All Taut; or, Rigging the boat
Oliver Optic
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_The Boat-Builder Series._
_I._
ALL ADRIFT; or, The Goldwing Club.
_Ii._
SNUG HARBOR; or, The Champlain Mechanics.
_Iii._
SQUARE AND COMPASSES; or, Building the House.
_Iv._
STEM TO STERN; or, Building the Boat.
_V._
ALL TAUT; or, Rigging the Boat.
_Vi._
READY ABOUT; or, Sailing the Boat.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: "THE THUNDERER HAD FOUNDERED."—PAGE 35.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: Decorative title page]
Oliver Optic'S Boat-Builder Series.
All Taut.
Boston, Lee And Shepard Publishers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
All Taut
Or
Rigging The Boat
By
Oliver Optic
AUTHOR OF "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD" "THE GREAT WESTERN SERIES" "THE ARMY AND NAVY SERIES" "THE WOODVILLE SERIES" "THE STARRY-FLAG SERIES" "THE BOAT-CLUB STORIES" "THE ONWARD AND UPWARD SERIES" "THE YACHT-CLUB SERIES" "THE LAKE-SHORE SERIES" "THE RIVERDALE SERIES" "ALL ADRIFT" "SNUG HARBOR" "SQUARE AND COMPASSES" "STEM TO STERN" ETC. ETC.
_With Illustrations_
Boston Lee And Shepard, Publishers New York Charles T. Dillingham 1887
Copyright, 1886, By William T. Adams.
_All rights reserved._
All Taut.
To
My Young Friend,
Fred G. Berger, Jr.,
Of Grand Rapids, Mich.,
_This Book_
Is Affectionately Dedicated.
Preface.
"All Taut" is the fifth volume of "THE BOAT-BUILDER SERIES," which will be finished in the next book. Nearly all the characters presented, and all who take prominent parts in the story, have been introduced in the preceding volumes. The principal of the Beech Hill Industrial School entertains some doubts in regard to the principle upon which he has been conducting the institution, and brings about a partial change in its character. He is a firm believer in the utility of the school as he has organized it; and, apart from its industrial mission, he believes it may accomplish another purpose that will render it still more valuable to the community in which he resides.
The founder of the school has demonstrated to his own satisfaction, to say the least, that the institution is a practicable cure for some of the evils of American society; and he adds to it the feature of making it partly reformatory. The subjects of his new experiment in this direction are the Topovers, who have been the bad characters of the story. He finds them more tractable than he had anticipated, and the story will show with what results he applied the naval discipline of the school to them.
In spite of the rather formidable reformatory plan of Captain Gildrock, the book contains about the same amount of incident and adventure as its predecessors in the series; but they are events which forward the action of the principal, and illustrate his method of reforming bad boys. The Lily is rigged, and makes a very good record as a fast sailer on the lake.
The principal, though the actual work to be done by the students is only to rig a fore-and-aft schooner, explains to them the different kinds of vessels, classed by their rig, and fully illustrates the system by which the spars, rigging, and sails of a ship are named, so that he makes quite an easy matter of it for the boys.
The next and last volume of the series will be devoted to the sailing of boats; though, as in the other books, the subject will be amplified so as to include nautical manœuvres of larger vessels.
DORCHESTER, MASS., May 31, 1886.
Contents.
Page
Chapter I.
Tom Topover And His Recruits 13
Chapter II.
The Voyage Of The Thunderer 24
Chapter III.
A Question Debated And Settled 35
Chapter IV.
A Mutiny, And A New Skipper 46
Chapter V.
A Question Of Authority 57
Chapter VI.
A Row On Board The Goldwing 67
Chapter VII.
An Unexpected Appearance 78
Chapter VIII.
A Startling Event On The Road 89
Chapter IX.
Looking For A Settlement 100
Chapter X.
Two Conflicting Stories 111
Chapter XI.
Complimentary To The Picnic-Party 121
Chapter XII.
A New Mission For The Beech-Hill School 132
Chapter XIII.
The Beginning Of The Trouble 143
Chapter XIV.
The Prisoners In The Dormitory 154
Chapter XV.
First Lessons In Discipline 164
Chapter XVI.
The Pupils For The Next Year 175
Chapter XVII.
Tom Topover Finds Himself Ignored 186
Chapter XVIII.
Nautical Instruction On The Wharf 197
Chapter XIX.
The Different Rigs Of Vessels 207
Chapter XX.
The Spars, Sails, And Rigging Of A Ship 217
Chapter XXI.
The Rigging And Sails Of A Schooner 230
Chapter XXII.
Organizing The Ship'S Company 241
Chapter XXIII.
The Trial Trip Of The Lily 251
Chapter XXIV.
A Lively Breeze On Lake Champlain 262
Chapter XXV.
Tom Topover In The Ascendant Again 273
Chapter XXVI.
An Independent Leader 284
Chapter XXVII.
A Sleepy Ship'S Company 295
Chapter XXVIII.
Stealing A March Upon The Leader 306
Chapter XXIX.
Tom Topover'S Reception 317
Chapter XXX.
The Reformed Topovers At Beech Hill 327
All Taut;
Or,
Rigging The Boat.
Chapter I.
Tom Topover And His Recruits.
"What's the use of rigging the boat, Tom Topover?" demanded Ash Burton, with no little disgust apparent in his tones and looks.
"How can you sail the boat if she isn't rigged, Ash?" retorted Tom, who had always been the leader of the "dangerous class" of boys in Genverres.
"We don't want to sail her; we can't sail her in this creek," replied Ash Burton, who seemed to be inclined to dispute the authority and reject the leadership of the Topover.
"What's the reason we can't?" asked Tom, suspending his labors upon an old stick which was to serve as a mast for the craft they were getting ready for service.
"Because there is no room up here to sail a boat. This creek is not more than ten feet wide, and the wind is blowing directly up stream. It is half a mile to Beechwater, as the fellows in the Industrial School call it. The current will carry us down with only a little steering."
"What are we going to do when we get to the little lake? We have nothing but a couple of pieces of boards for oars, and we can't do nothing rowing," argued Tom Topover.
"All we want to do in this tub is to get down to the grove, and then we shall be all right," added Ash Burton warmly.
"We are going to sail down," persisted Tom; not that he cared how the craft was propelled through the water, but because he always wanted his own way, and that his word should be law to his companions.
"You don't know how to sail her after you get her rigged," said Ash, with no little contempt in his tone.
"You do, and that's enough. When we get her into the water, your work will begin, and mine will end."
Ash Burton had recently moved to Genverres from Westport, where he had sailed in a boat a few times, and claimed to know something about the management of one. Half a dozen boys had gathered on the bank of the creek; and they were all the associates, more or less, of Tom Topover, Nim Splugger, Kidd Digfield, and boys of that stamp.
They had heard a great deal about the building of the Lily, the schooner which had been launched by the students of the Beech Hill Industrial School just before the end of the term. The people of the town had talked a great deal about it, and most of them were interested to see her rigged and sailing in the waters of the river and lake. It was well understood that the rigging of the boat was the first thing in order after the school was re-organized in the month of September.
The young ladies in Genverres, and others who had attended the launch, which had been one of the great occasions of the year, had talked with the students; and "rigging the boat" was still the subject of conversation among them. Of course the boys did more talking on this subject than all others. Tom Topover had seen the launch, and heard the subject of rigging the new craft discussed. He was inspired to do something of the same kind, and this explained his persistency in part.
It was the last week in August, and in two weeks the industrial school would be open again; but the students who went to their homes had not yet returned, and every thing was very quiet about the grounds and buildings. A few boys who had no homes, or had them in the immediate vicinity, spent a good deal of their time in the Sylph, the steam-yacht of the principal, Captain Gildrock.
Dory Dornwood had preferred to remain at home with his mother and sister, at the mansion of his uncle the captain. He made a call as often as it was decent for him to do so, at the cottage of Mr. Bristol on the bank of the creek. Miss Lily Bristol, the daughter of the engineer who lived there, was acknowledged everywhere to be a remarkably pretty girl, about Dory's own age.
Dory was a great character at the school, and he was now the captain of the Sylph when the institution was in session. He was by no means a fighting character, though he had been in some hard battles with students and others, and his prowess possibly had something to do with his popularity in school and out.
During the vacation, the Sylph was in service a great part of the time. As she went somewhere nearly every day except Sunday, Dory had frequent occasion to go to the cottage to give the engineer his orders for the next day. His message to the father was generally coupled with an invitation to Lily and her mother to join the party.
Besides, Lily had a brother who had won distinction among the students for certain battles he had fought with Major Billcord and his son Walk. Under Dory's direction, the students had moved the cottage in which the Bristols lived, from Sandy Point to its present location; and this event, in one way and another, had led to a very close intimacy between the young captain of the Sylph and Paul Bristol, Lily's brother.
Perhaps Dory wished to see his friend very often; at any rate, he went to the cottage about every day in the week. Some of the students, and even his sister Marian, were disposed to laugh at him for his frequent visits; but Dory never admitted, even to himself, that he went to see Lily. Being quite young, it is probable that he did not understand the matter very well, and was ignorant of what it was that attracted him to the cottage.
Tom Topover and his followers had been hearing all the talk in the town,—at school, at the taverns, and in the shops,—about the doings at the Industrial School. They had been inclined to imitate, in their own way, the operations of the students on the water. They had endeavored to get into various quarrels with them, sometimes for the simple fun of bothering and annoying them, and sometimes for the purpose of getting possession of their boats.
Twice they had stolen the long barges; and once, when they were assisted by the students of the Chesterfield Collegiate Institute, they had given the owners a great deal of trouble in recovering the property of the school. It is not strange that the frequent view of so many elegant boats on the river and lake inspired them to imitate their more fortunate neighbors in the sports of the water.
Tom and his companions believed that the students and their principal were especially mean and selfish, in keeping all these elegant boats exclusively for their own use. He had done his best in trying to be civil, and even polite, in making his request, for himself and his associates, for the use of some of the boats for an hour or two. He had always been refused; for they were not competent to manage such craft, in the first place, and the principal had no fancy for indulging bad boys.
Being unable to obtain the use even of the four-oar rowboats of the institution, though it was vacation, they had constructed a flat-bottomed affair, which they called a boat, but to which no one else would have had courtesy enough to apply the term. It had been constructed under the direction of Ash Burton, who was certainly a higher grade of boy than the original Topovers; but it may be doubted if his standard of morals was any more elevated. He had been well educated so far, and was now in the high school.
The Topovers were enterprising and daring; and this fact, rather than their coarse manners and disregard of the laws of God and man, had drawn him to them. With him in tone and manners were half a dozen other boys like him, who had joined the Topovers. The old leader had been in some bad scrapes, and the people were generally sorry that he had not been convicted for his assault upon Paul Bristol, on the other side of the lake. They believed, that, in their own State, he would have been sent to a correctional institution.
The addition of boys like Ash Burton and Sam Spottwood had greatly changed the character of the original band. Hearing some of their number speak good English, had led them to improve their own language. But morally, they probably dragged down the recruits quite as much as the latter elevated them. On the whole, however, the tone of the crowd was improved.
The thing they called a boat had been built, and launched with some of the show which had attended the advent of the Lily into her destined element. The next thing in order, according to Tom's idea, was to rig her. It would not be proper to make an excursion in her, if she would float with half a dozen of them in her,—which had yet to be demonstrated,—until she had been rigged. The leader and some of the others had brought such bits of line as they could lay their hands upon, not always with a strict regard to the rights of property.
Ash Burton and Sam Spottwood did not believe in this folly, and they were disposed to rebel against the chief of the Topovers. The old sheet which Tom had brought for a sail would be as useless as a steam-engine without a propeller, in going down Beech Creek.
"If you want to rig her, go ahead, Tom," said Ash, when he had exhausted his arguments against the plan. "Sam and I will wait until you do the job."
"But I don't know how," added Tom. "I never had any thing to do with sailboats."
"Let him have his own way, Ash," suggested Sam Spottwood, in a low voice. "Help him out, and we shall get off all the sooner."
The new boat was not only to be rigged that day, but she was to convey her builders down the stream to the lake. Tom had hacked out a boom and gaff, and had set up the crooked stick which was to serve as a mast. One of the boys had to devote himself all the time to the work of baling out the leaky craft, while another was punching cotton-wool into the gaping seams, and plastering them over with putty.
The mast-hole was so large that the spar would not stand up; and Ash rigged a pair of shrouds to support it in place. The sail had already been bent on the boom and gaff in a very unnautical manner, and a few minutes served to attach it to the mast. The master rigger on this occasion was not disposed to waste any time on the rigging; and the gaff was not made to hoist and lower, but was simply tied to the top of the mast. A piece of bed-cord was fastened to the boom, to serve as the main sheet, and the craft was ready for sea.
But the calker had not yet finished his labors, and Sam Spottwood assisted him. The cotton had but a light hold on the wood, in the wideness of the seams, but the putty kept it in place. In another half-hour, the workmen declared that the boat was tight, and would keep dry, even in a heavy sea, out in the great lake. Ash Burton had some doubts on this point, but he said nothing. If they all got overboard, it would be easy enough to get out of the creek, it was so narrow.
"Is every thing all right now?" asked Tom Topover, in a tone of authority, when the calker announced that his job was finished.
"Every thing is all right," replied Kidd Digfield, who had used the cotton and putty. "The boat is all ready."
Tom proceeded to take his place at the stern.
Chapter II.
The Voyage Of The Thunderer.
"Who is to be the captain of this craft, Tom?" asked Ash Burton, when the leader of the gang had taken his place at the post of honor.
"I am, of course," replied Tom, opening his mouth from ear to ear in a grin which was intended to express his astonishment that any one should put such a question to him.
"All right," added Ash, with a nod of his head in addition to emphasize his consent; "we will all obey your orders."
"Of course you will. In a boat there can be only one head, and others must do as the captain says," continued the self-appointed skipper.
"You are exactly right there, Tom. On board of the Sylph a fellow is not allowed to say his soul is his own; and if he disobeys the orders of his superior officer, he is shut up in the dark, or something of that sort."
"That's the right way to do it," argued Tom. "If a fellow won't mind the captain, he ought to be shut up, and kept there till he is willing to mind."
"We shall all mind," said Ash; but some of his companions could not help noticing a sort of chuckle as he spoke.
As no one said any thing more on the subject, and all seemed to agree that he should be the captain, Tom proceeded to station his ship's company in the boat. He ordered Ash to take a place beside him in the stern. There was no more than room enough for the six boys, and certainly none for as many more who had taken part in the building of the boat, but were not present at the rigging of the craft.
