By this time the wind had increased to a tempest, and never before had
I seen such waves and such spray on Lake Ucayga. I should not have been
willing to believe that any sea that ever raged on our beautiful sheet
of water could make such a complete wreck of a boat, even with the aid
of the rocks, as that we had just witnessed. The _Highflyer_ was as
thoroughly broken up as though the work had been accomplished with axes
and hammers, and the pieces were driven far up on the rocky shore.
The persecutors of Waddie had escaped; but they had probably been
as effectually frightened as any four boys ever were before; and
they were not likely to go into the business of navigation again
on their own account very soon. They deserved a severe punishment;
but, on the whole, I was rather glad that we had not been able to
identify them, for the vengeance of Waddie and his father was also so
disproportionate to the offense that, in the present instance, nothing
less than absolute ruin of the ruffians, and even of their families and
friends, would appease the wrath of the injured magnate and his son.
The _Belle_ behaved remarkably well. I was aware of her stiff and
stanch character before I bought her; but she more than realized my
expectations. She was as buoyant as a feather, and lifted her head to
the seas as gracefully as though the tempest was her natural element.
She took in torrents of spray, but she did not ship any water. Her mast
bent like a reed in the blast, and, of course, I had to favor her when
the heavy gusts struck her. Both Waddie and myself were wet to the
skin, and both of us were shivering with the cold. It was not exactly
pleasant, therefore, however exciting it was.
I ran the _Belle_ out into the lake, and then, at a single stretch,
made the pier at the picnic grove, the point from which we had started
before. I was afraid I should lose my mast, and I was not disposed to
cripple the boat merely to see what she could do. Behind the pier we
had tolerably smooth water, and I decided to put another reef in the
mainsail.
“What are you going to do now, Wolf?” asked Waddie, his teeth
chattering as he spoke.
“I’m going to put in one more reef, for I don’t like to risk my mast,”
I replied.
“Are you going to try to run down in the teeth of this blow?” he
inquired.
“I must get home myself, and get the boat home.”
“I thought you ran in here to wait for better weather.”
“No; only to put in another reef.”
“But I don’t know that I can quite stand this. I am not afraid of
anything, but I am half-frozen.”
“I’ll warm you very soon, and you may go home as comfortably as though
you were in the cabin of the _Ucayga_,” I replied. “We are in no
particular hurry, but I don’t think we shall see any better weather
to-day.”
I went into the cabin, and lighted the fire in the little stove, which
was filled with kindling-wood, ready for the match. I rigged the little
copper funnel on the forward deck, and in that wind the draft was so
strong that the fire roared merrily in a few moments. Having secured
the mainsail, I joined Waddie in the cabin, closing the doors behind
me. In less than half an hour we had a temperature of at least ninety
degrees, and both of us were thawed out. We took off our coats, and
placed them near the stove. We were as warm as toast, and though I
did not announce the fact, I believed that the _Belle_ was a great
institution.
“I had something to eat on board of the _Highflyer_,” said Waddie; “but
my dinner has gone to destruction with the boat.”
“I have some provisions on board, such as they are; but I suppose they
will not suit one who sits at your father’s table.”
“Anything will suit me, Wolf. I am not dainty when I’m hungry; and I am
as hungry as a bear.”
“Well, I’m as hungry as a wolf.”
“I suppose you are!” laughed Waddie, who appeared to be conscious that
I had made a pun, though I did not regard it as a very savage one.
I took from the locker under the berth on which I sat a basket of
“provender,” which my mother had put up for me. For common sort of
people, I thought we lived very well, and I was not ashamed to produce
the contents of my basket, even in the presence of the little magnate
of Centreport. I had some slices of cold ham, some bread and butter,
and an apple-pie. If the crust of the latter was a little coarse and
dark-colored, it was still tender and healthful. I lowered the table
and arranged the food upon it, using the dishes which constituted a
portion of the boat’s furniture.
Waddie did me the honor to say that my dinner was quite as good, if not
better, than that which he had lost in the _Highflyer_, and he soon
proved his sincerity by eating a quantity which rather astonished me,
liberal feeder as I was. I am sure I relished the meal all the more
because he enjoyed it so much. I should have added hot coffee to the
feast, only we had no milk, and both of us agreed that coffee would not
be coffee without this important addition.
