.

As I have said, we decided to pull back and forth on a line about a quarter of a mile long, and all the while kept a sharp watch in the direction of the vessel, for a swimmer's head on the water is not a very large object to see in the night.

We did not dare indulge in much conversation, and during an hour we had not spoken once; but then I said, thinking to spare ourselves useless labor:

"If he slipped off at eight o'clock, he should have been here by this time. We may as well lay still till midnight."

I had hardly ceased speaking when we heard a sound as of some one whistling softly, and nothing more was needed to tell us that Bill Jepson had succeeded in slipping away from the ship.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE DESERTER

Even after knowing that the deserter was near at hand, we had considerable difficulty in locating him, and not until after making a complete circle around the swimmer could I see his head.

As we came alongside he grasped the gunwale to rest himself, and asked:

"Are you from the oysterman?"

"Ay, shan't we take you aboard now? The pungy is on the other side of the island."

"The canoe would be overturned if I attempted to come over the rail. Paddle into shoaler water, an' I'll try it."

"Tired out?" I asked as we worked the craft toward the shore, he still holding by the gunwale.

"Nothin' to speak of when its a case of escapin' from the Britishers. I'd tried this a week ago if I hadn't known that the first search would be made on the island, an' I didn't dare take the chances of findin' them as would help me off."

We were not many moments in coming to the beach, and then Bill Jepson clambered over the stern, not being hampered overly much by wet clothing, since he had come off with nothing save his trousers and shirt.

"I was willin' to leave all my dunnage, providin' I could say good by to the bloomin' ship. When we put in here I counted on seein' friends 'most anywhere, for I hail from Baltimore way; but Darius Thorpe's was the first friendly face I came across. A good honest sailorman is Darius, an' I knew he wouldn't leave me in a hole if it was possible for him to lend a hand."

Jepson had nothing startling to tell relative to his escape from the ship. When the watch was changed he quietly slipped over the side, dropping into the water without making any disturbance, and swimming beneath the surface, coming up to breathe only when it was absolutely necessary, until he was a full half-mile from the Severn.

As we paddled around the island, putting in our best strokes, for we had no desire to be found in that vicinity when it was discovered on the British ship that one of the crew had deserted, I asked Jepson how he chanced to be aboard the enemy's vessel, and while his story related to a cruel wrong, it was in no wise exciting, or unusual.

Five months before the declaration of war he was taken from an American merchantman on the flimsy pretex of being an English citizen, and since then had led what he called "a dog's life" aboard several of the king's ships. Never before had he seen an opportunity to escape, and now he knew full well that, if caught, he would be hanged.

Now that we had the man I began to question as to what should be done with him, for it was certain we must not take the chances of keeping him aboard the Avenger, and I could well understand that he might not want to remain if we were to fish in that vicinity.

It seemed almost as if he read that which was in my mind for he said after a long time of silence:

"I'm only half free now, for your pungy will be searched if you go anywhere near the Narcissus again, an' the question is, how I am to get to the mainland?"

"We could put you ashore in Maryland," I suggested.

"Yes, an' I'd starve to death before gettin' anywhere, unless you ran further up the bay than I allow you've any right to go," he said with a laugh which had in it nothing of mirth.

"What's the sense of stewin' over that part of it now?" Jerry asked. "Wait till you get aboard the pungy, an' I dare say Darius will have a plan all worked out."

"He's a good one, is Darius, an' when he settles on a thing it comes mighty near bein' sound. We'll wait, an' I'll spell one of you lads with a paddle, if you'll give me a show."

"After swimming so far I reckon you'd better lay still," I replied, and from that time until we ran alongside the Avenger not a word was spoken between us.

If I had expected to see anything affecting in the meeting between the two old shipmates, I was mistaken.

Darius, who was on the lookout for us as may be supposed, said when he saw that the canoe had three occupants:

"So you got him, eh? Well, Bill Jepson wasn't born to be drowned, that's certain."

Then the old man passed us a line, and the deserter said as he went over the rail:

"I knew I could depend on you, Darius."

"You made a mistake this time, Bill, for if the boys hadn't hogged up agin it, I'd left you to do the best you could, seein's we're down here on a bit of work for Commodore Joshua Barney, whose fleet is in the Patuxent river, as perhaps you have heard."