THE COXSWAIN OF THE WINOOSKI INDULGES IN MORE STRATEGY.
The Chesterfields were struggling with all their might at their oars.
They appeared to have no idea of the speed of the Winooski, and
evidently entertained the idea that they could run away from her when
they exerted themselves to the utmost. But Wash Barker and Mad Twinker,
the coxswains, had apparently learned one thing: and this was that their
crews could not handle the boats so well in rough as in smooth water.
The cove where they had stolen the clothes of the Beech Hill boys was at
the narrowest part of the lake, where it was not more than a mile wide.
Even here they had kept under the lee of the shore, and had been in very
little troubled water. Half a mile below the cove was Northwest Bay,
where the lake is four miles wide. The Chesterfield Collegiate Institute
was on the north shore of the bay, near the point where the lake begins
to contract its width.
There was silence on board of the Winooski, though the young gentlemen
in the two barges were yelling as much as they could while exerting
themselves at the oars. The latter were in great glee, and seemed to be
in the highest enjoyment of the situation. Dory studied the movements of
the two boats, and soon satisfied himself that their coxswains were
hugging the northwest shore, so as to avoid the heavy sea, which
prevailed at even less than half a mile from land. Dory decided to block
this game, and he headed the Winooski to the windward of the enemy.
Such a contest could hardly be called a race, for the vastly superior
pulling of the crew of the Winooski allowed her crew to have it all
their own way. Though the Chesterfields did not yet understand it so,
the Beech Hill boat could easily pull around them.
"Good, fellows! You are pulling first rate," said Dory, when the boat
had obtained the position in which the coxswain wished to place her. "We
are abreast and exactly to windward of them now."
"What is coming next, Dory?" asked Life Windham; and all the crew had an
interest in the question.
"I don't know: it all depends upon circumstances," replied Dory. "Now
pull your regular easy stroke; and we can readily beat them with that.
Things will come to a head very soon."
The crew took the easy and graceful stroke indicated, but this produced
a greater speed than the Chesterfields could make with their utmost
exertion. Dory changed the course of the Winooski as she went ahead of
the Racer, so that she would gradually approach the enemy.
In a few minutes it was evident that the Beech Hill boat would be in the
water of the other boats, and Wash Barker headed his craft farther to
the southward. This was just what Dory wanted him to do. He diminished
the speed of the Winooski still more, and continued to crowd into the
water of the Dasher until the latter was headed to the south, or out
into the rough sea.
Wash Barker, who appeared to act as the commodore of the squadron,--Mad
Twinker, in the Racer following his lead,--could not help seeing the
result of these manoeuvres, whether he comprehended their purpose or
not. The white-caps were before him, and he knew that his crew made bad
work in the waves. Already the Dasher was beginning to pitch, and the
spray to swash in over her stern. But it looked to him just then as
though, if he headed for the shore, the sharp bow of the Winooski would
cut his craft into two pieces.
Wash tried several times to get out of the scrape, but the Beech Hill
boat looked like a streak of lightning to him, and he did not want it to
come any nearer to him. He was soon compelled to give it up as a bad
job: his pursuer would allow him to go only to the southward. But Wash
had brains if he didn't know much about handling a boat. The force of
the waves was increasing every length he went in the present direction.
Dory heard him shout to Mad Twinker, but he could not understand what he
said. A moment later the Dasher began to head more to the eastward, the
Racer taking the same course. The commodore had evidently decided to get
about in the opposite direction. Dory followed him up closely till the
two barges were in the trough of the sea, and began to roll instead of
pitching as before. The rowers on the lee side, as the boats careened in
that direction, had their looms thrown out of the rowlocks. Some of them
went over backwards, and some of them, in their efforts to save
themselves, lost their oars overboard.
In a word, the crews of both the Chesterfield barges were in a fearful
snarl. The boats continued to roll in the heavy waves, and Dory thought
it not unlikely that his crew would be called upon to save the
collegiate gentlemen from being drowned. Of course it was nothing but
clumsiness which had reduced them to this extremity.
The crew of the Winooski were in a position to see all that occurred to
the unfortunate barges; for Dory, as soon as he saw what Wash had
intended to do, had come about in the opposite way from that taken by
the other barges. When his boat was headed into the wind, he called upon
the crew to lay upon their oars.
"That's a bad egg for them," said Life, chuckling at the misfortune of
the enemy.
"There are three of their oars floating off into the lake," Phil Gawner
added.
"Don't you think we had better go out and tow them in, Dory?" laughed
Ned Bellows.
"Until they get overboard, we will continue to mind our own business;
but if they need help we must do all we can for them," replied the
coxswain. "While we are waiting we might as well run out and pick up
their oars."
