THE BATTLE NEAR GARDEN ISLAND.
Oscar Chester had disappeared a second time, and most of the boys in
the boat were paralyzed with terror. Dory saw him as he rose, and knew
just where he was. The Goldwing worked lively in that breeze. The
skipper handled his sheets with extraordinary celerity. Going free,
the schooner dashed down to the spot, and reached it just as the
victim of his own folly rose again to the surface.
Dory saw him just as the bow of the Goldwing was about to strike his
head. Keeping her off a little, he leaned over the side, and grasped
the drowning bully by the hair of the head, though not till he had put
the helm hard down.
It was but a meagre hold that he had upon the sufferer, but he clung
to him till the boat came up into the wind. Oscar had not lost his
senses, though his mouth was too full of water to permit any
utterance, if he had any thing to say. Dory held on, though the
aimless struggles of the victim rendered it very difficult for him to
do so.
“Grab him by the collar!” shouted Dory to the next fellow in the boat.
Lew Shoreham, who was the largest boy in the crowd, obeyed the order;
though it was a difficult matter for an inexperienced hand to do any
thing while the boat was flopping about in the heavy sea. But Lew got
hold with one hand, and Dory shifted his grasp from the hair to the
collar.
After a lively struggle, with the assistance of two other boys, they
succeeded in hauling Oscar into the boat. He was exhausted by his
struggles in the water, and he dropped upon the floor of the
standing-room as limpsy as a wet rag. Dory gave no further attention
to him, but grasped the helm, and soon got the Goldwing upon her
course again, so that she was steady.
“Turn him over on his stomach, and let the water run out of him,” said
the skipper. “Here, Bolly! Come aft! You can stand up in a boat.”
[Illustration: THE BATTLE OFF GARDEN ISLAND. Page 113.]
Bolingbroke obeyed the order, and the victim poured out a considerable
quantity of water from his mouth. Dory then directed his companions to
convey the sufferer to the cabin, and put him in one of the berths,
covering him with the blankets. But Oscar was not insensible, for he
had only exhausted himself by his violent struggles. In half an hour
he had recovered from the shock. The fresh wind made it cool on the
lake, and it took all the blankets on board to warm him.
“That was a narrow escape. He had been down twice; and if he had gone
down again we should not have seen him again,” said Bolingbroke, as he
came out of the cabin. “I think that fellow will obey orders next
time.”
“No, he won’t!” cried Oscar, sticking his head out at the door. “It
isn’t the first time I have been under water, and I’m not killed yet.
Dory did it on purpose to pitch me overboard, and I will get even with
him!”
Perhaps all but Dory and Bolingbroke knew Oscar well enough not to be
greatly surprised at this demonstration. It looked as though the
lesson, which Dory hoped would cure him of his desire to handle a boat
before he had learned how to do it, had been wholly lost upon the
pupil. None of the party said any thing in reply to the speech, and it
was plain that they stood in fear of the rebel.
In another hour, when the Goldwing was approaching Thompson’s Point,
Oscar was sufficiently warmed up to leave the cabin. He went aft, and
seated himself quite near the skipper. He looked decidedly ugly, and
Dory thought that half-drowning was not enough for him. He wondered
what his uncle expected to do with such a fellow. He would be equal to
a whole nest of hornets from the time the school was opened.
“I heard some one call you Dory Dornwood,” said Oscar, fixing his gaze
upon the skipper.
“My name is Theodore Dornwood; but they call me Dory for short,”
replied Dory.
“The name is all right, Dory. You have insulted me, and you have
pitched me into the lake,” continued Oscar, frowning like an untamed
savage. “You got ahead of me before all these boys; and I am not the
fellow to swallow an insult, or to pass over an injury.”
Dory looked at the bully once, and then took a leisure survey of the
lake ahead, and of the sails of the schooner.
“I spoke to you, Dory Dornwood: didn’t you hear me?” demanded Oscar in
savage tones.
“I heard all you said. I have nothing to say in reply,” answered the
cool skipper.
“I spoke to you, and you will answer me, or take the consequences,”
added Oscar. “I am not a spring chicken, as you took me to be. I said
that you had insulted me, and pitched me into the lake. Do you confess
that you have done so?”
“I don’t confess any thing. I am in charge of this boat, and
responsible for the lives of those in her,” replied Dory quietly. “I
don’t care to talk about the matter you have brought up, just now.
When we get to Beech Hill I will answer your questions, and we will
settle the matter if there is any thing to settle; though I would
rather have you fix it up with Captain Gildrock.”
“That won’t do! I settle for an insult on the spot!” stormed Oscar. He
rose from his seat, and with clinched fists approached the skipper.
“We are close to the land!” shouted one of the boys forward.
