Ash Burton was used to the movements of a boat, even when badly managed; and he was not at all alarmed, for they were close to the shore. He laughed at the struggles of the skipper to set things to rights.
"I thought you were going to the wharf," said Sam, as soon as he had recovered in some measure from his fright. "You are headed the wrong way."
"She won't go the other way," protested Tom.
"The wind is west, and it ought to take us the other way as well as this," Sam objected.
"But it won't take us that way," replied Tom sharply. "Haven't I just tried it?"
"But you don't know how to manage the boat," protested Sam, disgusted with the conduct of the captain.
"Who says I don't know how?" demanded Tom, who never admitted his inability to accomplish any thing he undertook to do.
"I say so, and you have proved it. I believe you mean to take us out on the lake."
"Well, what if I do? I don't believe the fellows will object to a trip on the lake in this boat," replied Tom, willing to take the clew the mutinous hand had given him.
"I object to it, and for one I won't go on any trip on the lake. You don't know how to manage the boat, and you will drown the whole of us."