Lester, who had been on the point of entertaining his two friends by telling of some thrilling adventures that had befallen him during his imaginary cruise from Oswego to Duluth, opened his eyes and closed his lips when he heard this. He saw that his chances for making a hero of himself were growing smaller every hour. He was afraid to talk about fishing in the presence of his room-mate; he dared not speak of bears while he was in the hearing of Sam Kenyon; and it would not be at all safe for him to enlarge upon his knowledge of seamanship, for here was a boy at his elbow who had sailed his own yacht on deep water. He was doomed to remain in the background, and to be of no more consequence at the academy than any other plebe. He could see that very plainly.
“There’s a splendid little boat down there near the wharf,” continued Enoch, who was as deeply in love with the water and everything connected with it as Huggins was, although he had no desire to go before the mast. “I bribed her keeper to let me take a look at her the other day, and I tell you her appointments are perfect. I should say that her cabin and forecastle would accommodate about twenty boys. But this is cutter-rigged, and I don’t know anything about vessels of that sort; do you?”
“I’ve seen lots of them,” answered Lester.
“I suppose you have; but did you ever handle one?”
Lester replied that his own boat was a cutter; and when he said it, he had as clear an idea of what he was talking about as he had of the Greek language.
“Then we are all right,” said Enoch. “They look top-heavy to me, and I shouldn’t care to trust myself out in one during a gale, unless there was a sailor-man in charge of her. But if we get her and find that she is too much for us, we can send the yard down and make a sloop of her. It wouldn’t pay to have her capsize with us.”
Lester shuddered at the mere mention of such a thing; and while Enoch continued to talk in this way, filling his sentences full of nautical terms, that were familiar enough to him and quite unintelligible to Lester, the latter set his wits at work to conjure up some excuse for backing out when the critical time came. He was not at all fond of the water, he was afraid to run the risk of capture and punishment, and he sincerely hoped that something would happen to prevent the proposed excursion.
“Of course we can’t decide upon the details until the time for action arrives,” said Jones, at length. “But you have given us something to think of and to look forward to, and we are indebted to you for that. Now, let’s call upon your room-mate and see what we can do to help him.”
Lester led the way to his dormitory, and as he opened the door rather suddenly, he and his companion surprised Huggins in the act of making up a small bundle of clothing. He was startled by this abrupt entrance, and he must have been frightened as well, for his face was as white as a sheet.
“It’s all right, Huggins,” said Lester, who at once proceeded with the ceremony of introduction. “You needn’t be afraid of these fellows.”