All Adrift Part 26

The steam-yacht started her screw again, and went ahead. In the Gut she came about, and pa.s.sed between the buoys again. The schooner was almost up with the red buoy when the Sylph pa.s.sed it, and again the man with the gruff voice hailed the boat. At this moment Pearl tacked, and stood to the south-west.

"I guess she will get tired of this game before a great while," said Pearl, elated with the success of his movements. "She had better give it up, and go about her business."

When the Sylph had pa.s.sed the buoys, she put her head to the south, and ran down close to the shoal-water. Pearl was so delighted that he was becoming reckless, and he held on to his course until he came within a hundred feet of the steamer. Once more she hailed the boat. "Is Theodore Dornwood on board of that boat?" shouted the man with the gruff voice.

"If you answer, Dory Dornwood, I'll pitch you overboard!" exclaimed the skipper savagely.

Dory did not answer: he had no intention of doing so before Pearl used his threatening expression. He was not on the best of terms with his uncle; and he did not care to have any thing to do with him, or even to say to him.

There seemed to be a dozen persons on board of the Sylph. But she was a large craft for a steam-yacht, and doubtless some of them were the guests of the owner.

"That will do nicely," said Pearl, as he came about, and let off his sheets again. "The steamer has my permission to go through the channel again. This is better than a game of checkers."

To Dory it was getting rather monotonous. But he did not believe that the people on board of the Sylph would be willing to play at this game much longer. The man with the gruff voice had indicated in his tones, the last time he hailed the boat, that he was becoming impatient at the failure of the Goldwing to answer him.

Dory felt like one who stands between two fires, and he was sure to be hit by one of them. He was in the frying-pan now, and he did not at all like the idea of being compelled to jump into the fire by the Sylph. He did not like his uncle, her owner; and he did not care to be redeemed from his present unpleasant position by him.

It was bad enough to remain in the power of Pearl Hawlinshed, and to be subject to his caprice; but it seemed worse to be taken out of his hands by Captain Gildrock. If Pearl had not been a villain, in the very act of breaking the laws and committing an outrage upon him and the two pa.s.sengers in the cabin, he would have been willing to a.s.sist him in keeping out of the way of the Sylph. He thought he knew just how this could be done; but, as he could not do any thing to help the rascal, he said nothing. He could not get himself out of the frying-pan, but he meant to keep out of the fire if he could.

"She is coming about," said Pearl, as the Sylph began to stir up the water again with her propeller. "She is going through the channel again to head off the Goldwing. I hope she will have a good time doing this thing."

Dory made no reply to this remark; but he felt that the end of the adventure was rapidly approaching. Captain Gildrock was not a man to be trifled with, or one to be balked by a sailboat like the schooner. The Sylph went through the Western Cut again. Pearl had run almost up to the red buoy, and was near it when the steam-yacht pa.s.sed through.

The skipper of the Goldwing started his sheets, and stood off in the shoal-water, where the steamer could not follow him. He chuckled as he did so; and he did not appear to harbor a suspicion that his pursuer could do any thing but run back and forth through the cut.

"I think I shall take my pa.s.sengers into Canada in spite of the opposition of that big steam-yacht. A mouse or a mosquito can make it uncomfortable for a lion," said Pearl, as he stood off from his pursuer.

"Do you know how the water is in this bay beyond the next point, Dory Dornwood?" and the skipper indicated Simms's Point with his hand.

"I do," replied Dory.

"Well, how is the water?"

"It is wet," answered Dory.

"Is that so? How did you find it out?" asked Pearl.

"I felt of it one day."

"If you don't keep a civil tongue in your head, you will feel of it again to-day," added Pearl savagely.

Dory knew there was a half mile of shoal water, deep enough for the Goldwing, but not for the Sylph. But it was shallow off the point; and Dory thought the skipper would get aground before he reached Hyde's Bay.

But the water was clear, and Pearl saw the bottom in season to avoid the danger. He stood to the southward then, watching the bottom all the time.

