CHAPTER XXIV
A FAST RUN
After they had trimmed sail Frank sat still for a while to recover hisbreath and, if possible, his composure. He felt that it was necessary todemand an explanation from his companion. Though they had once or twicehad a difference of opinion, this was the first time that Harry had beeninsulting, and Frank found it impossible to pass over what he had said.When he felt able to speak clearly he looked his companion in the eyes.
"Now," he began, "I'll admit that you can shoot and sail a boat ratherbetter than I can, but that doesn't entitle you to talk as you did justnow."
"I don't know if it matters, but I've a notion that I did shout," Harryanswered calmly.
"That only makes it worse," Frank burst out warmly. "You couldn't callit shouting either. I once heard a coyote on the prairie, and it had amuch sweeter voice than you have."
To his astonishment, Harry grinned.
"Oh, well," he said, "but won't you get down under the mainboom beforeyou go on? I don't want those fellows astern to see there are only twoof us on board the sloop."
Frank did as he suggested, whereupon Harry waved his hand and smiledgraciously.
"Now," he added, "you can go ahead."
Frank found it harder than he had expected. His anger was beginning toevaporate and Harry's good humor was embarrassing. Still, he madeanother effort.
"In the first place," he resumed, "there are just as smart and capablefolks in Massachusetts as there are anywhere else."
"That's quite right," assented Harry. "I don't see why there shouldn'tbe, but I suppose you're not through yet. You want to call me down?"
"When you say things of that kind--you--" Frank stammered, and stoppedwhen he observed his companion still smiling.
"Sure!" said Harry, "I ought to be pounded with the boathook if I'dmeant them."
Frank gazed at him in bewilderment. "You didn't mean them?"
"No," said Harry. "Not a word of it."
"Then why did you say them?"
"Well," replied his friend, "that's a reasonable question. Now it wasmighty important that you should get alongside before our friends asterncame into sight, and though you weren't making very much progress itseemed to me you were doing all you knew."
"I was," Frank assured him.
"Still, I had an idea that if I could make you jumping mad you might doa little more. It's hard to tell what you're capable of until you'rereal savage, and I thought I'd whip you up a bit where you were mostlikely to feel it."
Frank's indignation vanished, and he changed the subject with a laugh.
"Do you think those fellows suspected anything?" he asked.
"No," said Harry. "They were too busy getting sail on her to noticeexactly how far ahead we were when we ran out of the bay, and it willprobably only strike them that they're not quite so far astern as theyexpected. All we have to do now is to lead them along towardBannington's. I'd rather keep them sailing than have them prowling roundthe depot asking questions and, perhaps, sending telegrams, and I've anotion we can leave them when we like. She's drawing away from them nowand we've only a small jib on her."
His surmise proved correct, for an hour later the other boat haddiminished to a dusky patch of sail far astern. Dusk soon commenced tofall and the wind seemed to be freshening, but as they swept around arocky point Harry changed his course and told Frank to make a stout ropefast to the bucket and pitch it over.
"It will hold her back and let the other fellows come up," he said witha grin. "They'll probably figure their boat's faster in any weight ofwind, and we don't want to run out of sight of them."
It grew dark and for a while the sky was barred with heavy clouds untilthe moon broke out, when they saw the pursuing craft sweeping up closeastern in the midst of a blaze of silvery radiance. She had now,however, a mass of canvas swung out on either side of her, and Frankwondered what sail she was carrying.
"They've boomed out a jib as a spinnaker," Harry explained. "I don't seewhy we shouldn't do the same, particularly as it will make them keeneron following us to Bannington's. One of them means to go south with thesteamer if dad gets on to her. Now we'll heave in that bucket, and whenit's done they'll open their eyes."
It was not easy to haul in the bucket. Indeed, once or twice it wasnearly torn away from them, but at length they accomplished the task.
"It's awkward running a boat with a spinnaker unless you have a crew,"remarked Harry with a somewhat puzzled look. "Still, I feel we ought togive those fellows a run for their trouble and I can't get clear of themwith only the mainsail drawing. A jib set in the ordinary way is no usewhen you're before the wind."
The other boat had drawn almost level with them and came surging alongsome forty yards away, rising and falling, with the foam piled up abouther bows, and a great spread of canvas that swung up and down as sherolled on either side.
"Hello!" shouted Harry. "Where are you going?"
"North," was the laconic answer.
Harry chuckled as he turned to Frank. "Well, as dad will be in Everettby this time, I don't see why they shouldn't come along with us as faras they like, but we'll let them draw ahead before we get up thespinnaker. I'd rather they didn't notice I had to set it alone."
