ace at
the helm.

The waves still dashed high, the wind still howled, but under Tell's
firm hand the boat seemed to steady itself, and the rowers bent to
their work with new courage and strength in answer to his commanding
voice.

Tell, leaning forward, peered through the darkness and the spray.
There was one place where he knew it would be possible to land--where
a bold and desperate man at least might land. He was looking for that
place. Nearer and nearer to the shore he steered. At last he was quite
close to it. He glanced quickly round. His bow and arrows lay beside
him. He bent and seized them. Then with one great leap he sprang
ashore, and as he leaped he gave the boat a backward push with his
foot, sending it out again into the stormy waters of the lake.

There was a wild outcry from the sailors, but Tell was free, for no
one dared to follow him. Quickly clambering up the mountain-side, he
disappeared among the trees.

As Tell vanished, Gessler stood up and shouted in anger, but the
little boat, rocking and tossing on the waves, drifted out into the
lake, and the Austrian sailors, to whom the shore was unknown, dared
not row near to it again, lest they should be dashed to pieces upon
the rocks. Even as it was, they expected every moment that the boat
would sink, and that all would be drowned. But despair seemed to
give the sailors fresh strength, and soon the wind fell and the waves
became quieter. A few hours later, wet, weary, but safe, Gessler and
his company landed on the shore of Schwyz.

[Illustration: WILLIAM TELL AND HIS FRIENDS.]

IV

TELL'S SECOND SHOT

As soon as Gessler landed, he called for his horse, and silent and
gloomy, his heart full of bitter hate against Tell and all the Swiss,
he mounted and rode towards his castle at Kuessnacht.

But Tell's heart, too, was full of hate and anger. That morning he had
been a gentle, peace-loving man. Now all was changed. Gessler's cruel
jest had made him hard and angry. He could not forget that he might
have killed his own boy. He seemed to see always before him Walter
bound to the tree with the apple on his head. Tell made up his mind
that Gessler should never make any one else suffer so much. There was
only one thing to do. That was to kill Gessler, and that Tell meant to
do.

If Gessler escaped from the storm, Tell was sure that he would go
straight to his castle at Kuessnacht. There was only one road which led
from the lake to the ca