“You’ll find out pretty soon.”
The boys were all eagerness as they followed Ethan down to the dock. The boatman soon brought forth a small mast and sail, and as he spread the latter out on the ground, its peculiar shape at once impressed the interested beholders.
“What do you call that thing, Ethan?” inquired Bert.
“A sail.”
“Yes, I see; but what kind of a sail is it? I never saw one like it before.”
“Likely not. They don’t grow in cities. It’s a ‘bat wing.’”
The name was so appropriate that no one had any difficulty in understanding the cause of the term, but the boatman did not deign to make any further explanation and at once proceeded to fit the mast in one of the canoes.
“I only had one,” he explained, when the task was completed. “I can get another at the Bay, probably, and as I didn’t have time to stop there this mornin’ and see whether there was any letters for any o’ ye, if ye don’t object, I’ll take Jock along with me and sail over there now. I can show him a little how the thing’s managed on our way over, and then when I come back I’ll have a couple o’ the bat wings, an’ can let the rest o’ ye have a try, if ye want it.”
Jock protested that some other one of the boys should be permitted to have the first sail; but they all declared that he was the one to go, and so the lad took his place in the little canoe, and in a moment the light craft was speeding swiftly over the water in the direction of Alexandria Bay.