by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXIII.
HEADED OFF ON BOTH SIDES.
"Hold on there! What are you about?" shouted the officer, as theGoldwing filled away on the starboard tack. "We want to see TheodoreDornwood."
"I can't sail dead to windward," replied Pearl.
"You needn't sail at all," replied the officer. "Captain Gildrock wishedto see Dornwood on a matter of the utmost importance: it is a case oflife and death."
Dory was startled by these words. What could his uncle want of him? Ifanybody was dead, who was it? It might be his mother. His blood seemedto freeze in his veins as he thought of the possibility of such aterrible event. He sprang upon the seat, and hailed the boat at once.
"Is my mother dead?" shouted he; and the agony of his tone was borneacross the water with his words.
"No: your mother is not dead. She is quite well," replied the officer,who could not but have been impressed by the despairing tone in whichthe question was put to him; and he had not lost an instant in relievingthe anxiety of the inquirer.
Dory dropped down upon the seat again. His mother was not sick or dead.The current of life began to flow through his veins again. A terribleload was removed from his mind almost as soon as laid upon it. He evenbegan to think that the officer was playing a trick upon him to get himto see the captain of the steamer, whom he had so carefully avoided.
"Give way, my lads!" shouted the officer of the boat, as soon as he hadanswered Dory's question. "I want Theodore Dornwood. Will you give himup?"
This question was addressed to the skipper of the schooner, which wasnot more than a hundred feet from the boat.
"Yes, with the greatest pleasure," replied Pearl. "I will put him ashorein here, and you can take him on board."
Dory heard this reply with astonishment and indignation. Pearl intendedto put him ashore, and then allow the boat from the steam-yacht to pickhim up. If he could keep the boat from coming alongside, and thusprevent the officer from ascertaining the condition of things on boardof the Goldwing, the Sylph would trouble him no more. If the business onwhich she came after Dory was a matter of life and death, CaptainGildrock would not be likely to molest him after he had accomplished hismission.
The Goldwing was now within a hundred yards of the shore. Through anopening in the land she was getting a better breeze, and was making atleast four miles an hour. Dory saw that something must be done verysoon. He had been released from his imprisonment so that the owner ofthe steamer should not see that he was in trouble. The boat from thesteamer was not hurrying; for the officer seemed to be satisfied withthe arrangement Pearl had proposed, to put the boy ashore.
When the steamer's port boat saw that the schooner was cornered, shebegan to pull towards the scene of action. It had gone but a shortdistance from the vessel before she changed her course; but she stillkept in position to head off the schooner if she attempted to escape tothe eastward.
"Get ready to go ashore, Dory Dornwood," said Pearl in one of his mildtones.
Dory made no reply. He was fully resolved not to do any thing of thesort. If he went on shore, and submitted to the villain's plan to escapefrom his pursuers, he could hardly expect ever to see the Goldwingagain. But he considered it the safest way to say nothing about thepurpose in his mind.
"You will tell the captain of the Sylph the state of things on board ofthis boat, Dory," said Peppers, who had no objection to the plan; for hethought Captain Gildrock would make a business of liberating him and hiscompanion in the cuddy as soon as he was informed of their condition.
"Tell him any thing you like, Dory Dornwood, as soon as you get on boardof the steamer," added Pearl. "Are you ready to go on shore?"
"If I must go on shore, I suppose I must," replied Dory in anon-committal way. "What is to become of my boat if I go ashore?"
"You can have her again when I have done with her," answered Pearl in acoaxing tone; for, if he could get rid of his pursuers, he cared fornothing else just then.
"Where shall I be likely to find her?" asked Dory in a tone whichindicated his incredulity.
"You will find her in Missisquoi Bay, on the northern shore, Dory; andshe will be in as good condition as she is now."
"Perhaps I shall find her there," added Dory.
"I will"--But, before Pearl could say what he would do, the centre-boardof the boat dragged in the sand on the bottom.
The skipper hastened to raise it, but a few moments later it struckagain. Pearl hoisted it up as far as he could, and then kept theschooner away a few points; for she would no longer lie up to the windas closely as before. In this way he succeeded in getting the boatwithin about a hundred feet of the shore, and then the Goldwing groundedon her bottom.
The water was not more than three feet deep at the stem of the boat, andit was impossible to get her any nearer to the dry land on the beach.Pearl bit his lip; for both of the boats of the Sylph were pullingtowards the schooner, and Peppers would soon have an audience to whomhe could tell his story.
