The Boat-Builder Series.

I.

ALL ADRIFT;

OR,

THE GOLDWING CLUB.

II.

SNUG HARBOR;

OR,

THE CHAMPLAIN MECHANICS.

III.

SQUARE AND COMPASSES;

OR,

BUILDING THE HOUSE.

IV.

STEM TO STERN;

OR,

BUILDING THE BOAT.

V.

ALL TAUT;

OR,

RIGGING THE BOAT.

VI.

READY ABOUT;

OR,

SAILING THE BOAT.

DORY AND MR. JEPSON WATCH THE BURGLARS LANDING.

The Boat-Builder Series

READY ABOUT
OR
SAILING THE BOAT

BY

OLIVER OPTIC

AUTHOR OF "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD" "THE GREAT WESTERN SERIES"

"THE ARMY AND NAVY SERIES" "THE WOODVILLE SERIES" "THE

STARRY-FLAG SERIES" "THE BOAT-CLUB STORIES" "THE ONWARD

AND UPWARD SERIES" "THE YACHT-CLUB SERIES" "THE

LAKE-SHORE SERIES" "THE RIVERDALE STORIES"

"ALL ADRIFT" "SNUG HARBOR" "SQUARE AND

COMPASSES" "STEM TO STERN" "ALL

TAUT" ETC. ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

BOSTON

LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS

Copyright 1887

By WILLIAM T. ADAMS

All rights reserved

Ready About

TO

My Young Friend

OTHO WILLIAMS CUSHING

OF FORT TRUMBULL, NEW LONDON, CONN.

This Book

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

PREFACE.

"Ready About" is the sixth and last volume of "The Boat-Builder Series," which was begun six years ago. The only new characters presented in this story are the members of "The Nautifelers Club," who are introduced to exhibit the contrast between young men of high aims and correct principles, and those who are inclined to live too fast, and have no fixed ideas of duty to sustain and advance them in the battle of life. But, even in this miserable club, there are two classes of members; for one-half are reckless and worse than indifferent in the matter of right living, while the other half are led to the very verge of the precipice of crime by their unfortunate associations. The reform of the latter interests the principal of the Beech Hill Industrial School, who does his duty, as always, in the premises, with a very happy result.

More than its predecessors in the series since the first volume, this book is a story of adventure. In this portion, its tendency is to inculcate courage without rashness, and to show that a young man of high principles is not necessarily a coward and a milksop.

As indicated in the sub-title, "Sailing the Boat" is one of the principal features of the book. This is an art that cannot be mastered by simply learning the theory. Nothing but abundant practice can make a competent boatman. Fifty years ago, the writer, however, would have deemed it very fortunate if he could have obtained from a book, even such instruction as he has endeavored to impart. He has by no means exhausted the subject, though whatever more is to be learned will almost come of itself with experience. The author has learned in fifty years that there is always something more to learn; and the handling of a yacht has come to be almost "high art" in the amount of time, study, and enthusiasm bestowed upon the subject in recent years.

As the writer closes his twelfth series of books for young people, he cannot help thanking his numerous constituency in all parts of the country for the abundant and generous favor received from them. Thirty-three years have elapsed from the date of "The Boat Club," his first juvenile; and the kindness of his friends has never failed him in this period of a generation of the human race.

Minneapolis, Minn., July 15, 1887.

CONTENTS.

READY ABOUT;

OR,

SAILING THE BOAT.

CHAPTER I.
MR. SPICKLES FROM THE METROPOLIS.

"I can't go on board now, Spickles," said Matt Randolph, in a very decided tone, and with an expression on his manly face which indicated that he did not wish to go, even if he could.

"What's the reason you can't?" demanded Spickles, evidently very much dissatisfied with the decision of the other.

"Because I have something else to do," added Matt. "I have to attend to my duties as closely here as though I were an officer in the navy, on sea-duty."

"What's the use of being tied up as though you were a prisoner at Sing Sing?" asked Spickles, his disgust apparent on his rather brutal face. "Your father is as rich as mud, and there is no need of your being kept in a strait-jacket."

