"There's the rest of our fellows!" exclaimed Tom, willing to dodge the question of authority which had just come up.
"Come over here, and give us a sail!" yelled one of the party over in the grove, loud enough to be understood.
"Where are you going now, Ash?" asked Tom, in the mildest tone he could command.
"The fun for to-day is all over, and we may as well go home," replied the last skipper.
"We are going to take a little sail in this boat now that we have her, and there is plenty of fun ahead," continued Tom. "Won't you go with us?"
"You don't know how to handle the boat, and I won't go in her with you for skipper," interposed Sam Spottwood, before Ash had time to reply. "You came very near upsetting us once or twice, and I don't risk my head with you."
"I can handle the boat as well as Ash can," answered Tom, but his manner was now adapted to carrying his point. "We might as well have a sail as go home without one. Captain Gildrock is away in the Sylph, and he won't be back till dark. Before that time we will put the boat back where we found her, and no one will be the wiser for the fun we have had."
"You are more likely to leave her on the bottom of the lake than you are to put her back at her moorings," returned Sam.
Nim Splugger and Kidd Digfield then began to talk in a low tone to their leader. They had sense enough to see that Tom could not handle the boat, and very likely they feared that the prediction of Sam Spottwood would be verified.