The discipline on board proved to be not more than skin deep, for about every one of the crew had something to say, and a general jaw ensued. Some of them blamed and scolded their coxswain, and hard words were used before the Goldwing was out of hearing distance. The first business, when the grumblers had "talked out," was to pick up the oars and the pieces; and, by the time this was done, the Winooski was out in the heaviest of the sea. The Goldwing stood off and on between the fleet she was protecting and the barges of the Chesterfields. The Dasher had gone to the assistance of the Racer.
"What under the canopy made you back down, Dory?" asked Oscar, in a more gentlemanly tone than he had used before when he alluded to the subject.
"If one of those fellows had been drowned, I should not have forgiven myself to my dying day," replied Dory.
"There was no danger of drowning any of them," added Oscar.
"I don't believe many of them can swim, and I think the Goldwing would have gone over the Racer. Some of them might have been disabled, so that they could not have swum, even if they had known how. In a word my conscience would not let me run into the barge when it came to the scratch. Though we may look upon the taking of any of our boats as a serious thing, after all it was only a frolic on the part of the Topovers and the Chesterfields. I could not risk killing or drowning a single one of them. That's the whole of it."
"It would not have been your fault if one of them had been drowned, or even half a dozen of them," replied Oscar.
"I think it would have been. If no one had been drowned or hurt in the collision, some people would have thought we were smart. If a single life had been lost, they would have said that the affair was nothing but a boys' frolic, and that we had no right to proceed to such an extreme measure as running into the barge half a mile from the shore," argued Dory. "Those fellows are not used to the water, and half a dozen of them might have been drowned. I am perfectly satisfied now with what I did."
"Though I was as much carried away by the excitement of the moment as any of you, and was in favor of running into the barge, I think you did just right, Dory," added Matt Randolph, convinced by the skipper's logic.
"On cool second thought, I am willing to admit that Dory was right," said Oscar, as he glanced at the Chesterfield fleet. "We saved the Winooski after all, and that was what we were fighting for."