"I am not kept in a strait-jacket," protested Matt, very warmly.

"I think you are," returned Spickles, with a curling sneer on his thick lips. "When I saw you in New York a year ago, you told me what a big thing Lake Champlain was."

"I still think it is the finest sheet of water in the world, and the region around it is a perfect paradise."

"Paradise!" exclaimed the visitor from the metropolis. "You said there was lots of fun to be had here."

"I find plenty of amusement for all the spare hours I have."

"After what you said, I kept thinking of this place; and five of our fellows have come up here, and chartered a schooner for the summer. She is anchored out in the river; and now that we are here, you will not even go on board of her," continued Spickles, becoming more and more disgusted with the refusal of the captain of the Lily; for such he was, and his "class in sailing" were about ready to go on board of the schooner.

"I am the skipper of that schooner you see out in the lake, and I have to go out in her in a short time," Matt explained.

"Put it off; let the party wait till you come back," insisted the visitor.

"We don't do things in that way here," added Matt, with a smile.

"Tell them you are sick, and can't go," suggested Spickles.

"But I am not sick."

"You were not always above stretching the truth a little in an emergency."

"I am now." Matt did not blush in saying it, either.

"We are going to stay on the lake all summer, if we don't get tired of it," continued Spickles. "I depended upon having you with us, Matt; for we don't know much about the navigation in these waters, though we have the government charts."

"I don't see how you could depend upon me, for I told you that I was under strict discipline in the Beech Hill Industrial School," argued Matt. "I can't come and go when I will."

"Confound the Beech Hill Industrial School! Run away from it, and join our party for the summer."

"I certainly shall not run away from it, for I am perfectly contented and happy here," replied Matt.

"At least you will come on board of the La Motte?"

"What's the La Motte?"

"She's the schooner we chartered for the summer, though she's nothing but a lumber-vessel fixed up for our use. She sails very well, and is large enough for a party of ten. We found her at Rouse's Point. Now, come on board of her. We have just opened a keg of beer in view of your expected visit," said Spickles, in the most persuasive tones he could command.

"I don't drink beer," answered the student of the school.

"You don't drink beer!" exclaimed the visitor, stepping back in his apparent astonishment. "How long has that been?"

"I haven't tasted beer, or any thing of the kind, since I came to this school, about two years ago," replied the captain of the Lily.

"Then, it was only because you couldn't get any beer."

"Perhaps that is one reason, though I haven't tried to get any. I had it all about me while I was at home in New York, but I had decided not to take any under any circumstances."

"Then, it is time for you to begin again. Come along, Matt."

"No beer for me, and I cannot go with you," added Matt resolutely. "I made up my mind a year ago not to drink any thing that fuddles, and to keep out of bad company."

"Bad company!" exclaimed Spickles, looking earnestly into the face of his former associate in the city.

"That is what I said; and I advise you to do the same thing, Spickles. It is best to keep on the safe side of the evils of this world."

"You are a regular built parson!"

This conversation was continued for some time longer, but the captain of the Lily remained as firm as the rocks in the quarry above Beechwater. The visitor was not only disgusted with his want of success in enticing his former companion to the schooner in the river, but he was offended at what he considered the stiffness of Matt. When the latter spoke of keeping out of bad company, he put the coat on, whether he saw that it fitted him or not.

"You are an out-and-out spooney now, Matt Randolph; and I did not think that of you," said Spickles, as the crew of the Lily began to gather on the wharf, where the conversation had taken place.

"Just as you please, Spickles," replied Matt, with a smile; and he seemed to feel that the interview had come to a desirable point, and that his former associate would drop him from the roll of his friends.

"But I want to look about this place a little before I leave it forever," added the visitor. "I suppose I can do so?"

"Certainly, upon application to the principal, Captain Gildrock. He will show you all over the establishment," replied Matt. "There he comes, and I will introduce you."

"All right. Chuckworth! Mackwith!" answered Spickles, calling to his two companions in the boat.

