CHAPTER VII. AN EXPEDITION BY MOONLIGHT.
The Sylph lay at the new wharf, and as soon as the students had put on their uniforms they went on board of her. Chief-engineer Minkfield was directed to get up steam at once. Captain Dornwood ordered one of the quarter boats to be lowered into the water and manned. Taking Thad Glovering, the first officer, with him, he embarked.
At the order of the coxswain the bowman shoved off, and the oars were dropped into the water. The boat was pulled up the little lake to the stone quarries. Mr. Miker, the lessee of the quarries, had made good use of some of the ideas of Bolly Millweed, the architect of the boat-house. The caisson, on which the stone posts for the foundations of the structure had been transported, had suggested to him the building of a huge raft, or scow.
He called the craft a "gundalow," which appears to be a corruption of gondola, though the affair bore but little resemblance to the airy boat of the Venetians. It was fifty feet long and sixteen feet wide. It was decked over and caulked, so that it was as tight as a ship on the ocean. It had a stow-hole at each end; but these compartments were perfectly tight, so that if any water flowed into them it could not get into the large middle chamber upon which the craft depended for its power of flotation.
When heavily loaded with stone, the deck was only a few inches above the level of the water outside. Mr. Miker's principal market for the production of the quarries was at Genverres, though he had sold a large quantity of stone to be delivered in Burlington. In the centre of the deck was a derrick, which was used as a mast when the gundalow went out upon Lake Champlain. She was provided with a large, square sail, but it could be used only when the wind was fair.
On her trips to Genverres she was poled by four or six men, and made very slow progress. But Captain Gildrock had offered Mr. Miker the use of the Sylph to tow her when he wished, for this was nothing but fun to the ship's company, and, as it looked like business to them, they enjoyed it more than mere sailing without a purpose.
The principal made no charge for the use of the steamer, and Mr. Miker was grateful for the service rendered by the yacht and the students. The gundalow was just the thing Captain Dornwood wanted for the operations of the night. When the boat reached the quarry, the captain went on board and measured it. But the derrick was in the way, and unless it could be removed, the craft would be useless to him.
Returning to the boat, he proceeded farther up the creek, to a point near Mr. Miker's house. Landing again, he found the quarryman in his garden. He stated his business. Of course he could have the use of the gundalow, and the derrick could be taken out of her. The man of stone was enthusiastic to serve the students, and he did not even ask to what use the craft was to be applied, though Dory volunteered the information that the plan he was to carry out was approved by the principal.
Mr. Miker hastened to summon all his men, who lived near the quarries, and by eight o'clock they were on the deck of the gundalow. But it was no small undertaking to remove the derrick, for the mast was a very heavy spar, and was stepped in the bottom of the scow.
The rigging and the long arm were taken from it, and then one of the movable derricks used in the quarries was brought on deck, and guyed up for work. With the aid of this machinery the mast was taken out, and deposited on the shore. The mast-hole was covered with a tight scuttle made for the purpose, and the gundalow was adapted to the business for which she was to be used in the expedition to Sandy Point.
By this time it was nine o'clock, and the moon was just beginning to cast its silvery light upon the still waters of the little lake. Captain Dornwood promised to return the scow to the quarries before morning; but Mr. Miker said he should not use her for a week, and the captain could keep her as long as he wished.
"We shall want a lot of blocks, planks, and timbers, but we have plenty of them on the school grounds, though we shall have to lug them a considerable distance to put them on board of the gundalow," said Captain Dornwood, as he was about to step into the boat.
"Hold on then, Dory! I have everything you can possibly want in that line," interposed Mr. Miker. "The students have saved my men a vast deal of hard work in towing the gundalow, and they will be glad to put all the lumber you need on board of the scow."
"That we will!" exclaimed several of the men in the same breath.
"I don't want to give you and your men, who have been at work all day, any unnecessary trouble," added Dory.
"No trouble at all!" protested the men, as they began to put the timbers on board.
Dory was very grateful to them, and pointed out the kind of stuff he wanted, including a large pile of rollers used in moving heavy blocks of stone. In half an hour the gundalow was loaded with the materials Dory had indicated. In the little time at his disposal, the energetic leader of the enterprise had made a list of the material he was likely to require. He had been at work, while the men were loading the blocks and planks, with his pencil and paper, and had thought of several things that were of prime importance.
"I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Miker, and I shall be still more so, if you will lend us eight jack-screws, for we have not enough of them at the shops," continued Dory.
