Adventure stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Sailing -- Juvenile fiction; Ship captains -- Juvenile fiction
He watched her with the most intense interest, but he had no fault to
find with the boat. It took all his strength at the long tiller to keep
her from coming up into the wind. There was no lee helm now, with only a
jib and mainsail; though she might exhibit this failing when she had all
sail on. In fact, she carried too much weather helm; for it impeded her
progress.
"She works like a lady!" exclaimed Dory with enthusiasm.
Having satisfied himself in regard to the working of the boat, he turned
his attention to the Missisquoi again. He saw that Pearl Hawlinshed was
at the wheel of the steamer. He had evidently learned wisdom from the
movements of the Goldwing. He had turned the helm of the steamer, so
that she was now headed to the westward.
Probably Pearl had begun to do some reasoning by this time. Instead of
running directly for the schooner, he had taken a course to intercept
her when she attempted to go to the northward, as he doubtless believed
she intended to do.
The Goldwing was now on the starboard tack; and the Missisquoi was
running abreast of her, towards the west shore of the lake. Dory
contrived to cramp her so that she did not make much headway, and the
steamer gained so rapidly on her that she was soon a considerable
distance ahead of her.
"Now, Dick Short, we are going about. When Corny lets go of the weather
jib-sheet, I want you to haul on the lee-sheet," said the skipper when
he was ready for the next move.
"Where are we going next, Dory?" asked Thad, confused by the many
movements of the skipper.
"No questions now, Thad. Keep your eyes wide open, and you will see for
yourself. Let go, and haul! Let go the sheet, Corny! Haul in, Dick! Be
lively about it! You must get the sheet in while the sail is shaking, or
you can't do it at all," said Dory sharply, as he put the helm down.
The Goldwing whirled around like a top, when her helm went down. The
hands in charge of the jib-sheets were zealous to do their duty
promptly, and in an instant the sails were drawing on the port tack.
But this did not give the course the skipper wanted. He handled the
boat very cautiously on account of her bad reputation.
Gradually he let off the main-sheet, while Dick was directed to do the
same with the jib-sheet. At the same time Dory kept the helm up, and the
boat fell off until she was headed for the southern side of Garden
Island. She took the wind over her port quarter. It came in heavy gusts,
the Goldwing careening until her gunwale went under at every flaw.
"I don't know about this," said Thad.
"About what, Thad?" asked Dory quietly.
"We are about half under water. This is shaky sailing, in my opinion,"
added Thad, as a wave broke against the side of the boat, and drenched
most of the members of the club to the skin.
"We may get wholly under water before we get through with this trip,"
replied Dory. "But she will come up every time she goes down. For my
part, I never saw a boat work any better than the Goldwing is doing."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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