SAFE UNDER A LEE.
"How do you know she is aground, Dory?" asked Corny, after a careful
examination of the position of the Missisquoi.
"She wouldn't have stopped there if she hadn't got aground. She has done
the very thing I wanted her to do, and the very thing I did my best to
have her do," replied Dory triumphantly.
"Do you mean to say that you did it, Dory?" asked Thad, still pumping
away with all his might.
"I don't mean to say that I got the steamer aground. I saw that neither
Captain Vesey nor the other fellow knew much about the lake; for the
Missisquoi followed the Goldwing wherever she went," Dory explained. "I
ran close to the island, hoping the steamer would follow me, as she has
been doing, because there is not more than four feet of water close up
to the land where I went. She had either to follow us in a straight
line, or to go to the southward of the shoal. I was sure to make
something in getting away from her."
"What will she do now?" inquired Dick Short.
"She must either work off the shoal, or stay there; and I am sure I
don't care what she does," added Dory, as he looked ahead at the savage
waves that were piling up in the path of the schooner.
The Goldwing was more than half way across the lake: and, the farther
she went, the rougher the lake was; for the longer was the sweep of the
wind. But Dory was not in a hurry when he found the steamer could no
longer follow him. He had been very careful not to lose any thing by
letting off the main-sheet, except when it was absolutely necessary to
do so in order to keep the boat right side up.
Going nearly before the wind, it took a long sweep to reduce the
pressure on the mainsail; and the water flowed in over the lee side
about as fast as Thad could pump it out. The boys looked at each other,
and there is no doubt that they all wished they were on shore. They kept
an eye on the skipper's face, to note any anxiety or alarm on his part.
Dory was confident the boat would not take in water enough to swamp her
while he could control her with the helm; but he felt that he had his
hands full, and that he should be very fortunate if nothing happened to
cripple the boat.
"I have got about enough of this thing," said Thad.
"Nat, you take Thad's place at the pump," interposed Dory. "One hand
needn't do all the hard work."
"All right! I am ready to do my share of the work," replied Nat, as he
took Thad's place at the pump.
"I didn't mean that. I am not tired," added Thad. "The farther we go the
worse it is, Dory; and I have had about enough of this sort of sailing."
"Well, what are you going to do about it?" asked Dory pleasantly. "Are
you going to get out, and walk the rest of the way? Or will you swim
ashore? I don't think you will find it is any easier walking or
swimming, or any safer."
"Can't we turn about and go back?" inquired Thad, looking with dismay
at the waves ahead, and at the water that poured in over both rails.
"We are more than half way over, and it is hardly worth while to go
about," replied Dory. "If we return, we shall have to beat back; but we
are in no hurry now, and perhaps we can ease off a little more."
"I don't see how you are going to ease off, Dory," said Thad. "Here we
are right in the thick of it; and we must take it as it comes, unless
you go back."
"Do you see those cleats on the mainmast, Thad?" asked Dory, making
ready to do something,--"one on each side of the mast, with a rope
leading up? Do you see them?"
"I don't know what cleats are," answered Thad.
"Those brass things, with ropes around them."
"I see them. These are what you hoist the sail with," added Thad, as he
grasped the ropes.
"Now let go both ropes together when I give the word. Not yet! All the
rest of you, grab the sail when it comes down, and mind the gaff don't
hit you in the head."
"What are you going to do, Dory?" asked Thad. "I have the ropes in my
hands."
"I am going to take in the mainsail. That will ease her off; and I can
work her before it with the jib alone."
At this moment a tremendous gust struck the mainsail, and Dory crowded
the helm down; but the schooner took in a large quantity of water over
the lee side as she careened.
"Let go the halyards, Thad!" shouted the skipper as the boat swept
around. "Look out for the sail, all of you!"
But the sail did not readily come down, the pressure upon it causing it
to bind. But Dory continued to luff until it was released.
"Haul down the sail lively!" called Dory with energy, when the canvas
began to thrash and beat about as though it was bound to tear itself
into shreds.
Under the direction of the skipper the sail was secured after a great
deal of difficulty. Dory let her off again under the jib alone. This
proved to be a decided change for the better. The Goldwing kept on a
tolerably even keel, and drove ahead almost as fast as she did before.
"She's doing a good deal better," said Thad, who began to breathe freer
than he had since the boat went into the worst of it. "Why didn't we do
that before?"
"Because we were trying to keep out of the way of the Missisquoi
before," replied Dory.