The three young men appeared to be about eighteen or twenty years old. They were dressed in yachting costume, and a person of experience in the ways of the world would at once have set them down as fast young men. They were of the reckless order, swaggering, defiant, boisterous. If a lady had seen them together, she would have taken the other side of the street.

Captain Gildrock was coming down the wharf, to look after the embarkation of the sailing-class. Matt Randolph presented Spickles to the principal, and left the chief of the party to introduce his companions.

"You are the boss of this concern, I take it, Captain Gilthead," said Spickles, suddenly putting on his usual style, and in a sort of patronizing tone, as if the principal had been a country schoolmaster, who ought to consider himself honored by being noticed by a young gentleman from the metropolis.

In fact, Captain Spickles, as his companions on board of the La Motte called him, was determined to "take him down" a little. The visitor, after what Matt had said to him about the discipline of the institution, regarded him with a sort of instinctive hatred. He did not like any one who disciplined young men. Principals, professors, schoolmasters, were monsters, ogres, tyrants, whose only mission in the world was to tease, torture, and torment young fellows like himself.

Captain Gildrock looked at him with a puzzled expression on his dignified face; though the usual smile when he was in repose, played about his mouth. He read the young man almost at the first glance; and if he had considered the popinjay worthy of his steel, he would have prepared for a skirmish of words with him.

"I said 'Captain Gildrock,'" interposed Matt, with emphasis enough to clear himself; for he saw that the fellow had purposely miscalled the name.

"Excuse me, Captain Goldblock."

"Certainly, Mr. Spittle," added the principal blandly.

"Mr. Spickles, if you please," interposed the visitor, who did not at all relish being paid off in his own coin.

"Precisely so, Mr. Spiddles," laughed the principal; while Matt had to turn away to hide his choking laugh.

"My name is Spickles, Captain Goldblock."

"Ah, indeed, Mr. Skiggles! Permit me to add that mine is Gildrock."

"Well, Captain Gildrock"--

"Well, Mr. Spickles"--

"I suppose you are the boss of this concern. Will you show it up?"

"I am the principal of this institution."

"Possibly I shall be able to entertain these visitors alone, Randolph, and you may go on board with your ship's company," said Captain Gildrock, a little later, while he was waiting for the young gentleman from New York to study up his next question.

Matt had twelve students to instruct in the art of sailing a boat, and he directed them to take their places in the two boats that were waiting for them.

"Well, boss, we are ready to see what you have got to show," said Spickles.

"Well, my young cub, I don't know that things here will interest you, but I will show you all you may wish to see," continued the captain, as he conducted the strangers to the office, under the schoolroom. "We register all students here when they come. If they have any money, we keep it for them in that steel safe."

"Is that a steel safe?" asked Mr. Spickles. "Upon my word, I thought it was a wooden one."

"You thought it was made of the same material as your head; but I assure you it is not. Nothing so soft would answer the purpose," answered the principal, who did not always stand on his dignity, though he had plenty of it.

Messrs. Chuckworth and Mackwith turned away, and indulged in audible smiles. Associated with Mr. Spickles, they were often the victims of his peculiar humor, and they were not at all sorry to have him put under the harrow. They enjoyed the remarks of the principal more than Spickles did.

"Then, it is really a steel safe; and I suppose you are afraid the students will steal your money, or you wouldn't have a steel safe," continued Mr. Spickles, chuckling as though he thought he had made a pun.

"Well, no; we hardly expect the students to rob the safe, for they are taught not to steal; but some of these visitors might have a taste for that sort of thing. I sometimes have a thousand dollars in that safe, besides small sums belonging to the students. In fact, I believe I have two thousand dollars in it at this moment: that is the reason why I prefer a steel safe to a wooden one."

The principal showed the visitors over the premises, though they took very little interest in the institution. Spickles indulged in impudent remarks, which the captain parried in his own way, so that he soon got tired of making them; for every time he did so, his friends had a chance to laugh at him, and enjoy the retort.