The other boat forged past them, and she was growing dim ahead whenHarry pulled out a bundle of canvas from beneath the side deck.
"It's an extra big jib we carry in light winds, but it makes a goodspinnaker," he said. "You'll have to keep her straight before the wind,because it's a mighty awkward thing to set."
Frank took the helm and watched his companion as he shook the big sailout all over the boat, after which he led a rope fastened to one cornerof it through a block at the end of a long spar that lay along the deck.He thrust this out over her side and made its inner end fast to the footof the mast.
"A spinnaker boom always goes forward of the shrouds and you lead theguy aft outside them," he said. "Get hold of it and stick fast. It'seasy so far, but in a minute the circus will begin. You want two pairsof hands to set a spinnaker in a breeze of wind."
Frank glanced at the short seas which surged by, glittering in themoonlight flecked with wisps of snowy froth, and it struck him by theway the boat swung over them with the foam boiling about her that shewas carrying sufficient canvas in her mainsail. Then Harry, calling tohim to mind his steering, hauled on a halliard and a mass of thrashingcanvas rose up the mast. It blew out like a half-filled balloon, liftingup the boom, which was run out on the opposite side to the mainsail, andseemed bent on soaring skyward over the masthead. After that the boomswung forward with a crash, the mast strained and rattled, and Frankfeared that the great loose sail would tear it out of the boat. He sawHarry lifted off his feet and flung upon the deck, after which theforward part of the boat was swept by flying ropes and billowy folds ofcanvas, among which his companion seemed to be futilely crawling to andfro. Presently his voice reached Frank hoarse and breathless.
"Haul on the guy!" he cried. "She'll pitch me over or whip the mast outif this goes on."
Frank dragged at the rope with all his might, but he could not get aninch of it in, and he dared not take his right hand off the tiller forfear of bringing the big mainboom over upon the spinnaker, which wouldprobably have caused a catastrophe. Indeed, he fancied that one wasinevitable already, since it seemed impossible that Harry could controlthe big loose sail which was now wildly hurling itself aloft.
"I can't move it!" he shouted.
Harry came aft with a jump and grasped the guy.
"Now," he said, "together! Get both hands upon it. Hold the tiller withyour elbow."
For the next half minute there was a furious struggle, and as the boomwent up again Frank felt that they were beaten. His companion, however,hung on desperately, panting hard, and by degrees the boom swung downand back across the boat and the sail flattened out.
"Make fast!" cried Harry breathlessly. "I can manage the sheet."
He floundered forward to the foot of the mast
, and when he came back thespinnaker was drawing steadily and the sloop had changed her mode ofprogress. She no longer rolled viciously or screwed up to windward asshe lifted on a sea, but swayed from side to side with a smooth and easyswing, and Frank could steer her with a touch upon the tiller. In spiteof that, steering was ticklish work, for the mainboom and the spinnakerboom went up and came down until they raked the glittering brinealternately, and Frank realized that it would be singularly easy tobring one crashing over upon the other. There was no doubt that the boatwas sailing very fast, and he hazarded one swift glance over hisshoulder at the canoe. She was surging along astern, hove up with herforward half out of the water, and a seething mass of foam hiding therest of her. Harry, however, glanced forward somewhat anxiously.
"That boom's lifting too much," he said. "One of us ought to sit on it.Do you feel able to steer her?"
Frank said that he believed he could manage it.
"Well," said Harry, "if you jibe either sail across you'll either pitchme in or break my leg, even if you don't roll the boat over. Sing outthe moment you feel her getting too hard upon the helm."
Scrambling forward, he crawled out along the spinnaker boom, to which heclung precariously, lifted up high one moment and the next swung downuntil his feet were just above the foam. Sometimes they splashed in, andFrank, bracing himself until every nerve was strung up, felt horriblyuneasy. In spite of that, the wild rush through the glittering waterwhich boiled about the boat was wonderfully exhilarating. She seemed amass of straining sail which swayed in the moonlight above aninsignificant strip of hull half buried in snowy foam. Over her blackmainsail peak dim wisps of clouds went streaming by, and from all aroundthere was a tumult of stirring sound--the clamor at the bows, the swishof water as the canoe came charging up to her, and the splash oftumbling seas. Everything ahead, however, was hidden by the sail, and hewas wondering where the other boat was when Harry called to him.
"Slack the guy a foot or two and let her come up a little. Don't let itget the run of you or you'll pitch me in."
