All Adrift Part 11

"I don't run away with the idea; but of course a sail is a sheet."

"Not at all. This is a sheet," answered Dory, raising the main sheet, the end of which he held in his left hand, while he steered with his right.

"How can that be a sheet when it is a rope?" demanded Nat incredulously.

"You are thinking of the sheets between which you sleep. In a boat all sheets are ropes. This is the main sheet, because it is fastened to the main boom,--the stick at the lower part of the sail. This is the jib sheet," continued Dory, indicating the rope attached to the lower part of the jib, which led aft into the standing-room, where the helmsman could haul it in or let it off as occasion required.

"There is a man hailing us from the sh.o.r.e," said Thad, as Pearl Hawlinshed called to Dory from the railroad.

"I don't want to see that man," said Dory, recognizing the voice of the disagreeable man from whom he had fled when he left the wharf.

"Do you know him?" asked Thad.

"I never saw him until this morning. He bid against me for this boat, and he is mad because he didn't get it," replied the skipper. "I think he means to do me mischief if he can, and he can't if I keep out of his way."

He could not answer any questions without endangering his great secret.

He was on the point of tacking when he heard the call. To go up to the wharf would be to fall into the company of Pearl, and he decided not to do it. Instead of coming about, he let off the sheets, and headed the Goldwing to the southward.

"You are going the wrong way, Dory," said Thad.

"I don't care about going on sh.o.r.e at Plattsburgh again, fellows; but we will get something to eat at Port Jackson," replied Dory, without explaining his reason for not wis.h.i.+ng to land at the town.

"But we shall starve to death before you get there," protested Corny.

"We have not had a mouthful of any thing to eat to-day. Captain Vesey said we might go with him if we would be on board at five o'clock in the morning, and we had no chance to get any breakfast."

"I am sorry I can't do any thing for you just now; but it is only six miles to Port Jackson, and I think we shall be there in about an hour,"

replied Dory. "I think the fellow that hailed me is wicked enough to get this boat away from me if he can; and I don't care about meeting him again."

The members of the Goldwing Club settled down in the most comfortable places they could find. A couple of them took possession of the berths in the cuddy, and two others stretched themselves on the seats in the standing-room. They were not so wild as Captain Vesey had reported them to be on the pa.s.sage from Burlington. They were faint and hungry; for it was now nearly noon, and the voyagers in the Missisquoi had fasted the greater part of twenty-four hours.

The Goldwing was under the lee of the land, where there was no sea; but the wind came in very sharp puffs, as the openings in the sh.o.r.e exposed the boat to the unsteady blast. But she carried so little sail that she went along very easily, and showed no more tendency to upset than any well-built boat would in such puffy weather. The party on board saw nothing in her behavior to warrant the bad reputation she had established.

Three miles brought the boat to Bluff Point; and the sh.o.r.e was so elevated here, that the skipper stood farther out into the lake so that he might not lose the wind. The Goldwing behaved so well, that Dory was beginning to have a great deal of confidence in her, so that he did not hesitate to venture farther from the sh.o.r.e.

The schooner appeared to be making about six miles an hour. Pa.s.sing between Valcour's Island and the main land, the Goldwing arrived at Port Jackson inside of an hour; but, before the boat entered the little bay on which the port is situated, the boys had another sensation. Dory had hardly thought of looking astern in the run of the Goldwing down from Plattsburgh.

"There's a steamer coming down the same way we did," said d.i.c.k Short, as he rose from his place on the seat, just as the schooner was going into the port. "It looks just like the Missisquoi."

"It is the Missisquoi," added Thad, after he had surveyed the boat.

"It certainly looks like her," said Dory, who was trying to make out what this appearance meant.

His companions had told him the destination of the Missisquoi; and he was satisfied that she could have no business in this part of the lake, as she was to be used in towing lumber in the north. He had seen the little steamer go up to the wharf where the Goldwing lay. He could not get rid of the idea that her present trip to the southward was in some way connected with him, and that Pearl Hawlinshed was on board of her.

But he could not disappoint the hungry clubbists again, and he ran the schooner into the bay. He immediately informed his pa.s.sengers that he could remain at the port but a few minutes. He was going up to the store to obtain provisions for the boat, and would give them something to eat as soon as she was under way again. Then it appeared that only one of them had any money,--Corny Minkfield, whose mother had given him permission to make the trip over to Plattsburgh,--and he had only half a dollar.

Corny went with Dory to the store. They bought a large supply of bread and crackers, a salt fish, and finally the storekeeper offered to part with a ham he had cooked for the use of his own family. Half a small cheese was added to the stock of provisions, which Dory paid for, and they hastened back to the wharf.

"Have you seen any thing of that steamer?" asked Dory, as he came within hailing distance of his companions.