If Spickles disliked the principal in the first of it, he hated him in the end. A sharp answer made him mad when they had finished the survey, and he was so saucy that Captain Gildrock ordered him to leave. He did not take the hint; and the principal took him by the collar, dragged him to the wharf, and tumbled him into the boat. The leader of the summer party vowed vengeance to his companions.

CHAPTER II.
THE NAUTIFELERS CLUB ON THE LAKE.

Captain Gildrock hardly thought of the self-sufficient visitor after he had seen the boat which contained him pull away from the wharf. He only wondered how Matt Randolph had ever made the acquaintance of such a fellow, for he was a gentleman himself.

The Beech Hill Industrial School had nearly completed its third year of existence; and in the opinion of the principal, and also of a great many other people, it was a decided success. It had certainly reformed quite a number of young men who might otherwise have become useless, if not dangerous, members of the community. It had given useful trades to a considerable number of young men who would not have taken them up on their own account.

Its moral influence had been even more marked than its industrial power, and it had assuredly done something to make manual labor more respectable than it had been considered to be before. There were already those who were not only earning a living, but were supporting their parents, by the aid of the knowledge and skill they had acquired in the institution; and if it had done nothing more than this, it would have done a great deal.

Cold critics said it ought to be a success, for the founder of it had a purse long enough to make any reasonable undertaking a success; but the idea was not a practical one, because it was not susceptible of universal application. The State could not afford to support such schools for all who might be willing to use them. It certainly could not provide for an expenditure as liberal as that of Captain Gildrock, but it could do a great deal more than it has yet done in this direction.

After the principal had disposed of his impertinent visitor,--for there was really only one of this type, as Chuckworth and Mackwith hardly spoke a word,--he could not help thinking that it was a great pity Spickles could not be brought under such discipline as that of the Beech Hill School. He was a young man of decided ability, and all he needed was a kind of discipline that would give him something to live for. He needed something to think about and work for.

When Matt Randolph returned from his trip with his class in sailing, he reported to the principal, who happened to be in the office. He informed the captain where he had been, and the nature of the operations he had conducted on board of the Lily. He commended his crew for good discipline, and close application to their duty. A critic might have laughed at this last part of the report as entirely superfluous; for, as a matter of course, any party of human boys would be interested, and do their whole duty, in sailing a boat.

"By the way, Randolph, is Mr. Spickles a friend of yours?" asked the principal, after he had listened attentively to the report.

"No, sir!" replied Matt, very decidedly. "I was acquainted with him at home, and he was on board of the yacht a number of times; but after he stole a thousand dollars from his father, and ran away, I had nothing more to do with him."

"Was he as bad as that? He seemed to be more like one of the puppy order than one of the criminal kind. He was very saucy to me after I had shown his party over the school; and I had to take him by the collar, and put him into his boat."

"I am glad you did, sir," added Matt. "I was inclined to lay hands on him after his impudence at the beginning."

"He came to see you, I suppose?"

"Yes, sir. He is with a party, and there are five of them. They have chartered a schooner, and intend to spend the summer on the lake. Spickles invited me on board of the vessel, and insisted that I should go with him. I refused."

"The less you have to do with such a fellow as that, the better it will be for you, though it may be all the worse for him," added the principal.

"Spickles told me they had just tapped a keg of beer."

"Of course! the fellow has made considerable progress in the downward road."

After supper the students embarked in the barges for a row, and for practice with the oars. As during the last season, there were three of these boats, the Gildrock and the Winooski, each of twelve oars, and the Marian of eight oars. The crews had been re-organized; and the two larger boats were preparing for a race, each against the other.

Matt Randolph was the coxswain of the Winooski, and Dory Dornwood of the Gildrock; for the crew of each had selected the most skilful boatman in the school to get them in condition for this race. For the last year the students had been on tolerably peaceable terms with the members of the Chesterfield Collegiate Institute, on the other side of the lake; and it was possible that a race would be arranged with them for the Fourth of July.

