Part 31 (1/2)

Frank was the largest and strongest boy on board, and for a moment the victory leaned to his side. Paul, who had seconded Tom's movement by hauling in the main sheet, now rushed to the conflict, a.s.sisted by several of the larger boys. After a severe engagement, Frank was knocked down, and held till his hands and feet were tied.

This turbulent spirit thus secured, Paul took the helm, and the yacht was brought to her course again. By this time the schooner had lowered her boat from the stern davits, and Captain Littleton and his companions were pulling towards the Flyaway.

”What does this mean?” demanded the captain, sternly, as he leaped over the rail. ”Paul,” he continued, as he discovered his young friend at the helm, ”I am astonished to see _you_ here.”

The boys hung their heads with shame, and Paul preferred to let some other person vindicate him from the implied charge.

”Will you explain this, Paul?” said Captain Littleton. ”If it had been my own son, I could not have been more surprised.”

”Paul is innocent, sir,” interposed Tom, stepping forward. ”Frank Thompson and myself are the guilty ones. He and I got up the sc.r.a.pe; we fastened Paul and d.i.c.k in the cabin, and deceived the rest of the fellows. We kept Paul a prisoner till we had nearly wrecked the Flyaway, and then we called him up, and he saved the yacht and all our lives.”

”That sounds like a true story, Tom, and I am glad to find you have the manliness to acknowledge your guilt. Paul, your hand; I have been grieving over you all day, and now I am rejoiced to find you are still true to yourself and the good character you have hitherto borne.”

Paul gave the captain his hand, and thanked him for the kind words he had spoken.

”What was the quarrel I witnessed just before I came on board?” asked Captain Littleton.

”Frank Thompson wanted to run away from you, and have the cruise out,”

replied Paul. ”Tom and all the rest of the party opposed him, and finally took the helm away from him by force.”

Paul proceeded to give a more detailed account of the events which had transpired on board of the Flyaway since her departure from Portsmouth harbor. Tom and the other mutineers expressed their sorrow for what they had done, and were ready to submit to such punishment as the captain thought it necessary to inflict upon them. But Paul told him how penitent they had been, that Tom had promised to reform his life, and he thought they had already been severely punished for their misconduct by the terrors of the long and anxious night they had pa.s.sed through. This he proved by showing that all of them had refused to follow Frank's plan of continuing the cruise.

”But they punished you more than they punished themselves, by keeping you on deck all night,” said Captain Littleton.

”It was not punishment to me, for I was innocent, and they were guilty,”

replied Paul.

”You are right, my boy; it is guilt that makes us cowards in the midst of peril. You plead so strongly for them, Paul, that I shall forgive all except Frank. He must be a pa.s.senger in that fis.h.i.+ng schooner, which is bound for Boston. When I arrived at Portsmouth this morning, I learned from Captain Gordon that the boys had run away with the yacht. I supposed, of course, you had wrecked her in the gale and the fog, and I chartered that vessel, which was on the point of sailing for Boston, to go in search of you. I thank G.o.d you are all safe.”

Frank Thompson, in spite of his earnest protest, was put on board the schooner, and the Flyaway's head was turned to the north. Captains Gordon and Briskett resumed their places, and Henry Littleton spent the whole afternoon in listening to Paul's animated narrative of the cruise of the yacht to seaward.

In the course of the night the Flyaway reached Portland. But we have not s.p.a.ce to detail the adventures of the Teneans in the harbor, or to give the particulars of the race between them and the North Star Boat Club.

On the following Sat.u.r.day night the Flyaway arrived at Bayville, and Mrs. Duncan once more pressed to her heart her darling boys.

CHAPTER XXI.

PAUL ADVANCES LITTLE BY LITTLE, AND THE STORY ENDS.