Just at that moment, the obdurate Thunderer was whirled by an eddy in the current, and thrown against a log of wood projecting from the bank. She canted over, and Kidd Digfield sprang to his feet. It looked as though the boat were going to spill them all out, but she did not: on the contrary, she rebounded from the obstacle, and went whirling on her way down the stream.
"Sit down, Kidd Digfield!" shouted Tom imperatively. "You have been in a boat enough to know better than to stand up in that fashion. No fellow is to get on his feet, whatever happens."
The skipper had learned this from the discipline of the students, with some of whom he had conversed; and he had often been near enough to their boats to learn something of the way in which they managed them.
"That's right, Captain Topover," said Ash approvingly. "A fellow that stands up without orders in such a craft as this ought to be thrown overboard."
"No matter what happens, no fellow must get on his feet," repeated Tom sternly. "It won't do."
"Suppose the thing upsets or sinks, are we to keep our seats?" asked Kidd, more to bother his commanding officer than for any other reason.
"When it comes to that, it is another thing," replied Tom, with all the dignity he could manage to muster. "Obey the orders of your captain; and when he gets on his feet, it will be time enough for you to do so."
The Thunderer continued to wander and whirl in the current and the eddies, in spite of the best skill of the skipper to prevent it. Ash Burton knew very well what the matter was, but he did not think it proper for a simple sailor to give advice or instruction to the high and mighty captain. Tom was the captain, and it devolved upon him to manage the Thunderer as he thought best.
The boat whirled entirely around sometimes, rudder or no rudder; and Tom did not know what to make of it. He had never seen a boat act so before, and he was sure that none of the school navy behaved in such an unaccountable manner. The progress of the expedition was very slow; and the skipper declared that it would take all day to get to Beechwater at this rate, to say nothing of Lake Champlain, upon whose waves they desired to navigate the Thunderer.
"I say, Sam Spottwood, just use that board of yours a little, and keep the boat from twisting about like a ram's horn," said Tom, when he could devise no other expedient for keeping the boat in a direct course.