“Hold on with that boat, Rich!” exclaimed the colonel, who began to be afraid that his prisoners might escape him after all. “We’ve got orders to take you back to the academy, and we intend to do it.”
“All right!” replied Miller; “but it is always a good plan to catch your man before you hang him. Come on with your steamboat. We’re ready for a race.”
But the tug could not “come on.” She followed the sloop as close to the shore as her captain dared to go, and then backed out into the middle of the bay. Here she stopped, and the Swallow’s crew could see that her captain and the colonel were holding a council of war. Finally the bell rang again, and the tug went along-side the wharf, to take on the boys who had been left behind, and who, knowing that their cruise was at an end, surrendered at discretion.
“Didn’t I fool them nicely?” exclaimed Captain Rich. “That was a sharp trick, I take it!”
“O, yes it was,” drawled Tom; “but it won’t do us any good. We’re caught easy enough.”
“Not yet,” replied Miller. “We’ll keep in close to the beach until night, and then we can give them the slip. We are not foolish enough to think of giving them a fair race; so we’ll stay in shoal water, where they can’t reach us.”
Captain Rich approved this plan, and, undoubtedly, it was the only one that could have been adopted under the circumstances. Tom then proposed that, in case they were successful in their attempts to evade their pursuers, they should return to Newport without waiting to be taken back; but the others would not listen to this. They were resolved that they would not go back to the village voluntarily, until they had had a two-weeks’ cruise. If the principal desired their presence at the academy before that time, he must capture them.
“There comes the tug again!” said one of the crew, suddenly.
“And she’s got three boats with her,” drawled Tom. “I know it’s all up with us now!”
When Captain Rich saw the boats that dragged at the stern of the tug, he was obliged to confess to himself that affairs looked rather dubious again. The Swallow was under the lee of the island, where she had just breeze enough to keep her moving through the water, but not enough to enable her to run away from the boats. He had been in hopes that the tug would blockade them until night, or that she might attempt to run in nearer to the beach and get aground, in which case he could easily effect his escape. He found, however, that he had to deal with those who were as smart as himself.