A GRAVE CHARGE AGAINST THE SKIPPER.
The Missisquoi was aground. This result was exactly what the skipper of
the Goldwing intended and expected, if the pilots of the steamer
followed the schooner. Colchester Light is about west of a point having
the same name. Extending north from Colchester Point is a shoal, on
which, at the present low stage of the water, there was a depth of from
two to eight feet. It was two miles and a half long from its northern
extremity to the point.
Dory struck the shoal not more than a quarter of a mile north of Law
Island, where the water was only about four feet deep. The Goldwing went
over it without any difficulty; but there was not water enough for the
steamer. Ordinarily a small steamer could have crossed any part of the
shoal, but the lake had not been so low before for years.
The skipper of the schooner had calculated upon using this shoal in the
same manner that he had used Champion Rock and Stave Island Ledge. If he
had not depended upon this shallow water, he would not have left the
ledges. But he did not expect that Captain Vesey would attempt to follow
him where there was not more than four feet of water. It was evident
enough that neither the captain nor Pearl was a competent pilot.
"Here we are," said Dory quietly, as he put the helm down, and came up
into the wind.
"What's the matter now?" asked Corny.
"Nothing the matter; but the Missisquoi has concluded not to come any
farther in this direction just now," replied Dory, as he headed the
schooner to the north-west.
"She has stopped!" exclaimed Thad.
"That is just what she has done," added the skipper.
"What has she stopped there for?" asked Corny.
"She couldn't very well help it, for she is hugging the bottom."
"Hugging the bottom! What do you mean by that?" demanded Corny.
"In plain English, she is aground." And the skipper proceeded to explain
the situation to his companions.
"Then, you knew what you were about all the time, Dory," said Thad, with
something of admiration in his tones and manner.
"I thought I did all the time; but I did not expect the Missisquoi would
try to go over a place where the bottom is so near the top as it is on
this shoal," answered Dory. "There is nearly seven miles of deep water
to the eastward of this shoal to the head of Mallett's Bay. The lake is
thirteen miles wide on just this line."
"Were you going up Mallett's Bay?"
"Not at all. I expected to run back and forth over this shoal until the
Missisquoi had enough of it, and then I was going to Burlington."
"Will the steamer get off the bottom?"
"She was running at her best speed when she struck the bottom; and I
don't believe she will get off in a hurry," replied Dory.
"All we have to do is to go to Burlington, then," added Corny.
"We won't be in a hurry about it," said Dory. "I want to see if she can
get off. They are backing her now, and there is Captain Vesey at work
with a pole. The steamer seems to stick hard. Her bow is about a foot
out of water, but I think she is afloat at the stern. They may work her
off if they manage it well."
"That other chap has gone to work with a pole too," said Dick Short.
"I hope they will have a good time," added Dory, as he put the schooner
about, and headed her across the bow of the Missisquoi.
The skipper wished to obtain a better view of the position of the
steamer, to enable him to decide whether it was safe for him to proceed
to Burlington. With the wind on the quarter, he ran within ten yards of
the stem of the Missisquoi. As he approached her, he saw that her
water-line was lifted at least a foot above the surface of the lake,
indicating that she was firmly fixed on the hard bottom.
"Hallo there, Dory Dornwood!" shouted Pearl Hawlinshed when the Goldwing
came within hail of the steamer. "Come alongside! I want to see you."
"What do you want of me?" asked the skipper.
"I want to see you about that money," added Pearl.
"What money?"
"You know what money as well as I do!" roared Pearl with a string of
oaths. "The money you stole at the hotel!"
"The money Dory stole!" ejaculated Corny Minkfield, with a look of
horror on his face.
"What hotel? I didn't steal any money at any hotel," returned Dory,
startled at the charge.
"Yes, you did! It's no use to deny it. The landlord sent me off after
you; and you'll have to pay for it, for the wild-goose chase you have
led me on," cried Pearl, who had evidently lost his patience and his
temper.
"I didn't know any money had been stolen from a hotel; and I didn't
steal it," cried Dory, as the Goldwing passed out of easy talking
distance from the steamer.
"You stole the money to buy that boat, and it's no sale!" yelled Pearl.
"Stole the money to buy the boat!" exclaimed Corny, looking at his
fellow-members of the Goldwing Club.
"I don't believe it!" ejaculated Thad Glovering. "Dory isn't that kind
of a fellow. He wouldn't do such a thing."