The Thunderer—for that was the name Tom had given her in spite of the protest of Ash and Sam, who wanted to call her the Boxer, perhaps as a compliment to the leader of the party, but more probably because she was more like a box than a boat—had her bow on the sand at the bank of the creek. Tom directed Sam Spottwood, who was in the forward part of the boat, to shove her off.
The boy addressed had a piece of board in his hand, and he obeyed the order. The clumsy craft slid off the sandbank into the water. The six stout boys in her settled her down so, that Tom began to manifest some signs of timidity; but when she had reached her bearings she did very well, and rested like a log on the water. The hills and trees on each side sheltered the creek in this place from the breeze that was blowing, and the sail hung idly from the gaff.
The boat was provided with a rudder moved by a tiller thrust into a half-inch auger-hole. It was sufficient to move the rudder, and that was all that was expected of it. Tom thought that the boat was a decided success, as she had not yet spilled them out into the creek. The current of the stream was strong enough to set the craft in motion, and she began her maiden voyage down to the little lake.
But she did not pay proper allegiance to her helm, in spite of all the twisting and jerking that Tom bestowed upon the innocent tiller, which was not at all responsible for the erratic course of the Thunderer. She bunted on the sandbars, and even poked her blunt nose into the banks as if she were hunting for muskrats.
"There is some mistake about this boat," said Tom, when he had exhausted his strength and his patience in vain attempts to bring the craft to some definite course.
"What is it, Captain Topover?" asked Ash, winking slyly to Sam in the bow.
"That's more than I know, for every thing seems to be all right about her. The rudder moves when I shift the tiller, but she don't mind it no more than a naughty boy minds his mother," replied Tom, looking over the boat in his efforts to ascertain what the matter was.
Just at that moment, the obdurate Thunderer was whirled by an eddy in the current, and thrown against a log of wood projecting from the bank. She canted over, and Kidd Digfield sprang to his feet. It looked as though the boat were going to spill them all out, but she did not: on the contrary, she rebounded from the obstacle, and went whirling on her way down the stream.
"Sit down, Kidd Digfield!" shouted Tom imperatively. "You have been in a boat enough to know better than to stand up in that fashion. No fellow is to get on his feet, whatever happens."
The skipper had learned this from the discipline of the students, with some of whom he had conversed; and he had often been near enough to their boats to learn something of the way in which they managed them.
"That's right, Captain Topover," said Ash approvingly. "A fellow that stands up without orders in such a craft as this ought to be thrown overboard."
"No matter what happens, no fellow must get on his feet," repeated Tom sternly. "It won't do."
"Suppose the thing upsets or sinks, are we to keep our seats?" asked Kidd, more to bother his commanding officer than for any other reason.
"When it comes to that, it is another thing," replied Tom, with all the dignity he could manage to muster. "Obey the orders of your captain; and when he gets on his feet, it will be time enough for you to do so."
The Thunderer continued to wander and whirl in the current and the eddies, in spite of the best skill of the skipper to prevent it. Ash Burton knew very well what the matter was, but he did not think it proper for a simple sailor to give advice or instruction to the high and mighty captain. Tom was the captain, and it devolved upon him to manage the Thunderer as he thought best.
The boat whirled entirely around sometimes, rudder or no rudder; and Tom did not know what to make of it. He had never seen a boat act so before, and he was sure that none of the school navy behaved in such an unaccountable manner. The progress of the expedition was very slow; and the skipper declared that it would take all day to get to Beechwater at this rate, to say nothing of Lake Champlain, upon whose waves they desired to navigate the Thunderer.
"I say, Sam Spottwood, just use that board of yours a little, and keep the boat from twisting about like a ram's horn," said Tom, when he could devise no other expedient for keeping the boat in a direct course.
"What am I to do with it?" asked Sam, who had some idea of what had been passing in the mind of Ash.
"When you see her whirling about, just stick the board on the bottom, or against the bank, and push her round," added Tom.
Sam obeyed the order when the bow came near enough to the bank for him to touch it. But when he attempted to reach the bottom of the creek, the water was too deep for the length of his stick. The boat whirled again, and Tom reproved the hand forward for not preventing it.
"I can't touch bottom with this oar," replied Sam. "I can only use it when she runs into the bank."
The Thunderer was approaching the stone-quarries, and the creek was wider and deeper than where they had embarked. Tom could give no further orders to remedy the difficulty, and the craft continued to waltz on her course. When they had gone a short distance farther, a slight breeze from behind Beech Hill filled the sail. In that turn of the stream it happened to be fair, and the boat began to move more rapidly through the water.
There was no more trouble about the steering at that moment; for, as soon as she had steerage-way, there was something for the rudder to act against.
"That's the talk!" exclaimed Tom, when he saw the Thunderer behaving like a proper and obedient Thunderer. "She has got over that bad trick, and she steers like a lady now."
The craft reached the hill, and again she was left in a calm. Not a particle of breeze came to fill the sail, and she began to gyrate as she had done before. Tom was vexed; and he tried in vain to solve the mystery, while Ash chuckled at the ignorance and stupidity of the captain of the Thunderer.
Passing the Bristol cottage, which seemed to be closed up, they came into Beechwater. There was a little breeze on the lake, and the sail filled again. But the wind did not come from the same direction as before; and after the sheet—not the main sheet, but the bed-sheet doing duty as a mainsail—had filled once, it refused to fill again. It had been trimmed at random, and was not in position to profit by the light air that came to it.
Ash Burton laughed in his sleeve, and winked at Sam Spottwood. As the Thunderer had passed out of the current, or where the force of it was diffused through the whole breadth of the lake, she ceased to move at all, so far as her gallant skipper could discern.
"Are we going to stop for dinner here?" asked Ash, with another wink at Sam.
"That sail keeps flapping, and there is wind enough; but the boat don't seem to go at all," replied the perplexed commander of the Thunderer. "I wonder what's the matter with her?"
"The captain of the vessel ought to know what ails her," added Ash.
"Well, I don't know; and she won't move at all," added the skipper. "Do you know what ails her, Ash Burton?"
"I don't pretend to know any thing at all about it, and I only obey the captain's orders," answered Ash, winking again at his crony forward.
"If you want to tell me any thing about the matter, I am ready to hear you," continued the captain, nonplussed at the situation.
"I don't want to tell you a single word. I know my place better than to do such a thing. It would be nothing less than mutiny for me to presume to tell the commander of the vessel what to do."
"We will let up a little on that," added Tom, with a grin, which was his apology for receding from his position. "Can you tell me what the matter is?"
"I cannot, but I am ready to obey orders," replied Ash.
Tom Topover took hold of the main sheet,—not the bed-sheet this time, but the rope,—and pulled the boom towards him. He had done so in the process of his investigation, rather than to accomplish any movement. But the effect was the same as though he had done it on purpose.
The moment he hauled in the sail, the wind filled it, and the boat began to go ahead again. Tom was not a fool in all branches of human action, and he could not help seeing how he should keep the sail full. He made fast the sheet; and the boat continued to go ahead, till she was within a short distance of the Goldwing, Dory Dornwood's sloop-yacht.
"Run for the shore, Tom!" suddenly shouted Nim Splugger, who was seated in the middle of the craft.
"What's the matter with you, Nim?" demanded the skipper.
"The putty and cotton is coming out of the cracks, and the boat will be full of water in about two minutes," added Nim.
"That's so!" yelled Kidd. "The water is pouring in like a mill-stream, and we shall be in the lake in a couple of minutes."
The two minutes had not elapsed when the boat was half full, and she rolled over as gently as though she had been a log.
Chapter III.
A Question Debated And Settled.
The Thunderer had foundered; but not being provided with ballast she did not go to the bottom, as it is set down in poetry and prose that she should do when she fills with water. All the Topovers of the present party had been educated in the manly sports of the locality, and they could all swim. The disaster was not, therefore, a very appalling catastrophe. But they were not required to swim any great distance, and the useful art they had acquired was of more service in enabling them to retain their self-possession than for the purpose of reaching the shore.
The clumsy craft went out from under them, for it was no longer able to hold them up. As she rolled over, she filled with water to the gunwales, and emptied her living freight into the lake. But the event occurred not ten feet from the Goldwing's moorings; and while one half of the crew swam to the sloop, the other half clung to the wreck. Among the latter was Captain Topover, who possibly believed that the master should be the last to leave the ill-fated bark.
Those in the forward part of the Thunderer had gone to the yacht, as they were the nearest to it; while those in the stern did not "give up the ship,"—not just then, though they did so a few moments later when they discovered that the wreck was floating towards the outlet. Ash Burton was the first to take this step, and the other two immediately followed him. There was plenty of room on board of the Goldwing for a dozen, and the shipwrecked party were not crowded.
"That's the end of the Thunderer!" exclaimed Sam Spottwood, as he shook the water from his garments, and tried to make himself as comfortable as possible. "It is lucky that she left us to shift for ourselves just here, instead of out in the middle of Lake Champlain."
"Can't we save her?" asked Tom Topover, who had been reduced by the disaster to the level of his companions.
"She isn't worth saving," replied Sam contemptuously. "She can never be made to stay on the top of the water, and I wouldn't give two cents for a boat that wants to burrow in the mud at the bottom."
"I don't think the Thunderer was a success," added Ash Burton, as he wrung out the sack coat he wore. "I shall not go into the shipbuilding business at present."
"But she was a good boat, and worked very well," insisted the late captain of the craft. "She sailed very well when she got the hang of it."
"Or when her skipper got the hang of it," suggested Ash.
Tom took no notice of this bit of sarcasm, and perhaps did not understand it. All the party proceeded to do what they could to get the burden of water out of their clothes. But it was a warm day in August, and they were not likely to suffer from their involuntary bath. The hot sun was rapidly restoring the garments to their former condition; and the rough crowd made light of the affair, for they were in the water half the time during the long vacation.
"We have lost our sail," said Sam Spottwood, who had no interest in the craft which was now half-way to the outlet of Beechwater.
"That's so, and we have lost all the work we put into that craft. However, I did not expect much of such a tub, and I am not much disappointed in the result of the first cruise. But here we are, and here we are likely to remain until some one from the school comes and takes us off."
"You will have to wait a long while if you expect to be taken off," added Sam; "for all the people belonging to the place went off this morning in the Sylph, and they won't be back till night."
"It isn't ten o'clock in the forenoon yet, and they will not be back till dark, for they take their suppers on board," said Ash Burton, shrugging his shoulders at the prospect. "We shall get no dinner, and no supper, and it looks like a starving time ahead."
"You can bet I don't stay here without any dinner and without any supper," interposed Tom Topover. "If I don't get my dinner to home to-day, it will be because I get it somewhere else."
"I don't see how you are going to manage it. Do you mean to swim ashore?" asked Ash.
"I could do that if I wanted to, and so could the rest on us; but there is a better way," replied Tom, with a significant grin.
"A better way? What is it?" asked Sam.
"We ain't in the water, be we?" asked the late captain, with an expressive look at his companions, as though he desired to take the measure of them for a new enterprise.
"We be not," answered Ash, who had taken the job of correcting the leader's English, and had succeeded to a considerable extent. "We are not in the water: on the contrary, we are on board of the able and swift-sailing Goldwing; and we should be driven from her like cows from the corn if there were any of the officers of the school at home."
"Just so, but they are not at home. Most likely they are up to Whitehall or some other place at that end of the lake. Do you think I am going to stay here all day without any dinner and supper, when we might just as well use this boat as leave her alone?" demanded Tom Topover earnestly.
"It will be the safest way to let her alone," replied Ash, shaking his head. "You came very near being doomed to look through the bars of a gridiron for the next three or six months, over on the other side of the lake; and it will be well for you to keep a sharp lookout to windward, Tom."
"That was because I licked Paul Bristol," added Tom, with a grin.
"Or because you got licked by him," suggested Ash. "According to all accounts, you got the worst of it."
"I can lick Paul Bristol or Dory Dornwood out of their boots, every time," bragged Tom, who was never able to remember his defeats in the past; and both of the worthies mentioned had been too much for him. "But that ain't any thing to do with us now."
"If you should take this boat, and sail her away from her moorings, what should you call the act?" asked Ash, pinning his leader down to a point.
"I should call it taking the boat."
"Captain Gildrock would call it stealing her; and the court on this side of the lake might send you to the house of correction, or some such place, for a year or two," continued Ash Burton, carrying the point to its issue.
"We didn't come out here to steal her," protested Tom. "The captain would say we had no right to come on board of her; but you was the first one to get on board of her."
"I don't think the principal would find any fault with us for coming on board of her, after we were wrecked in the Thunderer," answered Ash.
"Of course he couldn't. That's one thing. The next is, shall we leave in the boat, or stay on board of her? We might as well drown as starve to death," argued Tom.
The high-school boy scratched his head, for there seemed to be some force in the late captain's argument. He was opposed to going without his dinner and supper, and he did not believe that a man as reasonable as Captain Gildrock would ask such a sacrifice of him. It occurred to him, that the gardener of the estate, or some of the stable-men, might be at home, and might be called to their assistance, if they shouted persistently for help. He proposed this to Tom, but it was received with a sneer.
"The boats are locked up in the new boat-house, and the gardener don't keep the keys," replied Tom. "You might as well holler for the captain himself, at Whitehall, as to try to find any one on the place when he is away."
"It couldn't do any great harm if we should sail the Goldwing up to the wharf," said Ash, as much to himself as to his companions. He did not like the idea of taking the boat, for Captain Gildrock was a Tartar to deal with in such matters.
"Of course it won't!" exclaimed Tom. "We can't do any other way. We should be fools to stay here and starve to death, within a quarter of a mile of the land."
Tom had made up his mind some time before, and had looked the boat over to ascertain whether or not she was available. During the summer the Goldwing had been supplied with a horizontal wheel, and the tiller could not be locked up in the cabin. But even if it had been, the cabin-doors were not locked as usual, for the reason that one of the crew had dropped the key overboard, and another had not been fitted. Tom found that there was nothing to prevent his party from getting the sloop under way.
Ash Burton and Sam Spottwood had always been law-abiding young men, as most of the others on board were not. If the proposition had been made on shore, to go off and take the Goldwing for a sail, in the absence of the owner, they would not have consented to take part in such an affair. But they had been put on her deck almost in spite of themselves; they had saved themselves from possible drowning by getting on board of her, for they did not believe they could swim to the shore.