The orders were given to start again, and the Winooski dashed out into
the heavy waves. Dory discovered two more oars which had been lost by
the Racer. The two bowmen were directed to pick them up when they came
to them, and the five were quickly secured. They were stowed away under
the thwarts.
By this time the Chesterfield barges were in condition to make another
effort to reach the shore, or to get into smooth water. Wash Barker was
yelling at his crew, and striving to bring order out of confusion. Mad
Twinker was doing the same in the Racer; though neither of them had any
brilliant success. But at last they got the remnant of their oars into
the water. Then it was found that the three oars had all been lost from
the starboard side of the Dasher, and Wash proceeded to bring about an
equilibrium in his propelling force.
When the Winooski had picked up the oars, Dory took her to a position
between the barges and the shore. He did not regard the battle as ended;
in fact it had hardly begun, though the coxswain considered his tactics
a success thus far. After a great deal of loud talk on the part of the
coxswains, and a great deal of "talking back" on the part of the crews,
the Chesterfields were in condition to resume their effort to reach the
shore.
Just as soon as the Dasher began to move through the water, Wash found
the sharp bow of the Winooski pointed towards his boat. He was afraid of
it, and he allowed himself to be crowded off his course precisely as he
had before. It took but a few minutes to put his boat into the trough of
the sea again, and she began to roll in a manner very trying to the
nerves of the inexperienced boatmen.
The Chesterfields held on to their oars this time, though they stopped
rowing. But they did not stop rowing by order of the coxswain. In fact
there was a mutiny in the Dasher. The crew ceased to pull of their own
accord, and proceeded to pitch into the coxswain for getting them into a
scrape a second time. But Wash was a gentleman of energy and decision,
and in the matter of "jaw" he soon overcame his refractory crew, and got
his boat headed to the shore again.
By this time he comprehended the tactics of the Beech Hill boat, and
realized that Dory's purpose was to drive him into the rough water. He
appeared to be in an angry frame of mind, and he cast savage glances at
the Winooski. Dory continued to ply his strategy of crowding the Racer
off her course. But her coxswain had evidently decided not to be shoved
off again, though it looked as though the Winooski would dash into her
bow the next instant.
"Halloo, Tinkers!" shouted Wash; "If you don't keep out of my way I'll
run into you."
Dory made no reply to this threat, though it was uttered in a very
savage tone, as though the speaker meant all that he said. The Winooski
continued on her course towards the Dasher, her naked crew pulling their
steady stroke, but not one of them looking behind him to see when the
crash was coming.
"Oars!" said the coxswain, in a low but very decided tone. "Hold water!"
At the first command the oarsmen poised their blades at right angles
with the gunwale; at the second they dropped them into the water,
holding them in this position with a firm grasp. The effect was to check
the progress of the boat. But this did not stop the boat, as the
coxswain desired to do.
"Stern all!" he added; and the crew began to pull backwards.
A couple of strokes were all that were necessary to overcome the
remaining headway of the barge, and she rested in the position Dory had
chosen for her. Wash Barker was evidently very nervous, though he saw
that the Winooski had come to a standstill. The stem of the latter was
pointed at her at an angle of forty-five degrees, but she was not
directly in the course of the Dasher. Wash thought he had space enough
to pass to the eastward of her, and perhaps he concluded that his threat
had been effective in stopping his rival.
"Clap on that head bunter, Thad!" called Dory to the bowman.
The article indicated was a kind of cushion covered with a network of
small rope. It was used when the boat was in danger of striking her stem
against any hard substance, as in boarding the steamer, or making a
landing at a wharf. Thad Glovering put the bunter in position; and the
call for it indicated to the crew that there was danger of a collision.
The bunter had no significance to Wash, who believed he had won a
victory in bringing his opponent to a standstill. He kept his course,
and fully expected to pass clear of the Winooski. Dory watched the
Dasher with the utmost care, and it was plain enough that he intended
to do something.
"You are doing first rate, fellows," said the coxswain, with his gaze
fixed upon the Dasher. "Now is the time to remember what you have
promised, and I want you to keep up the discipline clear to the handle."
"We won't slip up the hundredth part of an inch, Dory," replied Phil
Gawner. "Propel!"
"Ready! Give way!" called Dory, after a pause of a moment. "But only two
or three strokes!"
The crew gave a few vigorous strokes in perfect time, and doubtless Wash
wondered what was coming next.
"Oars!" said the coxswain, sharply. "Hold water!"
The progress of the barge was checked when she was within ten feet of
the Racer. Then Dory ordered his crew to give way again. The stem of the
Winooski struck the bow of the Chesterfield barge.