"If she went over just here, she would go to the bottom in nearly four hundred feet of water. But she will not be allowed to play you such a trick as that. You might just as well drive your horse over a precipice as let the boat upset," said Dory confidently. "The boat is now down to her washboard; and it would not take much of a flaw to put the board under, and fill the standing-room with water," added Archie. "There comes a flaw; you can see it on the surface of the lake," replied the skipper. "Now see what Ash does." The gust of wind struck the sails; the boat heeled over till the water came up to the top of the washboard; but, as Ash pulled the wheel towards him, the head of the boat went to windward, and the pressure was eased off. Dory asked the helmsman to put the helm a little farther down. Then the sails all began to shake, and the sloop instantly came up to an even keel. "It looks easy enough," said Archie. "It is easy enough, if you only mind what you are about. It takes some strength at the wheel to keep her from doing that, as she carries a weather-helm; so that you can't upset her in the way I explained, unless you mean to do so," continued Dory. But Dory was a prudent skipper, and he ordered the jib-topsail to be taken in. Thus relieved, she went along swiftly and very comfortably. By nine o'clock they arrived at Plattsburg, and spent a couple of hours there. But they were more interested in sailing the boat than they were in wandering about the streets of the town, though they were much pleased with their visit to the beautiful garden of Fouquet's Hotel. The return-trip was about the same thing till the Goldwing was in the widest part of the lake, off Burlington. Then the black clouds began to roll up in vast masses in the west, and the skipper said they looked like wind. The gaff-topsail was taken in, the flying-jib was furled. The lightning was terrific, and the thunder suggested earthquakes. "We are in for it, sure," said Archie Pinkler; "and I don't like the looks of things about this time." "We are all of six miles from the land; and the wind is dying out, as it often does before a tempest; and there is no backing out," said Dory. "We shall have to take whatever comes, and do the best we can. The greenhorn, on board of a ship, when a sudden storm came up, said he thought he would take a biscuit, turn in, and call it half a day. He was not allowed to do so, and you will not. Our safety requires that every fellow should do his duty, and there is no shirking it." "But why don't you take in sail, Dory?" asked Archie nervously. "Because there is no need of it yet, and we may not have to take in sail at all. Why don't you take medicine before you get sick? You need not be nervous, Archie. We are all right; and I feel as much at home on board of the Goldwing, as I should in my room at Beech Hill."