Tom Topover's argument had its influence upon them; and they finally consented to assist in taking the boat, for the purpose of reaching the shore. The moorings were cast off, and the mainsail hoisted rather by tacit consent than by actual agreement. Ash assisted in the work, or it might never have been done, for the want of knowledge how to do it on the part of the others.
"Who is to be captain of this craft?" asked Ash, when the matter came to his mind.
"I am, of course," replied Tom confidently.
"All right," added Ash, who had thought he might not feel confident to handle the sloop. "I will obey orders, and do just what you tell me."
Tom went to the wheel. He had not noticed it particularly before, and he had no more idea of its use than he had of handling a quadrant or a log-line.
"What's this thing? and where is the tiller?" asked Tom, as he gave the wheel a twirl.
Ash Burton, who was the only one who was competent to answer the question, made no reply. The boat had been got under way in the most unseamanlike manner, and she was now drifting towards the outlet. There was wind enough to make the sail bang about above the heads of the party, for it had not been trimmed to any course. Tom studied the working of the wheel for a time, for he had come to the conclusion that it was to be used instead of a tiller. He turned it as far as he could, one way, and then looked over the stern, to note the position of the rudder. Then he reversed the wheel, and looked again. He had solved the mystery, and partially got the hang of the thing.
The wind was west; and Tom pulled away at the main sheet, until, guided by his experience in the Thunderer, he filled the sail. The sloop started off at a speed that startled the skipper. She heeled over, and frightened some of the party, who were not used to the movements of a sailboat. By feeling his way, the skipper had brought the sloop on the starboard tack, headed for the outlet. The direction was not Tom's choice; but, trimmed as she was, she would not go any other way.
Ash Burton wanted to protest against being carried away from the wharf, but he would not interfere with the skipper.
Chapter IV.
A Mutiny, And A New Skipper.
Ash Burton did not believe that Tom Topover could handle the Goldwing; and he was anxious to have him appeal to him for assistance, which, however, he had decided not to render while the present incumbent remained as captain. Tom was sailing the boat away from the wharf, and two of the party at least were strongly opposed to doing so. The wind was fair for the wharf, but Tom had not the most remote idea of the way to bring the sloop about. His nautical education had been confined to rowboats.
Ash walked forward to the forecastle, where Sam Spottwood had seated himself. He was fully resolved to give the skipper rope enough so that he could hang himself, and prove his own incompetency. There was hardly wind enough in Beechwater to upset the boat, and the emergency was to be something else that would call him to command.
"We are going away from the wharf," said Sam, when his friend seated himself by his side.
"Of course we are; I am not exactly blind. Tom don't know enough to bring the boat about, and that's what's the matter," replied Ash.
"I believe the fellow means to go off on the lake," added Sam.
"Not a bit of it! He couldn't get her down the river if he tried a week. No; he couldn't even get her through the outlet, for at the turn he will have the wind dead ahead," chuckled Ash.
Tom Topover at the helm looked as though he were supremely contented with his position. He had got the hang of the wheel so far as to be able to steer the sloop when there were no complications. By trial he found that when he pulled the spokes towards him, sitting on the weather side, it caused the bow to swing in the same direction. If he turned the wheel too much, it felt as though the boat would tip over. Turning it too much the other way, made the wind shake the sail as it was "spilled." This was the extent of the skipper's present skill in sailing a boat.
The Goldwing moved rapidly even in a light wind, and she was soon near the outlet. It looked as though Tom meant to go through, for he made no attempt to check the further progress of the sloop in this direction. Sam protested that he must not go any farther: the navigation of the outlet was difficult, and it required all Dory Dornwood's skill to carry her through with a west wind.
"Why don't you say something to him, Ash?" asked Sam, beginning to be anxious about the result of the venture.
"He is the skipper, and I don't want to interfere with him," replied Ash very decidedly.
"But he means to run away with the boat, and we don't agree to that," remonstrated Sam. "He don't know what to do, even if he don't intend to take a cruise on the lake; and you ought to tell him, for you are the only fellow on board that knows any thing about a sailboat. He will get us all into a scrape that we did not bargain for."
"I tell you he can't get through the outlet," replied Ash impatiently. "When he gets her aground, as you may be sure he will, all we have to do is to jump ashore and go home."
"We had no business to come down here in the boat, and I want to get out of the muddle before it gets any hotter," persisted Sam.
"You have a tongue in your head, and you know how to use it. Why don't you talk to Tom yourself?" inquired Ash.
"I don't know any thing more about a sailboat than I do about making turtle-soup," added Sam.
"That won't prevent you from telling Tom to come about and go to the wharf by the boat-house."
Sam Spottwood had not thought of this before. If he told the skipper to go back, he thought he must explain how it was to be done.
"This won't do, Tom Topover!" said he vigorously, as he walked aft through the standing-room. "We are going away from the wharf all the time, and we shall never get there at this rate."
"I suppose you don't know much about a boat, but you have to sail as the wind will let you," replied Tom in an airy manner, as though he comprehended the subject perfectly.
"I don't know any thing about a sailboat, but I think it is high time we were getting near the wharf," added Sam.
"I was just thinking so myself, and I will turn her about now," said Tom, as he cast his eyes about him like a prudent sailor before he changes the position of his vessel.
In this part of the lake the country was more open than farther up the creek, and the wind from the great lake came fresh over the lowlands at the mouth of Beaver River. As Sam spoke, the breeze freshened; and, as the boat happened to have a "good full," she heeled over till her gunwale was very near the surface of the water. This sudden jerk frightened all in the boat except Ash Burton; and the captain more than any one else, for he felt the responsibility of his position.
Tom Topover was bound to do something to counteract the pressure of the wind against the sail; and he put the helm hard up, instead of hard down as he should have done. He neglected to cast off the main sheet, which he had made fast to the cleat. The result was that the boat came as near going over as she could in that amount of wind. The skipper was so mixed up that he did not know what to do next, and he moved the wheel over the other way as soon as the boat had gybed. A moment later the Goldwing repeated the operation, for she was not used to being handled in this clumsy manner.
Tom whirled the wheel from one side to the other, for he did not know what he was about; and finally she was again headed into the outlet, with her sail drawing on the starboard tack. He could make her go as she had gone before, and that was all he could do.
Ash Burton was used to the movements of a boat, even when badly managed; and he was not at all alarmed, for they were close to the shore. He laughed at the struggles of the skipper to set things to rights.
"I thought you were going to the wharf," said Sam, as soon as he had recovered in some measure from his fright. "You are headed the wrong way."
"She won't go the other way," protested Tom.
"The wind is west, and it ought to take us the other way as well as this," Sam objected.
"But it won't take us that way," replied Tom sharply. "Haven't I just tried it?"
"But you don't know how to manage the boat," protested Sam, disgusted with the conduct of the captain.
"Who says I don't know how?" demanded Tom, who never admitted his inability to accomplish any thing he undertook to do.
"I say so, and you have proved it. I believe you mean to take us out on the lake."
"Well, what if I do? I don't believe the fellows will object to a trip on the lake in this boat," replied Tom, willing to take the clew the mutinous hand had given him.
"I object to it, and for one I won't go on any trip on the lake. You don't know how to manage the boat, and you will drown the whole of us."
"I guess I know what I am about; and if you don't dry up, Sam Spottwood, I'll bat you over the head. I am the captain of this ship, and I ain't goin' to have any feller stick his nose into my baked beans," returned the skipper angrily.
Sam was not a coward; but he had never measured his skill with Tom, and he did not care to quarrel in the boat. He went forward again, and he and Ash agreed to jump ashore as soon as they got a chance.
The boat was now fairly in the outlet of Beechwater. The course for a short distance was the same as before. The current could be felt as the lake narrowed into a stream of less than a twentieth part of its width, and the Goldwing increased her pace. The turn in the stream would bring the wind dead ahead in a moment. Tom Topover kept his eyes wide open; but he might as well have shut them tight, for he did not know where the channel was, and he could not have kept the boat in it if he had known.
It was necessary to change the course of the sloop to prevent her from running into the bank, and Tom shifted the helm to send her in the direction of the most water. The sail shook, and the boat began to swing about, as it was quite proper for her to do; but he met her with the helm too soon, not knowing any thing about his business, and the sloop lost her headway, so that she missed stays. The next moment she drifted into the shallow water, and was aground close to the bank, which was a little higher than the forecastle of the craft.
Ash Burton saw his opportunity at once, and without a word to any one he leaped upon the land. Sam Spottwood followed him without a moment's delay. The sail hung loosely from the gaff, and was slapping and banging in a manner that was trying to the nerves of the inexperienced skipper. The noise seemed to be an element of danger to him, though it was entirely harmless. He saw the two members of his crew leap ashore, and this step on their part contributed to complete his demoralization.
"What are you about, Ash Burton?" demanded Tom, as he saw his late companions seat themselves on the grass.
"About to quit that trip," replied Ash. "I have had enough of it if you are not going to the wharf as we agreed in the beginning."
"I am ready to go to the wharf, but the boat would not sail that way," the skipper explained.
"She would sail that way as well as the other; but you don't know how to handle her, and you have made a mess of the whole thing," continued the mutineer.
"Perhaps you think you can sail her up to the wharf?" added Tom, with a withering sneer.
"I know I could before she got aground."
"No, you couldn't! What's the use of talking? You couldn't do it, for no boat will go where the wind won't take 'em. I'll bet two cents against a leather cabbage you can't do it!" continued Tom, who seemed suddenly to have recovered his usual tone.
"Of course I can't now that the boat is aground, with her bottom buried in the mud."
"We can shove her out of this in two minutes, and then I will give you a chance to see what you can do," added Tom, who thought this was a good way of getting out of the scrape without confessing his own incompetency.
"All right; we will help you," replied Ash, who felt that he was gaining his point. "I will sail the boat to the wharf if you will make me captain, for I can't handle the sloop unless I have full power."
"All right; you shall be captain till we get to the wharf," replied Tom.
"Throw the painter ashore, and perhaps we can pull her off," continued Ash.
Sam and he manned the line; and while those on board pushed with the oars and boat-hook, they dragged the Goldwing into deep water, for only her bow was in the mud. Ash and Sam returned to the boat.
With an oar the new skipper swung the boat about, and filled the sail on the port tack. Greatly to the surprise of Tom, the Goldwing started off on her new course at a lively rate, and a moment later was in the lake, and headed for the wharf.
Chapter V.
A Question Of Authority.
There was no difficulty in sailing the Goldwing up the lake, any more than there had been down the lake. Though Ash Burton had never steered with a wheel before, he had observed Tom Topover while he was at the helm, and he was soon familiar with its management. The late captain was greatly annoyed to see the sloop going along so well in the direction in which she would not go before; but Ash was too much delighted with his occupation to think of indulging in any triumphant expressions, and he said nothing. Like most boys who live near the water, he was ambitious to become a boatman, though his experience had been very limited.
"The wind is better now than it was when I had her," said Tom, after he had watched the motion of the sloop for a time. "She goes along very well now."
"The wind is exactly the same now as it was before," added Sam Spottwood, when he saw that the new skipper made no reply to this remark. "You can see the vane on Captain Gildrock's stable, and it points exactly to the west as it has all day."
"I don't care nothin' about the vane, I say the wind is better than it was when I was steering her," returned Tom rather sharply. "You could see for yourself that she wouldn't go this way when I had her."
"That was only because you did not know how to handle her, and Ash does," added Sam; and one of the original Topovers would hardly have ventured to make such a remark.
"If you say that again, I will bat you over the head, Sam Spottwood," retorted Tom, shaking his head.
"I have said it once, and that is enough," continued Sam, who had not yet been subdued by a thrashing.
"We are almost over to the wharf," interposed Ash, who wished to prevent a quarrel. "The only way to get to the grounds from the pier is through the boat-house, and the doors are all locked. I did not think of it before, but we can't land there."
"We don't want to land there or anywhere else yet a while," growled Tom, for the success of Ash in handling the sloop had reduced him to a very bad humor.
"You don't mean to use this boat any longer, do you?" asked the new skipper.
"If you can make her go, I can," answered the Topover sourly; "and I'm going to do it."
"We can land at the old wharf," continued Ash, as he looked about him without heeding the remark of the leader of the gang.
"We don't land at the old wharf or any other," added Tom. "I'm going to sail this boat for an hour or two before I go on shore."
"You can't sail her: you don't know any more about a boat than a goose!" exclaimed Sam imprudently, though he spoke the literal truth.
"Say that again, Sam Spottwood!" blustered Tom, doubling his right fist, and looking very savagely at the speaker.
"You are not deaf, and you heard what I said. It's no use for me to say it again," replied Sam.
"You dassent say it again!"
"We took this boat to get ashore in after we had been cast away, and I don't believe in using her any more than is necessary," said Sam, deeming it wise to change the subject.
"I don't let any fellow tell me that I can't handle a boat," replied Tom.
"I said it, and I shall not take it back, for it is true; and you proved it, Tom Topover," returned Sam boldly, for neither he nor Ash had ever submitted to the bullying of the bravo, though they had thus far escaped a fight.
But Tom had a feeling that either of them would fight, and he had always been obliging enough to stop short of a blow.
Ash Burton was delighted with the occupation of steering the boat, she worked so prettily; and he was sorry when she approached the landing. He had been on the point of proposing another turn around the lake, when his predecessor in office announced his determination to sail the boat himself. This put a new aspect upon the business of using a boat borrowed without leave. All his manly virtue came back to him, and he resolved not to remain any longer in the boat if Tom was to sail her.
By this time the Goldwing was not more than a hundred feet from the wharf, and it was time to decide what should be done. If he went to the wharf, the party would be no better off than on board of the sloop, for they could not get away from it without climbing over the boat-house. On the other hand, if the present skipper came about, Tom Topover would insist upon taking the helm. But the course of the yacht must be changed at once, or she would run into the wharf.
Ash Burton put the helm hard down at a venture, and without waiting to decide the main question. Things looked stormy ahead to him. The sloop promptly came up to the wind, and the boom went over in readiness for the other tack. It would not take more than a minute or two for the lively craft to reach the old wharf. Ash realized that he was still the captain, and by the consent of Tom. He headed for the landing-place he had chosen.
The wind was blowing squarely upon the old wharf, which made it very difficult for an inexperienced skipper to bring the boat alongside of it. The structure was low enough to allow the boom to swing out over it, and thus spill the sail as the craft came up to it; but the manœuvre requires skill, and the new skipper was not confident enough in his own powers to undertake it. He chose a safer way; and when he came up with the wharf, he threw the sloop up into the wind, intending to lower the sail and let her fall off till she came to the landing-place.
