HEADED OFF ON BOTH SIDES.
"Hold on there! What are you about?" shouted the officer, as the
Goldwing filled away on the starboard tack. "We want to see Theodore
Dornwood."
"I can't sail dead to windward," replied Pearl.
"You needn't sail at all," replied the officer. "Captain Gildrock wished
to see Dornwood on a matter of the utmost importance: it is a case of
life and death."
Dory was startled by these words. What could his uncle want of him? If
anybody was dead, who was it? It might be his mother. His blood seemed
to freeze in his veins as he thought of the possibility of such a
terrible event. He sprang upon the seat, and hailed the boat at once.
"Is my mother dead?" shouted he; and the agony of his tone was borne
across the water with his words.
"No: your mother is not dead. She is quite well," replied the officer,
who could not but have been impressed by the despairing tone in which
the question was put to him; and he had not lost an instant in relieving
the anxiety of the inquirer.
Dory dropped down upon the seat again. His mother was not sick or dead.
The current of life began to flow through his veins again. A terrible
load was removed from his mind almost as soon as laid upon it. He even
began to think that the officer was playing a trick upon him to get him
to see the captain of the steamer, whom he had so carefully avoided.
"Give way, my lads!" shouted the officer of the boat, as soon as he had
answered Dory's question. "I want Theodore Dornwood. Will you give him
up?"
This question was addressed to the skipper of the schooner, which was
not more than a hundred feet from the boat.
"Yes, with the greatest pleasure," replied Pearl. "I will put him ashore
in here, and you can take him on board."
Dory heard this reply with astonishment and indignation. Pearl intended
to put him ashore, and then allow the boat from the steam-yacht to pick
him up. If he could keep the boat from coming alongside, and thus
prevent the officer from ascertaining the condition of things on board
of the Goldwing, the Sylph would trouble him no more. If the business on
which she came after Dory was a matter of life and death, Captain
Gildrock would not be likely to molest him after he had accomplished his
mission.
The Goldwing was now within a hundred yards of the shore. Through an
opening in the land she was getting a better breeze, and was making at
least four miles an hour. Dory saw that something must be done very
soon. He had been released from his imprisonment so that the owner of
the steamer should not see that he was in trouble. The boat from the
steamer was not hurrying; for the officer seemed to be satisfied with
the arrangement Pearl had proposed, to put the boy ashore.
When the steamer's port boat saw that the schooner was cornered, she
began to pull towards the scene of action. It had gone but a short
distance from the vessel before she changed her course; but she still
kept in position to head off the schooner if she attempted to escape to
the eastward.
"Get ready to go ashore, Dory Dornwood," said Pearl in one of his mild
tones.
Dory made no reply. He was fully resolved not to do any thing of the
sort. If he went on shore, and submitted to the villain's plan to escape
from his pursuers, he could hardly expect ever to see the Goldwing
again. But he considered it the safest way to say nothing about the
purpose in his mind.
"You will tell the captain of the Sylph the state of things on board of
this boat, Dory," said Peppers, who had no objection to the plan; for he
thought Captain Gildrock would make a business of liberating him and his
companion in the cuddy as soon as he was informed of their condition.
"Tell him any thing you like, Dory Dornwood, as soon as you get on board
of the steamer," added Pearl. "Are you ready to go on shore?"
"If I must go on shore, I suppose I must," replied Dory in a
non-committal way. "What is to become of my boat if I go ashore?"
"You can have her again when I have done with her," answered Pearl in a
coaxing tone; for, if he could get rid of his pursuers, he cared for
nothing else just then.
"Where shall I be likely to find her?" asked Dory in a tone which
indicated his incredulity.
"You will find her in Missisquoi Bay, on the northern shore, Dory; and
she will be in as good condition as she is now."
"Perhaps I shall find her there," added Dory.
"I will"--But, before Pearl could say what he would do, the centre-board
of the boat dragged in the sand on the bottom.
The skipper hastened to raise it, but a few moments later it struck
again. Pearl hoisted it up as far as he could, and then kept the
schooner away a few points; for she would no longer lie up to the wind
as closely as before. In this way he succeeded in getting the boat
within about a hundred feet of the shore, and then the Goldwing grounded
on her bottom.
The water was not more than three feet deep at the stem of the boat, and
it was impossible to get her any nearer to the dry land on the beach.
Pearl bit his lip; for both of the boats of the Sylph were pulling
towards the schooner, and Peppers would soon have an audience to whom
he could tell his story.
