Adventure stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Sailing -- Juvenile fiction; Ship captains -- Juvenile fiction
While he was hoping the chase was ended on the part of his uncle, the
Goldwing came up with the south-west point of the large island. Beyond
it the sea looked very ugly, and it would shake the schooner up in a
very lively manner in the next mile and a half she had to make. Dory did
not care to take any needless risks; and, if the steamer had given up
the chase, he intended to get under a lee, and anchor till morning.
He looked back once more before the boat reached a position where he
could not see the other side of the lake. To his regret he saw the
Sylph just coming into view beyond Ladd's Point. She had not given it
up. He wished he had made another half mile, and then she could not have
seen the schooner; for she would have been behind the island. She could
see him plainly enough now, and she headed for the south of Ball Island.
Having passed through the channel between the islands, the weather there
proved to be a perfect muzzler. The Goldwing labored heavily in the
angry chop sea, and it was all Dory could do to keep her right side up.
In a few minutes more it seemed quite impossible to do so, and Dory let
go the mainsail halyards. Whether he was caught or not, he could no
longer carry all sail. He had put the schooner before it, but he had to
come up into the wind to get in the mainsail.
The young skipper's calculations had been within bounds, and he could
afford the time he spent in reducing sail. With more experience he would
have taken in sail from choice rather than necessity, for a boat don't
sail any faster by being crowded with more sail than she can carry. The
foresail was a large one, and it almost becalmed the jib. It was all the
sail she needed, and Dory soon saw that he was going faster than at any
time before.
A run of a mile and a half more brought the boat up with the extreme end
of St. Alban's Point. An eighth of a mile west of it was a small island.
Here was another of those channels which the low water rendered
available for the purpose of the skipper in eluding his swift pursuer.
The channel was about four feet deep; and Dory hauled in the fore sheet,
and went through it. Under the lee of the island the skipper found the
water quiet. Throwing the boat up into the wind, he ran forward, and
hauled down the jib. Then he threw over the anchor, leaving the foresail
set.
It was getting dark, and the manoeuvring could not be kept up much
longer. It would be fifteen or twenty minutes before the Sylph could
come up with St. Alban's Point. The Goldwing was behind the island, and
he did not think the people on board of her would discover where she
was. If they did, she could not follow him through the shoal passage. If
she got out her boats again, he could run off to the northward under the
foresail. All he had to do was to watch and wait.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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