He called Sam Spottwood, and pointed out to him the halyards. Tom was busy about something else just then, and did not notice what the skipper was saying. At the right moment, Ash put the helm down, and when the sail began to shake, he shouted to Sam, who had returned to the forecastle.
"Let go!" was his order, and the hand addressed understood him.
The halyards were both cast off; and the sail came down, aided by Sam, with a rush.
"What are you about, Ash Burton?" demanded Tom Topover, as the canvas came down on his head, and filled him with consternation, for he thought something had broken. "What's the matter now?"
"Nothing at all," replied the skipper pleasantly. "Stand by with the boat-hook, Sam."
"What do you want with a boat-hook?" asked Tom, who had been studying the situation with a view to sailing the boat himself again.
"Fend off, Sam," added the captain. "We don't want to strike the wharf too hard: it might injure the boat."
"We don't want to strike it at all!" blustered Tom, springing to his feet, and taking in the new order of things at a glance. "Is the sail broke, that made it come down?"
"Nothing is the matter with it, so far as I know," replied Ash.
"What made it come down, then?"
"Because I ordered Sam to let go the halyards, and he did as I told him."
"You told him to let down the sail?" demanded Tom.
"Of course I did: if I hadn't, the boat might have been smashed against the wharf," Ash explained.
"What did you come near the wharf for?" growled Tom.
"Fend off, Sam," added the skipper.
By this time the Goldwing was so near that the wharf could be reached with the boat-hook, and Sam fastened to it. He eased off the boat so that she came alongside without any crash. The sail was in the standing-room, and there was no pressure on her, so that she behaved like a lamb. Ash Burton, seeing that his mission on board was completed, went forward to join his friend and crony.
"You did this on purpose!" stormed Tom, when he realized the situation.
"Of course I did," replied Ash, with abundant good-nature, as he had carried his point.
"What did you bring us in here for? Who told you to do it?" demanded Tom.
"As I was the captain of this craft, I did not take any orders from any one. Wasn't I the skipper, with your consent, till we came to the wharf?" asked Ash.
"Didn't I say I wanted to sail her myself?"
"I don't care what you said: I was the captain, and I have brought the boat to the wharf."
It looked as though there were going to be a storm, and Ash, without hurrying himself, stepped on the wharf. He was followed by Sam, the four original Topovers remaining in the standing-room. Their leader, though no process of reason could convince him against his inclination, was nonplussed at the argument of the retiring skipper.
Just at that moment the sound of a sharp whistle came across the little lake. It was followed by a succession of shouts, and all the party looked in the direction from which the sounds came. On the opposite shore stood half a dozen boys, who proved to be the rest of the Topover gang. Some of them were among the new recruits to the group who ran together, and were inclined to think more of Ash and Sam than of the veritable leader. Others were original associates of those in the boat, though of a milder type of rascality.
"There's the rest of our fellows!" exclaimed Tom, willing to dodge the question of authority which had just come up.
"Come over here, and give us a sail!" yelled one of the party over in the grove, loud enough to be understood.
"Where are you going now, Ash?" asked Tom, in the mildest tone he could command.
"The fun for to-day is all over, and we may as well go home," replied the last skipper.
"We are going to take a little sail in this boat now that we have her, and there is plenty of fun ahead," continued Tom. "Won't you go with us?"
"You don't know how to handle the boat, and I won't go in her with you for skipper," interposed Sam Spottwood, before Ash had time to reply. "You came very near upsetting us once or twice, and I don't risk my head with you."
"I can handle the boat as well as Ash can," answered Tom, but his manner was now adapted to carrying his point. "We might as well have a sail as go home without one. Captain Gildrock is away in the Sylph, and he won't be back till dark. Before that time we will put the boat back where we found her, and no one will be the wiser for the fun we have had."
"You are more likely to leave her on the bottom of the lake than you are to put her back at her moorings," returned Sam.
Nim Splugger and Kidd Digfield then began to talk in a low tone to their leader. They had sense enough to see that Tom could not handle the boat, and very likely they feared that the prediction of Sam Spottwood would be verified.
Chapter VI.
A Row On Board The Goldwing.
"I don't care who is captain of the boat," said Tom Topover, after his companions had talked him into something. "Come on board again, Ash Burton, and you shall be captain."
"That's so; come back, we want you to be captain," added Kidd Digfield, who knew more than his companions about a boat, though that was saying very little.
"What do you say, Sam?" added Ash, turning to his crony.
"I don't believe in it," replied the other decidedly. "You can't depend upon Tom Topover. If you are the skipper, he will insist upon your obeying his orders as he did a little while ago."
"I will give it all up to Ash Burton," interposed Tom, who had heard a part of Sam's remarks.
Ash was strongly tempted; for if there was any one thing in the world that he liked better than any thing else, it was boating. At Westport he had sometimes sailed in the Silver Moon, and had learned a little about the management of such a craft, though he was very far from being a skilful boatman.
"Tom will get the helm, and then the boat will go to the bottom if they go out on the lake," argued Sam.
"I don't believe in using the boat, myself," replied Ash faintly; for he was sighing for the delight of holding the wheel of the Goldwing while she dashed at her lively pace over the water. He could hardly refuse the invitation of the Topovers.
"Tom don't know any thing at all about the boat, and that fact makes him reckless. In my opinion, he will sink the boat, and there will be an awful row in Genverres about this evening when the Sylph returns," continued Sam, seeing that his friend was inclined to yield.
"Ash Burton shall have the full command, and I won't interfere with him," said Tom; but the two boys on the wharf did not see the wink he gave to Nim Splugger when he uttered the gracious words.
"Some of them will be drowned," reasoned Sam.
"Then I think I ought to go with them!" exclaimed Ash, suddenly crushing his scruples. "I don't know much about a boat, but I know more than any of the rest of the fellows; and I can keep the Goldwing on the top of the water, if nothing more."
"We had better keep out of the scrape," added Sam, but more weakly than before, for he was almost as fond of sailing as his friend.
"The rest of the fellows are on the other side of the water, and we shall have to take them in. If things don't work right when we get across the lake, we can jump out of the boat again; and we shall be nearer home there than we are here," said Ash, almost vanquished by his own logic.
He wanted to go so much, that it was easy for him to persuade himself that it was his duty to do so in order to prevent Tom from drowning himself and his companions. The conflict in his mind ended by his going on board of the sloop, followed, more reluctantly, by his crony.
"I want this thing understood before I go," said Ash, as he walked aft to the standing-room. "The wind has breezed up a good deal while we have been talking about it, and it would be as easy as putting your fingers in the fire to tip the sloop over."
"We understand it well enough: you are to be captain, and all the rest of us will obey your orders—as long as we like," replied Tom impatiently, and uttering the last words so that they were heard only by Nim Splugger.
"But I want it made as clear as day that I am to handle the boat. I know enough about a sailboat to keep her right side up, and I don't want to be spilled into the lake by any fellow that don't know as much about the business as I do."
"We all agree to it," interposed Kidd Digfield. "It's no use to talk all day about it."
The last speaker knew the halyards from the boat-hook; and he proceeded to hoist the sail, assisted by Pell Sankland. Ash considered it understood that he was to be skipper till the end of the cruise, which he did not intend should last for more than an hour or two. He took his place at the wheel, and gave the necessary orders for getting the sloop under way. The fresh breeze took the sail, and in a couple of minutes she was across the lake. With the wind off the shore, he had no difficulty in making a landing at the little stage which served as a landing-place for boats from the other side.
"Where is the Thunderer, Tom?" asked Chick Penny, as he stepped on board.
"She came to grief," replied Tom. "She dropped to pieces, and tipped us all into the lake."
"That's just what I supposed she would do," replied Chick. "I wouldn't trust my old boots in her, to say nothing of my precious carcass."
Hop Cabright wanted to know how they had got hold of the Goldwing, and the story of the morning's adventures had to be told. But Ash did not wait for it to be finished. He got under way again, and stood towards the outlet. More than half of the recruits, making the whole party a dozen, were fellows like Sam and himself; and he felt more at home in the Goldwing than he had before. But five of them were original Topovers; which meant that they did not scruple to steal a boat when they got a chance, or to rob an orchard, or to break all the windows in the side of a building for simple fun.
The other seven of the party were very fond of fun, and could be easily led into mischief, though they had a better idea of the rights of property. In the dozen who filled the standing-room of the sloop were all shades of moral obliquity, from Tom Topover, who respected no person's rights except his own, up to Sam Spottwood, whose greatest failing was the weakness which did not always induce him to do what he knew was right.
The narrow limits of Beechwater did not satisfy the desire of the skipper for a sail, and he stood boldly into the outlet. Possibly, if the sloop had not been aground a little before at the first sharp turn in the stream, he would have sailed her into the mud which the current deposited there. But he was forewarned by the former accident, and he tacked before the keel touched bottom.
More by good chance than by the possession of any skill in navigating this difficult stream, Ash got the boat through the bend, and it was then plain sailing to the river. It was wide enough here to beat, and in half an hour more the Goldwing was in the great lake. Ash enjoyed his occupation more than ever before, and he was in a state of exuberant delight.
"I guess I'll take that wheel now, Ash Burton," said Tom Topover, with a broad grin on his ugly face, when the boat was fairly out of the river.
"That wasn't the trade," replied Ash.
"I don't care whether it was the trade or not: I am going to steer now," added Tom very decidedly.
"Didn't you agree that I should be captain on this cruise?" demanded Ash, keeping down his indignation as well as he could.
"That was only to get you to come along," replied Tom, with the most barefaced effrontery. "I had a point to carry, and I carried it. Get out of my way, Ash Burton, and I will take the thing."
"You don't know how to handle the boat, and I object," interposed Sam Spottwood.
"Shut up, Sam!" said Tom, turning a savage glance at the last speaker.
"I shall not shut up! You made a fair agreement that Ash should be captain, or I would not have come," retorted Sam boldly.
"I should not either," added Ash.
"It's no use of jawing about it. I am going to steer this boat the rest of the cruise, and"—
"No, you are not! You have tried to cheat us, and we will stick to the trade we made fairly!" insisted Sam.
"Shut up, Sam Spottwood, or I'll bat you over the head!" said Tom fiercely, and he turned towards Sam with his fists in fighting condition.
"You don't know how to handle a boat, and I for one won't submit to have the bargain broken," protested Sam, his blood heated up to fever temperature.
"Don't hit him, Tom!" interposed Kidd Digfield.
"Ash is captain, and he ought to steer," shouted Chick Penny from the forecastle.
"Ash must keep the wheel," added Hop Cabright; and so said several of the others.
Tom Topover looked at them, and then he was mad in good earnest. He declared that he was going to take the wheel, and he wanted any fellow that objected to step out into the standing-room, and he would "polish him off" in the twinkling of an eye.
"I object, and I shall stick to it. A trade's a trade, and I don't think any fellow has a right to back out of it," Sam responded.
Tom was furious at this remark; and he made a pass at Sam, who was seated by the side of the skipper, with his fist.
"None of that, Tom!" interposed Ash, stepping between the bully and his intended victim.
"What are you going to do about it, Ash Burton?" yelled Tom, and he aimed a blow at the skipper, which was intended to annihilate him.
Ash warded off the blow; but when another was aimed at him, he struck back. The original Topovers attempted to interfere, but the fury of Tom could brook no opposition from friend or foe. The result was a general row. The recruits to the gang took sides with Ash and Sam, and they did their best to support him; but before the affair could be decided either way, about a hogs-head of water rolled into the standing-room over the washboard.
The cooling effects of this inundation were immediately perceptible. Tom had been thrown down by the skipper, and the wave had nearly drowned him. All the others were wet through, and the sloop was rolling as though she intended to do the same thing again. Ash was boatman enough to understand the situation. He had put the helm up when he was attacked, for the boat had a tendency to broach to; and she had fallen off till she presented the broad side of her mainsail to the stiff breeze.
The boat had come up headed the other way. With the water splashing about in the standing-room, the skipper came about again, and headed the sloop on her former course. The cold water had cooled off Tom, and just now he was wringing out his coat. He appeared to submit to the situation for the present. Sam desired to return, but Ash wanted to fight the battle out if it was renewed again.
The Goldwing had dipped up the water when she was off the mouth of Porter's Bay. Ash set his companions to baling out the standing-room, and with all the vessels on board, the work was soon finished. Before she was up with the point beyond the bay, the sun had dried the floor and seats, and she was the cleaner for her bath.
"Boat ahoy!" shouted some one from the point, which was covered with trees.
A glance in the direction from which the hail came informed the boys that there was a picnic on the point.
Chapter VII.
An Unexpected Appearance.
"On shore!" replied Ash Burton, to the hail.
"We should like to hire your boat for a while: can we do it if we pay well for her?" continued the speaker on the point.
"She is not to let," replied the skipper.
"We will give you two dollars an hour for her, with the person to manage her," continued the gentleman on the shore.
"We have to go home to dinner pretty soon," added Ash.
"We will give you all a dinner into the bargain," persisted the stranger.
"Take him up!" said Tom Topover very decidedly.
"Take him up!" repeated several others. "We shall get home too late for dinner."
"We have no business to let her," added Sam Spottwood earnestly.
"We have just as much right to let her as we have to use her at all," added Ash. "Two dollars an hour is a big price."
The last speaker became less earnest when he saw that his friend was inclined to favor the proposition. Doubtless the promise of the dinner was quite as tempting as the money that was offered, though not one of the crew of the Goldwing did not think himself rich when he had a dime.
"Will you all stay on shore while I take the party out?" asked Ash Burton, turning to his companions, when his crony weakened.
The party replied in the affirmative to the question, not even Tom Topover making any objection to the plan. Ash ran for a small staging which answered for a wharf, and the Topovers all went on shore peaceably. The picnickers were having a grand time; for they had music and dancing, and there seemed to be at least a hundred of them. Farther back from the lake were half a dozen long furniture-wagons and other vehicles, while a great number of horses were picketed near them. It was evident that the party had come from some distance back in the country, and were not likely to know any thing about the ownership of the Goldwing.
About a dozen ladies and only two gentlemen were embarked in the boat, and Ash got under way. There was just breeze enough to make it lively and pleasant sailing. The sea was regular and moderate, so that there was nothing to call for any extra skill on the part of the skipper. The wind being west, he ran down the lake as far as Split Rock, and then returned. He did not get her best speed out of the sloop, and by the time he reached the wharf the hour had expired.
