“That shows that she is coming towards us, and we must look out that she don’t run into us.”
“How can you help it, if she keeps on, and you keep on?” asked Ned Bellows.
“We will wait and see what Dory will do,” replied Captain Gildrock.
After going a mile farther, the boys heard a single sharp whistle over their heads. It was immediately followed by the same signal from the approaching steamer.
“That will make it all right. Dory has blown one whistle, which means that he will pass the other steamer to starboard. The other steamer, as she indicates by her one whistle, will pass at the starboard of us,” continued the captain. “If Dory had blown two whistles, he would have gone to port of the approaching vessel. You see that we are going by her all right.”
“Suppose there had been a fog when we came out of Burlington, Captain Gildrock: what should we have done?” asked Ben Ludlow. “Could Dory have run the boat down to Beech Hill?”
“He could do it, but I should rather he would not. It is not safe to run in a fog; and it is best not to do it, unless your business is very urgent,” replied Captain Gildrock.
“But suppose you could not even see Juniper-Island light: what would you do if you had to run to Beech Hill?” persisted the inquirer.
“Juniper light is west-south-west from the wharf, as I have ruled it off from the chart. The distance is three and a quarter miles. The speed of the Sylph is twelve miles an hour, and it will take her sixteen minutes and a quarter to reach the light. But we don’t start at full speed, and we must allow for that.
“At the end of sixteen minutes, by the clock in the pilot-house, we begin to look out for the light. If we don’t find it, we don’t go ahead, if we stay there all day and all night. We whistle, and that lets the people at the light know that a steamer is trying to find her way up the lake; and they will blow a horn. When we hear it, we know by the direction where the light is. They will keep blowing the horn for a while.