"I can't get any nearer the shore, Dory," said Pearl, not a littleagitated. "You must jump into the water, and wade ashore."
Dory leaped upon the forward deck, and Pearl probably thought heintended to adopt his suggestion, and wade to the beach. But the ownerof the Goldwing had no intention of "giving up the ship" in any suchmanner. The sails hid Dory from the skipper, so that he could not seewhat he was doing; and, while Pearl was waiting to hear the splash whenhe went overboard, Dory grasped one of the stays, and climbed half wayto the mast-head before his persecutor discovered what he was about.
"What are you doing up there?" demanded Pearl fiercely. "What are youabout?"
"I want to see how far off the shore is," replied Dory, for the want ofsomething more sensible to say.
"Come down this instant, you young villain!" yelled Pearl, whose hope ofsaving himself was thus endangered by the unexpected freak of the ownerof the boat.
"I think I can make myself very comfortable up here for a while,"replied Dory, as he placed his feet on the foresail gaff, and passed hisarm around the topmast.
"If you don't come down, I will shoot you!" stormed Pearl angrily, as hesaw the two boats of the steamer coming nearer to him every moment.
Dory had the average aversion to being shot, and he did not like thesound of the threat. He did not know whether or not Pearl had a pistol,though it was not improbable that he had one. He looked at theapproaching boats. One of them was not thirty yards from the schooner,and the officer could hardly have helped hearing the threat of theskipper. The port boat had come near enough by this time to enable Doryto see that his uncle was in the stern-sheets.
"Give way, my lads, with all your might!" said the officer of the nearerboat, speaking with great energy, as though he meant to take a hand inthe business on board of the Goldwing.
"Are you coming down, Dory Dornwood?" demanded Pearl, as he stopped onthe forward deck of the schooner.
"I think I will come down," replied Dory, who had made up his mind notto run the risk of being shot; but he was satisfied that one of theboats would be alongside the Goldwing before he could reach the deck."But it isn't so easy to get down as it was to come up," he added,making it as an excuse for the slow movement in coming down to the deck.Dory descended with the utmost caution. He had gained time enough toenable the starboard boat to reach the schooner, and this was all heexpected to accomplish by going aloft.
"Come, hurry up, Dory!" shouted the skipper, when he was about half wayto the deck.
Dory immediately changed his movement, and began to ascend again.
"What are you about, you young cub? Are you going back again?" criedPearl.
"You told me to hurry up," pleaded Dory, wishing to gain all the time hecould.
"You are a natural fool! Come down, or I'll--do what I said I would,"added Pearl, as he glanced at the nearer boat, which was not fifty feetfrom the schooner.
"All right! I will be with you in a moment," answered Dory, as hedescended to the deck with a reasonable de
gree of celerity.
But the boat was alongside the Goldwing as soon as he reached theforward deck. The officer leaped on deck without waiting for anyceremony. Pearl dropped into a seat in the forward part of thestanding-room. He evidently realized that he had lost the game he hadbeen playing.
"Which is Theodore Dornwood?" asked the officer as he came on board.
"There he is, on the forward deck," replied Pearl. "He is the mostobstinate young cub that ever floated on Lake Champlain. You can takehim with you as quick as you please. I don't want any thing more ofhim."
"What in the world is going on aboard this boat?" asked the officer, ashe looked from Pearl to Dory, and then from Dory to Pearl, unable tounderstand the appearance of things on board. "What have you got coopedup in that cuddy?"
"I thought you wanted Dory Dornwood. Why don't you take him, and notwaste any more of your time and mine?" said Pearl impatiently.
"Captain Gildrock wants to see you very much, Theodore, and there is aplace in my boat for you."
"I don't care about going in your boat, and I shall not go on board ofthe Sylph if I can help myself," replied Dory stoutly.
"There he is again!" exclaimed Pearl, as he glanced at the boat thatcontained Captain Gildrock. "He is a mule, a sulky dog. If you want him,I will pitch him into your boat for you, and make an end of thisbusiness."
Pearl leaped upon the forward deck, intent upon putting his threat intoexecution. But, as he went up on the starboard side, Dory leaped downinto the standing-room on the port side. Pearl followed him, and seemedto have a hope, that, if he could drive Dory into the boat, he might getrid of his troublesome visitors.
"Don't you meddle with the boy, officer," said Peppers through the holein the door; "and don't you let that man meddle with him."
"What does all this mean? Why are you in there? Why don't you come out?"
Before Peppers could explain, the port boat came alongside, and CaptainGildrock stepped on board the Goldwing.