CHAPTER VI. THE COXSWAIN OF THE WINOOSKI INDULGES IN MORE STRATEGY.
The Chesterfields were struggling with all their might at their oars. They appeared to have no idea of the speed of the Winooski, and evidently entertained the idea that they could run away from her when they exerted themselves to the utmost. But Wash Barker and Mad Twinker, the coxswains, had apparently learned one thing: and this was that their crews could not handle the boats so well in rough as in smooth water.
The cove where they had stolen the clothes of the Beech Hill boys was at the narrowest part of the lake, where it was not more than a mile wide. Even here they had kept under the lee of the shore, and had been in very little troubled water. Half a mile below the cove was Northwest Bay, where the lake is four miles wide. The Chesterfield Collegiate Institute was on the north shore of the bay, near the point where the lake begins to contract its width.
There was silence on board of the Winooski, though the young gentlemen in the two barges were yelling as much as they could while exerting themselves at the oars. The latter were in great glee, and seemed to be in the highest enjoyment of the situation. Dory studied the movements of the two boats, and soon satisfied himself that their coxswains were hugging the northwest shore, so as to avoid the heavy sea, which prevailed at even less than half a mile from land. Dory decided to block this game, and he headed the Winooski to the windward of the enemy.
Such a contest could hardly be called a race, for the vastly superior pulling of the crew of the Winooski allowed her crew to have it all their own way. Though the Chesterfields did not yet understand it so, the Beech Hill boat could easily pull around them.
"Good, fellows! You are pulling first rate," said Dory, when the boat had obtained the position in which the coxswain wished to place her. "We are abreast and exactly to windward of them now."
"What is coming next, Dory?" asked Life Windham; and all the crew had an interest in the question.
"I don't know: it all depends upon circumstances," replied Dory. "Now pull your regular easy stroke; and we can readily beat them with that. Things will come to a head very soon."
The crew took the easy and graceful stroke indicated, but this produced a greater speed than the Chesterfields could make with their utmost exertion. Dory changed the course of the Winooski as she went ahead of the Racer, so that she would gradually approach the enemy.
In a few minutes it was evident that the Beech Hill boat would be in the water of the other boats, and Wash Barker headed his craft farther to the southward. This was just what Dory wanted him to do. He diminished the speed of the Winooski still more, and continued to crowd into the water of the Dasher until the latter was headed to the south, or out into the rough sea.
Wash Barker, who appeared to act as the commodore of the squadron,—Mad Twinker, in the Racer following his lead,—could not help seeing the result of these manœuvres, whether he comprehended their purpose or not. The white-caps were before him, and he knew that his crew made bad work in the waves. Already the Dasher was beginning to pitch, and the spray to swash in over her stern. But it looked to him just then as though, if he headed for the shore, the sharp bow of the Winooski would cut his craft into two pieces.
Wash tried several times to get out of the scrape, but the Beech Hill boat looked like a streak of lightning to him, and he did not want it to come any nearer to him. He was soon compelled to give it up as a bad job: his pursuer would allow him to go only to the southward. But Wash had brains if he didn't know much about handling a boat. The force of the waves was increasing every length he went in the present direction.
Dory heard him shout to Mad Twinker, but he could not understand what he said. A moment later the Dasher began to head more to the eastward, the Racer taking the same course. The commodore had evidently decided to get about in the opposite direction. Dory followed him up closely till the two barges were in the trough of the sea, and began to roll instead of pitching as before. The rowers on the lee side, as the boats careened in that direction, had their looms thrown out of the rowlocks. Some of them went over backwards, and some of them, in their efforts to save themselves, lost their oars overboard.
In a word, the crews of both the Chesterfield barges were in a fearful snarl. The boats continued to roll in the heavy waves, and Dory thought it not unlikely that his crew would be called upon to save the collegiate gentlemen from being drowned. Of course it was nothing but clumsiness which had reduced them to this extremity.
The crew of the Winooski were in a position to see all that occurred to the unfortunate barges; for Dory, as soon as he saw what Wash had intended to do, had come about in the opposite way from that taken by the other barges. When his boat was headed into the wind, he called upon the crew to lay upon their oars.
"That's a bad egg for them," said Life, chuckling at the misfortune of the enemy.
"There are three of their oars floating off into the lake," Phil Gawner added.
"Don't you think we had better go out and tow them in, Dory?" laughed Ned Bellows.
"Until they get overboard, we will continue to mind our own business; but if they need help we must do all we can for them," replied the coxswain. "While we are waiting we might as well run out and pick up their oars."
