AN UNSATISFACTORY CONFERENCE ON THE WAVES.
There was no crash when the Winooski struck the Dasher, and Dory had
intended there should be none, or at least nothing more than a smart
rap. His crew anticipated something more than followed the contact of
the two boats.
"Hold on, you Tinkers!" yelled Wash Barker, rising in his seat in the
stern-sheets of his boat. "You are running into us. You will smash our
boat all to pieces!"
But the collision did not realize his fears, though his conduct caused
his crew to cease rowing. The Dasher was a couple of lengths astern of
the commodore's barge, and the instant the mighty official yelled they
all stopped pulling and looked behind them. The Winooskis felt the jar
of the stroke, but not one of them turned his head, as they might have
been excused for doing.
"Give way, fellows!" called Dory, in an energetic command, to the
astonishment of his own crew, and to the dismay of the coxswain of the
Dasher.
But the crew of the Winooski obeyed the order, as they had promised to
do, whatever broke. The command was given at the instant the two boats
came together. The headway of the Dasher was checked, and the force with
which the Beech Hill boat advanced carried her head around.
"Oars!" "Hold water!" "Stern all!" were the next commands of the
coxswain of the Winooski, after he had set the Dasher to whirling in the
waves.
The Chesterfield boat turned half around, so that she faced to the
southward again. As soon as the Winooski had drawn back from her
opponent, the crew lay upon their oars, the coxswain waiting for the
issue of his last piece of strategy. He was evidently ready to do the
same thing again, and Wash Barker began to look discouraged. His crew
had held on to their oars when the boat was in the trough of the sea,
but they had pulled them out of the water, or were trailing them
alongside. At any rate they were in confusion, and the commodore could
not extricate them from the dilemma.
Dory was patient, and his crew were in the highest state of enjoyment
when they realized that the gentlemen from the collegiate institute were
completely "euchred." After a great deal of loud talking, and talking
back,--for every rower appeared to be a voluntary coxswain, the crew of
the Dasher got their oars into position in the water. They were ready to
pull again; but the commander of the fleet was in doubt and dismay. He
was headed for the open lake. His boats were pitching at a lively rate
in the waves.
He could not go ahead, for that led him into the dashing sea. He could
not come about, for the Winooski was sure to give him another whirl, and
might smash his craft the next time. His crew were jawing and
gesticulating at him; one telling him to do this, and another to do
that. Dory gave his crew permission to witness the scene; and they could
not help realizing the benefit, not to say the blessing, of good
discipline. The bow of the Winooski was not more than a length from the
stern of the Dasher, and the bowman of the Racer had fastened his
boathook to the bow of her consort. The dismay of Mad Twinker in the
other boat seemed to be as deep as that of his fellow officer, and he
had no counsel to give.
There was a multitude of counsellors in the Dasher. Several of them
advised the coxswain to run into the Winooski, and about all that could
be heard in the snarl wanted to smash her. Wash Barker had brains, and
he seemed to be aware that he could do nothing of the sort, for the
reason that the cool coxswain of the enemy would not let him.
"I say, Tinkers!" shouted Wash, who had evidently concluded what to do.
Dory was as dignified as George Washington when his title was ignored,
and he refused to answer while he and his companions were called by an
offensive name. Wash hailed several times in the same strain without
getting a reply. His crew seemed to be tired of yelling at him, and
there was a silence in the barge after the coxswain had called a dozen
times to his opponent.
"Winooski, ahoy!" shouted some one in the boat, who had perhaps learned
from some sea novel how to hail another craft.
"On board the Dasher!" replied Dory.
"Are you all deaf there?" demanded Wash Barker angrily, when he
discovered that his opponent had the power of speech; "I have been
yelling at you for half an hour."
"We don't answer to the name of Tinkers, Greasers, Chip-makers, or
anything of that sort," returned the coxswain of the Winooski.
"Oh, you don't!" sneered Wash, when Dory had, with a couple of strokes
of the oars, placed the stern of the barge within a few feet of that of
the Racer.
"We do not. You have our clothes in your boat, and I will trouble you to
return them to us," added Dory.
"Don't give them up!" yelled a fellow in the bow of the Dasher.
"No, no!" shouted half a dozen others; "don't give them up!"
This looked like war, and things had a stormy aspect ahead. But Dory
decided to pay no attention to anyone but the officer of the boat.
"Hold on to the clothes!" shouted the students in the Racer, when they
understood what was going on.
The commodore of the squadron was thus fully informed in regard to the
state of feeling in both his boats. Whatever his own view, he seemed to
be unable to stand up against his companions.
