est
water and the heaviest wind must be met after he had passed them. He was
not sure that the Goldwing could stand it. Before he was half way across
the lake he found she had all she could stand under. But he determined
to put her through, keeping out of trouble by letting off the sheet, and
touching her up, as occasion might require. He cast frequent glances
behind him, to obtain the earliest knowledge of the approach of the
Sylph. He was less than half a mile from the southern point of the large
island, and she could not yet be seen.

The skipper wondered if she had not given up the chase.

CHAPTER XXVII.

DORY MAKES A HARBOR FOR THE NIGHT.

Dory could not see any reason why his uncle should follow him at all,
and especially not why he should chase him in the night and the storm.
It seemed to him not improbable that the Sylph had abandoned the
pursuit, and gone up the lake.

While he was hoping the chase was ended on the part of his uncle, the
Goldwing came up with the south-west point of the large island. Beyond
it the sea looked very ugly, and it would shake the schooner up in a
very lively manner in the next mile and a half she had to make. Dory did
not care to take any needless risks; and, if the steamer had given up
the chase, he intended to get under a lee, and anchor till morning.

He looked back once more before the boat reached a position where he
could not see the other side of the lake. To his regret he saw the
Sylph just coming into view beyond Ladd's Point. She had not given it
up. He wished he had made another half mile, and then she could not have
seen the schooner; for she would have been behind the island. She could
see him plainly enough now, and she headed for the south of Ball Island.

Having passed through the channel between the islands, the weather there
proved to be a perfect muzzler. The Goldwing labored heavily in the
angry chop sea, and it was all Dory could do to keep her right side up.
In a few minutes more it seemed quite impossible to do so, and Dory let
go the mainsail halyards. Whether he was caught or not, he could no
longer carry all sail. He had put the schooner before it, but he had to
come up into the wind to get in the mainsail.

The young skipper's calculations had been within bounds, and he could
afford the time he spent in reducing sail. With more experience he would
have taken in sail from choice rather than necessity, for a boat don't
sail any faster by bei