Nat Long and Dick Short said nothing. They seemed to be in doubt. All of
them wondered where Dory could have got the money to pay for the
Goldwing, and the charge of Pearl Hawlinshed appeared to explain the
whole matter. Certainly the astonishing statement of Pearl made it look
very bad for the skipper of the Goldwing. When they asked where he got
the forty-two dollars to pay for the boat, Dory had refused to explain,
and had insisted that no more questions should be asked about the
subject.
Nat had winked at Corny to intimate that this disposition of the matter
was not satisfactory; but, as they were expecting a fine sail in the
schooner, they had been politic enough to keep silence. Now they looked
from one to another, for they did not like to say just what they
thought.
Dory was silent also. His heart was swelling with emotion. He was
accused of stealing, and he could not help seeing that he was in a very
uncomfortable situation. Pearl's father had given him the money, and he
had promised not to say a word about it. There seemed to be some
terrible secret between Pearl and his father. The latter had given Dory
one hundred and five dollars for the service he had rendered him in the
woods, and wished him not to tell where he got the money lest it should
lead to the exposure of the secret.
Pearl evidently had something against him. It might be nothing more than
the fact that he had outbid him at the sale of the boat. But the son
plainly suspected that Dory had some relations with his father, for he
had intimated as much as this.
The skipper of the Goldwing was considering what he should do. He was
ready to meet the charge against him, though he could not explain where
he got the money to pay for the boat. Pearl was after him for stealing
the money at a hotel,--what hotel he did not know. Was Pearl a constable
or a police-officer?
If his pursuer was an officer of the law, he was ready to give himself
up. He was anxious to know in what manner he was connected with the
theft. But it might be all a trick on the part of Pearl to get the boat
away from him. He did not mean to put his head into any trap. While he
was considering the situation, Corny could hold in no longer.
"I want to know about this business," said Corny, after he and his
companions had been looking at each other in silence for full five
minutes.
"What do you want to know, Corny?" asked Dory.
"I want to know where you got the money to buy this boat," replied
Corny, rather more warmly than the occasion seemed to require.
"I shall not tell you," answered Dory firmly, but very quietly.
"You won't?"
"No, I won't," repeated Dory. "That is my secret. I have to keep it, not
on my own account, but for the sake of a person who was very kind to me,
and gave me a meal when I was hungry. That is all I can say about the
case. I didn't steal a dollar or a cent, and I am willing to face any
man that says I did."
"That fellow in the steamer says you did; and we have been running away
from him since yesterday morning," replied Corny.
"That man, whose name is Pearl Hawlinshed, has something against me;
and I don't care about putting myself into his hands," answered Dory.
"I suppose you don't," added Corny with a sneer. "I don't like this
thing a bit. We have been with you since yesterday morning, and they say
the receiver is as bad as the thief."
"Do you believe I am a thief, Corny?" said Dory, looking his accuser
squarely in the eye.
"I don't see how I can believe any thing else. I don't want to believe
such a thing of you, Dory. Fellows like you and me don't have forty-two
dollars in every pocket of their trousers; and you won't tell us where
you got the money," answered Corny a little more moderately.
"You talk and act just as though you did want to prove that I stole the
money I paid for the boat," added Dory. "All I ask of the fellows is to
believe that I am innocent until I am proved guilty."
"That's the talk! that's fair! I don't believe Dory did it!" exclaimed
Thad.
"Let him tell where he got the money, then," replied Corny.
"That's his business, if he don't choose to tell," argued Thad. "It
don't prove that Dory is a thief because that fellow says so. We don't
know any thing about that fellow."
"Do you believe that he would chase us for two days in a steamer if
there wasn't something serious the matter?" asked Corny.
"Yes, if he wanted to get this boat," replied Thad.
"Well, I have had enough of this thing. Here we are cruising all over
the lake with a thief, running away, and dodging a steamer sent after
him; and we are getting into it as deep as he is," blustered Corny.
"Shut up, Corn Minkfield, or I'll smash your head!" exclaimed Thad,
leaping to his feet, and moving towards the sceptic.
"None of that, Thad!" interposed Dory, putting his arm between the two
belligerent members. "I don't want any fight over it."
The skipper put the helm up, and gybed the boat.
"What are you going to do now?" demanded Corny when Thad had resumed his
seat. "I am not going to be carried all over the lake with one who is
running away from the officers."
Thad sprang to his feet again, but Dory quieted him.
"I am going back to Plattsburgh to face the music," said Dory.
Corny looked more disgusted than ever.