The two barges were careful to keep away from each other during their practice. The two coxswains, though on the most friendly terms, never talked about the coming race. If either had any points, he wanted to keep them to himself. Each of them had a system of his own in the method of rowing, and each kept his own counsel.

Matt Randolph, for these reasons, did not immediately follow the Gildrock when she left the boat-house, but went up to the head of Beechwater. As soon as the rival craft had passed out of the little lake, the Winooski followed her. The coxswain saw that the party on board of the La Motte, which lay just below the entrance of the creek into the river, hailed the Gildrock when she went by her. But Dory took no notice of them; and Matt concluded that he had not been addressed in civil tones, or he would have replied.

"I wonder what that schooner is that lies in the river," said Ash Burton, who pulled the stroke-oar in the Winooski. "She has been there all the afternoon, and a boat from her went up into Beechwater a while ago."

"That is the schooner La Motte; and she has a party of young fellows on board of her who are going to spend the summer on the lake," replied the coxswain, loud enough for all in the barge to hear him.

"They are hoisting the mainsail," added the stroke-oarsman. "That looks as though they were going out of the river."

"If they are going to leave these parts, I am glad of it," said Matt in a lower tone.

"Why are you glad of it, Matt?" asked Ash curiously.

"They are not the sort of fellows I like to have very near me; for they are on a lark, and they have plenty of beer on board," replied the coxswain.

The boat passed out of the creek into the river. The La Motte had set her mainsail, and was now hoisting the foresail. Matt gave the schooner as wide a berth as he could, but he could not get more than a hundred feet from her.

"Is that you, Matt Randolph?" shouted Spickles.

"I believe so," replied the coxswain.

"Come on board, will you, Matt?" continue the captain of the La Motte, beckoning with his hand.

"You must excuse me, Spickles. I have the charge of this barge, and I can't leave her," replied Matt, very civilly, but not less decisively. "I have to attend to my duty."

"But I want to see you about the navigation of this river; for I got aground coming in, and I don't want to do it again," added the captain of the La Motte.

The coxswain shifted the helm of the barge; for if there was any thing to be done that would assist in the departure of the schooner, he was willing to do it. He ran alongside of the vessel, and held the boat at a distance of about ten feet from her.

"What is the trouble about the navigation, Spickles?" asked Matt, coming to business at once.

"Off that point below, I found that the water was not more than two feet deep," said the captain.

"And it is marked one foot on the chart; and you told me you were supplied with charts."

"I am; but the river is not laid down on the chart."

"You have a south-west wind; and all you have to do is to keep near the middle of the stream, and you will go out all right. Is that all?"

"No, that is not all," replied Spickles, who seemed to be dissatisfied at the distance his former friend kept between them, and with his apparent desire to get off again. "The water is not more than two or three feet deep anywhere out beyond that point."

"To the southward of the point, the water is shoal; but it is deep enough north of it to float an ocean-steamer anywhere. As soon as you get to that bend in the river, and open up the point, run for it. Then--have you a compass on board?"

"Of course I have a compass: I brought a good one with me from New York," replied Spickles.

"When you are up with Beaver Point"--

"Where is that?" interposed the captain of the La Motte, who seemed to be intent upon detaining the coxswain as long as possible.

"The point at the mouth of the river. When you come up with it, make your course north-west by west, and you will be all right till you run on the shore on the other side of the lake."

"I say, Matt, I want to introduce you to the members of the Nautifelers Club; and I wish you would come on board," persisted Spickles.

"As I said before, I cannot, and you must excuse me. But what is the club?" asked Matt, whose curiosity was excited.

"The Nautifelers Club."

"Is that a Greek word?"

"Of course it is."

"I can't quite make it out: will you spell it for me?" asked Matt.

"I will write it for you: it means in English, 'Lots of fun.'"

The coxswain gave an order which brought the stern of the barge near enough to the vessel to enable him to obtain the paper, but resisted all persuasions to go on board of the schooner.

CHAPTER III.
A TERRIFIC EXPLOSION IN THE NIGHT.