The party were landed; and Ash supposed the contract had been completed, especially as the gentleman in charge handed him four half-dollars, of which he seemed to have an abundant supply. But the excursionists were hardly on shore before another gentleman appeared, followed by a dozen more ladies, and took the boat for another trip.
Ash did not object, and he was gone the same time with the second party. On his return to the wharf he found another party ready for him, with the Topovers assembled on the wharf. The gentleman who had paid him before gave him four more half-dollars, and he spoke for the boat for the third trip.
Ash mildly suggested that he had had no dinner. Though he had for the last two hours been the undisputed skipper of the Goldwing, he had not yet become so ethereal as to lose his boyish tendency to be hungry. The gentleman said they were in no hurry, and they would wait for the skipper to take his dinner.
"I'll take this party out, Ash Burton," interposed Tom Topover, with cheek enough to fit out a lightning-rod agent. "You can get your dinner while I am gone."
"That won't do," replied Ash, in the mildest of tones.
"What's the reason it won't do?" demanded Tom, beginning to bluster. "I can handle the boat as well as you can."
"You don't know any thing at all about a sailboat," added Sam Spottwood, more for the benefit of the gentleman in charge of the party than to irritate Tom.
"Say that again, and I'll knock you into the middle of last week," bullied Tom. "I am going with this party, and Ash can get his dinner."
"We prefer the one who has managed the boat before," interposed the gentleman, who measured Tom at a glance.
"I didn't nearly tip the boat over, and fill her half full of water, as Ash Burton did," added Tom.
"It was you that made the row, so that the captain had to leave the wheel," retorted Sam, who did not seem to scare at all at the bluster of the leader.
"I am going to sail this party, or the boat don't go again," said Tom decidedly.
"No, you are not, for Ash is the skipper, and we all agreed to obey his orders," added Sam, retiring from the wharf in order to make room for the ladies.
The rest of the party, with the exception of Tom, had done this before; and he followed Sam. The gentleman began to assist the ladies to their seats in the standing-room, for he thought the skipper could settle the dispute.
"What's the reason I'm not going to sail that party if I want to?" demanded Tom, following up Sam Spottwood.
"Because you don't know how to manage the boat, and I don't believe they would go with you," replied Sam fearlessly.
This was too much for Tom; and he made a pass at Sam with his fist, which the latter parried, and saved himself from harm.
"None of that here!" shouted several of the Topovers.
"Sam Spottwood thinks he is my boss, and I will show him what he is and what I am," continued Tom, rushing upon the plain-spoken boy.
Sam did not run: he hit back, and after a brief struggle the bruiser went over on his back. He jumped up, and began to declare that Sam did not fight fair; when the other Topovers crowded around him, and prevented him from renewing the battle if he was disposed to do so, though it generally was the case with him, that he did not follow up a contest when the other party "meant business." The others talked to him of the impropriety of getting up a quarrel in the presence of the ladies.
"I don't care nothing about that," replied Tom; and he rushed back to the wharf, where the gentleman was just going on board of the sloop. "Stop, Ash Burton! I tell you I'm going to sail the boat this time."
"Stop where you are, young man," interposed the gentleman, as he took Tom by the collar. "You want to make a row; if you don't get out of the way, I will duck you in the lake."
"Let me alone!" howled Tom, as the man hurled him away.
Ash shoved off the bow of the Goldwing, and the gentleman stepped on board as the stern swung in. Ash was disgusted with the conduct of the leader of the Topovers, and he decided then and there to have nothing to do with him after that time. He sailed the party for the hour, though he did it on a growling stomach. On his return, he received four more half-dollars, making twelve in all which his pocket now contained. His employer conducted him to the tables, and he proceeded to partake of the collation.
While he was thus pleasantly occupied, the rest of the Topovers, seeing the return of the sloop, hastened to the wharf. No other party wished to sail, and Tom proposed that they should start on their way back to Beechwater. The others were ready, and most of them seated themselves in the standing-room.
"Ash Burton is the captain, and he is at his dinner," said Sam Spottwood.
"We can get along without him," replied Tom with a coarse grin. "I am going to sail the boat back."
At these words Chick Penny and Hop Cabright jumped on the wharf again, declaring they would not go in the boat if Tom was to be the skipper. The bruiser insisted on his point, and that the boat should leave at once. Then Con Binker and Syl Peckman followed the example of Chick and Hop. Even Kidd Digfield and Nim Splugger had some doubts about trusting themselves with Tom, and they began to reason with him. There was no reason in him, and in spite of them he shoved off the boat. Taking the wind on the starboard tack, the usurping skipper headed the sloop to the southward. Tom had his own way this time.
"Hold on, Tom!" shouted Pell Sankland. "Ash Burton has all the money he has taken for the boat. Is he to have the whole of it?"
"Six dollars," added Nim Splugger. "He ought to make a divvy."
"He is not going to keep the whole of it anyhow," said Kidd Digfield.
"There he is, coming down to the wharf," continued Pell. "We have as much right to some of the money as he has. The boat don't belong to him."
"We can get it out of him the next time we see him," said Tom, who did not like the idea of returning to the shore, for he was afraid of losing his position at the wheel.
"He will spend it all, and I won't trust him," replied Pell.
The original Topovers were in a majority of the present crew, and perhaps Tom was tempted by the prospect of putting some money in his pocket. At any rate, he attempted to put the boat about. The sloop was far enough out from behind the point to feel the force of the wind. If there was any wrong way to take, Tom Topover always took it; and he put the helm up instead of down. The effect was to gybe the boat, and nearly upset her. However, she did not ship any water this time, but Tom was bewildered by the behavior of the boat. She was about two hundred feet from the shore.
"There comes the Sylph!" shouted Nim Splugger, as the sharp bow of the steam-yacht appeared beyond Porter's Bay.
This cry filled the Topovers with consternation. They realized that Tom at the wheel was utterly powerless to get them out of the scrape, and it looked as though he would tip them over before he got the boat under way again. The Sylph seldom if ever returned from her excursions in the summer till night, and she was not expected at three o'clock in the afternoon.
"Start her up, Tom!" yelled Kidd, almost frantic at the idea of being caught in possession of the Goldwing by the yacht's people.
"She don't behave right," replied Tom, who had made several attempts to get the boat under way.
"Run her ashore, and let us get out of the way."
"I tell you she won't start for me," added Tom, as the boom banged over from one side to the other as it had done half a dozen times before.
It was clear enough to the culprits, that the captain of the Sylph, who was also the owner of the Goldwing, had recognized the craft; for the steamer was headed directly for the point. If she were going down the lake, she would have headed for the other side of Diamond Island.
At last, by some accident, Tom got the sail filled, and the boat under way; but she had caught the wind on the starboard tack, upon which it was not possible to reach the nearest land. The Topovers growled and yelled to Tom that he was going the wrong way. The bungling skipper put the helm down; but he met her too soon, and she missed stays. The Sylph was close aboard of her, and placed herself between the yacht and the shore.
Chapter VIII.
A Startling Event On The Road.
When the Sylph had secured a position between the Goldwing and the shore, so that the party on board of the latter could not escape, she stopped her screw, and backed until she rested motionless on the water. The appearance of the steamer so near the point created a sensation in the picnic-party, and the whole crowd on the shore hastened to the water-side.
Before the steamer lost her headway, her starboard quarter-boat was dropping into the water. The yacht was not heavily manned, as she was when the school was in session, and there were not hands enough on board for any brilliant manœuvres. Captain Gildrock, Bates, the old quartermaster, Paul Bristol, and Oscar Chester got into the boat, and pulled to the Goldwing. Dory Dornwood and Mr. Bristol, the acting engineer, remained on board with the ladies to take charge of the steamer.
When Tom Topover and his companions saw the boat approaching them, they abandoned all hope of escape, and gave up in despair. They wished they were ashore, with those who had been left.
"What are you doing with this sloop?" demanded Captain Gildrock sternly, when the quarter-boat came alongside of the Goldwing.
"I can't do any thing with her," replied Tom.
"You have stolen her, as you have tried to do before," added the principal; "and we will make short work with you."
Paul Bristol was directed to take the painter of the sloop on board, and the Goldwing was towed to the Sylph. The six culprits on board of her were ordered to the deck, and they knew Captain Gildrock well enough not to disobey him. The quarter-boat was hoisted up to the davits; and the yacht came about and stood away from the shore without communicating with the picnic-party. She headed up the lake, and in a few minutes disappeared in the river.
Ash Burton and his companions observed the proceedings of the people of the yacht with almost as much consternation as though they had been captured with their late associates. They could hardly hope to escape the consequences of their conduct, for Tom and the rest of the Topovers would be sure to betray them. They looked upon it as a bad scrape; for the principal of the Beech Hill Industrial School was one who obeyed the laws, and went to them for redress when he was injured instead of administering justice on his own account.
Sam Spottwood was sorry he had not followed his own impulse to do right, instead of allowing himself to be led into error by his friend. But he did not reproach Ash, for he felt that he was the victim of his own weakness. The whole six of them were quite as repentant as the half-dozen who had been captured in the sloop. No doubt they made big resolutions, which are good things to make if they are only remembered in the hour of temptation.
The picnic-party seemed to be very much astonished at the proceedings of the people on board of the yacht, which was now approaching the river with the sloop in tow. Ash saw that they wanted some explanation; and when he saw the gentleman who had paid him the dozen half-dollars, he felt that he had business elsewhere. He beat a hasty retreat, followed by his companions. He did not care to appear before his late passengers as a culprit, and he was not inclined to tell any lies about the matter.
"We are in for it now," said Hop Cabright, as they walked with hasty steps away from the point, in the direction of the road to Genverres.
"No doubt of that," replied Sam Spottwood. "It is a bad scrape, and the worst of it is being associated with such fellows as Tom Topover."
"As Captain Gildrock did not catch us in the boat, perhaps he will not meddle with us," suggested Syl Peckman.
"Those fellows will blow on us, after all that happened this afternoon," added Chick Penny.
"Of course they will, and we are just as guilty as they are," added Sam Spottwood. "You don't catch me having any thing to do with Tom Topover, and the fellows like him again: they are a hard crowd."
"We never did any thing very bad with them before," said Ash Burton. "I am sure we have done something towards making them better fellows, for we have tried to improve their manners and their morals."
"I don't think they are much better, though I know of three or four instances where we have prevented them from stealing. But we ought to have prevented them from using the Goldwing, instead of taking part with them in the wrong," said Sam.
"You know how it happened, and how we were led into it," pleaded Ash. "We were wrecked, and out in the middle of Beechwater, without any way to get ashore except in the sloop."
"I understand all about that; but we were weak to get into the boat again after we got ashore," argued Sam.
"I don't believe I should have done so if it had not been to convince Tom Topover that the boat could be sailed either way. It is all up with us now, and we must take the consequences, whatever they may be."
"Do you suppose the captain will prosecute us?" asked Sam.
"Probably he will, though he may let up on us when he finds that we did not go out to the sloop with the intention of taking her. The Topovers have tried to steal the boats before, and he may think it is necessary in order to protect himself from them," replied Ash.
"I hope he won't; for the penalty will be a fine, I suppose, and my father will have to pay it," added Sam very gloomily. "He is not able to pay it, for he has not had work half the time this summer. He would have taken me out of school if he could have found any thing for me to do that would pay for my board and clothes."
"My father is no better off, for he had been out of work so long over at Westport that he came over here, hoping to do better; but he has not, and he finds it hard work to get enough to live on. But what am I to do with this money? I have six dollars in my pocket, which I intended to divide among the fellows."
"That would be half a dollar apiece; but the fellows that went off in the boat without us don't deserve any of it," said Hop Cabright.
"I shall not use any of that money, or touch it," interposed Sam Spottwood. "It belongs to Dory Dornwood if it belongs to anybody, for he is the owner of the Goldwing."
"I should like some of the money well enough to give to my father, but I feel just as though I had stolen it," continued Ash.
"I don't think it belongs to us, at any rate," repeated Sam.
"But I don't want to keep it. I don't like the feeling of it in my pocket."
By this time they had reached the road; and they were a sorry set, for all of them had consciences, and such boys always feel worse when they have done wrong than when they have been without their dinner and supper. They continued to talk over the subject, trying to agree upon what they should do. Sam insisted that they should call upon Captain Gildrock, confess their error, and throw themselves upon his mercy, with the statement that their fathers were too poor to pay any fines. They would tender the money to him for Dory Dornwood, and promise never to take anybody's boat again, and to withdraw entirely from the association with such boys as Tom Topover.
There was scarcely a house in this part of the town; but they soon came in sight of a small cottage, which deserved no better name than a hovel. They had been eating cold ham and sweet cake, and they were quite thirsty after their long walk; for it was all of two miles from the point to the town. They could get a drink there, for they saw the well-curb between the hovel and the road.
Before they could reach it, they heard a succession of screams so shrill that they seemed to pierce through the drums of their ears. They were not sounds made by adult persons, but by children, and they were most agonizing. Ash Burton, without making any remark, broke into a run for the house, from which the cries appeared to come.
"Pell Sankland lives in that house," said Chick Penny, when they started. "His mother goes out washing when she can get any work in that line."
But Ash did not care who lived there, and he continued to run without making any reply. As they came a little nearer, they saw smoke coming out of one of the front windows, and it was apparent that the hovel was on fire. Ash struggled to increase his speed, and was the first to reach the front door of the house. He attempted to open it and found that it was locked or otherwise fastened so that he could not get in. Before he had done trying to effect an entrance, his companions came up.
"The door is locked! Run for the back door! There are children in the house, and they will be smothered in the smoke if we don't do something quick," gasped Ash, out of breath with his efforts.
They reached the back door, and that also was fastened. The woodpile, what there was of it, was close to this entrance. Of the half-dozen sticks that remained, there was one at least six inches in diameter. Ash and Sam seized this, and butted with it a few times against the back door. It was an ill-fitting and poorly constructed affair, like all the rest of the house, and it readily yielded to the vigorous blows of the assailants.
Ash rushed into the house, and made his way to the front room, where he had seen the smoke issuing from the window. There he found a child of seven, with another not more than four. The older was a girl, and her dress was on fire, as was the side of the room nearest to the fireplace, for there was no stove. Sam and the others were close behind him, and discovered the terrible peril of the child almost as soon as he did.
"Lay her down on the floor!" shouted Ash, as he sprang to the bed in the room.
