"I can understand that," added Archie.
"If the light were not more than two feet above the water, we could not see it all when we come to the position described, for it would be shut in. I have about two hundred ranges written down in a book at home, and this is one of them. Sometimes they put two lighthouses on a shore. If one shut out the other, you could tell, in one case, how far north you had gone. When I am going into the river with the Sylph, I don't run in till I have brought the tip of the point in range with the white chimney on Paucett's house. The more of these ranges you learn, the better you will be qualified to sail a boat on Lake Champlain."
It was nearly dark when the Goldwing returned to the school; but every member of the class had taken his turn in sailing the boat, and each thought he knew as much as Dory about it.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE GOLDWING'S TRIP TO PLATTSBURG.
During the following week, Dory's class in the Goldwing made trips in the boat after the close of the labors in the shop. One of the members took charge of the sloop in each of these trips, and the lesson was still "Beating to windward." In this way, all of them learned how to work a boat to windward; and it was the most difficult lesson for them to learn, for it required a great deal of judgment.
One student would steer so close to the wind that the boat was cramped, and could not get ahead; while another let her get so far off the wind, that she failed to accomplish what she was competent to do. It required a great deal of practice to enable the different skippers to hit the golden mean. They did remarkably well, though not one of them became proficient at once.
On the return from the excursion, they had some experience in sailing before the wind, and in all directions between that and close-hauled. Matt Randolph was always out at the same time in the Lily, with his class. Although the latter was a schooner, the lesson was precisely the same. She carried a crew of twelve, and they were all stationed as in the Goldwing. The foresail was handled in the same manner as the mainsail. The only question that could come up on board of her, that did not have to be considered on the sloop, was whether or not, in a blow, the foresail should be set.
During the week, there was an examination of the five burglars, and all of them were fully committed for trial. The Plattsburg robberies were fastened upon them, and some of the money and other property found on board of the La Motte was restored to the owners. There was a great deal of difference of opinion in regard to the relative guilt of the robbers, for it did not appear that Sangfraw and Wickwood had any thing more than a criminal knowledge of the deeds of the other three. Besides, they were truly repentant, and told all they knew about the schemes of their companions, who denied all they could to the last.
At the trial, some weeks later, Spickles got seven years in the State Prison; the two who actually assisted him in his enterprises, received a sentence of five years; while the remaining two were let off with only one year. The chief of the Nautifelers Club, who was the author and finisher of all the schemes, both of pleasure and plunder, preserved his self-possession through the trial; but by the time he was shut up for seven long years, he began to wish that he had followed the course in life which Matt Randolph had marked out for himself.
Thad Glovering trained the party on board of the La Motte, in the management of the vessel; and at the end of a couple of weeks, they left Beech Hill, to undertake a cruise without his aid. They were very much pleased with what they saw of the institution; and they left the school much wiser, morally and intellectually, than when they came there.