"I'll start you on the words, boys,--
'Haul the bow-line, Kitty is my darling;
Haul the bow-line, the bow-line haul.'
Sing and pull, boys."
The boys sang and the boys pulled, and there was a fierce straining on that bow-line; but no soft words about "Kitty" had any effect on the Relentless. It seemed as if this obdurate creature were moved by an ugly jealousy of "Kitty," and drifted on and on.
"It's of no use!" declared Dick. "I move we untie our rope and go ashore and let the old thing go. We have done what we could to get ashore."
He did not say that he had done what he could to get the Relentless adrift, and had fully succeeded. Dave did not twit him with the fact, but he was not ready to abandon the schooner.
Some of the boys murmured regrets about their "things." They did not want to forsake these.
"Well, boys," said Dick, with a boastful air, "I'll get you out of the scrape somehow. We might go on deck again, and hold a council of war and talk the situation over."
Any change was welcomed, and the boys scrambled on deck again. Dick was the last of the climbing column.
"Hand that painter up here and I'll make it fast," said Dave. "Then come up and we will talk matters over."