THE GAME AMONG THE SHALLOWS
The Sylph was bothered by the last movement of the Goldwing. No one knew
what she wanted; but she had demonstrated that she was after the
schooner, and had business with her. Pearl seemed to be delighted with
the success of his manoeuvre. He had to drop the centre-board, and
beat back. He gave the point a wide berth in standing to the north-west.
"We can keep her going back and forth through the channel till night,"
said Pearl in high glee. "This is really exciting business, and I enjoy
it more than I should a game of cards. I am much obliged to you, Dory
Dornwood, for showing me this little trick."
Dory said nothing; for he saw that the game was not the same that he had
played early in the morning. There was an element in the contest which
had not entered into that between the Goldwing and the Missisquoi; and
he thought Pearl was very stupid not to see it. He did not point it out,
or even hint at it. He hoped and expected that the interference of the
Sylph would restore the schooner to him; and that was all he cared for,
though he was quite willing that Peppers should capture and take his
prisoner to Plattsburgh.
The steam-yacht started her screw again, and went ahead. In the Gut she
came about, and passed between the buoys again. The schooner was almost
up with the red buoy when the Sylph passed it, and again the man with
the gruff voice hailed the boat. At this moment Pearl tacked, and stood
to the south-west.
"I guess she will get tired of this game before a great while," said
Pearl, elated with the success of his movements. "She had better give it
up, and go about her business."
When the Sylph had passed the buoys, she put her head to the south, and
ran down close to the shoal-water. Pearl was so delighted that he was
becoming reckless, and he held on to his course until he came within a
hundred feet of the steamer. Once more she hailed the boat. "Is
Theodore Dornwood on board of that boat?" shouted the man with the gruff
voice.
"If you answer, Dory Dornwood, I'll pitch you overboard!" exclaimed the
skipper savagely.
Dory did not answer: he had no intention of doing so before Pearl used
his threatening expression. He was not on the best of terms with his
uncle; and he did not care to have any thing to do with him, or even to
say to him.
There seemed to be a dozen persons on board of the Sylph. But she was a
large craft for a steam-yacht, and doubtless some of them were the
guests of the owner.
"That will do nicely," said Pearl, as he came about, and let off his
sheets again. "The steamer has my permission to go through the channel
again. This is better than a game of checkers."
To Dory it was getting rather monotonous. But he did not believe that
the people on board of the Sylph would be willing to play at this game
much longer. The man with the gruff voice had indicated in his tones,
the last time he hailed the boat, that he was becoming impatient at the
failure of the Goldwing to answer him.
Dory felt like one who stands between two fires, and he was sure to be
hit by one of them. He was in the frying-pan now, and he did not at all
like the idea of being compelled to jump into the fire by the Sylph. He
did not like his uncle, her owner; and he did not care to be redeemed
from his present unpleasant position by him.
It was bad enough to remain in the power of Pearl Hawlinshed, and to be
subject to his caprice; but it seemed worse to be taken out of his hands
by Captain Gildrock. If Pearl had not been a villain, in the very act of
breaking the laws and committing an outrage upon him and the two
passengers in the cabin, he would have been willing to assist him in
keeping out of the way of the Sylph. He thought he knew just how this
could be done; but, as he could not do any thing to help the rascal, he
said nothing. He could not get himself out of the frying-pan, but he
meant to keep out of the fire if he could.
"She is coming about," said Pearl, as the Sylph began to stir up the
water again with her propeller. "She is going through the channel again
to head off the Goldwing. I hope she will have a good time doing this
thing."
Dory made no reply to this remark; but he felt that the end of the
adventure was rapidly approaching. Captain Gildrock was not a man to be
trifled with, or one to be balked by a sailboat like the schooner. The
Sylph went through the Western Cut again. Pearl had run almost up to the
red buoy, and was near it when the steam-yacht passed through.
The skipper of the Goldwing started his sheets, and stood off in the
shoal-water, where the steamer could not follow him. He chuckled as he
did so; and he did not appear to harbor a suspicion that his pursuer
could do any thing but run back and forth through the cut.
"I think I shall take my passengers into Canada in spite of the
opposition of that big steam-yacht. A mouse or a mosquito can make it
uncomfortable for a lion," said Pearl, as he stood off from his pursuer.
"Do you know how the water is in this bay beyond the next point, Dory
Dornwood?" and the skipper indicated Simms's Point with his hand.
"I do," replied Dory.
"Well, how is the water?"
"It is wet," answered Dory.
"Is that so? How did you find it out?" asked Pearl.
"I felt of it one day."
