by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XVI.
A GRAVE CHARGE AGAINST THE SKIPPER.
The Missisquoi was aground. This result was exactly what the skipper ofthe Goldwing intended and expected, if the pilots of the steamerfollowed the schooner. Colchester Light is about west of a point havingthe same name. Extending north from Colchester Point is a shoal, onwhich, at the present low stage of the water, there was a depth of fromtwo to eight feet. It was two miles and a half long from its northernextremity to the point.
Dory struck the shoal not more than a quarter of a mile north of LawIsland, where the water was only about four feet deep. The Goldwing wentover it without any difficulty; but there was not water enough for thesteamer. Ordinarily a small steamer could have crossed any part of theshoal, but the lake had not been so low before for years.
The skipper of the schooner had calculated upon using this shoal in thesame manner that he had used Champion Rock and Stave Island Ledge. If hehad not depended upon this shallow water, he would not have left theledges. But he did not expect that Captain Vesey would attempt to followhim where there was not more than four feet of water. It was evidentenough that neither the captain nor Pearl was a competent pilot.
"Here we are," said Dory quietly, as he put the helm down, and came upinto the wind.
"What's the matter now?" asked Corny.
"Nothing the matter; but the Missisquoi has concluded not to come anyfarther in this direction just now," replied Dory, as he headed theschooner to the north-west.
"She has stopped!" exclaimed Thad.
"That is just what she has done," added the skipper.
"What has she stopped there for?" asked Corny.
"She couldn't very well help it, for she is hugging the bottom."
"Hugging the bottom! What do you mean by that?" demanded Corny.
"In plain English, she is aground." And the skipper proceeded to explainthe situation to his companions.
"Then, you knew what you were about all the time, Dory," said Thad, withsomething of admiration in his tones and manner.
"I thought I did all the time; but I did not expect the Missisquoi wouldtry to go over a place where the bottom is so near the top as it is onthis shoal," answered Dory. "There is nearly seven miles of deep waterto the eastward of this shoal to the head of Mallett's Bay. The lake isthirteen miles wide on just this line."
"Were you going up Mallett's Bay?"
"Not at all. I expected to run back and forth over this shoal until theMissisquoi had enough of it, and then I was going to Burlington."
"Will the steamer get off the bottom?"
"She was running at her best speed when she struck the bottom; and Idon't believe she will get off in a hurry," replied Dory.
"All we have to do is to go to Burlington, then," added Corny.
"We won't be in a hurry about it," said Dory. "I want to see if she canget off. They are backing her now, and there is Captain Vesey at workwith a pole. The steamer seems to stick hard. Her bow is about a footout of water, but I think she is afloat at the stern. They may work heroff if they manage it well."
"That other chap has gone to work with a pole too," said Dick Short.
"I hope they will have a good time," added Dory, as he put the schoonerabout, and headed her across the bow of the Missisquoi.
The skipper wished to obtain a better view of the position of thesteamer, to enable him to decide whether it was safe for him to proceedto Burlington. With the wind on the quarter, he ran within ten yards ofthe stem of the Missisquoi. As he approached her, he saw that herwater-line was lifted at least a foot above the surface of the lake,indicating that she was firmly fixed on the hard bottom.
"Hallo there, Dory Dornwood!" shouted Pearl Hawlinshed when the Goldwingcame within hail of the steamer. "Come alongside! I want to see you."
"What do you want of me?" asked the skipper.
"I want to see you about that money," added Pearl.
"What money?"
"You know what money as well as I do!" roared Pearl with a string ofoaths. "The money you stole at the hotel!"
"The money Dory stole!" ejaculated Corny Minkfield, with a look ofhorror on his face.
"What hotel? I didn't steal any money at any hotel," returned Dory,startled at the charge.
"Yes, you did! It's no use to deny it. The landlord sent me off afteryou; and you'll have to pay for it, for the wild-goose chase you haveled me on," cried Pearl, who had evidently lost his patience and histemper.
"I didn't know any money had been stolen from a hotel; and I didn'tsteal it," cried Dory, as the Goldwing passed out of easy talkingdistance from the steamer.
"You stole the money to buy that boat, and it's no sale!" yelled Pearl.
"Stole the money to buy the boat!" exclaimed Corny, looking at hisfellow-members of the Goldwing Club.
"I don't believe it!" ejaculated Thad Glovering. "Dory isn't that kindof a fellow. He wouldn't do such a thing."