The dinner was finished. I cleared away the dishes and restored the
cabin to its usual order. By this time we were quite dry, for an
atmosphere of from ninety to a hundred makes sharp warfare upon moist
garments. The heat was beginning to be oppressive to me, and I opened
the slide a little way, to admit the fresh air so abundant that day
on the lake. I took my coat and resumed my seat on the berth, for the
cabin was not high enough to permit a standing-posture. Waddie sat
opposite to me. He had been in deep thought for some minutes, while I
was making my preparations to breast the storm again.
I had put on my coat, and was buttoning it close around my throat, to
keep out the cold and the water, when my companion startled me by a
demonstration as strange in him as it would have been in the Emperor
Napoleon, if I had been admitted to the sacred precincts of the
Tuileries. Suddenly he sprang forward and reached out his right hand
to me across the table. I looked at it in bewildered astonishment, and
with a suspicion that Waddie had suddenly become insane.
“Will you take my hand, Wolf?” said he, in the mildest of tones.
“Certainly I will, if you desire it;” and I clasped the offered member.
“Wolf, I have been your enemy,” said he, still retaining my hand. “I
have hated you; I have used you meanly; I have despised you. Will you
forgive me?”
“With all my heart, Waddie,” I replied, pressing his hand. “I never
laid up anything against you.”
“Are we friends?” he asked earnestly.
“We are.”
“By the great horn spoon, Wolf, I shall stick to you now like a
brother! Oh, I’m in earnest, Wolf. You needn’t smile at it!”
“I think you are sincere.”
“I know I am. It is not altogether because you got me out of a
bad scrape to-day that I say all this, but because you behaved so
handsomely after all my meanness toward you. I don’t understand it yet,
Wolf. I don’t see how you could do it; but I know it is so, and that’s
enough for me. I wish I could be like you.”
“I hope you will be better than I am,” I modestly replied.
“I don’t ask to be any better than you are. All the fellows like you--I
mean all the decent fellows. My father is rich, and yours is poor; but
that don’t seem to make any difference. The fellows on the other side
would have mobbed Tommy Toppleton for your sake if he hadn’t broken his
leg. I don’t see why they should like you so much better than Tommy.
Our fellows don’t seem to like me much better, though I don’t see why
they shouldn’t.”
“Perhaps we will talk that over another time,” I answered, not deeming
it prudent to be entirely candid with him.
“I’m going to stick to you, Wolf, till the end of time, and I’m going
to take your advice, too, if you will give it to me.”
“I don’t know that my advice will be worth much; but if I can be of any
service to you, Waddie, I shall be very glad. I think we must get under
way now.”
“What shall I do?”
“Nothing at all. Stay in the cabin and make yourself as comfortable as
possible. I can handle the _Belle_ without any assistance.”
“But I want to talk with you some more.”
“Well, we shall have time enough when we get down to Centreport.”
“I feel as though you had been the best friend I ever had in the
world, and, by the great horn spoon! I am going to be such a friend as
you never had before.”
“I wouldn’t make any rash promises, Waddie,” I answered, smiling at his
enthusiasm. “You had better sleep on it.”
“I don’t want to sleep on it. I have been your enemy, but now I am
your friend. If it hadn’t been for me, you would have been running the
_Ucayga_ to-day.”
“I don’t find any fault, though such a berth as that would have suited
me first-rate,” I continued, laughing; but I confess I had but little
confidence in my new-made friend’s zeal in my favor.
“It is not too late, Wolf, for my father and I are disgusted with the
management of the boat, and it is high time something should be done.”
“We will talk it over by and by,” I added, leaving the cabin.
I put another reef into the mainsail, cast off the painter, which I
had made fast to the pier, and pushed off. In a moment the _Belle_
was rolling and pitching in the heavy surges of the lake. With two
reefs in her mainsail she would not lie very close to the wind; but I
ran her across the lake, intending to work along under the lee of the
west shore, partially sheltered by the high bank from the fury of the
tempest.