Dory saw that the skipper was making the worst possible move for his own case, and he was rejoiced to see him do it. The Sylph continued farther into the Gut, and finally stopped her screw half a mile east of Simms's Point.

"All right!" exclaimed Pearl, who had half a mile of shoal water between the steamer and the sh.o.r.e on either side of her. "I couldn't have put her in a better place myself."

The skipper looked about him anxiously, as though he was in doubt whether to go to the east or the west. But he had been around the two points west of him, and he seemed to think that his safest way was to stick to the ground with which he had become acquainted. The schooner was half a mile from Simms's Point by this time; but Pearl evidently thought that all he had to do was to return to the westward of the buoys by the way he had come into the Gut, and the Sylph could not come near his boat. He came about, and stood to the north-west.

"We are all right still, Dory Dornwood," said Pearl, as he glanced at the steamer. "She can't come any nearer to us than she is now, and a quarter of a mile is as good as a mile."

Dory kept his eye on the Sylph. The moment she stopped her screw, there was a lively movement on board of her. Orders were given in quick and sharp tones; and presently her two quarter-boats, which were swung on davits, were dropping into the water. This was what Dory had expected her to do before this time.

"What is she doing, Dory Dornwood?" asked Pearl, when he discovered that something was going on upon the deck of the steamer.

"She is doing the next thing," answered Dory, who was determined not to give the enemy any comfort.

"What is she about?" demanded the skipper.

"You have a pair of eyes, and you know how to use them."

By this time the boats began to drop into the water. They were lowered from the davits with the oarsmen on the thwarts, and an officer in the stern-sheets. Pearl could not help seeing what the steamer was doing now. He looked troubled, and he used some needless profanity in an under tone.

"What is going on now, Dory?" asked Peppers, who could not see the steamer through the aperture in the door.

"The steamer is getting out her boats," replied Dory. "She has just dropped one from each quarter into the water."

"Four boats!" exclaimed Peppers.

"No," answered Dory, laughing in spite of his situation. "I didn't say four boats."

"You said one from each quarter; and there are four quarters in any thing, according to my arithmetic," added the officer.

"A vessel has but two quarters, and she has dropped two boats into the water. There are five men in each of them," continued Dory.

"That will do! Dry up, and shut up, all of you!" interposed Pearl. "I am going to fight this thing out to the end, and I don't want any more talk."

The Goldwing was in behind the land, so that she did not feel the full force of the wind. The lake was calm and smooth behind the point, and the boat moved very sluggishly. Pearl began to be very impatient; but a short distance ahead the surface was ruffled, and she would soon have a better breeze.

The starboard quarter-boat pulled towards Simms's Point, and the port boat in the opposite direction. Whichever way the schooner went, she was sure to be intercepted by one or the other of them. The oarsmen of the boats appeared to be all young fellows. They were dressed in a blue uniform; and all of them wore white linen caps, without visors. The officers showed a profusion of bra.s.s b.u.t.tons on their frock-coats, and wore yacht-caps of white linen.

The boats were white, and were very graceful in their build. The four rowers in each boat pulled a man-of-war stroke. The starboard quarter-boat was ahead of the Goldwing; and the officer in charge of her was urging his men to their best exertions, so as to come in ahead of the schooner. Before the Goldwing could reach the point, she was in position to intercept her.

Pearl scowled when he saw the boat directly in his course. He looked back, and saw the other boat beyond the steamer. He could not help realizing that the pleasant game he had been playing had ended in his being beaten.

"Goldwing, ahoy!" shouted the officer in charge of the starboard quarter-boat.

"In the boat!" replied Pearl in a surly tone: "what do you want?"

"Is Theodore Dornwood on board of your boat?" asked the officer.

"Yes, he is," answered Pearl. "If you want him, you can have him."

At this moment the skipper threw the Goldwing up into the wind, and sprang forward to the place where Dory was seated. Without saying a word, he dragged him off the seat, and proceeded to remove the cord that bound his hands behind him. The prisoner's wrists were numb from the pressure of the line, and he stood up to rub a little life into them.

Pearl put the boat about, and headed her for the sh.o.r.e.