“Harry,” said Tom, “we’ve been on the river three days, and we are only a little way above Hudson. How much longer will it be before we get to Albany?”
“We ought to get there in two days more, even if we have to row all the way,” replied Harry.
“And after we get to Albany, what are we to do next?”
“We are going up the Champlain Canal to Fort Edward. There we will have a wagon to carry us and the boat to Warrensburg, on the Schroon River, and will go up the river to Schroon Lake. Uncle John laid out the route for us.”
“How many days will it take us to get to the lake?” asked Tom.
Harry thought awhile. “There’s two days more on the Hudson, two on the canal, and maybe two on the Schroon River. And then there’s a Sunday, which don’t count. It’ll be just a week before we get to the lake.”
“I’ve got to be home by two weeks from next Monday,” continued Tom, “so I sha’n’t have much time on the lake. Can’t we get along a little faster? There’s a full-moon to-night, and suppose we sail all night—or row, if the wind doesn’t come up.”
“That’s a first-rate idea,” exclaimed Harry. “We can take turns sleeping in the bottom of the boat. Why, if the breeze comes up in the night, we might make twenty or thirty miles before morning.”
All the boys liked the plan of sailing at night, and they resolved to adopt it. While they were yet discussing it, a light breeze sprang up, from the south as usual, and they hastened to take advantage of it. In the course of an hour more the sun began to lose its power; and when they went ashore at six o’clock to cook their supper, they had sailed about fifteen miles.
As they expected to make so much progress during the night, they were in no hurry about supper, and it was not until after seven o’clock that they again made sail. Harry divided the crew into watches—one consisting of himself and Joe Sharpe, and the other of Tom and Jim. Each watch was to have charge of the boat for three hours, while the other watch slept. At eight o’clock Tom and Jim lay down in the bottom of the boat, and Joe came aft to take Tom’s customary place at the sheet. Harry, of course, steered.