“To be sure they will. Squads of men will be sent out in every direction, and some of them will catch him too, unless he’s pretty smart. Tell him particularly to look out for Captain Mack. He’s the worst one in the lot. He can follow a trail with all the certainty of a hound, and no deserter except Don Gordon ever succeeded in giving him the slip. Now you take a walk about the grounds, and I will see what my friends think about this yacht business. I will see you again in fifteen or twenty minutes.”
So saying Jones walked off to join his companions, while Lester strolled slowly toward the gate. The latter was highly gratified by the promptness with which his idea (Huggins’s idea, rather) had been indorsed, but he wished he had not said so much about his ability to manage the yacht. He knew as much about sailing as he did about shooting and fishing, that is, nothing at all. He had never seen a pleasure-boat larger than Don Gordon’s. If anybody had put a sail into a skiff and told him it was a yacht, Lester would not have known the difference.
“It isn’t at all likely that my plan will amount to anything,” said Lester, to himself. “I suggested it just because I wanted the fellows to know that there are those in the world who are fully as brave as Don Gordon is supposed to be. But if Jones and his crowd should take me at my word, wouldn’t I be in a fix? What in the name of wonder would I do?”
It was evident that Lester was sadly mistaken in the boys with whom he had to deal, and he received another convincing proof of it before half an hour had passed. By the time he had taken a dozen turns up and down the long path, he saw Jones and Enoch Williams hurrying to meet him. The expression on their faces told him that they had what they considered to be good news to communicate.
“It’s all right, Brigham,” said Jones, in a gleeful voice. “The boys are in for it, as I told you they would be, and desired us to say to you that you could not have hit upon anything that would suit them better. I have been counting noses, and have so far found fifteen good fellows upon whom you can call for help any time you want it. They all agreed with me when I suggested that you ought to have the management of the whole affair.”
“Where did you learn yachting, Brigham?” asked Enoch.
“On the lakes,” replied Lester.
“Then you must be posted. I have heard that they have some hard storms up there occasionally.”
“You may safely say that. It is almost always rough off Saginaw bay,” answered Lester; and that was true, but he did not know it by experience. He had heard somebody say so.
“I am something of a yachtsman myself,” continued Enoch. “I brought my little schooner from Great South Bay, Long Island, around into Chesapeake bay. Of course my father laid the course for me, and kept his weather eye open to see that I didn’t make any mistakes; but I gave the orders myself, and handled the vessel.”