"She has not shown herself yet," replied Thad.

"We have been gone longer than I intended, for the boiled ham took more time than all the rest of the things," replied Dory, as he and Corny deposited their joint burden on the forward deck of the Goldwing. "The Missisquoi was this side of Crab Island when I saw her, and she can't be far off."

"What do we care for the Missisquoi now?" asked Corny.

"Cast off that bow line, d.i.c.k Short," added Dory, without answering the question.

The skipper shoved the schooner off from the wharf, and told d.i.c.k to hoist the jib. Heading the Goldwing to the eastward, Dory stood out of the harbor. The boat was hardly under way before the Missisquoi put in an appearance at the northern entrance of the bay. Dory kept on his course after he had calculated the point at which the steamer was likely to come nearest to him.

"There she is!" exclaimed several of the club in the same breath. "She is striking in ahead of us."

The Missisquoi was less than a quarter of a mile from the Goldwing. It could plainly be seen that there were two men in her pilot-house; and Dory was confident that Pearl Hawlinshed was one of them. His intentions were certainly very serious if he had gone to the expense of hiring a steamer to chase him. Probably he had found some way to break up the sale of the Goldwing. But, whatever his mission, the skipper did not want to see him. He was too closely connected with the secret of the night before to come any nearer to him. He decided, that, if the son of his liberal friend succeeded in "interviewing" him, he would have to run for it.

"I don't understand what that fellow wants of you, Dory," said Corny Minkfield.

"And I don't understand it any better than you do," replied Dory. "All I have to say about it is, that I don't like the looks of the fellow, and I mean to keep out of his way. Pa.s.s round the grub, Corny."

Dory thought the food would stop their mouths, and it did. His fellow-voyagers asked no more questions, for they were too busy with the provisions to give attention to any thing else.

As the Goldwing went out from the land, she began to feel the force of the wind, and she darted ahead under the influence of the sharp puffs. A few minutes later the Goldwing pa.s.sed the bow of the Missisquoi not more than forty rods from her.

CHAPTER XI.

THE BEGINNING OF THE CHASE.

"Goldwing, ahoy!" shouted Pearl Hawlinshed from the bow of the Missisquoi. "I want you, Dory Dornwood!"

The skipper of the Goldwing decided to take no notice of the dangerous man. The other members of the club were so deeply interested in filling their empty stomachs that they gave no attention to the call of Pearl.

The provisions had been taken into the cuddy, and Corny was helping his companions. Those who were not in the cabin were sitting on the floor of the standing room, and they could not see the Missisquoi.

"Don't you hear me? I say, I want to see you, Dory Dornwood!" shouted Pearl again with all his might.

Dory could see that those in charge of the Missisquoi were not managing the chase very well. Instead of steering the steamer to a point ahead of the Goldwing, Captain Vesey had run her directly for her. If the schooner had come to when directed to do so, as the captain of her evidently expected, it would have been all right. As it was, the Goldwing had made the eighth of a mile by the blunder.

Dory had practically intimated to his pursuer, that, if he wanted him, he must come after him. He knew that the steamer could not make more than eight miles an hour at her best, and she was not likely to do as well as this in the heavy sea of the lake out from the sh.o.r.e. The skipper of the Goldwing did not expect to outsail the Missisquoi under his present short sail.

When Pearl saw that Dory had no intention of coming to and waiting for him to go on board of the schooner, he called to Captain Vesey to follow the Goldwing. Instead of doing so, he rang his bell to stop the engine.

Dory could not hear what pa.s.sed between the captain and his pa.s.senger; but he was aware that an animated discussion was in progress on board of the steamer.

The Goldwing was certainly behaving very well for a boat with such a bad reputation. Dory had been gaining confidence in her ability every moment of the time since she left the breakwater. It was evident to him that sailing on the wind was her weak point, or rather her dangerous one. But she had the wind on her port quarter at present; and Dory did not care to run her directly before the wind, as he would have been obliged to do if he had taken a direct course for Burlington.

The skipper no longer doubted the ability of the Goldwing to cross the lake, violent as the sea was at a distance from the sh.o.r.e. He headed her for Garden Island, nearly half a mile south of Valcour's Island, which sheltered the boat from the full force of the strong wind. From Garden Island to Providence Island, off the south-western extremity of South Hero, it was only two miles and a half. Not more than half of this distance would be through the roughest water; for Valcour's sheltered a considerable portion of the course.

Dory wondered what the discussion between the captain and the pa.s.senger of the Missisquoi was all about. He judged that the master of the steamer was not willing to follow the Goldwing any farther. He hoped they would continue the dispute for a while longer. If they did, he should be out of their reach in a short time; for he was confident the schooner was making at least six miles an hour.