"Our clothes were taken from the shore while we were in the water, and,
as we need them very much, I will thank you to return them," continued
Dory, repeating his request in what some of his crew considered a very
"gingerly" tone.
"Don't give them up!" yelled a crowd from both boats.
"You can hear what our fellows say to your request," replied Wash in a
more pliable manner than he had yet assumed.
"I speak to you as the coxswain in charge of the boat, and I am waiting
for your reply," added Dory. "The clothes belong to us, and I think you
can have no doubt that they ought to be returned to the owners."
"Why don't you talk up to him, Wash?" shouted a student in the bow of
the Dasher.
"We can't all talk at once, and you fellows keep up such a jaw that I
can't get in a word edgeways," retorted the coxswain of the Dasher
petulantly, for he evidently felt the force of Dory's hint that he ought
to speak for his crew. "If I am to be the coxswain of the boat, I don't
want every fellow to interfere with me, and take the words out of my
mouth."
"You have got us into scrapes enough for one day," replied a rebellious
oarsman in the middle of the boat.
"You want to crawl out like a lame chicken!" exclaimed another.
"I was elected coxswain; but you won't obey orders, or even treat me
decently," answered Wash. "I have had enough of it, and I resign my
office, to take effect at the present moment."
"You might as well! You don't know anything more about a boat than the
rest of us," added one of the crew.
"I have nothing more to say," answered Wash Barker, with some show of
dignity, as he left his seat at the tiller lines, and took another
place. "Every fellow wants to be coxswain except me, and you may do what
you please now."
Dory began to feel a higher degree of respect for the coxswain of the
Dasher, and so did the rest of the crew of the Winooski. The Beech Hill
boys were greatly interested in the dissensions among their opponents,
and they could not help contrasting their own splendid discipline with
that of the Chesterfields.
"Will you oblige me with the name of the coxswain of the other boat?"
asked Dory, addressing the retired officer of the Dasher.
"His name is Madison Twinker, but we all call him Mad," replied Wash
Barker.
"What did you tell him for, Wash?" yelled one of the gentlemanly
students of the Chesterfield Collegiate Institute.
"I know how to answer a civil question," replied the late coxswain, as
he settled down in his seat, and turned his back to his crew.
Dory directed his crew to pull a few strokes and thus enable him to
secure a position within talking distance of the coxswain of the Racer.
Before he could speak to Mad Twinker, the members of his crew began to
shout at him, telling him not to give up the clothes. The discipline in
this boat was no better than in the other. Dory repeated his request to
the remaining coxswain of the squadron.
"Don't give up the clothes!" yelled the crew.
"If you fellows are going to do the talking I have nothing to say, and I
shall follow the example of Wash Barker," added Mad Twinker; and he
plainly sympathized with his fellow coxswain who had resigned.
The Chesterfields did not like this answer, and they looked at one
another with something like dismay on their faces.
"Go ahead, Mad! We won't say another word," said the stroke oarsman. The
others made no promises, but for the time they were silent.
"I am waiting for your answer, Mr. Twinker," said Dory, when he thought
it was time for the officer of the Racer to speak.
"Suppose I decline to return them," replied Mad, who found it necessary
to say something, though it was clear that he had not decided what to
say. "What then?"
"I don't care to consider any question but the return of the clothes,"
replied Dory.
"Our fellows are not ready to return your clothes, after the insults you
have heaped upon us," answered Mad Twinker; and this answer was followed
by a clapping of hands.
"Am I to understand that you refuse to return our property?" asked Dory
gently but forcibly.
"We will compromise the matter if you like," suggested Mad Twinker, who
did not like the cool manner of the coxswain of the Winooski. "If you
will apologize for the insults heaped upon us, we will return the
garments in as good condition as when they were taken."
"I am not aware that we have insulted you in a single instance, to say
nothing of heaping insults upon you," replied Dory.
"We spoke to you twenty times, and you refused to answer us, or take
the slightest notice of us," answered Mad, with energy, as though he
believed he had made a valid charge; and he even got up a little
indignation to go with it. "We invited you to race with us, and you
would not deign to make any reply. We think we are entitled to a civil
answer when we ask a question."
"Certainly you are when you ask a civil question; but every time you
spoke to us you addressed us as 'Tinkers,' 'Greasers,' 'Chip-makers,' or
some such insulting epithet. When we were insulted we simply maintained
silence," answered Dory.
"Are you not Tinkers, Chip-makers, and Machine-greasers?" demanded Mad
Twinker.
"Whatever we are, these names were applied to us as terms of reproach,
and were insulting."
"We don't see it."
The Chesterfields clapped their hands again, as they had when the
coxswain proposed the compromise. Just then the Gildrock was discovered
pulling rapidly towards the scene.