w half a mile or more
ahead.

He was still running up the river, but I questioned if he intended to
take any chances on being discovered, for such as he would rather
manufacture information out of his head than encounter danger.

Darius, who had been using one of the paddles, now took the helm, and
the canoe was swung inshore where she would be partially hidden by the
shadows of the foliage, for we did not care to start in open chase
because he would probably take to the woods on discovering us, and
then our chances of making the capture would be small indeed.

When our quarry rounded a bend in the river, shutting himself out from
view, we bent all our energies to the paddles, sneaking inshore
immediately we opened him up again, and thus we rapidly lessened the
distance until at the third turn of the shore we were less than thirty
yards astern.

"Now give it to her, lads!" Darius said sharply. "Put all your
strength to the blades, an' we'll heave him to in short order!"

As we rounded the bend, the water foaming from the boat's bow much as
it would have done from the stem of a ship under full sail, Macomber
was but a short distance ahead, and Darius cried:

"Push her along, lads! Now's our time!" Then, bringing the paddle to
his shoulder as if it had been a musket, he shouted, "Drop that oar
mighty quick, Macomber, or I'll fire!"

The traitor, thus receiving the first intimation that an enemy was
near at hand, glanced backward quickly, and, seeing the supposed
weapon leveled full at him, threw down his paddle with an exclamation
of mingled fear and anger.

We shot up alongside him like an arrow from the bow, all hands of us
reaching out to grasp the gunwale of his canoe, and as we thus made
fast Darius grasped the fellow by the throat.

"You may as well give in quietly," the old man said, tightening his
grasp until it would have been impossible for the man to make the
lightest outcry. "If you flounder about much all hands will go into
the water, an' once there I give my word that you won't come to the
surface, for we don't count on losin' you the second time."

The scoundrel was as meek as any lamb, and when Darius told me to
fasten his arms together with my belt, he held them out obediently.

I took a double turn around his elbows, and Darius ordered him to step
into our canoe, which he did without hesitation, but once there,
seated on the flooring of the boat with his back against the old man's
knees, he