Frank was very cautious as he eased the rope out around a cleat, afterwhich, when the spinnaker boom had drawn forward, he found that he couldluff the boat. When she had swerved from her course a trifle he couldsee the other boat close ahead, and it gave him some idea how fast bothcraft were traveling. She seemed nothing but sail. Indeed, except forthe torn-up track of foam that marked her passage, she looked much lesslike a boat than some wonderful phantom thing flying at an astonishingspeed across the sea. Swiftly as she sped, however, there was no doubtthat the sloop was creeping up on her, and Frank felt himself quiveringall through as the distance between them lessened yard by yard. Thensuddenly the contour of her canvas changed and she swung around fromleeward across the sloop's bows. Frank's heart gave a sudden leap as hewondered what he must do and his nerve almost deserted him, until Harrycalled again.
"More guy!" he sang out. "They're trying to luff us. We must keep theirweather."
Although fearful that it might overpower him, Frank slacked the guy outinch by inch, and as the sloop came up a little farther he saw the wholeof the other boat again. The sloop's bowsprit was level with herquarter. She was scarcely a dozen yards away, leaping, plunging, swayingthrough a flung-up mass of foam, but they were steadily drawing up withher, and the boy could have shouted in the fierce excitement of themoment. Two or three minutes later they were clear ahead. He could nolonger see the other boat, and he dared not risk a glance back at her.Indeed, it was a relief to him when Harry came scrambling aft.
"We'll get that guy in again," he said. "Unless something gives out,those folks won't catch us up."
They had a desperate struggle with the guy, but Harry laughed gayly whenthey had made it fast.
"They'll follow us on to Bannington's, sure," he said. "We should bethere in half an hour, and I don't mind allowing that I'll be glad toget some of this sail off her."
After a while a black bank of cloud spread across the moon, and Frankwondered anxiously how much of the half hour had gone. He had now onlythe pull on the tiller to guide him as they drove on furiously, and thestrain of concentrating all his faculties on his task was beginning totell on his strength. Once or twice he imagined that he came perilouslynear to bringing the mainboom over, and he would have called Harry tothe helm if he had felt certain that he could cling to the slenderlurching spar as well as his comrade could. He was getting nervous, andthe seething rush of water past the boat was becoming bewildering.
At length, however, he made out a dark and hazy mass over the edge ofthe mainsail, which he supposed was land, and in another few minutes ablinking light appeared. He called to Harry, who merely twisted himselfaround on the boom with the object of looking out beneath the sail andthen told him to keep her heading as she was. After that the land roserapidly, growing blacker, and a second light appeared. This was closerto them and Frank, thinking he saw it move, noticed a green blinkbeneath it.
Presently both lights disappeared behind the sail, and some minuteslater Frank almost let go the tiller as the deep blast of a steamer'swhistle rang out close ahead. On the instant Harry swung himself downfrom the boom.
"Let go your guy!" he shouted. "Down helm; get the mainsheet in!"
Frank could never clearly remember all that followed in the next two orthree minutes during which he was desperately busy. He let the spinnakerguy run, and the big sail which heaved up the spar beneath it swungwildly forward. Then he shoved down his helm, and the mainboom slashedfuriously as the boat came up toward the wind. The sheet blocks seemedto be banging everywhere about him as he hauled at the rope, and hecould hear nothing but the savage thrashing of loosened canvas. Harrywas struggling forward with a mass of billowing sail that threatened tosweep him off the narrow deck, while flying ropes whipped about him.Presently, out of the din, there rose another sonorous blast of thesteamer's whistle.
The next moment Frank saw her, heading, it seemed, straight for them,blazing with tiers of lights, and in almost nerveless haste he pulled uphis tiller. The bolt fell off, he saw Harry flung down with thespinnaker rolling about him, and he scarcely dared to breathe as therows of lights ahead lengthened and the black wedge of the steamer'sbows faded from his sight. It was now her side he was gazing at, and itwas evident that she was swinging around. In less than another minuteshe had forged past them, and leaving the helm he scrambled forward toaid his companion. For a moment they had a brief struggle with flyingropes and billowing sail, and then they clambered back into the well,where Frank sat down with a gasp of fervent satisfaction.
"Well," he panted, "I'm glad that's over, and you had better take thehelm. I've had enough."
Harry glanced toward the steamer, which was growing less distinct.
"A close call!" he remarked. "It looked as if she was going slap overus. I couldn't see her sooner because of the sail. She's running intoBannington's."
They heard her whistle a little later, but they were then close in witha shadowy point of land, and looking back Frank made out a faint blur onthe water far behind them which he knew must be the other boat. When hepointed it out Harry laughed.
"They can't see us against the land, but I've an idea they'll be in soonenough to learn the steamer didn't pick one of us up," he said. "Thatwill start them wondering why we drove her so hard and where we've gone.Now you had better get the stove lighted and the supper on."