CHAPTER XV. "ROLL ON, SILVER MOON."
For about three-quarters of an hour the three barges had waited, pulling just enough to keep their heads up to the sea. By this time, the ladies had become accustomed to the motion of the boats; and, in spite of their wet and bedraggled condition, they began to be very jolly. The long boats rose and fell with the waves, and occasionally the spray was dashed over the bows, and carried the whole length of the craft. At last, they began to sing, and the students joined them. It was getting to be a very merry time on the rough waters, but the confidence of the crews inspired the ladies with courage.
As soon as the Silver Moon was free from her burden of water, Dory examined the sail, and, finding it all right, he shoved off. As Paul Bristol had said, the Silver Moon was about the size of the Goldwing, and was a very good boat.
"I have not the least idea that you can sail this boat over to Westport in this blow," said Bissell, as Dory shoved the sloop out of the shoal water.
"What's to prevent?" asked the new skipper coldly.
"It blows too hard, and the sea is too heavy for any boat, I don't care how good she is," answered the owner of the Silver Moon. "I think this boat is as good as any of them, but I had rather walk twenty miles than cross Lake Champlain in her in this blow."
"The sloop belongs to you, sir, and you can do as you please about crossing," answered Dory. "You can anchor and stay here till to-morrow if you like."
"Do you think it is safe to cross the lake in a sailboat when the wind blows as it does now, and has since ten o'clock?" asked Bissell.
"I have been off Burlington, where the lake is twelve miles wide, when the sea was a good deal worse than it is here, and I did not think I was in any greater danger than if I had been on shore."
"If you are not afraid, I ought not to be," added the owner of the craft, evidently laboring to stimulate his courage. "I guess I will risk it, as those barges will be near enough to pick us up if anything happens."
"All right," answered Dory, as he hauled down the sheet, and let the boat go ahead. "Why did you come out in such a blow, if you don't think it is safe?"
"The girls hadn't anything to do to-day, and wanted to go down to Port Henry. We started at six o'clock this morning, and got there at eight. It began to blow pretty hard by nine, and we started back, though we intended to stay at the Port all day. I got along very well, though the girls were scared, till we got down to Barber's Point; and after that it blew like tophet."
"You had the full rake of the wind across North West Bay then," added Dory.
"Yes; and I had to beat all the way home right against it," continued the skipper. "I thought we should tip over every minute. If I let her off enough to make her go ahead, she tipped so that the girls all screamed. When I was half way over to Button Island I tacked, but the boat would not come about. She lay there with her sail banging. Then the wind caught the sail again, and tipped her so she took in some hogsheads of water. She got in between the waves, and began to roll like a chip. I thought it was time to haul down the sail, and I went forward to do so. Then the main sheet run out, and I couldn't get it again."
"It was a bad situation," added Dory, as Bissell paused and looked at him, apparently as if to ascertain what he thought of the skipper's management; but Dory expressed no opinion.
"I let go the peak halyard, and did the best I could to get the boom in, but I couldn't do a thing with it. The boat kept rolling in the water all the time, and I had to take the bucket and bale with all my might. I was afraid to haul the sail down then, for it would have gone into the water, and helped drag her over on one side."
Dory, as an expert, had a very decided opinion in regard to the skipper's management; but he did not feel called upon to express it, for Bissell was an obstinate man, and he did not care to dispute with him. The Silver Moon was running out close-hauled from the lee of Button Island, which carried her to windward of the fleet of barges. Dory had taken the helm when she got under way; and as long as the skipper did not object, he retained it.
"The boat don't work very well without the jib, and that was what made all the trouble," continued the skipper. "But it blowed so like all possessed, that I couldn't carry it."
Dory doubted whether this was all, or even the principal trouble, but he made no remark. He was not satisfied with the working of the boat, and without saying anything to the skipper, he put her about, and ran back to the lee of the island. Getting her forefoot on the sand far enough to hold her, he let go the halyards, and lowered the mainsail a few feet.
"What are you going to do now?" asked Bissell, who had watched the movements of the acting skipper with interest and anxiety.
"I am going to put a single reef in the mainsail. Where do you keep the reef pendant?" replied Dory.
The skipper had no reef pendant, and probably did not know what it was. But Dory found a couple of ropes which answered his purpose. Having lashed down the clew and tack, with the assistance of Paul, he tied the reef-points. Hoisting the sail up to a good set, he shoved off with the boat-hook, and was soon standing out from the shore again. Keeping his place at the helm, Dory stood out to the fleet of barges. The wind had not abated a particle of its force, and even with the reef in the mainsail, she was inclined to bury herself in the waves. Dory was not yet satisfied, and under his direction Paul pulled up a couple of loose boards in the floor of the standing-room, and lifted out a couple of cast-iron blocks of ballast. These were placed in the stern, and the bow was lifted a little more out of the water.
"What's all that for?" asked Bissell.
"To change her trim a little," replied Dory. "She was ballasted too much by the head. She works better now."