"If you don't keep a civil tongue in your head, you will feel of it
again to-day," added Pearl savagely.
Dory knew there was a half mile of shoal water, deep enough for the
Goldwing, but not for the Sylph. But it was shallow off the point; and
Dory thought the skipper would get aground before he reached Hyde's Bay.
But the water was clear, and Pearl saw the bottom in season to avoid the
danger. He stood to the southward then, watching the bottom all the
time.
Dory saw that the skipper was making the worst possible move for his own
case, and he was rejoiced to see him do it. The Sylph continued farther
into the Gut, and finally stopped her screw half a mile east of Simms's
Point.
"All right!" exclaimed Pearl, who had half a mile of shoal water between
the steamer and the shore on either side of her. "I couldn't have put
her in a better place myself."
The skipper looked about him anxiously, as though he was in doubt
whether to go to the east or the west. But he had been around the two
points west of him, and he seemed to think that his safest way was to
stick to the ground with which he had become acquainted. The schooner
was half a mile from Simms's Point by this time; but Pearl evidently
thought that all he had to do was to return to the westward of the buoys
by the way he had come into the Gut, and the Sylph could not come near
his boat. He came about, and stood to the north-west.
"We are all right still, Dory Dornwood," said Pearl, as he glanced at
the steamer. "She can't come any nearer to us than she is now, and a
quarter of a mile is as good as a mile."
Dory kept his eye on the Sylph. The moment she stopped her screw, there
was a lively movement on board of her. Orders were given in quick and
sharp tones; and presently her two quarter-boats, which were swung on
davits, were dropping into the water. This was what Dory had expected
her to do before this time.
"What is she doing, Dory Dornwood?" asked Pearl, when he discovered that
something was going on upon the deck of the steamer.
"She is doing the next thing," answered Dory, who was determined not to
give the enemy any comfort.
"What is she about?" demanded the skipper.
"You have a pair of eyes, and you know how to use them."
By this time the boats began to drop into the water. They were lowered
from the davits with the oarsmen on the thwarts, and an officer in the
stern-sheets. Pearl could not help seeing what the steamer was doing
now. He looked troubled, and he used some needless profanity in an under
tone.
"What is going on now, Dory?" asked Peppers, who could not see the
steamer through the aperture in the door.
"The steamer is getting out her boats," replied Dory. "She has just
dropped one from each quarter into the water."
"Four boats!" exclaimed Peppers.
"No," answered Dory, laughing in spite of his situation. "I didn't say
four boats."
"You said one from each quarter; and there are four quarters in any
thing, according to my arithmetic," added the officer.
"A vessel has but two quarters, and she has dropped two boats into the
water. There are five men in each of them," continued Dory.
"That will do! Dry up, and shut up, all of you!" interposed Pearl. "I
am going to fight this thing out to the end, and I don't want any more
talk."
The Goldwing was in behind the land, so that she did not feel the full
force of the wind. The lake was calm and smooth behind the point, and
the boat moved very sluggishly. Pearl began to be very impatient; but a
short distance ahead the surface was ruffled, and she would soon have a
better breeze.
The starboard quarter-boat pulled towards Simms's Point, and the port
boat in the opposite direction. Whichever way the schooner went, she was
sure to be intercepted by one or the other of them. The oarsmen of the
boats appeared to be all young fellows. They were dressed in a blue
uniform; and all of them wore white linen caps, without visors. The
officers showed a profusion of brass buttons on their frock-coats, and
wore yacht-caps of white linen.
The boats were white, and were very graceful in their build. The four
rowers in each boat pulled a man-of-war stroke. The starboard
quarter-boat was ahead of the Goldwing; and the officer in charge of her
was urging his men to their best exertions, so as to come in ahead of
the schooner. Before the Goldwing could reach the point, she was in
position to intercept her.
Pearl scowled when he saw the boat directly in his course. He looked
back, and saw the other boat beyond the steamer. He could not help
realizing that the pleasant game he had been playing had ended in his
being beaten.
"Goldwing, ahoy!" shouted the officer in charge of the starboard
quarter-boat.
"In the boat!" replied Pearl in a surly tone: "what do you want?"
"Is Theodore Dornwood on board of your boat?" asked the officer.
"Yes, he is," answered Pearl. "If you want him, you can have him."
At this moment the skipper threw the Goldwing up into the wind, and
sprang forward to the place where Dory was seated. Without saying a
word, he dragged him off the seat, and proceeded to remove the cord that
bound his hands behind him. The prisoner's wrists were numb from the
pressure of the line, and he stood up to rub a little life into them.
Pearl put the boat about, and headed her for the shore.