ow
people are saying that he came back just before sunset--"

"Back here to Benedict?" I cried in amazement.

"Ay, Jim's mother saw him as he went by her house on the way to his
own. She saluted him, but he made no reply--"

"But to be here he must have escaped!" I interrupted, unable to hold
my peace. "The commodore would not have set him at liberty without
telling us!"

"That goes without sayin', an' now what shall we do?" Jerry asked as
if he had some plan in mind.

"What can we do, except to get away before he brings some of his
cronies down here to make a row?"

"Jerry wants to catch him over again," Jim replied, since my partner
did not speak. "If he's alone in his house it wouldn't be such a
dreadful hard job, surely not as compared with what we did at the
mill."

It seemed as if our own safety demanded that we give some especial
attention to the traitor, and I proposed that we consult with Darius
at once.

This was agreeable to my companions, and we boarded the Avenger
without delay, rousing the old man to bitter wrath when we told that
Elias had escaped.

"Somebody will smart for bein' so careless!" he cried. "Joshua Barney
ain't the man to overlook anythin' of that kind. Do you allow there
may be traitors in the fleet? It looks mightily like it when a coward
like Macomber can give 'em the slip inside of twelve hours, for if he
was seen in this town at sunset, he must have been at liberty by noon,
ay, even before we got under way!"

"Jerry thinks we might catch him again, by going at once to his home,"
I said, impatient to make the attempt or set sail, for I was not easy
in mind at lying there while the villain was free.

"And Jerry is right!" Darius, exclaimed, darting into the cuddy and
returning in a twinkling with the old muskets. "See that these are
well loaded, lads, an' if we can lay hands on that cur again, I'll
attend to it that he don't walk off like a gentleman at large within
any very short time."

Well, we found the weapons in fit condition for immediate use, and
paddled ashore in a hurry, finding Josiah and Dody waiting for us.
They also had heard that Elias was in the village, and we knew beyond
a peradventure, even if we had not been certain before, that the cur
had slipped away from those who should have guarded him with their
lives.

It was not a long walk to Macomber's house, and on arriving there we
found the building closely shuttered as if deserted; but we were not
for