The Rival Campers Afloat; or, The Prize Yacht VikingSmith, Ruel Perley
General
The Rival Campers Afloat; or, The Prize Yacht Viking
Smith, Ruel Perley
Boats and boating -- Juvenile fiction; Sea stories
He handed young Brackett a ten-dollar bill, which the boy pocketed
promptly. It seemed a queer transaction, but he was satisfied.
“And, say, don’t mention my name,” said Mr. Carleton, carelessly. “You
see, if a man that has any money is known to be looking for a particular
boat, they always put the price up.”
“All right, I won’t,” replied Harry Brackett.
“I hate to tackle that fellow, Harvey,” he thought, as he turned the
matter over in his mind. “But it’s worth trying for two hundred dollars.”
Then, in great elation, he proceeded to beat Mr. Carleton at the game;
though that person’s intimate friends, wherever they might be, would have
laughed at his attempts to make poor shots instead of good ones. It pays
to be a loser sometimes, was his way of looking at it. At least, he and
Harry Brackett parted excellent friends.
The day came in warm and pleasant down in the Thoroughfare, and the boys
were early astir.
“Any more swimming to do to-day, Henry?” inquired George Warren, as the
fires were building in the cabin stoves, preparatory for breakfast.
“Only a plunge for one of us,” answered Henry. “I’ll do that. And that
reminds me; I’d better do it before breakfast, for one doesn’t want to
swim right after eating. Just throw us a line and trip your anchor, and
we will draw you up close astern of the _Surprise_, opposite us.”
The Warren boys did as he requested, and the two boats were soon almost
side by side, astern of the sunken yacht. Then Henry Burns, getting
George Warren to unhook the tackle from the throat of the mainsail of the
_Spray_, did likewise aboard the _Viking_. Taking the two pieces of
tackle in hand, while the boys let the halyards run free, he ducked down
at the stern of the sunken yacht and hooked in the tackle to one of the
stout ropes that had been passed under the boat’s keel.
“That will do till after breakfast,” he said, coming to the surface and
clambering out aboard the _Viking_.
“No, let’s have a pull on the thing now,” exclaimed Harvey. “I’m eager to
see the old _Surprise_ above water—that is, if she is going to float.”
“All right,” said Henry Burns. “Come on, fellows.”
The boys on each yacht caught hold of the halyards with a will, and
hoisted as they would have done to raise the throat of the mainsail. The
tackle, hooked on to the stern of the sunken yacht, was at first as so
much dead weight on their hands. Then, of a sudden, it began to yield
ever so little, and the halyards began to come home.
“She’s coming up, boys!” cried Harvey, gleefully. “Pull now, good and
hard.”
But the next moment something seemed to have given way. The ropes ran
loose in their hands, and the boys that held the ends sprawled over on
the decks.
“Oh, confound it! The rope must have slipped off the stern,” exclaimed
Harvey.
“No, it hasn’t,” cried Henry Burns, joyfully. “There she comes to the
surface. Look! Look! Quick, get in the slack of the ropes and make them
fast.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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