Solomon saw the Tory desperado
"Slops," one time of the Ohio River country, with his black pipe in his
mouth. Slops paused in his hauling and reeving to shake a fist at
Solomon. They were heaving the anchor. The sails were running up.
The ship had begun to move. What was the meaning of this? Solomon
stepped to the ship's side. The stair had been hove up and made fast.
The barge was not to be seen.

"They will put you all ashore below," an officer said to him.

Solomon knew too much about Arnold to like the look of this. The
officer went forward. Solomon stepped to the opening in the deck rail,
not yet closed, through which he had come aboard. While he was looking
down at the water, some ten feet below, a group of sailors came to fill
in. His arm was roughly seized. Solomon stepped back. Before him
stood the man Slops. An insulting word from the latter, a quick blow
from Solomon, and Slops went through the gate out into the air and
downward. The scout knew it was no time to tarry.

"A night hawk couldn't dive no quicker ner what I done," were his words
to the men who picked him up. He was speaking of that half second of
the twenty-fourth of September, 1780. His brief account of it was
carefully put down by an officer: "I struck not twenty feet from Slops,
which I seen him jes' comin' up when I took water. This 'ere ol' sloop
that had overhauled us goin' down were nigh. Hadn't no more'n come up
than I felt Slops' knife rip into my leg. I never had no practise in
that 'ere knife work. 'Tain't fer decent folks, but my ol' Dan Skinner
is allus on my belt. He'd chose the weapons an' so I fetched 'er out.
Had to er die. We fit a minnit thar in the water. All the while he
had that damn black pipe in his mouth. I were hacked up a leetle, but
he got a big leak in _him_ an' all of a sudden he wasn't thar. He'd
gone. I struck out with ol' Dan Skinner 'twixt my teeth. Then I see
your line and grabbed it. Whar's the British ship now?"

"'Way below Stony P'int an' a fair wind in her sails,' the skipper
answered.

"Bound fer New York," said Solomon sorrowfully. "They'd 'a' took me
with 'em if I hadn't 'a' jumped. Put me over to Jasper's dock. I got
to see Washington quick."

"Washington has gone up the river."

"Then take me to quarters soon as ye kin. I'll give ye ten pounds,
good English gold. My God, boys! My ol' hide is leakin' bad."

He turned to the man who had been washing and binding