“Wait until August and we will all go with you,” said Jones.
“I can’t and I shan’t. I have waited long enough already. I have seen quite enough of this school.”
These were the sentiments of a good many of the students, who gradually drew over to Lester’s side, and when the latter had run his eye over them, he found that there were an even dozen who were willing to stand by him.
“Whose side are you on, Enoch?” inquired Lester.
He waited with considerable anxiety for the reply, for he knew that a good deal depended upon Enoch Williams. He was to be first officer of the yacht, when they got her (the real commander, in fact, for Lester, who was to be the captain, didn’t know the starboard rail from the main truck) and if Lester could induce him to come over to his side, the rest of the boys would probably come with him.
“I go with the majority,” answered Enoch. “The most of the fellows have declared against your plan, and if they are going to the celebration, I am going too.”
“By dividing in this way, you act as if you desire to read us out of your good books,” said Jones. “If that is the case, all right. If you will keep still about us and our plans, we will not blow on you. If you succeed in reaching the bay, and in eluding the tugs that are sent after you, we may join you some time during the second week in August, if you will tell us where you are going.”
“They are a pack of cowards,” observed Lester, as Jones and Williams walked away, followed by their friends. “You fellows did well to side with me. They had no intention of helping us capture that yacht, and this is the way they take to get out of it.”
“I don’t know whether we have done well or not,” said one of Lester’s friends, when he saw the others moving away. “Now that Enoch has deserted us, who is there to command the boat?”
“Why, I am to have charge of her,” said Lester, with a look of surprise. “That was understood from the very first.”