The crew also assented, less warmly. They had had their taste of it already.
“All the same,” said Henry Burns, “it would be a huge joke on them, after they have gone to work and patched her up and floated her for us, to sail in and tow her out without their knowing it. Just imagine them waking up in the morning and finding the boat and the crew both gone.”
“Yes, and we’ll catch it for that, too, I suppose,” groaned George Baker.
“No, we’ll stand by you,” said Henry Burns. And he added, “Let’s try the easiest way first, Jack. We’ll run in as quietly as we can, come up alongside the Surprise and take her in tow. If they wake, we’ll stand by you and fight for the boat. But I think we may get away with her. They’re bound to be sound sleepers.”
Carefully stowing away every pail or oar or stick that could be in the way at the wrong time and make a noise, the yachtsmen brought the Viking close in upon the dismasted Surprise. Then, as Harvey made a wide sweep to bring the Viking about into the wind, Henry Burns and Tom Harris dropped astern in the dory and picked up the line with which the Surprise had been moored. They were ready for Harvey when he had come about. Throwing the line aboard as the Viking rounded to, close in, they rowed quickly alongside and sprang over the rail. The line had been caught by Bob, who made it fast astern.
The Viking had not even lost headway, so skilfully had the manœuvre been carried out. Standing away on the starboard tack, the Viking’s sails filled and the line brought up. The wind was fairly fresh and the weight of the unballasted Surprise did not stop the Viking. The Surprise, its long, lonely stay down in the Thoroughfare ended, had at last begun its homeward journey toward Southport.
“I don’t see but what your friends on the Seagull did us a good turn in trying to rob you of the Surprise,” said Henry Burns, smiling. “They seem to have made the old boat pretty fairly tight. They’ve saved us time.”
“Oh, yes, we owe ’em something for that,” exclaimed Little Tim, feeling around for a sore spot, “but I hope they don’t try to collect any more of the debt from me.”
“Tim, you were a brick to do what you did!” cried Harvey. “And the rest of you, too. You had the real pluck. But Tim suggested it, and he’s first mate of the Surprise after this, and next to Skipper Joe. That’s fair, isn’t it?”
George Baker and Allan Harding agreed.