Matt Randolph looked at the name of the club, as Spickles had written it, and spelled it out so that all his crew could hear him. All of them seemed to "take it in," or got its meaning from his boatmates. They all laughed, with the exception of the coxswain, and he was inclined to frown.

"It is easy to get at the meaning of such Greek as that, even if a fellow has not fitted for college; and for my part, I should not care to join a club with such a name," said he, with a look of disgust on his face, which was also evident in his tones.

"I expected you to join us as soon as we found you, Matt," added the captain of the schooner.

"You reckoned without your host, then.--Ready to give way!" said the coxswain.

"Hold on a minute, Matt! Do you go to Sunday school now?" jeered Spickles.

"Every Sunday."

"I am sorry for you. You are under the thumb of that old hunker who calls himself the principal, and you don't know enough to catch the straw when you are drowning. I gave the old hunks some!"

"And he took you by the collar, and put you into your boat, and served you right. Give way!" added Matt.

"He's an old squalipop; and he will be likely to hear from me again! He is no gentleman, and he treated me like an uneducated owl. I shall pay him off for it, or my name is something besides Spickles," foamed the skipper of the La Motte.

At this moment, and while the barge was backing away, one of the party brought out a tray, on which were tall glasses filled with beer; and each member of the Nautifelers Club took one of them.

"Here's to the Nautifelers Club! Lots of fun to them, and confusion to old Squalipop!" shouted Spickles, at the top of his lungs, as he and his companions drank off the contents of the glasses.

The barge darted away from the schooner, and was soon out of hail of her. It was evident that the members of the club with the Greek name had bargained for an extensive frolic of the coarsest sort, and most of the crew of the Winooski were simply disgusted with the members of it. Some of them had come from the city, and were more or less familiar with such sights.

"I should rather like to join that club," said Tom Topover, when the boat was some distance from the La Motte.

"You are not one of that sort of fellows now, Tom," added the coxswain. "You have got beyond that kind of a life, and I hope you are strong enough to keep above it."

"You know how to preach, Matt; but I don't want to sit under your preaching. Those fellows are going to have a good time; and I think they will enjoy it," added Tom pleasantly, as some of his old temptations came back to him. "Do you know those fellows, Matt?"

"I know Spickles; but I never saw the others before, though I think they behave like gentlemen compared with their leader."

"He is a jolly fellow," added Tom.

"Spickles's father was formerly a wealthy man in the city, and his son stole a thousand dollars from him. Since that I have kept out of his way, and I will not associate with him."

"What did he do with the money? Give it to the missionaries?" asked Tom; and his companions noticed that he talked a good deal worse than he meant sometimes, and could not entirely rid himself of his former ways of expressing himself.

"He took a steamer to New Orleans, and spent his stolen money in dissipation. When it was all gone, he had to come home before the mast in a bark. He is a bad boy, and his father could not manage him. If he had been sent to the Beech Hill School, it would have made a man of him. I don't quite understand, though I can guess, how he can take such a trip as the one he is now making; for his father lost his money, failed, and is now at work as a clerk."

"Perhaps some of the other fellows have rich fathers," suggested Ash Burton.

"It may be so, but I don't believe it. The sons of rich fathers, when they want to go on a frolic, don't make such a fellow as Michael Angelo Spickles their leader," added Matt.

"Is that his name?" asked Ash.

"They say his mother don't like the name of Spickles, and gave him a high-sounding handle to it to smooth it off. I don't know any thing about it, Tom Topover; but if I were a betting man, I would wager two to one that Spickles stole the money which is used to pay the expenses of the La Motte," continued Matt impressively.

"Then, again, perhaps he didn't," replied Tom.

"I think he did; and he didn't steal it from his father this time, for Mr. Spickles did not have it. Now, Tom, whether he stole this money, or not, he will certainly come to grief. In a month, a year, or ten years, when you see him in the State prison, you will be glad you were not a member of the Nautifelers Club," said Matt, as he consulted the paper in his hand to recall the Greek word.