He took the comforter from it, for he found no blanket, and rushed to the child. He was wrapping the girl in it when he saw that the flames had caught in the cotton which projected from the ragged holes in it. It began to blaze, and he cast it aside. A piece of old carpet was spread before the fire, and he hastened to wrap the child in that. It was too small to cover the sufferer; but Ash and Sam fought the fire with their hands, and in a moment had extinguished the flame.
Hop Cabright brought a bucket of water he found in the back room, and the contents were poured over the child. The smaller child's clothes had not taken fire, and she was not injured. But both of them continued to scream even after the fire on the older was extinguished.
"Don't cry any more, little girl," said Ash, in a tender tone, as he proceeded to look at her and see how much she was burned.
"The house is on fire, Ash, and we must put it out!" cried Sam, as he took the smaller child, and rushed out doors with it.
[Illustration: "'LAY HER DOWN ON THE FLOOR!' SHOUTED ASH."—PAGE 98.]
Ash followed him, with the girl still screaming from pain and terror both. The well was on the front of the house, and they found no more water drawn. Each of the six boys seized whatever vessel he could find, and rushed to the well. They returned to the room where the fire was, with all the water they could carry. But the whole side of the room was in a blaze, and the case looked hopeless.
Chapter IX.
Looking For A Settlement.
Lying on the floor near the fireplace was a kerosene-lamp, the glass shade of which was broken. The fire had started at this part of the room; and it was evident that the little girl had lighted the lamp, and dropped it upon the hearth. Doubtless she had tried to put out the fire, and the flame had communicated with her dress.
The ceiling of the room was plastered, but the walls were cased with pine. With this combustible material to supply it, the fire had rapidly crept to the ceiling, and penetrated the attic above. Ash Burton saw that it was useless to pour water on the flame below while the fire was rapidly ascending to the roof. With a bucket of water he led the way up-stairs, and found the fire just coming through the floor.
He turned the water very carefully into the hole which the fire had made, though he was very nearly suffocated by the smoke that filled the attic. The effect was immediately visible: the flame was checked, though the smoke continued to pour out of the opening. Taking the water brought by his companions, he used it to the best advantage. Their work appeared to be accomplished in this part of the house, and Ash sent part of the boys down to dash water on the burning boards in the room where they had found the children.
For some time the boys watched and worked, pouring on water whenever they found any signs of fire.
The flames had destroyed the wall by the side of the fireplace, and made a considerable opening into the attic. The smoke had been very trying to the young firemen, for the rooms were filled with it. When Syl Peckman opened one of the windows, Ash instantly closed it; for he knew that the draught of air would feed the flame with the element it needed to increase its force. They worked as long as they could find any vestige of fire.
They had broken in the front door so that they could the more readily get the water where it was needed; but after he went up stairs, Ash did not come down till the fire was out. The others had a little relief from the smoke when they went out for water; but he remained in the attic to pour on the water, and he suffered much more than his companions. His eyes rained tears, and they were red and swollen. All of them attended to these important organs as soon as they found the time, and washed them thoroughly. The fresh air and the water soon relieved them in a great measure.
There had been smoke enough to be seen in the distance; and when the fire was fully extinguished, people began to arrive. The smoke had been seen by some men at work in the field, and they had given the alarm. They were too late to be of any service in putting out the fire; but they took the two children, and conveyed them to the next house.
The older girl was not so badly burned as the boys feared in the beginning. She and the little one had evidently begun to scream before her dress took fire, probably terrified when they saw the flames running up the wooden wall. It takes longer to tell the story than it did for the fire to get under way. The boys were not far from the house when they heard the screams; and the child's clothes could not have been burning more than a moment when they came to her relief.
The girl's hands, and her limbs near the knees, were considerably burned, and she had received injury enough to cause her great pain. The farmer and his two men were the first to arrive; but the fire was out, and the good man gave all his attention to the sufferer. His house was but a short distance from the cottage; and he carried her there, assisted by one of his men. On his arrival he sent his companion for the doctor.
Before he could reach his home, an engine from the town, which was not half a mile distant, rushed to the scene of the fire. The foreman examined the premises, but he could not find any fire. He bustled about for a time while he made his examination, but there was nothing else for him to do.
"It came very near burning the house," said he to Ash Burton, who showed him over the premises, and explained the situation. "How did it take fire?"
"The girl was in so much pain that I did not ask her any questions," replied Ash, as he led the fireman into the front room, in which the family lived. "There is a kerosene-lamp on the floor, and the fire began there. The shade is broken, and perhaps the girl dropped the lamp on the floor after she had lighted it."
"What was she doing with a lamp in the middle of the afternoon?" asked the foreman.
"That is more than I know; but it looks as though the fire was caused by dropping the lamp on the floor," replied Ash.
"It was lucky for the owner that you happened to be near," continued the fireman. "Where were you when you saw the fire?"
"We were just coming around that bend in the road when we heard the screams of the children. We did not see the fire at first. When we got here the doors were all fastened, and we had to beat in the back one with a stick of wood. We put out the fire in the girl's clothes first, and then we poured water on the flames."
As the man asked more questions, Ash explained fully the manner in which they had treated the girl, and then put out the fire.
"You have saved the house; and if you had been a minute later, the little girl might have lost her life. You boys have done remarkably well. You have been brave and resolute, and you have managed the fire with excellent judgment," said the foreman, when he had learned all the facts. "Most boys would have continued to throw water on the fire in the room below; but you went up-stairs, where alone the fire could be checked. You have done well; and the whole fire-department of Genverres, if it had been here, could not have accomplished any more, or done it more neatly."
"Ash Burton was the leader of the party, and he found all the brains," said Chick Penny magnanimously.
"That's so; we followed his lead," added Sam Spottwood; and the others expressed their assent.
"I thank you, sir, for what you have said. I tried to do the best I could, and I am glad we succeeded; for I am sure I could not have done any thing if the other fellows had not worked like firemen. They all behaved first-rate, and did not give up when the smoke had strained their eyes nearly out of their heads," returned Ash, giving his companions the credit they deserved.
"There is nothing for us to do here, and we may as well return to our quarters. I am afraid that child is badly burned, and we will stop at the house where she is," continued the foreman, giving his men the order to return.
The rope of the engine was not very heavily manned, and the six boys were permitted to take part in dragging the machine back to town; and this, to the average boy, is supposed to be fun, however it may be with full-grown men. They were all well rested after the work they had done, and they had even forgotten for the time the unpleasant results of the cruise of the Goldwing. The engine stopped at the next house, where the farmer lived. Ash Burton and the foreman went in to inquire about the sufferer.
"I am keeping her quite comfortable by putting cold water on the burns about once a minute," said the farmer's wife. "I don't know as the doctor will approve of it when he comes, and I should not apply my remedy if the burns were on the head or body. For burns in any other places, cold water is my remedy, because it deadens the pain at once."
"How does the girl seem?" asked the foreman.
"She is pretty badly burned, but she will get over it without any trouble. I always told Mrs. Sankland that she ought not to lock up the children when she went out to work; but the poor woman has a terrible hard time of it, and I suppose she could not help it, for she has to earn enough to get food for her family," replied the good woman.
"But she has a son," suggested the fireman.
"It would be a good deal better for her if she had no son, for he is a good-for-nothing fellow. He won't work to earn any thing, or even take care of the children while his mother is at work. She has to feed him, and it would be a good thing if she had one less mouth to fill."
"He is a bad boy, and runs with Tom Topover, which is enough to condemn any boy," added the fireman.
Ash Burton and his companions winced under this remark, and they were glad they had gone so far as to resolve to avoid him in the future.
"My husband would give the boy work all summer, and pay him all he could earn; but he will not do a thing, and he is worrying the life out of his mother," continued the farmer's wife. "I think something ought to be done with him; and it would be a good thing if he could be sent to the house of correction, or some other institution, where he could be made to work."
The foreman of the engine quite agreed with her, and promised to inquire into the matter on his return to the town. The march, for it was not a run on the return, was resumed with the machine, which soon reached its destination. Several persons who kept horses had ridden out to see where the fire was, and the report of what had happened was already in circulation through the place.
It was not more than four o'clock, and the reformed Topovers—as they regarded themselves—were not inclined to go home until they had done something about the cruise of the Goldwing. As they came out of the engine-house, they saw Captain Gildrock in his buggy. He had stopped in the street, and was talking to a fireman who had just left the engine.
The reformers halted, and decided to hail the principal as soon as he finished his conversation with the man. The latter seemed to be talking to him very earnestly, and pointed down the street. Suddenly the captain turned his horse in the direction the man had pointed, and drove off so rapidly that the boys could not hail him. He turned the next corner, and the boys followed him.
They had gone to another corner when they saw the captain's team standing at the door of a mechanic's shop. He had left the vehicle, and secured the horse by a weight. Sam suggested that he was getting out a warrant for the arrest of those who had stolen the sloop; but Ash was confident that no magistrate lived on that street, which was occupied mainly by mechanics' shops and small factories.
"I don't want to miss him next time," said Ash. "I should like to have this business settled, or at least to know what is going to be done about it, before I go home. Captain Gildrock goes off like a rifle-shot when he starts, and seems to be thinking of something all the time."
"That's so," Sam replied. "We don't want to disturb him while he is busy about something. I will go around to the main street, and stop him if he comes out that way."
This suggestion was approved and adopted. Sam and two of the party went around, and soon appeared at the other end of the street, for they did not want to be seen till the principal had time to attend to them.
It was all of half an hour before Captain Gildrock appeared.
Chapter X.
Two Conflicting Stories.
Captain Gildrock turned his horse, and started on his return by the way he had come. As Ash Burton and the others saw, he was engaged in deep thought, and had his eyes fixed on the floor of the buggy. He seemed to be engaged in some important business; but Ash decided, at once, that the circumstances were enough to warrant him in disturbing his reflections.
"Captain Gildrock!" called the leader of the party, stepping into the street where he was about to pass.
The principal reined in his horse, and seemed to come out of the reverie in which he had been buried.
"We should like to speak to you, sir, when you are ready to hear us," continued Ash.
"I am ready to hear you now, if you have a short story to tell; but I am in a hurry," replied the captain, rather briskly.
"Then we will wait till you have more time, sir; we will call at your house when you are not busy," added Ash, who did not think it wise to ask the principal to sit in judgment upon their case when he was in a flurry of excitement.
"Very well; come to my house this evening at any time after half-past six," said the captain, as he started his horse. But he suddenly reined him in, and took a piece of paper from his pocket. "Do you know a young man by the name of Ashley Burton, and another by the name of Samuel Spottwood?" he asked.
"My name is Ashley Burton, sir; and I wanted to see you about the wrong we have done in taking the boat on Beechwater," replied Ash, rather sheepishly.
"About the wrong you did!" exclaimed the principal, opening his eyes as though a new revelation had just been made to him.
"Yes, sir; and I have six dollars in my pocket, the earnings of the Goldwing, which belongs to you, or to Dory Dornwood," continued Ash, carrying out the good resolution of himself and his penitent companions.
"I have been looking for you and the others who were with you," replied the captain, biting his lip as though things had not happened just as he expected.
"We are all here, sir," answered Ash, as he looked up the street, and saw Sam and his party running towards them. "We are very sorry for what we have done, and we will promise never again to touch one of your boats without permission."
"But I hear very bad stories about you. You were going to take the boat, and, with the money you had earned with her, were going to Burlington to 'have a time' as Tom Topover called it."
Ash looked at his companion, and there was something like a smile on his face. As he might have supposed, Tom had told his own story, and cast all the blame upon the members of the party he had left at the point.
"Not a word has been said in my hearing about going to Burlington, or any other place," replied Ash; and his companions said the same thing.
"I have been led to believe that Ashley Burton and Samuel Spottwood were the ringleaders of the enterprise, and that Topover, Digfield, Sankland, and the others we found on board of the Goldwing, had been cheated into going into the boat by you. Then, when they found you meant to leave them at the point, and go to Burlington, they had taken possession of the sloop, and were going to return her to her moorings," said the captain, smiling while he repeated the substance of Tom Topover's explanation.
"I suppose you can believe either story you please, sir. I am willing to tell the truth; and we all confess that we were very much to blame, though there was some excuse for our going on board of the Goldwing in the first place; and I am sure we did not go to her with the intention of sailing in her," answered Ash, frankly and openly.
Captain Gildrock seemed to be moved by the narrative of the speaker. He glanced from one to another of the penitents till he had examined all their faces. He did not say that he was impressed in their favor; but their bearing certainly compared very favorably with that of the original gang, who were in the majority in the party captured by the Sylph.
"I have been so much annoyed by these attempts to steal the boats of the institution, that I have decided to put a stop to them," continued the principal, after he had looked over the Burton party. "I intended to prosecute all the offenders engaged in stealing the Goldwing, if I found I could make out a good case; and I am now investigating the matter."
"I hope you will not prosecute us, sir," interposed Ash, very humbly, "for my father cannot very well afford to pay my fine."
"While I was inquiring about you, I heard about the fire which burned the house in which the mother of one of the boys I have on board the Sylph lived; and I was told at first that a little girl, this boy's sister, had been burned to death."
"Not so bad as that, sir," replied Ash.
"I have just been to see the foreman of the engine that went to the fire, and I have obtained all the facts from him," continued Captain Gildrock. "But I can't investigate the case here. If you can come on board of the Sylph, where the six boys I found in the Goldwing are, I think we can soon settle the matter so that I shall know what to do."
"We will go there at once, sir," replied Ash; and all the others assented. "But here is the six dollars paid me for taking out the parties at the picnic."
"No matter about that now," added the principal, as he drove off.
"He did not say a word about what we did at the fire," said Hop Cabright.
"He has just been to see the foreman of the engine, too," said Syl Peckman.
"I don't know that it had any thing to do with the Goldwing or the Topovers," said Sam Spottwood.
"Perhaps not, but we did a good piece of work; and, if we had not come along just as we did, the little girl would have been burned to death, and the house destroyed," argued Hop, who seemed to think that the two events of the day had some connection.
"Do you expect that putting out the fire at the Widow Sankland's will atone for the wrong we did in taking the Goldwing for a sail?" asked Ash, turning to Hop.
"Well, I think it will prove that we are not the worst fellows in the world," replied Hop.
"Do you think if a fireman should kill a man, it would save him from punishment because he had saved a woman from being burned to death?"
"I don't know that I think that, but I think he ought to have the credit of his good deed," answered Hop, stoutly.
