"No, no!" shouted the students.

"We are on the water now, and it is more proper that the commodore should have the entire command. When we are on sh.o.r.e again, I will resume my office. I will obey all the commodore's orders now, and the rest of you will do the same."

I protested, but the general insisted. We finally agreed to the proposition, and for the time I became the commander of the expedition. Our first business was to float the steamer. Vallington went back to the engine-room, and I resumed my place at the wheel. I rang to back her, and the paddles slapped the water furiously for a time, but without producing any effect. The steamer had taken the ground harder than I supposed. She had run her bow upon the gradual slope of the bottom till the wheels were powerless to move her.

The boys looked at one another in blank dismay, and seemed to feel just as though the enemy were to "bag" them, as a sportsman does the game he has brought down. I did not despair yet. From the wheel-house I had surveyed the surroundings, and a plan had occurred to me by which I hoped to work the Adieno out of her uncomfortable position.

"No go," said Vallington, as we met together on the main deck.

"Not yet; but we won't give it up. The bow had dug into the bottom more than I supposed. We must carry a line ash.o.r.e, and make fast to one of those trees; then I think we can pull her off."

Bob Hale, with two others, was sent ash.o.r.e on the North Sister in the Splash, carrying the end of a long rope. When he had secured it to a large tree on the sh.o.r.e, I took the other end, the line pa.s.sing through a round hawse-hole forward, and conveyed it aft to the shaft.

After winding it four or five times round the shaft, I told the boys to haul it taut; and about twenty of them laid hold of the rope to "take in the slack," if we were fortunate enough to obtain any.

"Bully for you," said Vallington, as he comprehended my arrangement.

"If the rope don't break, something will come," I replied.

I had been obliged to join several ropes, in order to form one long enough; but having carefully avoided "granny knots," I hoped it would hold. The bearing of the line was at the hawse-hole, near the bow of the boat; and as the power was applied to the rope by turning the wheel and shaft, the tendency was to haul the forward end of the boat off the ground into the deeper water.

"All ready now, Vallington," I continued, when the preparations were completed. "Back her slowly."

He started the engine, as I directed.

"Haul taut on that rope!" I shouted to the boys at the line.

The wheels turned, and the shaft revolved. The rope groaned and strained.

"Stop her!" I added to the engineer, afraid to risk the strain. "Run aft the chain-box."

My orders were obeyed; and as the boat floated at her stern, the weight of the chain-box was sensibly felt.

"Back her slowly again," I continued.

Again the rope groaned and strained as though too much was expected of it.

"She starts!" cried the boys forward. "She is coming off!"

I heard the keel sc.r.a.ping upon the bottom; and as the rope wound up, the Adieno slid off into the deep water.

"Hurrah!" shouted the boys.

"Let go the rope!" I called to the boys aft. "Stop her, Vallington."

I hastened up to the wheel-house, the better to work her. I found she lay in good position to go ahead, and I shouted to Bob Hale to cast off the rope from the tree, directing the boys on the forward deck to haul it on board. I rang one bell, and the boat moved ahead slowly towards the wood pier. The boys cheered l.u.s.tily, and were overjoyed at our good fortune in getting out of the sc.r.a.pe. In a few moments I ran the bow of the steamer up to the pier, and she was made fast to the ring.

"Now we are all hunky-dory," said Tom Rush, who was rather given to "expressions," and who was overjoyed to find there was still a chance for an excitement.

"Not quite," I added.

"What's the matter now?"

"We want some dinner."

"You shall have it in half an hour."

And while Tom was superintending the cooking, Vallington, Bob Hale, and myself had a consultation in the wheel-house.

CHAPTER XXIV.

IN WHICH ERNEST ENGAGES IN AN EXCITING STEAMBOAT RACE.

"If you ask for my opinion," said Bob Hale, "I say we had better return to Parkville at once, and not wait to be driven back."

"It is easy enough for you to say that," replied Tom Rush, who had joined us. "You live there, and all you have to do is to go home; but what are the fellows who reside a hundred miles from there to do?"

"They will not be any worse off there than they will be here. The question is only between going back and being driven back," added Bob.

"I suppose that we are to acknowledge that breaking away has been a failure," said Vallington.

"Not at all; I, for one, won't have any more to do with Mr. Parasyte,"

answered Bob. "What do you say, Ernest?"

"I probably shall not go back to the Inst.i.tute, whatever happens," I replied. "My breaking away is not from school only, but from all the home I ever knew. I have been thrown out upon the world, to take care of myself."

For a moment my friends seemed to forget that we were in council to determine what should be done for the rebels in their sympathy for me; but I a.s.sured them I was not at all concerned about myself, and felt abundantly able to make my way without any help.

"But what an old humbug your uncle is!" said Tom.

"He is a strange man. He seemed to have turned me out because I displeased him in resisting Mr. Parasyte's injustice. He is afraid my conduct will lessen the value of his mortgage on the Parkville Liberal Inst.i.tute."

"I think Mr. Parasyte's conduct has lessened it," said Vallington.

"But all this is neither here nor there. What shall we do with this steamer?"

"Take her back to Parkville, and leave her there," answered Bob.

"What are the fellows to do?" asked Tom.

"Let them go back to the Inst.i.tute, and lie back till something happens."

"I don't believe anything will happen this year," laughed Tom, who was always light-hearted in any emergency.

"Now, I think something will happen within a few days. I know that certain persons in Parkville, who have long been dissatisfied with Mr.

Parasyte, intended to have a change months ago; and if I mistake not, this affair of ours will bring matters to a head," said Bob.