“Bless my buttons!” he ejaculated, “I reckoned there was somewhat amiss.  When I heard talk of you being ill, I was most desperate uneasy, knowing you was in the latitude o’ Vetch.  And I said so to my captain, and begged him to let me fetch a course this way to make sure as you weren’t run aground or wrecked on a sunken reef.  My captain he laughs and says you’d steered clear so often that he’d no fears of you not coming safe to port; but seeing I was set on it, he give me leave, and to make things reg’lar, as he said, he told me being in these parts to keep an eye lifting for the buccaneers as are said to be somewheres on this coast.  And sink my timbers, it do seem as how I’m on a rare voyage of discovery!”

I told him quickly of the purpose I had in view, and he at once volunteered to join our party.  But this I could not allow.  I had no doubt that the horseman whom I had previously seen riding to the house was carrying thither news of his approach, as my own arrival had been heralded.  He would be expected, and if he did not appear Vetch would be suspicious, and might despatch men in search of him, and the footprints of his mule would bring them upon our track.  I urged him to go forward with his guides to the house, where it was possible, if they left him free, that he might prove a useful auxiliary if our ruse succeeded.  To this he readily agreed, declaring he would anchor at Vetch’s door, and would not slip his cable until I came up on his quarter.  And he clambered to the saddle again, called to the negroes to come on astern, and set forth again towards the house, and as I rejoined my party among the trees I heard his jolly voice ringing out: 

“I ‘llow this crazy hull o’ mine
At sea has had its share;
Marooned three times an’ wounded nine,
An’ blowed up in the air.”

We had wasted some eight or ten minutes on this interview, and ’twas high time to speed on our journey if we were to reach the place of ambush before the convoy.  As we marched, I told Cludde the purport of my talk with Joe, and he agreed that the course I had insisted on was the right one, though he feared Punchard would have a sorry time when he came within the clutches of the man who bore a long-standing grudge against him.  I confess that I had clean forgotten the matter of the barrel rolling, and being now reminded of it, felt greatly concerned at having sent poor Joe into the very jaws of danger, but ’tis idle to repent, and I could only hope that we should get to the house in time to prevent any irremediable harm.

’Twas nigh five o’clock when we came to the copse fringing the road (a rough cart track) from the coast.

Noah went out stealthily to inspect the road for traces of the convoy, and told us that we were in time; the wagons had not yet come up.  We waited patiently, and I took advantage of the interval to repeat the instructions I had previously given to the negroes.  About half an hour after our arrival we heard a creaking in the distance, and soon the convoy came in sight—­three six-horsed wagons, with two negroes in each, and two overseers on horseback, carrying long whips, and riding side by side in the rear.  These two Cludde and I marked for our own, leaving the negroes to deal with the men of their color.  We two separated from the rest of the party, so that the attack might be made on the whole line at the same moment.