"You don't know what is going to become of that fellow any more than you know what is going to become of me," added Tom.

"Certainly I don't know; but when you see a young fellow like Spickles, drinking, dissipating, insulting a gentleman like Captain Gildrock, it is easy enough to see where he is coming out. I used to drink beer with Angy, as we used to call Spickles when he was a more decent fellow than he is now, and I know something about it."

"Didn't you like it?" asked Tom.

"I can't say that I did: it always gave me the headache, and made me feel more like a fool than I generally do. I used to drink it because other fellows did. When I came up here, I did not want it; and I have been a great deal better without it."

The Winooski went to the other side of the lake, where the coxswain proceeded to train his crew for the work before him. Not a word was spoken that did not relate to the practice, which was kept up till nearly dark, when the barge returned to Beech Hill. As the boat approached the mouth of the river, the La Motte was seen two or three miles to the northward, standing down the lake. Matt hoped that she would not again visit the waters in the vicinity of Beech Hill.

Matt reported to the principal when the boat had been housed, as all who were in charge of expeditions, excursions, or business trips, were required to do. He informed the captain of the departure of the La Motte, and related to him what had taken place during the interview, giving him the name of the club, as written on the paper.

"The Nautifelers Club is well named, if the word is Greek," said Captain Gildrock. "I suppose they are merely engaged in a frolic, and I only hope they will keep away from this part of the lake."

"They came from the northern part of the lake, for they chartered the schooner at Rouse's Point; and I don't exactly understand why they are going off in that direction again," suggested Matt. "They have not yet been to the upper part of the lake, and it looks as though they did not intend to do so."

"Perhaps they have drunk so much beer they don't know what they are about," added the principal. "I should say that Spickles was a bright boy, and it is a thousand pities that he is plunging into excesses."

At the usual hour all was still; and the students, who had had plenty of exercise in the boats as well as in the shops, slept soundly in their rooms. Insomnia was unknown at the institution, and all were active and bright in the morning at an early hour.

Some of them awoke at an unusually early hour the next morning, though it soon appeared that the current of events was not flowing in its ordinary channel. The students and others had been awakened by some extraordinary disturbance, or most of them would have slept till the morning-bell roused them from their slumbers.

As nearly at three o'clock as the hour could afterwards be fixed, a tremendous explosion, with a sound which equalled the report of one of the yacht-guns on board of the Sylph, shook the buildings of the school, and made the windows of the dormitory rattle as though a hurricane had struck them. The very earth seemed to tremble under the effects of the convulsion.

Suddenly startled from their slumbers, those who heard the sound, and had been shaken in their beds by it, were unable to determine where the report came from, or to form any idea of what had caused it. Perhaps half the students in their rooms leaped from their beds, and the other half were partially paralyzed where they lay by the shock.

Doubtless, if they had been awake, and had understood the cause of the explosion, they would have enjoyed it; for the average boy delights in a terrific noise. But they were literally and figuratively in the dark. They could see nothing to explain the tremendous racket which had startled them from their deep sleep, and not a sound followed the shock to give them a clew to the strange event.

Some thought it must be an earthquake; others that it was a crash of thunder which attended the striking of the lightning at some point not far from them. Possibly some of them thought that a daring rogue of the school was playing off a trick upon his companions; and more wondered if one of the chimneys on the dormitory had not fallen over, and crushed in the roof of the building.

It might be an earthquake, for there was no smell of powder, no lightning in the sky; and no one was stirring in the building, as would have been the case if the roof had been crushed. In fact, not even the most intelligent and quick-witted of the students could assign any cause to the event. They stood in their rooms, or lay in their beds, thinking of it for a few moments, waiting for something else to come, some after-clap, which would throw a ray of light on the subject. Nothing came.

Some of the boldest and most energetic of the boys began to put on a portion of their clothes, and unfastened their doors. As may well be supposed, Dory Dornwood was one of the first to come out of the stupor produced by the shock. He had not been awake more than five seconds, before he had jumped inside of his pants, and opened the door of his room.

