Part 7 (1/2)

”Is he an honest boy?” asked Pearl, as though that were a matter of the utmost consequence to him.

”I guess he is. He is worth two of his father, who was the pilot on duty on board of the Au Sable last night, and tried to take the boat across a p'int of land. He didn't make out, and I guess it will be a bad job for him.”

”Where are the boys you brought over?” inquired Pearl, looking about the boat for them.

”You see, they came over here on a lark, and will have to get back the best way they can. We found Dory in a sailboat, anch.o.r.ed off the breakwater. The boys wanted me to put them aboard of her, and I did.

Dory says he is going to sail the boat to Burlington, and the rest of the boys are going with him. They are the wildest set of boys on the lake.”

”I suppose you don't object to earning five dollars with this boat before you deliver her to her owner?” suggested Pearl in an indifferent sort of way.

”I guess not,” said Captain Vesey, with a broad grin on his face. ”I never object to making five dollars, or one dollar, for that matter.”

”I want to see Dory Dornwood on some particular business; and, if you will put me on board of his boat, I will give you five dollars,” said Pearl in an insinuating tone.

Captain Vesey was ready to do it.

CHAPTER VII.

THE MAN THAT LOOKED THROUGH THE KEYHOLE.

Pearl Hawlinshed had not looked to see if the Goldwing was where he had last seen her, outside of the breakwater. The water was unusually low on the lake; and, though he saw the topmasts of several boats beyond the breakwater, he was unable to determine whether or not any of them belonged to the Goldwing. Captain Vesey had seen no boat go out, and Pearl concluded that she was still at anchor.

Pearl made his trade with the acting skipper of the little steamer, which was hardly more than a steam-launch. Mr. b.u.t.ton the engineer, who was to remain in the employ of the new owner, was wiping the water off the machinery. He was called, and informed of the arrangement with Pearl. To the astonishment of both, he refused to move the Missisquoi from the wharf.

”I reckon the boat is in my care until she is delivered to the new owner,” argued Captain Vesey.

”It don't make any difference to me whose care she is in. I won't go out with a man who don't know any more about handling a boat than you do, Captain Vesey,” replied Mr. b.u.t.ton warmly. ”It was only by a miracle that we got over here at all. I expected to go to the bottom every minute of the time until we got inside of the breakwater.”

”I reckon I know how to handle a steamboat as well as the next man,”

returned Captain Vesey indignantly.

”That depends upon how much the next man knows about a tug-boat. If the next man don't know any more about it than you do, I don't want to run the engine for him.”

Pearl could not help being on the engineer's side of the controversy. He and Dory had agreed that the captain of the Missisquoi did not understand his business. But Pearl Hawlinshed believed that he knew all about a steamer, and all about the lake. He considered himself competent to command one of the large steamers.

”I am going with you, Mr. b.u.t.ton, and it will be five dollars in your pocket, as well as the captain's,” interposed Pearl, who was disposed to be liberal with the landlord's money.

”My life is worth something to me; or at any rate it is to my family,”

replied Mr. b.u.t.ton doubtfully. ”Do you know about handling such a boat as this?”

”I know all about it: I used to sail in the Au Sable,” replied Pearl confidently.

Mr. b.u.t.ton was doubtless a good engineer, but he was not a very shrewd man. If he had been, he would have asked in what capacity the applicant for the use of the Missisquoi served on board of the Au Sable. Possibly Pearl would have evaded the question, or lied about the matter, for he had simply been a waiter in the cabin for a few weeks. But Pearl thought he knew all about a steamer, and all about the navigation of the lake.

”If you are a steamboat man I have no objection to taking the boat out,”

added the engineer. ”It is a very rough day on the lake, and one has to know something about handling a boat in such big waves.”