The cove where they had stolen the clothes of the Beech Hill boys was at the narrowest part of the lake, where it was not more than a mile wide. Even here they had kept under the lee of the shore, and had been in very little troubled water. Half a mile below the cove was Northwest Bay, where the lake is four miles wide. The Chesterfield Collegiate Institute was on the north shore of the bay, near the point where the lake begins to contract its width.
There was silence on board of the Winooski, though the young gentlemen in the two barges were yelling as much as they could while exerting themselves at the oars. The latter were in great glee, and seemed to be in the highest enjoyment of the situation. Dory studied the movements of the two boats, and soon satisfied himself that their coxswains were hugging the northwest shore, so as to avoid the heavy sea, which prevailed at even less than half a mile from land. Dory decided to block this game, and he headed the Winooski to the windward of the enemy.
Such a contest could hardly be called a race, for the vastly superior pulling of the crew of the Winooski allowed her crew to have it all their own way. Though the Chesterfields did not yet understand it so, the Beech Hill boat could easily pull around them.
"Good, fellows! You are pulling first rate," said Dory, when the boat had obtained the position in which the coxswain wished to place her. "We are abreast and exactly to windward of them now."
"What is coming next, Dory?" asked Life Windham; and all the crew had an interest in the question.
"I don't know: it all depends upon circumstances," replied Dory. "Now pull your regular easy stroke; and we can readily beat them with that. Things will come to a head very soon."
The crew took the easy and graceful stroke indicated, but this produced a greater speed than the Chesterfields could make with their utmost exertion. Dory changed the course of the Winooski as she went ahead of the Racer, so that she would gradually approach the enemy.
In a few minutes it was evident that the Beech Hill boat would be in the water of the other boats, and Wash Barker headed his craft farther to the southward. This was just what Dory wanted him to do. He diminished the speed of the Winooski still more, and continued to crowd into the water of the Dasher until the latter was headed to the south, or out into the rough sea.