CHAPTER VII. AN UNSATISFACTORY CONFERENCE ON THE WAVES.
There was no crash when the Winooski struck the Dasher, and Dory had intended there should be none, or at least nothing more than a smart rap. His crew anticipated something more than followed the contact of the two boats.
"Hold on, you Tinkers!" yelled Wash Barker, rising in his seat in the stern-sheets of his boat. "You are running into us. You will smash our boat all to pieces!"
But the collision did not realize his fears, though his conduct caused his crew to cease rowing. The Dasher was a couple of lengths astern of the commodore's barge, and the instant the mighty official yelled they all stopped pulling and looked behind them. The Winooskis felt the jar of the stroke, but not one of them turned his head, as they might have been excused for doing.
"Give way, fellows!" called Dory, in an energetic command, to the astonishment of his own crew, and to the dismay of the coxswain of the Dasher.
But the crew of the Winooski obeyed the order, as they had promised to do, whatever broke. The command was given at the instant the two boats came together. The headway of the Dasher was checked, and the force with which the Beech Hill boat advanced carried her head around.
"Oars!" "Hold water!" "Stern all!" were the next commands of the coxswain of the Winooski, after he had set the Dasher to whirling in the waves.
The Chesterfield boat turned half around, so that she faced to the southward again. As soon as the Winooski had drawn back from her opponent, the crew lay upon their oars, the coxswain waiting for the issue of his last piece of strategy. He was evidently ready to do the same thing again, and Wash Barker began to look discouraged. His crew had held on to their oars when the boat was in the trough of the sea, but they had pulled them out of the water, or were trailing them alongside. At any rate they were in confusion, and the commodore could not extricate them from the dilemma.
Dory was patient, and his crew were in the highest state of enjoyment when they realized that the gentlemen from the collegiate institute were completely "euchred." After a great deal of loud talking, and talking back,—for every rower appeared to be a voluntary coxswain, the crew of the Dasher got their oars into position in the water. They were ready to pull again; but the commander of the fleet was in doubt and dismay. He was headed for the open lake. His boats were pitching at a lively rate in the waves.
He could not go ahead, for that led him into the dashing sea. He could not come about, for the Winooski was sure to give him another whirl, and might smash his craft the next time. His crew were jawing and gesticulating at him; one telling him to do this, and another to do that. Dory gave his crew permission to witness the scene; and they could not help realizing the benefit, not to say the blessing, of good discipline. The bow of the Winooski was not more than a length from the stern of the Dasher, and the bowman of the Racer had fastened his boathook to the bow of her consort. The dismay of Mad Twinker in the other boat seemed to be as deep as that of his fellow officer, and he had no counsel to give.
There was a multitude of counsellors in the Dasher. Several of them advised the coxswain to run into the Winooski, and about all that could be heard in the snarl wanted to smash her. Wash Barker had brains, and he seemed to be aware that he could do nothing of the sort, for the reason that the cool coxswain of the enemy would not let him.
"I say, Tinkers!" shouted Wash, who had evidently concluded what to do.
Dory was as dignified as George Washington when his title was ignored, and he refused to answer while he and his companions were called by an offensive name. Wash hailed several times in the same strain without getting a reply. His crew seemed to be tired of yelling at him, and there was a silence in the barge after the coxswain had called a dozen times to his opponent.
"Winooski, ahoy!" shouted some one in the boat, who had perhaps learned from some sea novel how to hail another craft.
"On board the Dasher!" replied Dory.
"Are you all deaf there?" demanded Wash Barker angrily, when he discovered that his opponent had the power of speech; "I have been yelling at you for half an hour."
"We don't answer to the name of Tinkers, Greasers, Chip-makers, or anything of that sort," returned the coxswain of the Winooski.
"Oh, you don't!" sneered Wash, when Dory had, with a couple of strokes of the oars, placed the stern of the barge within a few feet of that of the Racer.
"We do not. You have our clothes in your boat, and I will trouble you to return them to us," added Dory.
"Don't give them up!" yelled a fellow in the bow of the Dasher.
"No, no!" shouted half a dozen others; "don't give them up!"
This looked like war, and things had a stormy aspect ahead. But Dory decided to pay no attention to anyone but the officer of the boat.
"Hold on to the clothes!" shouted the students in the Racer, when they understood what was going on.
The commodore of the squadron was thus fully informed in regard to the state of feeling in both his boats. Whatever his own view, he seemed to be unable to stand up against his companions.
