she was coming in any
nearer to his hiding-place. He watched for the green light, but he saw
only the red one.

The rain came down in torrents; and the skipper could hear the roar of
the gale on the island, though he was completely sheltered from its
fury. It was so thick out on the water that he could no longer see the
red light, or only caught an occasional glimpse of it. The steamer had
gone off to the northward, and this was evidence enough to Dory that his
retreat had not been discovered. The excitement was over for that day
and that night. The skipper put on the rest of his clothes, and turned
in. While he was wondering whether the Sylph would make a harbor, and
anchor for the night, or return to Plattsburgh, he dropped asleep. He
was very tired, and he slept like a rock till the sun shone into the
cabin in the morning.

Southerly storms are of short duration generally, and there was not a
cloud in the sky when Dory went out into the standing-room to survey the
situation. A gentle breeze was blowing from the west, and the appearance
of the lake and its surroundings was as beautiful as the dream of a
maiden. It was Sunday morning: he had been cruising for three days on
the lake, and he was anxious to get home. But his first desire was to
ascertain what had become of the Sylph. She was not to be seen from his
position in the boat.

Taking a large slice of ham in one hand, and a quantity of hard-bread in
the other, he waded to the shore. From the highest ground, he surveyed
the islands and the mainland to the northward and eastward without
seeing any thing of the steamer. Walking to the hill in the south of the
island, the first thing he discovered, when he got high enough to see
over the top of it, was the Sylph. She was headed to the south-west;
and Dory concluded that she had spent the night under the lee of
Butler's Island, two miles north of Wood's Island. She was bound through
the Gut, and in a few minutes she disappeared from the skipper's view.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

TERRIBLE INTELLIGENCE PROM HOME.

To say that Dory was delighted with the results of his strategy, when he
saw the Sylph going through the Eastern Cut of the Gut, would be to
state the case very mildly. He sat on the summit of the hill, and ate
his ham and hard-bread with entire satisfaction; and, when he had
finished it, the steamer was no longer in sight.

He hastened back to the boat, where he ate another slice of ham, with
the pr