"Hold on! I hain't licked you yet, and I'm go'n to do it afore I get through," said Tom, moving towards his intended victim.
"I can't wait for you to do it now," replied Dory, as he broke into a run.
But Tom began to swear like a pirate, and rushed after Dory. The latter had no difficulty in keeping out of his way, and he reached the wharf just as the villains in the boats had shoved them clear of the pier. Kidd had put six of the party in each barge, and they had manned the oars. But they had been obliged to leave their leader behind.
Tom Topover now observed this bit of strategy, and he divided his vials of wrath between the coxswain and his lieutenant.
CHAPTER XIII. A VICTORY FOR THE TOPOVERS.
Dory Dornwood reached the wharf too late to prevent the ruffians from getting off in the boats; and his failure filled him with consternation. It was not for a few minutes, as Tom Topover had said, that the ruffians wanted them, but for all day, or for a week or a month, if they were not sooner taken from them. Living on the river and near the lake, such fellows would naturally take to the water, and all or most of them knew how to handle an oar, but not one of them could be called a skilful boatman, though Kidd Digfield claimed to be a sailor on the ground that he had made two trips in a lumber schooner.
Even if the Topovers were competent to handle a common row-boat, it was quite another thing to manage a barge fifty feet long, pulled by twelve oars. If they succeeded in getting the boats out of the river, they were likely to swamp them in the waves, smash them on the rocks, or grind their cedar bottoms on the gravelly beaches. Dory had a genuine affection for the Winooski, and it grieved him sorely to see her in the hands of such a villainous crew as the Topovers.
Of course there was nothing to be done at Beech Hill until the barges were recovered. The wind was northwest and blowing fresh, as on the day before, and it was dangerous for an unskilful crew to venture out on the lake. The lives of the reckless party would be in peril as well as the boats.