sed between the buoys again. The schooner was almost
up with the red buoy when the Sylph passed it, and again the man with
the gruff voice hailed the boat. At this moment Pearl tacked, and stood
to the south-west.

"I guess she will get tired of this game before a great while," said
Pearl, elated with the success of his movements. "She had better give it
up, and go about her business."

When the Sylph had passed the buoys, she put her head to the south, and
ran down close to the shoal-water. Pearl was so delighted that he was
becoming reckless, and he held on to his course until he came within a
hundred feet of the steamer. Once more she hailed the boat. "Is
Theodore Dornwood on board of that boat?" shouted the man with the gruff
voice.

"If you answer, Dory Dornwood, I'll pitch you overboard!" exclaimed the
skipper savagely.

Dory did not answer: he had no intention of doing so before Pearl used
his threatening expression. He was not on the best of terms with his
uncle; and he did not care to have any thing to do with him, or even to
say to him.

There seemed to be a dozen persons on board of the Sylph. But she was a
large craft for a steam-yacht, and doubtless some of them were the
guests of the owner.

"That will do nicely," said Pearl, as he came about, and let off his
sheets again. "The steamer has my permission to go through the channel
again. This is better than a game of checkers."

To Dory it was getting rather monotonous. But he did not believe that
the people on board of the Sylph would be willing to play at this game
much longer. The man with the gruff voice had indicated in his tones,
the last time he hailed the boat, that he was becoming impatient at the
failure of the Goldwing to answer him.

Dory felt like one who stands between two fires, and he was sure to be
hit by one of them. He was in the frying-pan now, and he did not at all
like the idea of being compelled to jump into the fire by the Sylph. He
did not like his uncle, her owner; and he did not care to be redeemed
from his present unpleasant position by him.

It was bad enough to remain in the power of Pearl Hawlinshed, and to be
subject to his caprice; but it seemed worse to be taken out of his hands
by Captain Gildrock. If Pearl had not been a villain, in the very act of
breaking the laws and committing an outrage upon him and the two
passengers in the cabin, he would have been willing to assist him in
keeping out of the way of the S