osin' he was here this minute?"

"Carry him to Commodore Barney, of course."

"Can the four of us get along in the canoe?"

Jerry and I looked at each other in perplexity. It was a fact that the
little craft would not carry four, particularly when one was a
prisoner who might struggle against being taken up the river, and yet
it seemed to me as if we were in duty bound to effect the capture.

"Now this is the way it looks to me," Bill Jepson said slowly, as if
talking with himself, "though, of course, I ain't countin' on
interferin' with you lads in any way: What I've got to tell the
commodore is of more importance than the yarn Macomber can spin for
the admiral, an' Darius Thorpe seemed to think I couldn't see the old
man any too soon. Now if this 'ere sneak is goin' to wait where he is
till the fleet comes, what's to prevent our keepin' on as we started,
an' then comin' back to pull him in? This wind will set us up the
river in great shape, an' within four an' twenty hours we should be at
Nottingham, unless the town has been moved from where I saw it last."

I understood at once that the sailor's advice was good, and should be
followed, yet it went sadly against the grain to go away from that
place leaving the cur free to do us harm if the opportunity presented
itself.

Jerry had much the same struggle in his mind as I, but, watching his
face, I soon saw that he was ready to act upon Bill Jepson's
suggestion, and without waiting for him to give his thoughts words, I
said:

"Very well, if we're to go up the river first, there is no time to be
lost. We must paddle the canoe close inshore until we get around the
point, so that we may not be seen from Jenkins' house, and then we'll
push her for all she's worth."

We no longer remembered that we were hungry; but jumped to the task as
if every moment was precious, as indeed was the case if we would make
Elias Macomber a prisoner for the second time.

As I had said in regard to paddling around the point, so we did, but
once the canoe was so far beyond that she could not be seen from the
dwelling, we hoisted the sail, and I dare venture to say that Bill
Jepson might have run her rail under without hearing any word of
protest from Jerry or me, so eager were we to be on the return
voyage.

CHAPTER IX.

AN UNEXPECTED MEETING.

It was as if the elements favored us in the race to Nottingham and
indeed I counted it a race in which were pitted against us the