“I don’t care where we are! We settle this matter here and now,” said
Oscar, making a slight movement forward.
“Come, come!” interposed Bolingbroke. “This thing has gone far enough,
Oscar. Don’t you see that Dory is the skipper of the boat, and that we
can’t do any thing without him? Let him alone, and he says he will
make it right with you when we get ashore.”
“Here and now!” repeated the bully.
Dory had been running for Garden Island, where he brought up on his
long tack. He understood the situation, and feared that some of the
party might be drowned if Oscar Chester got the control of the boat.
He heard the centre-board scraping on the sands at the bottom, though
the water was nearly two hundred feet deep only a short distance from
the shore of the island.
The skipper realized that his rebel passenger was about to make an
assault of some kind upon him, and he put the helm hard down. The boat
came up into the wind with every thing shaking. Oscar sprang upon him
as he did so, but Dory was on his feet at the same instant. The waves
beat smartly upon the shore of the island, and the centre-board was
still grating upon the bottom.
“Do you confess that you insulted me?” demanded the bully, as he
seized Dory by the collar.
“I do not confess,” replied Dory. At the same instant he sprang like a
tiger upon his assailant.
The skipper was accustomed to the motion of the boat, while Oscar was
not. The assailant had evidently not expected so vigorous a defence.
Dory shook off the grasp of Oscar, a sharp struggle ensued, and it
ended almost the instant it began in a heavy splash in the water.
Dory had tumbled the bully over the stern of the boat into the lake.
Those who looked on could hardly tell how it was done, for the defeat
of Oscar had been accomplished almost like a flash. On the land it
might have been different in the result, but in the uneasy boat the
experienced hand won a quick victory.
“He is in the water again!” shouted the boys.
But he was in the water not more than half a minute, for there was not
ten feet between the stern of the schooner and the island. Oscar
scrambled to the shore, and made his way to the level of the island.
The wind had filled the sails on the other tack, and the boat began to
move ahead.
Dory saw that Oscar had made a landing on the island. Attending to the
sheets, he filled away on the port tack. The Goldwing dashed ahead as
though she was glad to be rid of the bully who had made so much trouble
on board of her.
“Are you going to leave him there, Dory?” asked Lew Shoreham.
“Of course I am going to leave him there. He can’t drown on the
island; and, if I take him on board again, he may destroy the whole of
us,” replied Dory rather warmly. “He is the most unreasonable fellow I
ever met in my life.”
“But what will he do on that island?” asked Ben Ludlow.
“Repent of his folly the first thing he does, I hope,” answered Dory.
“Does any one live on the island?” inquired Jim Alburgh.
“No one lives there. If any one did, that fellow would get up a
quarrel with him in fifteen minutes. Captain Gildrock may settle his
case, though I fancy he will go for me the first chance he gets.”
“He is sure to do that,” added Bob Swanton.
“He may get a thrashing if he does,” replied Dory.
“Don’t be too sure of that, Dory. He is a fighting character, and has
been turned out of three academies, to say nothing of half a dozen
other schools. He rules the roost wherever he goes,” continued Bob.
“He won’t do it at Beech Hill,” said Dory confidently.
“If he don’t he will run away.”
“He won’t run a great ways before my uncle gets his paw upon him. I am
going down to Burlington this afternoon, in the steamer, after my
uncle. We shall pass the island, and he can do what he pleases with
the fellow. I don’t think I am any more afraid of him than he is of
me.”
During the rest of the passage the events we have narrated were fully
discussed, and Dory learned more about the antecedents of Oscar
Chester. Doubtless he was the worst fellow in the party; but, if the
truth had been known, Dory would have understood that some of the
others were not much better. In three hours from Burlington the
Goldwing arrived at the little lake on which Beech Hill was located.
Mr. Brookbine, a very intelligent carpenter, who had been engaged as
an instructor in this department, was on the wharf; and the new pupils
were handed over to him. He marched them to the dormitory, where the
boys deposited what little baggage they brought. The Sylph lay at the
wharf, and the smoke was pouring out of her smoke-stack; for Jepson
had received a telegraph-message from Captain Gildrock.
The boys were more interested in the steam-yacht than in any thing
else; and they immediately asked permission of Mr. Brookbine, as they
had before of Dory, to go to Burlington in her. The master-carpenter
was willing; but he decided to go with them, after the experience
which Dory had had with them on the passage up.
Dory was the pilot, and he took his place in the pilot-house. He was
perfectly at home there; and the Sylph was really under his command,
for the carpenter knew nothing about boats or navigation. In a
discussion in regard to Oscar Chester, Mr. Brookbine thought he had
better be taken on board, for it would be late before they returned
from Burlington. A boat was sent for him, and he was brought on board.