Nat Long and Dick Short said nothing. They seemed to be in doubt. All ofthem wondered where Dory could have got the money to pay for theGoldwing, and the charge of Pearl Hawlinshed appeared to explain thewhole matter. Certainly the astonishing statement of Pearl made it lookvery bad for the skipper of the Goldwing. When they asked where he gotthe forty-two dollars to pay for the boat, Dory had refused to explain,and had insisted that no more questions should be asked about thesubject.
Nat had winked at Corny to intimate that this disposition of the matterwas not satisfactory; but, as they were expecting a fine sail in theschooner, they had been politic enough to keep silence. Now they lookedfrom one to another, for they did not like to say just what theythought.
Dory was silent also. His heart was swelling with emotion. He wasaccused of stealing, and he could not help seeing that he was in a veryuncomfortable situation. Pearl's father had given him the money, and hehad promised not to say a word about it. There seemed to be someterrible secret between Pearl and his father. The latter had given Doryone hundred and five dollars for the service he had rendered him in thewoods, and wished him not to tell where he got the money lest it shouldlead to the exposure of the secret.
Pearl evidently had something against him. It might be nothing more thanthe fact that he had outbid him at the sale of the boat. But the sonplainly suspected that Dory had some relations with his father, for hehad intimated as much as this.
The skipper of the Goldwing was considering what he should do. He wasready to meet the charge against him, though he could not explain wherehe got the money to pay for the boat. Pearl was after him for stealingthe money at a hotel,--what hotel he did not know. Was Pearl a constableor a police-officer?
If his pursuer was an officer of the law, he was ready to give himselfup. He was anxious to know in what manner he was connected with thetheft. But it might be all a trick on the part of Pearl to get the boataway from him. He did not mean to put his head into any trap. While hewas considering the situation, Corny could hold in no longer.
"I want to know about this business," said Corny, after he and hiscompanions had been looking at each other in silence for full fiveminutes.
"What do you want to know, Corny?" asked Dory.
"I want to know where you got the money to buy this boat," repliedCorny, rather more warmly than the occasion seemed to require.
"I shall not tell you," answered Dory firmly, but very quietly.
"You won't?"
"No, I won't," repeated Dory. "That is my secret. I have to keep it, noton my own account, but for the sake of a person who was very kind to me,and gave me a meal when I was hungry. That is all I can say about thecase. I didn't steal a dollar or a cent, and I am willing to face anyman that says I did."
"That fellow in the steamer says you did; and we have been running awayfrom him since yesterday morning," replied Corny.
"That man, whose name is Pearl Hawlinshed, has something against me;and I don't care about putting myself into his hands," answered Dory.
"I suppose you don't," added Corny
with a sneer. "I don't like thisthing a bit. We have been with you since yesterday morning, and they saythe receiver is as bad as the thief."
"Do you believe I am a thief, Corny?" said Dory, looking his accusersquarely in the eye.
"I don't see how I can believe any thing else. I don't want to believesuch a thing of you, Dory. Fellows like you and me don't have forty-twodollars in every pocket of their trousers; and you won't tell us whereyou got the money," answered Corny a little more moderately.
"You talk and act just as though you did want to prove that I stole themoney I paid for the boat," added Dory. "All I ask of the fellows is tobelieve that I am innocent until I am proved guilty."
"That's the talk! that's fair! I don't believe Dory did it!" exclaimedThad.
"Let him tell where he got the money, then," replied Corny.
"That's his business, if he don't choose to tell," argued Thad. "Itdon't prove that Dory is a thief because that fellow says so. We don'tknow any thing about that fellow."
"Do you believe that he would chase us for two days in a steamer ifthere wasn't something serious the matter?" asked Corny.
"Yes, if he wanted to get this boat," replied Thad.
"Well, I have had enough of this thing. Here we are cruising all overthe lake with a thief, running away, and dodging a steamer sent afterhim; and we are getting into it as deep as he is," blustered Corny.
"Shut up, Corn Minkfield, or I'll smash your head!" exclaimed Thad,leaping to his feet, and moving towards the sceptic.
"None of that, Thad!" interposed Dory, putting his arm between the twobelligerent members. "I don't want any fight over it."
The skipper put the helm up, and gybed the boat.
"What are you going to do now?" demanded Corny when Thad had resumed hisseat. "I am not going to be carried all over the lake with one who isrunning away from the officers."
Thad sprang to his feet again, but Dory quieted him.
"I am going back to Plattsburgh to face the music," said Dory.
Corny looked more disgusted than ever.