f the Goldwing Club looked decidedly shaky, with the
exception of the skipper. No one responded to the timid sentiment of
Thad; but probably all of them felt it, and wished they were on shore,
though that shore were the one they had just left.

"The Missisquoi has stopped!" cried Corny, when the Goldwing was about
half way over to Providence Island. "She has chosen a quiet place under
the lee of that little island."

"She has stopped, that's a fact," added Thad.

"I thought she would," replied Dory, as he let off the sheet when a
heavy gust struck the sails. "The Missisquoi is aground."

CHAPTER XIII.

SAFE UNDER A LEE.

"How do you know she is aground, Dory?" asked Corny, after a careful
examination of the position of the Missisquoi.

"She wouldn't have stopped there if she hadn't got aground. She has done
the very thing I wanted her to do, and the very thing I did my best to
have her do," replied Dory triumphantly.

"Do you mean to say that you did it, Dory?" asked Thad, still pumping
away with all his might.

"I don't mean to say that I got the steamer aground. I saw that neither
Captain Vesey nor the other fellow knew much about the lake; for the
Missisquoi followed the Goldwing wherever she went," Dory explained. "I
ran close to the island, hoping the steamer would follow me, as she has
been doing, because there is not more than four feet of water close up
to the land where I went. She had either to follow us in a straight
line, or to go to the southward of the shoal. I was sure to make
something in getting away from her."

"What will she do now?" inquired Dick Short.

"She must either work off the shoal, or stay there; and I am sure I
don't care what she does," added Dory, as he looked ahead at the savage
waves that were piling up in the path of the schooner.

The Goldwing was more than half way across the lake: and, the farther
she went, the rougher the lake was; for the longer was the sweep of the
wind. But Dory was not in a hurry when he found the steamer could no
longer follow him. He had been very careful not to lose any thing by
letting off the main-sheet, except when it was absolutely necessary to
do so in order to keep the boat right side up.

Going nearly before the wind, it took a long sweep to reduce the
pressure on the mainsail; and the water flowed in over the lee side
about as fast as Thad could pump it out. The boys looked at each other,
and there is no doubt that they all wi