"I don't believe it would save his neck from being stretched," persisted Ash, who was assuredly a very good fellow—when he was not led away by some temptation like the desire to sail a boat. "I don't believe that it will make a particle of difference to Captain Gildrock that we put out that fire, and saved the little girl. He is not a milk-and-water man."
This conversation was continued till they reached the grounds of the Industrial School. The boys had been assured of the intention of the principal to prosecute if he could make out a good case. It appeared that Tom Topover had invented some story which failed to explain the manner in which they had first gone on board of the sloop.
They found the entire party which had been away in the yacht still on her deck. The ladies looked with interest upon the additional culprits, as they walked forward where the principal held court. Lily Bristol was talking to Dory; and they were generally together on board, which caused her to spend the greater portion of her time in the pilot-house. She seemed to have a good deal of pity in her looks as she gazed at them.
Paul Bristol received them when they came on board, as he had been instructed to do, and conducted them to the forecastle, where they found their six companions in the cruise of the Goldwing, under the charge of the relentless quartermaster, who figured so largely in the extreme discipline of the institution. Captain Gildrock had just returned from his visit to the town, and had seated himself near the gangway.
He received the party from the point more kindly than they had expected, and immediately proceeded with the examination of the case. He called out Tom Topover, and said he wished him to repeat the explanation he had made before, in the presence of those whom he charged with being the ringleaders in the adventure. Tom grinned as though he was as innocent as a lamb on the hills, and went into his narrative without any hesitation.
According to Tom's version, Ash Burton and the other five who had just come on board had taken the boat, and were going out upon the lake in her. He and the rest of the party captured had been in the grove, when Ash brought the boat up to the wharf, and said they had permission from the principal to use her, and finally persuaded them to join the excursion.
"Persuaded you, did they? If they had permission to use the boat, how did it happen that you needed any persuasion?" asked the captain.
"We did not believe they got leave to take the boat. They coaxed us to go with them, and were willing to take their oath that it was straight about the boat. We gave in then," replied Tom. "When we got to the point, and found a picnic there, Ash Burton went ashore, and offered to let the boat for two dollars an hour. The folks there took him up, and he carried out three loads, and got six dollars for it."
"Then it was Ashley Burton who first proposed to take out the parties?"
"Of course it was. He made all of us go on shore, and stay there three hours. Then we overheard one of them telling another, that they would leave us at the point, and go to Burlington, and spend the money. But I got ahead of them," chuckled Tom. "When Ash Burton went to dinner, I got my fellows into the boat, and we started for home, to carry the boat back to you. That's the whole of it."
"I am glad it is," replied the captain, turning to the six from the shore. "Now we will hear the other side of the story."
Ash Burton related it, and the others were called upon to indorse the statement if it was the truth; and they did so without any qualification. Their leader had related the simple truth, and had not put in any excuses for himself or his friends.
"That's all a lie!" exclaimed Tom, looking as though he was shocked to hear so many falsehoods crowded into a short story.
"You say it was Ashley that first proposed to take out the parties, Topover?" added the principal.
Tom persisted that it was, and the others backed him. Captain Gildrock called Paul Bristol, and by him sent an order to Dory to get the yacht under way again. In a few minutes she was standing down Beechwater to the outlet.
Chapter XI.
Complimentary To The Picnic-Party.
The penitents had never been on board of the Sylph before; and, even in the midst of the examination which was to decide what was to be done with them for the misdemeanor of the forenoon, they enjoyed the motion of the yacht. Tom and his companions were prisoners on the forecastle; and, though nothing had been said to the penitents, they considered themselves in the same condition. They had heard of Bates, who was the ogre of the institution to bad boys; and there he was, acting as a deck-hand.
Paul Bristol attended to the stern-line, against which the steamer backed to throw her head out from the wharf. Sometimes he had served as fireman; but a man was now employed for that service, and the engineer's son was a man-of-all-work. He had learned something about the engine, so that he could attend to it for a short time; and Dory had instructed him in piloting, so that he could take the wheel when it was plain sailing.
Lily Bristol went to the pilot-house with the captain when he was ordered to get under way. She wondered where they were going, but she had taken little interest in the examination on the forecastle. Captain Dornwood told her, with a pleasant smile, that it was not customary for officers and seamen to ask questions in regard to the movements of the vessel: all they had to do was to obey the orders of their superior officers. A soldier or a sailor who asked questions before he did what he was directed to do, was good for nothing.
"But you are the captain of the steamer, Dory," said she, as the young gentleman politely ushered her into the pilot-house.
"When we have the ship's company on board, I am the captain; though even then it is only a position in name, for I have to obey the orders of the owner," replied Dory. "But, now that we are not in commission, not much attention is paid to rank; and sometimes when my uncle is at the wheel I act as deck-hand."
"What do you mean by being in commission, Dory? Have you any commission?" asked Lily.
"That's what my uncle calls it when we have the regular ship's company on board. A ship in the navy, or a yacht, is said to be in commission when she has her officers and men on board, and is in condition for going to sea, or doing what is required of her."
"You don't go to sea; but you go to lake, just the same now as when you have thirty or forty on duty," laughed Lily.
"But Captain Gildrock don't call us in commission when we use the steamer with our present crew: that's all the difference there is. Three persons can handle the Sylph very well; and four is enough to work her comfortably, though not when there are any meals to be served."
Just then, as the steamer was standing across the little lake towards the outlet, Paul Bristol appeared at the door of the pilot-house, with the order of the principal to run to the point where the picnic was, and make a landing at the wharf.
"To the point where the picnic is, and make a landing at the wharf," repeated Captain Dornwood; and Paul touched his hat and retired, possibly thinking that his company was not wanted there.
"Didn't you hear him? What makes you say it over after him?" asked Lily, as her brother was leaving.
"My uncle requires us to repeat all orders, so as to be sure that they are understood, as they do in the navy, where he served several years when he was a young man. We do every thing in navy fashion when we are in commission, and we keep up some of the forms even now," replied the captain.
"What are we going to the picnic for, I wonder," added Lily.
"I haven't the least idea. I have learned to conquer my curiosity, or at least not to let it get the better of me," laughed Dory.
"But Captain Gildrock has all the boys now that were out in the Goldwing. What do you suppose he is going to do with them?"
"I haven't the least idea. I should as soon think of asking the minister what he is going to preach about next Sunday, as of asking my uncle what he is going to do."
"I should think he would tell you without asking."
"Sometimes he does, but not often; and when we are going to do any thing on shore, or on board of the boats, the orders come as a surprise to us."
As the steamer approached the mouth of the river, Captain Gildrock came on the hurricane deck, but he did not even look into the pilot-house. He began to walk up and down, and Lily watched him for a few minutes with interest.
"He looks as though he had something in his head now," said Dory, as he observed the thoughtful expression of his uncle.
"He must be thinking about those boys," suggested Lily.
"Very likely: they have been a great nuisance to us, for they have stolen the boats a great many times before (that is, the row-boats), when they have been left on shore."
"Do you know those boys?"
"Some of them: we have had some dealings with the Topovers when they ran away with the barges. But there is a lot of new fellows among them now that I hardly know by sight. Within a week I have heard my uncle drop some few remarks about the bad boys of Genverres, as though he was thinking about them. This affair with the Goldwing is perhaps the text of his thoughts. But it will all come out, if there is any thing, very soon."
The Sylph stood across the mouth of the bay, and made her landing at the rude wharf (and it was so rude, that Dory had to be very careful in handling the yacht, or she would have stove it all to pieces). When it was evident that she was going to stop there, the picknickers hurried to the wharf to see her, for she was a great curiosity to people who did not live near the lake. The present party were from twelve miles inland, and intended to drive back to their home by moonlight.
"Can we be permitted to go on board, and look at this steamer?" asked the gentleman who had employed Ash Burton to sail the party in the forenoon, as he hailed Captain Gildrock on the hurricane deck. "Our people have never seen such a steamer as this appears to be, and their curiosity is excited."
"How many people have you?" asked the principal.
"About eighty-five."
"We have room enough for the whole of them, then; and I shall be happy to have them take a little trip in her," added the captain.
"You are very kind, sir; and your invitation is very unexpected. We are very glad to accept, especially as we do not start for home till eight o'clock," replied Mr. Murdock, the manager of the party.
"I have a little business with you, sir; and, after your party are on board, I should like to see you in the pilot-house."
"Business with me?" exclaimed Mr. Murdock, greatly surprised.
"In regard to the boys who took some of your party out to sail," Captain Gildrock explained.
The picnickers were delighted with the invitation, and accepted it with enthusiasm. They crowded on board so eagerly, that the principal interfered to prevent them from breaking the wharf down with their weight. They were soon on board, and the order was given to Captain Dornwood to back out from the pier.
The picnic-party had a band of music with them, and they enlivened the occasion with their music. The passengers satisfied their curiosity first, and the principal conducted Mr. Murdock all over the vessel. The examination ended at the pilot-house, which both of them entered. To the inquiries made by Captain Gildrock, the gentleman gave him all the information he required. He had hailed the Goldwing as she was passing the point; and the young man who was steering the boat objected, at first, to taking any passengers.
As the captain suspected, Tom's story was a tissue of lies, and that of Ash Burton and his companions seemed to be the simple truth. The principal explained that the sloop was used without permission of the owner, upon which Mr. Murdock assured him that he would not have employed her if he had known the fact.
"The fellow they called Tom Topover is an unmitigated young scoundrel," he added; "while the one who sailed our parties behaved like a gentleman, and seemed to understand his business very well."
"I think I comprehend the case very well now, but I am very much embarrassed about it," added Captain Gildrock, whose brow was contracted with the thought that he was giving to the subject. "If Tom Topover and his gang, who have robbed my fruit-trees till I built fences so high that they could not get over them, were all of the culprits, I should prosecute them at once, though it would only compel their parents, who are poor people, to pay their fines. Ashley Burton and the rest of the boys who were left on shore at the picnic are better boys; and I cannot think of taking them to the court, now that I have got at the facts."
"It is a difficult matter to manage," added Mr. Murdock.
"I cannot prosecute half the culprits, and let the other half escape; for they are all equally guilty of the offence against the law. But Burton and his companions came to me, very penitent, with the money the boat had earned; while Tom and his companions lied till they were black in the face. As you say, it is a difficult case to manage. I shall have to find some other remedy for my grievances besides a court of justice."
The principal had learned all the facts he wished to know. Tom had lied to him; while Ash and his party had voluntarily told the whole truth, and manifested a genuine penitence. He was sure the latter would give him no further trouble. The business settled, Captain Gildrock devoted himself to the party on board, and made them as happy as he could. He pointed out all the objects of interest on the lake, including Split Rock, which finds a place in the guide-books. When he landed them at the wharf, they were profuse in their expressions of gratitude for the pleasant trip he had given them.
At the wharf, Tom Topover and his companions attempted to escape by getting into the crowd of picnickers as they were going on shore; but Bates had been directed to take charge of them, and he had his eyes on them. Tom found himself taken by the collar, and hurled to the deck. The others retreated to the bow, where they had been ordered to remain. Tom Topover was as mad as a March hare when he rose to his feet. He began to indulge in some foul talk, when Bates collared him again and pitched him into the bow. He showed some signs of resistance.
"Shut up!" said Bates, in a low tone.
Tom looked at him. The old quartermaster was not the kind of person he liked to deal with, and he concluded to obey him. In fact, the bully did most of his fighting with his tongue, and generally found a way to back out when it came to hard blows.
The party on shore gave three cheers for the steamer and her polite owner, the band played a parting strain, and the steamer whistled a return of the compliments paid to her as she departed for her wharf.
Captain Gildrock was still in deep thought. In fact, he had done a great deal of heavy thinking over the very problem which now occupied his mind, during the entire summer. But he said nothing to any one, and Lily and Captain Dornwood chatted as merrily as ever in the pilot-house. When he landed, the principal went to his library, attended by Ash and his penitent companions.
Chapter XII.
A New Mission For The Beech-Hill School.
It was within two weeks of the time for the opening of the Beech-Hill Industrial School. Only one-half of the students for the coming year had been engaged, and this was the circumstance which had given the principal so much thought during the summer. It was not that there was a lack of applicants; for, while he could accept only sixteen in addition to the number which remained over, he had more than a hundred applications for admission.
The subject had almost elevated itself to a question of political economy in the mind of the old shipmaster. He found that more than one-half of his pupils in the past had been the sons of wealthy or well-to-do people, who were abundantly able to pay for the tuition of their sons, including all the branches pursued in his school. He had come to the conclusion that he could make a better use of his money than in educating the children of those who were able to pay for it. The institution was no longer an experiment, and the most important question was in regard to those who should be selected to receive its benefits.
Captain Gildrock had come to feel that he ought to provide for those who were not able to provide for themselves. He could render a greater service to the community in which he lived, by fitting for usefulness those who were neglected by their parents, or who could not be controlled by them, than by instructing those who needed no assistance. He had demonstrated the problem he had undertaken to solve, and now he felt that he ought to make the school as serviceable as possible to the State.
With this question in his mind he had looked over the list of applicants, with the description of each. Against nearly the whole of the questions in the printed form of application, which related to the financial ability of the parents, it was written that they were wealthy, or that they were well off. With his new views of duty, he had been able to select only four whom he was willing to accept. He would not take pupils at a price, and those who were able to pay for the education they desired for their sons could establish such a school as that at Beech Hill.
The taking of the Goldwing, and the capture of Tom Topover and his gang, intensified his reflections over the problem. If he could reform and reconstruct such bruisers, and make them capable of taking care of themselves, as well as become useful members of society, he would render a more acceptable service to the community than he could by instructing boys whose parents were able to pay their tuition-bills.
The event narrated in this story enabled him to come to a conclusion. He knew all about the Topovers. They had been a nuisance in the town for years, and their parents could do nothing with them. They would not work, though their parents needed the little they could earn. They were very irregular at school when they pretended to go, and they had no correct views in regard to the rights of property. So far as he could inform himself, they had average ability, and were capable of being made into decent men, to say the least.
Of the original Topovers there were only four, though they had been recruited by two more as rough as themselves. These were the six who had been captured in the Goldwing; and they were now on the forecastle, in charge of Bates, while the six who had put out the fire were with the captain in his library. The principal had considered what effect the admission to the school of such fellows as Tom Topover, Kidd Digfield, and the others would have upon the _morale_ and the discipline of the institution. If he could not reform them, he could keep them under a sharp discipline, and they would have little power to contaminate others.
"Ashley Burton, I have finished my examination of this case; and I shall not prosecute you, as I intended at first," said the principal, opening the subject of the interview.
