AN UNEXPECTED APPEARANCE.
"On shore!" replied Ash Burton, to the hail.
"We should like to hire your boat for a while: can we do it if we pay
well for her?" continued the speaker on the point.
"She is not to let," replied the skipper.
"We will give you two dollars an hour for her, with the person to manage
her," continued the gentleman on the shore.
"We have to go home to dinner pretty soon," added Ash.
"We will give you all a dinner into the bargain," persisted the
stranger.
"Take him up!" said Tom Topover very decidedly.
"Take him up!" repeated several others. "We shall get home too late for
dinner."
"We have no business to let her," added Sam Spottwood earnestly.
"We have just as much right to let her as we have to use her at all,"
added Ash. "Two dollars an hour is a big price."
The last speaker became less earnest when he saw that his friend was
inclined to favor the proposition. Doubtless the promise of the dinner
was quite as tempting as the money that was offered, though not one of
the crew of the Goldwing did not think himself rich when he had a dime.
"Will you all stay on shore while I take the party out?" asked Ash
Burton, turning to his companions, when his crony weakened.
The party replied in the affirmative to the question, not even Tom
Topover making any objection to the plan. Ash ran for a small staging
which answered for a wharf, and the Topovers all went on shore
peaceably. The picnickers were having a grand time; for they had music
and dancing, and there seemed to be at least a hundred of them. Farther
back from the lake were half a dozen long furniture-wagons and other
vehicles, while a great number of horses were picketed near them. It was
evident that the party had come from some distance back in the country,
and were not likely to know any thing about the ownership of the
Goldwing.
About a dozen ladies and only two gentlemen were embarked in the boat,
and Ash got under way. There was just breeze enough to make it lively
and pleasant sailing. The sea was regular and moderate, so that there
was nothing to call for any extra skill on the part of the skipper. The
wind being west, he ran down the lake as far as Split Rock, and then
returned. He did not get her best speed out of the sloop, and by the
time he reached the wharf the hour had expired.
The party were landed; and Ash supposed the contract had been completed,
especially as the gentleman in charge handed him four half-dollars, of
which he seemed to have an abundant supply. But the excursionists were
hardly on shore before another gentleman appeared, followed by a dozen
more ladies, and took the boat for another trip.
Ash did not object, and he was gone the same time with the second party.
On his return to the wharf he found another party ready for him, with
the Topovers assembled on the wharf. The gentleman who had paid him
before gave him four more half-dollars, and he spoke for the boat for
the third trip.
Ash mildly suggested that he had had no dinner. Though he had for the
last two hours been the undisputed skipper of the Goldwing, he had not
yet become so ethereal as to lose his boyish tendency to be hungry. The
gentleman said they were in no hurry, and they would wait for the
skipper to take his dinner.
"I'll take this party out, Ash Burton," interposed Tom Topover, with
cheek enough to fit out a lightning-rod agent. "You can get your dinner
while I am gone."
"That won't do," replied Ash, in the mildest of tones.
"What's the reason it won't do?" demanded Tom, beginning to bluster. "I
can handle the boat as well as you can."
"You don't know any thing at all about a sailboat," added Sam Spottwood,
more for the benefit of the gentleman in charge of the party than to
irritate Tom.
"Say that again, and I'll knock you into the middle of last week,"
bullied Tom. "I am going with this party, and Ash can get his dinner."
"We prefer the one who has managed the boat before," interposed the
gentleman, who measured Tom at a glance.
"I didn't nearly tip the boat over, and fill her half full of water, as
Ash Burton did," added Tom.
"It was you that made the row, so that the captain had to leave the
wheel," retorted Sam, who did not seem to scare at all at the bluster of
the leader.
"I am going to sail this party, or the boat don't go again," said Tom
decidedly.
"No, you are not, for Ash is the skipper, and we all agreed to obey his
orders," added Sam, retiring from the wharf in order to make room for
the ladies.
The rest of the party, with the exception of Tom, had done this before;
and he followed Sam. The gentleman began to assist the ladies to their
seats in the standing-room, for he thought the skipper could settle the
dispute.
"What's the reason I'm not going to sail that party if I want to?"
demanded Tom, following up Sam Spottwood.
"Because you don't know how to manage the boat, and I don't believe they
would go with you," replied Sam fearlessly.
This was too much for Tom; and he made a pass at Sam with his fist,
which the latter parried, and saved himself from harm.
"None of that here!" shouted several of the Topovers.
"Sam Spottwood thinks he is my boss, and I will show him what he is and
what I am," continued Tom, rushing upon the plain-spoken boy.
