CHAPTER XXIII.

HEADED OFF ON BOTH SIDES.

"Hold on there! What are you about?" shouted the officer, as the Goldwing filled away on the starboard tack. "We want to see Theodore Dornwood."

"I can't sail dead to windward," replied Pearl.

"You needn't sail at all," replied the officer. "Captain Gildrock wished to see Dornwood on a matter of the utmost importance: it is a case of life and death."

Dory was startled by these words. What could his uncle want of him? If anybody was dead, who was it? It might be his mother. His blood seemed to freeze in his veins as he thought of the possibility of such a terrible 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 borne across 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 which the question was put to him; and he had not lost an instant in relieving the 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 terrible load was removed from his mind almost as soon as laid upon it. He even began to think that the officer was playing a trick upon him to get him to 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 had answered Dory's question. "I want Theodore Dornwood. Will you give him up?"

This question was addressed to the skipper of the schooner, which was not more than a hundred feet from the boat.

"Yes, with the greatest pleasure," replied Pearl. "I will put him ash.o.r.e in here, and you can take him on board."

Dory heard this reply with astonishment and indignation. Pearl intended to put him ash.o.r.e, and then allow the boat from the steam-yacht to pick him up. If he could keep the boat from coming alongside, and thus prevent the officer from ascertaining the condition of things on board of the Goldwing, the Sylph would trouble him no more. If the business on which she came after Dory was a matter of life and death, Captain Gildrock would not be likely to molest him after he had accomplished his mission.

The Goldwing was now within a hundred yards of the sh.o.r.e. Through an opening in the land she was getting a better breeze, and was making at least four miles an hour. Dory saw that something must be done very soon. He had been released from his imprisonment so that the owner of the steamer should not see that he was in trouble. The boat from the steamer was not hurrying; for the officer seemed to be satisfied with the arrangement Pearl had proposed, to put the boy ash.o.r.e.

When the steamer's port boat saw that the schooner was cornered, she began to pull towards the scene of action. It had gone but a short distance from the vessel before she changed her course; but she still kept in position to head off the schooner if she attempted to escape to the eastward.

"Get ready to go ash.o.r.e, Dory Dornwood," said Pearl in one of his mild tones.

Dory made no reply. He was fully resolved not to do any thing of the sort. If he went on sh.o.r.e, and submitted to the villain's plan to escape from his pursuers, he could hardly expect ever to see the Goldwing again. But he considered it the safest way to say nothing about the purpose in his mind.

"You will tell the captain of the Sylph the state of things on board of this boat, Dory," said Peppers, who had no objection to the plan; for he thought Captain Gildrock would make a business of liberating him and his companion 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 board of the steamer," added Pearl. "Are you ready to go on sh.o.r.e?"

"If I must go on sh.o.r.e, I suppose I must," replied Dory in a non-committal way. "What is to become of my boat if I go ash.o.r.e?"

"You can have her again when I have done with her," answered Pearl in a coaxing tone; for, if he could get rid of his pursuers, he cared for nothing else just then.

"Where shall I be likely to find her?" asked Dory in a tone which indicated his incredulity.

"You will find her in Missisquoi Bay, on the northern sh.o.r.e, Dory; and she 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-board of the boat dragged in the sand on the bottom.

The skipper hastened to raise it, but a few moments later it struck again. Pearl hoisted it up as far as he could, and then kept the schooner away a few points; for she would no longer lie up to the wind as closely as before. In this way he succeeded in getting the boat within about a hundred feet of the sh.o.r.e, and then the Goldwing grounded on her bottom.

The water was not more than three feet deep at the stem of the boat, and it 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 pulling towards the schooner, and Peppers would soon have an audience to whom he could tell his story.

"I can't get any nearer the sh.o.r.e, Dory," said Pearl, not a little agitated. "You must jump into the water, and wade ash.o.r.e."

Dory leaped upon the forward deck, and Pearl probably thought he intended to adopt his suggestion, and wade to the beach. But the owner of the Goldwing had no intention of "giving up the ship" in any such manner. The sails hid Dory from the skipper, so that he could not see what he was doing; and, while Pearl was waiting to hear the splash when he went overboard, Dory grasped one of the stays, and climbed half way to the mast-head before his persecutor discovered what he was about.

"What are you doing up there?" demanded Pearl fiercely. "What are you about?"

"I want to see how far off the sh.o.r.e is," replied Dory, for the want of something more sensible to say.

"Come down this instant, you young villain!" yelled Pearl, whose hope of saving himself was thus endangered by the unexpected freak of the owner of 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 pa.s.sed his arm around the topmast.

"If you don't come down, I will shoot you!" stormed Pearl angrily, as he saw 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 the sound 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 the approaching boats. One of them was not thirty yards from the schooner, and the officer could hardly have helped hearing the threat of the skipper. The port boat had come near enough by this time to enable Dory to see that his uncle was in the stern-sheets.

"Give way, my lads, with all your might!" said the officer of the nearer boat, speaking with great energy, as though he meant to take a hand in the business on board of the Goldwing.

"Are you coming down, Dory Dornwood?" demanded Pearl, as he stopped on the forward deck of the schooner.

"I think I will come down," replied Dory, who had made up his mind not to run the risk of being shot; but he was satisfied that one of the boats 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 to enable the starboard boat to reach the schooner, and this was all he expected to accomplish by going aloft.

"Come, hurry up, Dory!" shouted the skipper, when he was about half way to the deck.

Dory immediately changed his movement, and began to ascend again.

"What are you about, you young cub? Are you going back again?" cried Pearl.

"You told me to hurry up," pleaded Dory, wishing to gain all the time he could.

"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 feet from the schooner.

"All right! I will be with you in a moment," answered Dory, as he descended to the deck with a reasonable degree of celerity.

But the boat was alongside the Goldwing as soon as he reached the forward deck. The officer leaped on deck without waiting for any ceremony. Pearl dropped into a seat in the forward part of the standing-room. He evidently realized that he had lost the game he had been 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 most obstinate young cub that ever floated on Lake Champlain. You can take him with you as quick as you please. I don't want any thing more of him."