The orders were given to start again, and the Winooski dashed out into the heavy waves. Dory discovered two more oars which had been lost by the Racer. The two bowmen were directed to pick them up when they came to them, and the five were quickly secured. They were stowed away under the thwarts.
By this time the Chesterfield barges were in condition to make another effort to reach the shore, or to get into smooth water. Wash Barker was yelling at his crew, and striving to bring order out of confusion. Mad Twinker was doing the same in the Racer; though neither of them had any brilliant success. But at last they got the remnant of their oars into the water. Then it was found that the three oars had all been lost from the starboard side of the Dasher, and Wash proceeded to bring about an equilibrium in his propelling force.
When the Winooski had picked up the oars, Dory took her to a position between the barges and the shore. He did not regard the battle as ended; in fact it had hardly begun, though the coxswain considered his tactics a success thus far. After a great deal of loud talk on the part of the coxswains, and a great deal of "talking back" on the part of the crews, the Chesterfields were in condition to resume their effort to reach the shore.
Just as soon as the Dasher began to move through the water, Wash found the sharp bow of the Winooski pointed towards his boat. He was afraid of it, and he allowed himself to be crowded off his course precisely as he had before. It took but a few minutes to put his boat into the trough of the sea again, and she began to roll in a manner very trying to the nerves of the inexperienced boatmen.
The Chesterfields held on to their oars this time, though they stopped rowing. But they did not stop rowing by order of the coxswain. In fact there was a mutiny in the Dasher. The crew ceased to pull of their own accord, and proceeded to pitch into the coxswain for getting them into a scrape a second time. But Wash was a gentleman of energy and decision, and in the matter of "jaw" he soon overcame his refractory crew, and got his boat headed to the shore again.
By this time he comprehended the tactics of the Beech Hill boat, and realized that Dory's purpose was to drive him into the rough water. He appeared to be in an angry frame of mind, and he cast savage glances at the Winooski. Dory continued to ply his strategy of crowding the Racer off her course. But her coxswain had evidently decided not to be shoved off again, though it looked as though the Winooski would dash into her bow the next instant.
"Halloo, Tinkers!" shouted Wash; "If you don't keep out of my way I'll run into you."
Dory made no reply to this threat, though it was uttered in a very savage tone, as though the speaker meant all that he said. The Winooski continued on her course towards the Dasher, her naked crew pulling their steady stroke, but not one of them looking behind him to see when the crash was coming.
"Oars!" said the coxswain, in a low but very decided tone. "Hold water!"
At the first command the oarsmen poised their blades at right angles with the gunwale; at the second they dropped them into the water, holding them in this position with a firm grasp. The effect was to check the progress of the boat. But this did not stop the boat, as the coxswain desired to do.
"Stern all!" he added; and the crew began to pull backwards.
A couple of strokes were all that were necessary to overcome the remaining headway of the barge, and she rested in the position Dory had chosen for her. Wash Barker was evidently very nervous, though he saw that the Winooski had come to a standstill. The stem of the latter was pointed at her at an angle of forty-five degrees, but she was not directly in the course of the Dasher. Wash thought he had space enough to pass to the eastward of her, and perhaps he concluded that his threat had been effective in stopping his rival.
"Clap on that head bunter, Thad!" called Dory to the bowman.
The article indicated was a kind of cushion covered with a network of small rope. It was used when the boat was in danger of striking her stem against any hard substance, as in boarding the steamer, or making a landing at a wharf. Thad Glovering put the bunter in position; and the call for it indicated to the crew that there was danger of a collision.
The bunter had no significance to Wash, who believed he had won a victory in bringing his opponent to a standstill. He kept his course, and fully expected to pass clear of the Winooski. Dory watched the Dasher with the utmost care, and it was plain enough that he intended to do something.
"You are doing first rate, fellows," said the coxswain, with his gaze fixed upon the Dasher. "Now is the time to remember what you have promised, and I want you to keep up the discipline clear to the handle."
"We won't slip up the hundredth part of an inch, Dory," replied Phil Gawner. "Propel!"
"Ready! Give way!" called Dory, after a pause of a moment. "But only two or three strokes!"
The crew gave a few vigorous strokes in perfect time, and doubtless Wash wondered what was coming next.
"Oars!" said the coxswain, sharply. "Hold water!"
The progress of the barge was checked when she was within ten feet of the Racer. Then Dory ordered his crew to give way again. The stem of the Winooski struck the bow of the Chesterfield barge.