Sam did not run: he hit back, and after a brief struggle the bruiser
went over on his back. He jumped up, and began to declare that Sam did
not fight fair; when the other Topovers crowded around him, and
prevented him from renewing the battle if he was disposed to do so,
though it generally was the case with him, that he did not follow up a
contest when the other party "meant business." The others talked to him
of the impropriety of getting up a quarrel in the presence of the
ladies.
"I don't care nothing about that," replied Tom; and he rushed back to
the wharf, where the gentleman was just going on board of the sloop.
"Stop, Ash Burton! I tell you I'm going to sail the boat this time."
"Stop where you are, young man," interposed the gentleman, as he took
Tom by the collar. "You want to make a row; if you don't get out of the
way, I will duck you in the lake."
"Let me alone!" howled Tom, as the man hurled him away.
Ash shoved off the bow of the Goldwing, and the gentleman stepped on
board as the stern swung in. Ash was disgusted with the conduct of the
leader of the Topovers, and he decided then and there to have nothing to
do with him after that time. He sailed the party for the hour, though he
did it on a growling stomach. On his return, he received four more
half-dollars, making twelve in all which his pocket now contained. His
employer conducted him to the tables, and he proceeded to partake of the
collation.
While he was thus pleasantly occupied, the rest of the Topovers, seeing
the return of the sloop, hastened to the wharf. No other party wished to
sail, and Tom proposed that they should start on their way back to
Beechwater. The others were ready, and most of them seated themselves in
the standing-room.
"Ash Burton is the captain, and he is at his dinner," said Sam
Spottwood.
"We can get along without him," replied Tom with a coarse grin. "I am
going to sail the boat back."
At these words Chick Penny and Hop Cabright jumped on the wharf again,
declaring they would not go in the boat if Tom was to be the skipper.
The bruiser insisted on his point, and that the boat should leave at
once. Then Con Binker and Syl Peckman followed the example of Chick and
Hop. Even Kidd Digfield and Nim Splugger had some doubts about trusting
themselves with Tom, and they began to reason with him. There was no
reason in him, and in spite of them he shoved off the boat. Taking the
wind on the starboard tack, the usurping skipper headed the sloop to the
southward. Tom had his own way this time.
"Hold on, Tom!" shouted Pell Sankland. "Ash Burton has all the money he
has taken for the boat. Is he to have the whole of it?"
"Six dollars," added Nim Splugger. "He ought to make a divvy."
"He is not going to keep the whole of it anyhow," said Kidd Digfield.
"There he is, coming down to the wharf," continued Pell. "We have as
much right to some of the money as he has. The boat don't belong to
him."
"We can get it out of him the next time we see him," said Tom, who did
not like the idea of returning to the shore, for he was afraid of losing
his position at the wheel.
"He will spend it all, and I won't trust him," replied Pell.
The original Topovers were in a majority of the present crew, and
perhaps Tom was tempted by the prospect of putting some money in his
pocket. At any rate, he attempted to put the boat about. The sloop was
far enough out from behind the point to feel the force of the wind. If
there was any wrong way to take, Tom Topover always took it; and he put
the helm up instead of down. The effect was to gybe the boat, and nearly
upset her. However, she did not ship any water this time, but Tom was
bewildered by the behavior of the boat. She was about two hundred feet
from the shore.
"There comes the Sylph!" shouted Nim Splugger, as the sharp bow of the
steam-yacht appeared beyond Porter's Bay.
This cry filled the Topovers with consternation. They realized that Tom
at the wheel was utterly powerless to get them out of the scrape, and it
looked as though he would tip them over before he got the boat under way
again. The Sylph seldom if ever returned from her excursions in the
summer till night, and she was not expected at three o'clock in the
afternoon.
"Start her up, Tom!" yelled Kidd, almost frantic at the idea of being
caught in possession of the Goldwing by the yacht's people.
"She don't behave right," replied Tom, who had made several attempts to
get the boat under way.
"Run her ashore, and let us get out of the way."
"I tell you she won't start for me," added Tom, as the boom banged over
from one side to the other as it had done half a dozen times before.
It was clear enough to the culprits, that the captain of the Sylph, who
was also the owner of the Goldwing, had recognized the craft; for the
steamer was headed directly for the point. If she were going down the
lake, she would have headed for the other side of Diamond Island.
At last, by some accident, Tom got the sail filled, and the boat under
way; but she had caught the wind on the starboard tack, upon which it
was not possible to reach the nearest land. The Topovers growled and
yelled to Tom that he was going the wrong way. The bungling skipper put
the helm down; but he met her too soon, and she missed stays. The Sylph
was close aboard of her, and placed herself between the yacht and the
shore.