"Our clothes were taken from the shore while we were in the water, and, as we need them very much, I will thank you to return them," continued Dory, repeating his request in what some of his crew considered a very "gingerly" tone.
"Don't give them up!" yelled a crowd from both boats.
"You can hear what our fellows say to your request," replied Wash in a more pliable manner than he had yet assumed.
"I speak to you as the coxswain in charge of the boat, and I am waiting for your reply," added Dory. "The clothes belong to us, and I think you can have no doubt that they ought to be returned to the owners."
"Why don't you talk up to him, Wash?" shouted a student in the bow of the Dasher.
"We can't all talk at once, and you fellows keep up such a jaw that I can't get in a word edgeways," retorted the coxswain of the Dasher petulantly, for he evidently felt the force of Dory's hint that he ought to speak for his crew. "If I am to be the coxswain of the boat, I don't want every fellow to interfere with me, and take the words out of my mouth."
"You have got us into scrapes enough for one day," replied a rebellious oarsman in the middle of the boat.
"You want to crawl out like a lame chicken!" exclaimed another.
"I was elected coxswain; but you won't obey orders, or even treat me decently," answered Wash. "I have had enough of it, and I resign my office, to take effect at the present moment."
"You might as well! You don't know anything more about a boat than the rest of us," added one of the crew.
"I have nothing more to say," answered Wash Barker, with some show of dignity, as he left his seat at the tiller lines, and took another place. "Every fellow wants to be coxswain except me, and you may do what you please now."
Dory began to feel a higher degree of respect for the coxswain of the Dasher, and so did the rest of the crew of the Winooski. The Beech Hill boys were greatly interested in the dissensions among their opponents, and they could not help contrasting their own splendid discipline with that of the Chesterfields.
"Will you oblige me with the name of the coxswain of the other boat?" asked Dory, addressing the retired officer of the Dasher.
"His name is Madison Twinker, but we all call him Mad," replied Wash Barker.
"What did you tell him for, Wash?" yelled one of the gentlemanly students of the Chesterfield Collegiate Institute.
"I know how to answer a civil question," replied the late coxswain, as he settled down in his seat, and turned his back to his crew.
Dory directed his crew to pull a few strokes and thus enable him to secure a position within talking distance of the coxswain of the Racer.
Before he could speak to Mad Twinker, the members of his crew began to shout at him, telling him not to give up the clothes. The discipline in this boat was no better than in the other. Dory repeated his request to the remaining coxswain of the squadron.
"Don't give up the clothes!" yelled the crew.
"If you fellows are going to do the talking I have nothing to say, and I shall follow the example of Wash Barker," added Mad Twinker; and he plainly sympathized with his fellow coxswain who had resigned.
The Chesterfields did not like this answer, and they looked at one another with something like dismay on their faces.
"Go ahead, Mad! We won't say another word," said the stroke oarsman. The others made no promises, but for the time they were silent.
"I am waiting for your answer, Mr. Twinker," said Dory, when he thought it was time for the officer of the Racer to speak.
"Suppose I decline to return them," replied Mad, who found it necessary to say something, though it was clear that he had not decided what to say. "What then?"
"I don't care to consider any question but the return of the clothes," replied Dory.
"Our fellows are not ready to return your clothes, after the insults you have heaped upon us," answered Mad Twinker; and this answer was followed by a clapping of hands.
"Am I to understand that you refuse to return our property?" asked Dory gently but forcibly.
"We will compromise the matter if you like," suggested Mad Twinker, who did not like the cool manner of the coxswain of the Winooski. "If you will apologize for the insults heaped upon us, we will return the garments in as good condition as when they were taken."
"I am not aware that we have insulted you in a single instance, to say nothing of heaping insults upon you," replied Dory.
"We spoke to you twenty times, and you refused to answer us, or take the slightest notice of us," answered Mad, with energy, as though he believed he had made a valid charge; and he even got up a little indignation to go with it. "We invited you to race with us, and you would not deign to make any reply. We think we are entitled to a civil answer when we ask a question."
"Certainly you are when you ask a civil question; but every time you spoke to us you addressed us as 'Tinkers,' 'Greasers,' 'Chip-makers,' or some such insulting epithet. When we were insulted we simply maintained silence," answered Dory.
"Are you not Tinkers, Chip-makers, and Machine-greasers?" demanded Mad Twinker.
"Whatever we are, these names were applied to us as terms of reproach, and were insulting."
"We don't see it."
The Chesterfields clapped their hands again, as they had when the coxswain proposed the compromise. Just then the Gildrock was discovered pulling rapidly towards the scene.