But it was not baby play, even with nothing but the jib set. The
mainsail had steadied the boat to some extent; but now she began to roll
tremendously, and was not so readily controlled by the helm. The waves
broke over her on the weather side, but she did not scoop up the water
on the lee side.
The Goldwing had taken in so much water that it was swashing about in
the standing-room. Dory directed Nat to keep pumping. Dick Short was
told to take a pail which belonged to the boat, and Corny was armed with
a tin dipper. The members of the club were glad to have something to do,
as almost any nervous person is; and they worked with tremendous zeal.
In a short time the pump sucked, and not another dipperful of water
could be taken up in the well.
"Now we are all right," said Dory. "We can take it easy now."
"We are almost over to Providence Island," added Corny.
"We shall be in smooth water in ten minutes more."
"But we are a long way from Burlington," suggested Thad.
"At least a dozen miles," said the skipper. "Of course you know that we
can't get there, fellows, without going outside of Colchester Point. All
the rest of the way is quite as bad as, if not worse than, we have been
having for the last twenty minutes."
"Are we going right along to Burlington, Dory?" asked Thad in dismay at
the information given by the skipper.
"I think not at present," replied Dory. "But you have been through this
once before to-day."
"It wasn't half so bad as it is now," protested Corny. "It didn't begin
to blow very hard until we got to Valcour's Island."
"Did the Missisquoi make better weather of it than the Goldwing?" asked
Dory.
"The lake didn't begin to be as rough as it was a little while ago,"
replied Corny. "The steamer pitched tremendously, and we all had to pump
after we got beyond Valcour's."
"Do you see any thing of the Missisquoi?" asked Dory, who had been too
busy to give any attention to the steamer.
"I can just see her at the south of the island. She has not got off
yet," replied Corny.
"She is under the lee of the two islands; and they can be very
comfortable on board of her for the rest of the day,--a great deal more
comfortable than they would be out in the lake where we have been,"
added Dory.
The Goldwing was abreast of Providence Island by this time. The waves
swept furiously along the south-west shore of the land.
As soon as she reached the south-east point, the skipper luffed up; but
the boat was not inclined to make any headway on the new course.
"Let off the centre-board, Thad," said the skipper, as the boat began to
make more leeway than headway.
Thad had got the hang of this rope; and, as the centre-board went down,
the boat came up to the work. With the help of an oar and a great deal
of coaxing, the skipper got her close up to the shore in seven feet of
water. He had instructed Corny how to get the anchor overboard. The boat
was entirely out of the heavy sea, though the water rose and fell under
the influence of the waves which were rolling along the other side of
the island.
"Here we are as safe as though we had the boat on the top of Mansfield
Mountain," said Dory, after he had secured the cable, and stowed the
jib.
"I never expected to come out of it alive," said Thad, as the skipper
seated himself in the standing-room to recover from the excitement of
the perilous run across the lake.
"Nor I either," added Nat Long.
"It looked very shaky," said Corny; "but I didn't give it up at any
time."
"Now, really, Dory, did you expect to get out of that scrape?" asked
Thad. "Be honest about it, and tell us what you actually thought."
"Of course I knew that something might break, just as I know that a
horse may run away with me when I'm out riding. The wagon or the harness
might break, and that would spoil the best calculation," replied Dory.
"But, without any thing breaking, didn't you expect the boat would go to
the bottom?" urged Thad.
"I didn't expect any thing of the kind. I have been out in a sailboat
when it was as bad or worse than it is to-day. If nothing broke, I knew
we should come out of it all right; and I never thought of such a thing
as going to the bottom. It looks a good deal worse to you fellows who
were never out in a sailboat when it blew hard than it really is. I
didn't think there was any great danger when we started out: if I had, I
shouldn't have come over," said Dory quietly.
The members of the Goldwing Club had the idea that they had had a narrow
escape, and the skipper was not inclined to allow them to make heroes of
themselves. The motion of a boat in a heavy sea seems terrible to those
who are not accustomed to it, and the boys were disposed to make the
worst of it.
"I wouldn't try it again if you would give me the Goldwing," said Thad
with emphasis.
"After you have been through that sort of thing a few times, you will
not mind it at all. It was what I call a lively time: that's all," added
Dory. "I went down to St. John with Bill Pitts in a sailboat, and we had
a rougher time than this all one day."
Dory thought he should like the rest of his dinner by this time.