But Dory was a prudent skipper, and he ordered the jib-topsail to be taken in. Thus relieved, she went along swiftly and very comfortably. By nine o'clock they arrived at Plattsburg, and spent a couple of hours there. But they were more interested in sailing the boat than they were in wandering about the streets of the town, though they were much pleased with their visit to the beautiful garden of Fouquet's Hotel.
The return-trip was about the same thing till the Goldwing was in the widest part of the lake, off Burlington. Then the black clouds began to roll up in vast masses in the west, and the skipper said they looked like wind. The gaff-topsail was taken in, the flying-jib was furled. The lightning was terrific, and the thunder suggested earthquakes.
"We are in for it, sure," said Archie Pinkler; "and I don't like the looks of things about this time."
"We are all of six miles from the land; and the wind is dying out, as it often does before a tempest; and there is no backing out," said Dory. "We shall have to take whatever comes, and do the best we can. The greenhorn, on board of a ship, when a sudden storm came up, said he thought he would take a biscuit, turn in, and call it half a day. He was not allowed to do so, and you will not. Our safety requires that every fellow should do his duty, and there is no shirking it."
"But why don't you take in sail, Dory?" asked Archie nervously.
"Because there is no need of it yet, and we may not have to take in sail at all. Why don't you take medicine before you get sick? You need not be nervous, Archie. We are all right; and I feel as much at home on board of the Goldwing, as I should in my room at Beech Hill."
Suddenly what breeze there had been died out, and the sloop lay motionless on the water. Dory told the crew to take in the jib, and instructed those stationed at this sail to stow it and secure it with the utmost care, so that it should not be blown out by the squall.
"There is the Marian," said Ash, as he saw her coming out from Burlington.
"What does she come out for when there is going to be a squall?" asked Ben.
"Because she will be safer out in the lake than at a wharf there, though she might get behind the breakwater. She will do very well in a squall. All she has to do, is to keep out of the trough of the sea, if it comes on very hard," replied Dory. "At the very worst, in a hurricane, she would put her head up to the sea, and keep her engine going. She will be all right unless her engine breaks down."