"I can't get any nearer the shore, Dory," said Pearl, not a little
agitated. "You must jump into the water, and wade ashore."
Dory leaped upon the forward deck, and Pearl probably thought he
intended to adopt his suggestion, and wade to the beach. But the owner
of the Goldwing had no intention of "giving up the ship" in any such
manner. The sails hid Dory from the skipper, so that he could not see
what he was doing; and, while Pearl was waiting to hear the splash when
he went overboard, Dory grasped one of the stays, and climbed half way
to the mast-head before his persecutor discovered what he was about.
"What are you doing up there?" demanded Pearl fiercely. "What are you
about?"
"I want to see how far off the shore is," replied Dory, for the want of
something more sensible to say.
"Come down this instant, you young villain!" yelled Pearl, whose hope of
saving himself was thus endangered by the unexpected freak of the owner
of the boat.
"I think I can make myself very comfortable up here for a while,"
replied Dory, as he placed his feet on the foresail gaff, and passed his
arm around the topmast.
"If you don't come down, I will shoot you!" stormed Pearl angrily, as he
saw the two boats of the steamer coming nearer to him every moment.
Dory had the average aversion to being shot, and he did not like the
sound of the threat. He did not know whether or not Pearl had a pistol,
though it was not improbable that he had one. He looked at the
approaching boats. One of them was not thirty yards from the schooner,
and the officer could hardly have helped hearing the threat of the
skipper. The port boat had come near enough by this time to enable Dory
to see that his uncle was in the stern-sheets.
"Give way, my lads, with all your might!" said the officer of the nearer
boat, speaking with great energy, as though he meant to take a hand in
the business on board of the Goldwing.
"Are you coming down, Dory Dornwood?" demanded Pearl, as he stopped on
the forward deck of the schooner.
"I think I will come down," replied Dory, who had made up his mind not
to run the risk of being shot; but he was satisfied that one of the
boats would be alongside the Goldwing before he could reach the deck.
"But it isn't so easy to get down as it was to come up," he added,
making it as an excuse for the slow movement in coming down to the deck.
Dory descended with the utmost caution. He had gained time enough to
enable the starboard boat to reach the schooner, and this was all he
expected to accomplish by going aloft.
"Come, hurry up, Dory!" shouted the skipper, when he was about half way
to the deck.
Dory immediately changed his movement, and began to ascend again.
"What are you about, you young cub? Are you going back again?" cried
Pearl.
"You told me to hurry up," pleaded Dory, wishing to gain all the time he
could.
"You are a natural fool! Come down, or I'll--do what I said I would,"
added Pearl, as he glanced at the nearer boat, which was not fifty feet
from the schooner.
"All right! I will be with you in a moment," answered Dory, as he
descended to the deck with a reasonable degree of celerity.
But the boat was alongside the Goldwing as soon as he reached the
forward deck. The officer leaped on deck without waiting for any
ceremony. Pearl dropped into a seat in the forward part of the
standing-room. He evidently realized that he had lost the game he had
been playing.
"Which is Theodore Dornwood?" asked the officer as he came on board.
"There he is, on the forward deck," replied Pearl. "He is the most
obstinate young cub that ever floated on Lake Champlain. You can take
him with you as quick as you please. I don't want any thing more of
him."
"What in the world is going on aboard this boat?" asked the officer, as
he looked from Pearl to Dory, and then from Dory to Pearl, unable to
understand the appearance of things on board. "What have you got cooped
up in that cuddy?"
"I thought you wanted Dory Dornwood. Why don't you take him, and not
waste any more of your time and mine?" said Pearl impatiently.
"Captain Gildrock wants to see you very much, Theodore, and there is a
place in my boat for you."
"I don't care about going in your boat, and I shall not go on board of
the Sylph if I can help myself," replied Dory stoutly.
"There he is again!" exclaimed Pearl, as he glanced at the boat that
contained Captain Gildrock. "He is a mule, a sulky dog. If you want him,
I will pitch him into your boat for you, and make an end of this
business."
Pearl leaped upon the forward deck, intent upon putting his threat into
execution. But, as he went up on the starboard side, Dory leaped down
into the standing-room on the port side. Pearl followed him, and seemed
to have a hope, that, if he could drive Dory into the boat, he might get
rid of his troublesome visitors.
"Don't you meddle with the boy, officer," said Peppers through the hole
in the door; "and don't you let that man meddle with him."
"What does all this mean? Why are you in there? Why don't you come out?"
Before Peppers could explain, the port boat came alongside, and Captain
Gildrock stepped on board the Goldwing.