I was so pleased with the calculation I had made, that I could not help wishing I was employed in a better cause than in fighting the battle of a parcel of runaway students,—it would have been so exciting to play the game of strategy in real earnest, and in a good cause. I plumed myself just then on being a great navigator, and a shrewd calculator, and I wished to test my plans. It so happened, however, that they were tested, as the sequel will show.
The Adieno approached the narrow channel, which was just as clearly defined in my mind as though the bottom of the lake had been laid bare to me; for I had always been obliged to keep in the deep water even when I went through in the Splash. As the wind, though not so strong as it had been in the morning, still came fresh from the north-west, I hugged the weather side of the channel, and, with the boat at full speed, went on my course. I was just on the point of ringing one bell to slow down, when the steamer's wheels suddenly stopped.
"What are you about, Thornton?" shouted Vallington, rushing out of the engine-room to the forward deck, both excited and angry.
"I'm all right!" I replied, provoked at his singular conduct in stopping the boat at such a critical point.
"Where are you going? Do you want to run us all ashore?"
"I don't, but I think you do. Go ahead, or we shall be aground in a moment," I added, as the Adieno was losing her headway, and we were not yet sheltered by the North Sister from the force of the wind.
"I'm not going any farther into this hole," replied he, sternly. "I think you are crazy, Thornton, to take the boat into such a place."
"I know what I am about," I answered, rather sharply; "and if you will take care of the engine, I will look out for the helm."
"You'll smash the boat all to pieces—going into a little, narrow, dirty channel at full speed."
"I know the channel as well as I know my own name. If you will go ahead, we shall be all right!" I shouted.