"Are you going to move a meeting-house, Dory?" asked the quarryman, laughing.
"We are going to do something of that sort," replied the leader of the enterprise. "But I don't let on just yet."
"All right; you know what you are about every time, and it is best to keep your mouth shut, in ease you should not succeed as well as you expect. I have a dozen rather small jack-screws, and I will have all of them put on the deck of the gundalow," added Mr. Miker, as he ordered his men to bring them from a shanty where they were kept under lock and key.
"I will see that everything is brought back again before morning," said Dory, as he stepped into his boat, and gave the order to return to the Sylph.
It was now nearly ten o'clock on as beautiful an evening as ever gladdened the heart of any night wanderers. The full moon gave an abundance of light, and the operations of the students could be as readily conducted as in the day-time. Everything that would be needed, with the exception of a few coils of rope, was on board of the gundalow. A party was sent to the shops for them; and when these necessary articles were obtained, the fasts were cast off, and the steamer stood up to the quarries.
The gundalow had been so often towed by the Sylph, that the business was perfectly understood. In a few moments more she was made fast to the steamer by the double tow-lines, so that the awkward craft could be steered even around a corner without any difficulty. Will Orwell, the second officer, was detailed to take charge of a party of six on board of the tow. But before the steamer got under way again, Captain Dornwood called all hands together on the forward deck.
"Now we shall know what sort of a racket this is going to be," said Dick Halifax, as they hastened to the place of meeting.
"No, you won't," replied Dick Short, to whom the remark was addressed. "You won't know anything at all about it until we come to the work to be done."
"Why don't he tell us what we are to do?" asked Dick. "I should like to know something about it."
"It was a trick of Captain Gildrock to keep his business to himself, and Dory takes after him. The principal thinks the fellows can obey orders better when they don't know what is coming than they can when they understand all about it. Every fellow thinks he knows best how to do almost anything."
"I don't know but he is right. I never saw a horse tumble down in the street, but every one of the crowd around him wanted to boss the job of getting him on his feet again," added Dick.
"I have called you together, fellows, to say that it will be necessary to keep as still as possible on the expedition of to-night;" said Captain Dornwood, when the ship's company had all gathered on the forward deck. "I don't know that a noise would defeat our plans, but I am very much afraid it would cause us some trouble. I don't believe in any yelling when we are on duty, but I fear it would make mischief to-night. Please to observe this request in the strictest possible manner."
"Where are we going, Captain Dornwood?" asked Bark Duxbury, one of the new students.
"Going to work now," replied the captain with a smile. "All hands to their stations."
The ship's company separated, and all the officers and seamen went to the places where they belonged. Though no meals were to be served during the night, so far as was known, the cooks went to the galley, and the stewards to the forward cabin. The second officer, with his gang, went on board of the gundalow, and at the order from the captain the pilot on duty rang the bell to back her. By this movement the scow was hauled out from the wharf, and the bell to go ahead was given.
Mr. Miker and some of his men stood on the shore watching the departure of the expedition, and wondering what sort of a mission the students were going upon at that time in the evening. But the Sylph and her tow soon disappeared beyond the trees at the lower end of Beechwater. Dory was on the hurricane deck, keeping a sharp lookout upon everything that was done.
At the V-point the pilot slowed down without any order from the captain, and the scow was switched around it without touching the mud. There was now nothing to do outside of the engine-room and pilot-house; and the crew gathered into companies in various parts of the deck to speculate upon the nature of the expedition in which they were engaged. They guessed a hundred things. The crew of the Goldwing were pretty sure they were going to Sandy Point.
The Sylph was approaching the mouth of the river, and it would soon be necessary for Captain Dornwood to say something. For, if the expedition was bound to the northward, she would take that course as soon as she came up with the point on that side of the river; if she was going to the southward, she would have to keep her present course half a mile farther out into the lake to avoid the shoals off Field's Bay.
Oscar Chester and Dick Short, the latter of whom had been promoted from a deck-hand to the position of second pilot, were in the pilot-house. No order came to alter the course at the north point, but a few minutes later the captain entered the pilot-house.
"We are bound to Sandy Point," said he; and the head of the steamer was turned to the southwest.
In less than half an hour, the Sylph was close in to the end of the point, and Dory discovered Paul on the shore. The steamer was headed into the bay, and the gundalow brought up to a point directly in front of the cottage.