"Thank you, sir!" exclaimed Sam Spottwood.
The others said as much as this, and they were certainly very grateful to the captain for his indulgence.
"I took out the picnic-party for the purpose of ascertaining the facts. The gentleman in charge of the party spoke very well of you, and fully confirmed the statement you made to me. I think you are sincerely penitent for the wrong you have done. If you had left the Goldwing at the wharf when you went ashore first, I should have found no fault with you for taking her, I should say that you had done just right; though it was constructively and technically wrong for you to unmoor the boat, even if you had lost your dinner and your supper. I am not a close constructionist."
"You are very kind, sir," added Sam, who was more demonstrative than the others.
"I had started in my buggy to intercept you as you came home from the picnic. On my way, there was an alarm of fire; and I soon heard that the house of the Widow Sankland had been burned, and one of the children had lost its life. This was a mistake, for I met the engine returning from the fire. I went to see Captain Linder, who is the foreman of the company; and he spoke in the highest terms of your conduct, and the good judgment you used in managing the fire. No doubt you saved the life of the child, and the house from total destruction."
"Ash Burton was the leader, and told us what to do," interposed Sam Spottwood.
"You all did well, and you are worthy of praise. What you did at the fire is not an offset for the wrong you did on the lake; for a good deed will not balance an evil one, though it may modify our judgment of the evil-doer. I have nothing more to say to you now, and I am confident you will not again meddle with any property of the institution."
"We will not, sir," replied Ash, as he took the dozen half-dollars from his pocket, and tendered them to the principal. "These do not belong to me, or to any of us. They were earned with Dory's boat."
"The money certainly does not belong to you; and, obtained as it was, I am not willing that you should retain and enjoy it," replied the principal. "We do not let the boats under any circumstances, and we do not need any money they might earn. I have spoken to Dory about the matter, and he left it entirely to me. I have decided what shall be done with it. It shall be given to the Widow Sankland, who needs it more than you or your parents, though they may not be very well off. You may carry the money to her to-night, Ashley, if you are willing to do so."
"Perfectly willing, sir; and I will go as soon as I have had my supper," replied Ash; and the party left the house with lighter hearts than they had entered it, for the terrible fear of prosecution no longer confronted them.
Captain Gildrock did not say a word in regard to the other culprits in taking the sloop, and the Burton party wondered if the principal intended to bring them up before the court. Hop Cabright was sure that he would not do so, for he would have served them all alike. Syl Peckman was confident that he did not mean to let them off as he had their party, for they had been captured on board of the sloop. Ash and Sam had no opinion, and said it was impossible to say what such a man as Captain Gildrock would do, for he was different from all the other men in Genverres.
They went to their suppers; and all the questions asked them by their parents related to the fire, and the child they had saved. Nothing was said about the Goldwing, and probably nothing was known about the scrape from which they had so happily escaped.
They met after supper, and walked over to the house they had saved from destruction. They found the Widow Sankland there with her two children. The one who had been burned was on the bed; but she was quite comfortable, for the doctor had prescribed the continuance of the cold water, which was renewed every few minutes. The farmer and his wife had been there, and done what they could to make the house habitable after the fire and water had done so much mischief.
The widow received the money which Ash presented to her, with many thanks. She had no money, for she had not received the pay for her day's work. She said she was very poor indeed, and it was only with the hardest struggle that she earned enough to feed her children, to say nothing of clothing them.
Mrs. Sankland explained that her daughter had lighted the lamp to go down cellar for some milk for the little one. She had dropped it on the floor, and the fluid had taken fire, from which her dress had caught when she tried to put it out.
"Have you seen any thing of Pelham to-day?" asked the widow. "He must have heard of the fire, and he ought to have come home. He could help a good deal if he only would. He could take care of the children while I am at work, but he won't even do that."
Sam Spottwood told her that Pell had been captured with the other Topovers; and Ash added the rest of the story, that they had been in the scrape.
"Something must be done with him, for I cannot do any thing with him. He won't mind me any more than if I wasn't his mother," said the widow, wiping the tears from her thin face.
"He will be at home soon, I should think," added Ash.
"It does not make much difference whether he comes or not: he does me no good, and I have to feed him. I wish something might be done with him, for he is a bad boy."
The boys departed much impressed by the confessions of the poor woman; and they wished they were rich, like Captain Gildrock, that they might help her. But Ash Burton was willing to go a point beyond wishing that he was rich, and he decided to apply to some of the wealthy people of the town for assistance in clothing and food for her. But the boys had not gone ten rods from the house before they met the carriage of the rich man of the Beech-Hill estate. Dory and his mother were with the captain; and, as he stopped his horses in front of the cottage, Dory took a large basket from the carriage. He carried it into the house, and then returned to take care of the horses while his uncle and his mother went in. They never heard of a case of distress within ten miles of their home without doing all they could to relieve it.
Mr. Sankland had been a laborer who worked on the farms in the vicinity. He was not a thrifty man, and he drank too much whiskey for his reliability. He had died less than a year before, leaving nothing at all; though his wife had saved enough from her own earnings to bury him. When she could get work, she did tolerably well, especially washing that she could take home with her. In summer there were people boarding in the town, and at the farmhouses in the vicinity, who gave her their work; but in winter it had been almost a starving time with her. In the spring an agency for a laundry had been established in the place, and Mrs. Sankland lost most of her customers.
Mrs. Dornwood presented her with the contents of the basket, which consisted mainly of meats and vegetables brought from the provision store, and groceries from another establishment. The poor woman was glad to get these things, and she soon told the history of her miseries. She repeated what she had said to the young firemen about her son, and it ended in the captain's asking her if she was willing to put the boy in his care. She was willing and glad to do so.
Chapter XIII.
The Beginning Of The Trouble.
Captain Gildrock drew from his pocket a paper he had drawn up for the widow to sign. He read it to her, explaining its meaning as he proceeded. It was a contract by which, in consideration of her son's board, clothing, and tuition, she surrendered to the principal the entire charge of the boy for three years. Mrs. Sankland was entirely satisfied with the document, and signed it without any hesitation.
"He shall be as well treated as the rest of the boys in the institution, but he must obey orders; and he will have no time to roam about the streets and fields," said the principal. "It is necessary that he should be subjected to strict discipline; and no violence will be used unless he shows fight, or refuses to obey an order."
"He needs a good whipping more than any thing else," added his mother, as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "He has done nothing for me; and I cannot afford to support a great fellow like him in idleness, when he will not even take care of the children while I am at my work."
"I shall try to make a man of him, Mrs. Sankland; and, if no one interferes with me, I think I shall succeed," added Captain Gildrock, as he moved towards the door.
"There is no one on earth to interfere with you, sir, except me; and I am too glad to have him taken care of to meddle with any one who is so kind as to take care of him," replied the poor widow.
The principal and his sister returned to the carriage, and the captain drove to the house of Tom Topover's father. He was a laboring man, who worked very hard to support a large family; and Tom was the oldest of the children. But they lived in comfort and plenty compared with the Widow Sankland. Neither the father nor the mother was a person of much force, though they got along very well in the world.
"I called to see you, Mr. Topover, in regard to your son Thomas," the captain began, when the introduction had been disposed of.
"He is a bad boy, Captain Gildrock; and I know that he has given you a deal of trouble at one time and another," said the father, who felt that he was very unfortunate in having such a son; though he closed his eyes to the fact that he had spoiled the boy by indulgence years before.
"I am afraid you are not far from right, Mr. Topover," replied the captain.
"What has he been doing now, sir? I am sorry he was not sent to the house of correction when he was taken up on the other side of the lake. Has he been troubling you again?" asked the man.
The principal explained what Tom had been doing, relating the events of the day in connection with the Goldwing.
"I am sorry for it, sir; but I can't do any thing with the boy. I have talked with him, and I have thrashed him till I am tired of it. What can I do with him?" asked the poor father, puzzled by the situation.
"I intended to prosecute the boys the next time they stole any of the boats," continued the principal.
"Do it, sir. I shall not object to any thing you do with my boy, for he deserves the worst he is likely to get for his bad behavior," replied the father.
"He will be condemned to a fine, and you will have to pay it," suggested Captain Gildrock.
"I will not pay it! I have done that twice, and I shall not do it again," protested Mr. Topover.
"Then he will stand committed till the fine is paid."
"So much the better!" exclaimed the desperate parent. "I have no money to waste on a boy who treats me as Tom does. He won't do a thing about the house; and, when he is out late, he makes his mother get his supper for him when he comes in. He is a bad boy, sir; and, if they keep him in jail for six months, I will not say a word."
"He needs a little sharp discipline."
"That he does! He hasn't been near the house since morning, and we may not see him to-night till nine or ten o'clock. Then he will want his supper, and a piece of bread and butter and some pie will not be enough for him. He makes such a row, that his mother has to cook something for him, even if the fires are all out."
"He seems to be a perfect tyrant in the house," added the principal with a smile, as he realized that the boy had been spoiled by his parents.
"That's just what he is. If he don't get what he wants, he makes such a row that he wakes all the children, and we have trouble half the night."
"He will not come home to-night, unless you wish to have him do so," said Captain Gildrock, coming nearer to his point.
"I don't care if he never comes into the house again," protested Mr. Topover.
"You don't mean that, Richard," mildly interposed his wife. "I wish the boy could be taken care of, but I don't want him to come to any harm."
The principal took a paper like that he had read at the Widow Sankland's, adapted to the case of Tom Topover. He read it, after he had proposed that the vagrant boy should be admitted to the Beech-Hill Industrial School. He explained its meaning fully.
"We shall make him obey orders, but we shall use him as well as he will allow us to do," continued Captain Gildrock. "If both of you will sign this paper, I will keep him at the institution until the term begins. He will be fed, clothed, and instructed, and taught to work at some trade. I think we should make a machinist of him, for he seems to have a taste for working with tools upon iron."
"But Tom won't agree to it," replied Mr. Topover.
"I haven't asked him to agree to it, and I don't intend to do any thing of the sort. You are his father, and his legal guardian: you can do any thing you please with him, so long as you don't abuse him," continued Captain Gildrock, sharply; for he did not like the disposition to temporize with a serious case.
"I should be very glad to have him go to your school, Captain Gildrock," added the father.
"So should I, and I should be easy about him all the time if he were only there," said Mrs. Topover.
"Then all you have to do is to sign this paper. His father's name would be enough to stand the law, but I prefer to have his mother's also."
"When he comes home he will make a terrible row, and"—
"He won't come home till he is in a frame of mind to be decent and respectful to both of you," interposed the captain.
"I will sign the paper," said Mr. Topover, after some hesitation. "I can't do any thing with him; and, to tell the truth, Captain Gildrock, I don't believe you can."
"Perhaps I can't: I don't know. I am willing to try; and I believe the boy can be saved, though he will need sharp discipline."
Both the father and the mother seemed to be afraid of the tyrant son, and this was the trouble with them. But they signed the paper after a good deal of delay; though the principal did not urge them to do so, and took no means to conceal the fact that the boy would be subjected to severe discipline.
The captain left the house, promising to report to the parents upon the conduct of the son. In the same manner he visited the homes of Kidd Digfield and Nim Splugger. The father of the former was a blacksmith: and he had done his best to get his son into his shop to blow and strike for him, but he had utterly failed. The boy would promise any thing, but he did not keep his promises. He was much pleased with the idea of having his son admitted to the school, and signed the paper presented to him, as did his wife, without any objection or hesitation.
The father of Nimrod Splugger was a German shoemaker, who had married a Vermont woman. Both the father and mother seemed to be totally indifferent in regard to the welfare of the boy, and they were willing to sign any thing that relieved them from the burden of feeding and clothing him. The principal's business at the home of the German was soon finished; and he drove back to the mansion, leaving two more cases to be disposed of in the morning.
The six captured young rascals had been left on board of the Sylph, in charge of Mr. Bristol and Bates. After the party on board had taken supper in the forward cabin, the young ruffians were marched in, and they had satisfied their appetites with the good things set before them; and their imprisonment did not seem to impair their ability to eat and drink.
After the meal they had been taken back to the forecastle. Tom and the bolder of the vagrants growled, and threatened evil things to those who detained them; but they made no attempt to escape, for they saw that it would be useless. When the captain appeared, at about nine o'clock in the evening, he called out Raglan Spinner and Benjamin Sinker, whose parents he had not been able to see for the want of time, and dismissed them. They were not quite as enterprising as Tom and Kidd; but they were not a whit better, and no more disposed to obey their parents.
Captain Gildrock made no explanations to the two he discharged, and the young ruffians concluded that they had fully atoned for their offence by the imprisonment they had suffered. They were to take a different view of the matter the next day.
The principal went to the forecastle, where the four ruffians were to be seen under the awning, by the light of a lantern which hung over their heads. Neither of their custodians had said any thing to them, and did not encourage any talk on their part. They asked questions about what was to be done with them; but Bates did not know, and would not have answered if he had known. When they saw the captain, they had worked themselves up to the height of discontent. They were accustomed to have their own way; and any restraint was a burden to them, even if it subjected them to no discomfort.
"I want to go home," growled Tom Topover as soon as he saw the principal. "I'm not going to stay here all night."
"You will not stay here all night," answered Captain Gildrock, in his mild tones. "Bates, you will take them to the dormitory, and give them four rooms at the farther end on the left."
"On the left, sir; I understand," replied the old quartermaster.
On the outside of the windows of these rooms was an iron grating like that used in banks to cover the operations of the cashier or teller. They had been fitted up for those who were disposed to run away. Besides the locks on the doors, there were crossbars across each of them, secured by padlocks, so that they could not be removed.
"Mr. Bristol and I will assist you," added the captain, when he saw that four of the young ruffians might be more than a handful for the old man, though he was still strong and active.
"I want to go home," growled Tom again, when he found that no notice had been taken of his complaint.
"You will not go home, and you will come with me," continued the principal.
The trouble began then.
Chapter XIV.
The Prisoners In The Dormitory.
Captain Gildrock had already directed Dory and Paul to prepare the four rooms indicated for the reception of the new pupils. They were furnished with good beds, and were far more luxurious than the rooms the ruffians occupied at home.
"I'm not going with you!" yelled Tom angrily. "I am going home, and you haven't any right to keep me here!"
Captain Gildrock did not wait to hear any more. He took Tom by the collar with his right hand, while he grasped Nim Splugger with the other. Tom lay down upon the deck, and refused to mo
This reading view includes the opening portion of the book. Continue on Project Gutenberg