The sloop was less inclined than before to bury her bow in the waves, and was more buoyant forward. She dashed ahead at a gallant speed, and in a few minutes she was approaching the barges. The passengers in the stern sheets of the boats were very merry by this time, and seemed to be actually enjoying the motion of the boats. As the sloop came within hail of the barges, the ladies struck up "Roll on, silver moon," in which all the students who could sing joined, and it made a very effective chorus.
"Very appropriate," said Dory, laughing; "but she don't do that now. She has done rolling for the present."
"The girls are jolly enough now; and they don't seem to be a bit scared," added Bissell.
"Will you take them on board again?" asked the acting skipper.
"I don't know; what do you think?"
"If you don't know, you had better leave it to them," replied Dory. "Hail them, and ask them what they will do."
"I say, girls, are you ready to come on board of the Silver Moon?" called Bissell, in a loud voice, as the sloop passed astern of them.
"No!" screamed the whole of them, almost with one voice. "We are going back to Westport in the barges," added one of them.
"Just as you like," returned Bissell.
"Roll on, silver moon," the girls struck up again, and the boys took up the chorus with enthusiasm.
"That settles it," added Bissell.
"Then we may as well return to the Marian, Paul," said Dory.
"I am ready to do just as you say," replied the spare hand.
"You don't mean to leave me, do you?" demanded Bissell, aghast at the proposition. "I don't want you to go."
"I thought you might prefer to handle your own boat," suggested Dory.
"I guess I'd rather have you take her over to Westport, if you will," replied the skipper, anxiously.
"Even if we remain on board of the sloop, you had better take the helm," added Dory, who had some curiosity to see how Bissell worked the boat.
"I'd rather have you steer her. I don't know but you can manage her better than I can."
"You ought to be able to handle your own boat better than any one else can. You have sailed her more than any other person, and a boat is something like a horse, and does better in the hands of one who is used to her."
"I bought the Silver Moon last year, and got a man to show me how to manage her. I was out in her every day last summer, but I never went out when it blew very hard. Folks say it is dangerous sailing on Lake Champlain, there are so many currents and flaws from the hills."
"There is no doubt about the flaws and currents, but I look upon them as bugbears. A skipper must keep his craft in hand all the time, and then he is ready for flaws and squalls."
"One of the girls has taken your place at the stroke oar, Dory," said Paul, who was watching the barges as they began to move over the savage waves.
"So I see," replied Dory. "Dick is coaching her, and I have no doubt she will make good my absence."
"It is Susy Wellington; and she knows how to row better than most of the men," added Paul.
At this moment, the acting skipper went in stays, and though he had given her a good full, he had some doubts about her; but she came up to the wind handsomely, and went on the port tack as promptly as the Goldwing could have done it. As she filled away, she heeled over till her washboard was almost buried; but she righted a little in a moment, and dashed off on her course like a racehorse. She rose and fell on the waves, with her gunwale under all the time, but with eight inches of washboard above the water.
The wind was rather flawy, and, of course, the boat heeled over more when the puffs struck her, so that most of the washboard was sometimes under water. But the sloop, in her altered trim, was as steady as an old horse on a smooth road. As the Silver Moon was close-hauled, she struck the seas constantly; and the waves broke with no little noise against her bows, tossing the spray from stem to stern.
Bissell watched the lee washboard all the time, and seemed to be very nervous. He did not heed the singing in the barges, which greatly interested the acting skipper. The owner evidently expected the sloop would ship a sea every moment, which would fill her half full of water as she had been before. But she tore along on her course without taking in a drop of water over her lee side, unless when a wave broke there, and spit the spray over the washboard.
"You will put the Silver Moon on the bottom before you get her over to Westport," said Bissell, when he could hold in no longer, and his mental excitement had become intense.
"I certainly shall not do it after we get to Westport," replied Dory, with a smile. "But if you wish to take the helm, of course you can do so. I suppose you can swim, Paul?"
"I could swim in Sandy Bay, but I don't think I could in these waves," answered Paul.
"I don't think it is safe to sail along in this way with the gunwale under water all the time," said Bissell, as the water rose nearly to the top of the washboard.
"Then you take the tiller, Mr. Bissell," replied Dory, rising and offering his place on the weather-side to the skipper.
Bissell was clearly full of doubts, but he took the tiller. His first movement was to put the helm down a little, so that the reefed mainsail began to shake slightly, and of course the gunwale was lifted out of the water. He kept the tiller shaking all the time, as the boat was in danger of broaching to.
When he had steered about a quarter of an hour, it was seen that the barges were rapidly overhauling the Silver Moon, though she gained on them while Dory had the tiller. But it was necessary to tack, and the skipper put the helm hard down. The sail shook, and the boat did precisely what Dory knew she would do—she miss-stayed, and then began to roll in the trough of the sea. She had little headway when the helm was put down, and her momentum was not sufficient to carry her around against the head sea.
The water began to roll into her on the sides; but Dory seized one of the oars, and with a few smart pulls, threw her head up into the wind. The instant the sail began to fill, which it did with a rush, Bissell put his helm hard down. Dory plied the oar once more.
"I wish you would take the helm again," said Bissell.
"I will, if you say so," replied Dory, who had entirely satisfied his curiosity in regard to the seamanship of the skipper.