He looked out into the long hall, but it was as dark as Egypt there; and there was no glare of a fire in the building,--not a flash, not a sound of any kind. He went back into his room, and opened the window. He looked out on the lawn, but there was nothing in motion there. No key to the enigma was within his reach.

But by this time, he heard a sound in the hall. He went to the door, but it was too dark to see any thing. Some conspiracy on the part of a few restless students might have been brought to a focus at this time, and he deemed it prudent to light his lamp before he took any step. If there was any thing to be seen, he wanted to see it.

If any conspirators were trying to knock down the dormitory, or perpetrate a practical joke, he had a desire to know who they were; for all such tricks were at a discount in the school. The principal had no mercy for a practical joker when the feelings or the person of any individual was imperilled by the so-called fun.

There was some one in the hall, beyond a doubt. It might be one of the students, roused, like himself, by the explosion; or it might be an evil-doer from outside of the fold. Dory opened the door again, and thrust the lamp out into the hall, so as to light every part of it.

The person in the hall proved to be Matt Randolph.

CHAPTER IV.
THE SCENE OF OPERATIONS.

"Did you hear it, Dory?" called Matt Randolph, as soon as he saw the light at the door of the other.

"Did I hear it?" replied Dory, who was cool enough to smile at the absurdity of the question, though it was nothing more than the introduction to the subject in the minds of both. "I could not very well help hearing it, though I sleep as soundly as a bullfrog in winter."

"What was it?" demanded Matt, apparently more excited than Dory.

"That's the conundrum before the house at the present moment. I have not the least idea what it was," replied Dory. "It shook my windows, and at first I thought my bed was lifted up under me. It might have been an earthquake, though such convulsions are not the fashion in the State of Vermont."

"I thought it must be an earthquake at first," added Matt.

"Did you alter your mind?" asked Dory, as he stepped back into his room, and put on his shoes.

"Not exactly; but on second thought I concluded that it could not be an earthquake, and I was wondering what it could be, when I heard a door open," added Matt, who was fully dressed, for he had taken the time to put on his clothes before he came out of his room.

"I move you, Captain Randolph, that we don't try to imagine what it was, but that we go and look into the matter, and find out what it was," replied Dory, as he put on his coat, and led the way to the hall.

"That is the sensible thing to do; but a fellow can't expect to be very bright when he is shaken out of his slumbers by something like an earthquake," said Matt, as he followed Dory.

By this time several of the students had recovered, in a measure, from their consternation, and had opened their doors, some of them shaking with terror, as though they expected to be swallowed up immediately in some awful catastrophe.

"What is the matter, Dory?" Tucker Prince asked, as the two coxswains passed his door.

"Give it up, Tuck: ask me something easier," replied Dory, laughing. "I may be able to tell you something about it at a later hour in the morning."

"What was it, Dory?" asked Tom Topover.

"It was a tremendous noise; and that is all that is known about it at the present moment, on this floor of the dormitory."

"I knew as much as that before," added Tom.

"Then, you are as wise as any of us, Tom."

Dory and Matt did not pause to talk, but hastened to the lower floor. There was nothing below to explain the noise, and the outside door was locked as usual. Dory opened it, and they went out on the lawn. At this point they smelled something which was not powder, though it had an unknown chemical odor.

The building containing the schoolroom and workshops, or a part of the latter, was close to the dormitory; and the inquirers went in that direction. The office was in front of the shops, on the lower floor. It was an apartment of considerable size, which had been put in the year before, when the shops were enlarged. It was handsomely carpeted, and was really Captain Gildrock's private apartment; though Fatima Millweed used it, and kept the accounts of the institution there.

As the principal had indicated to his visitors the afternoon before, it contained a steel safe, as well as a couple of roll-top desks, and a number of easy-chairs; for visitors on business were received in this room. Captain Gildrock had sold a house the day before in the town, and had put the money he received in the safe until he could go to the bank in Burlington.

Dory had carried his lamp as far as the outside door of the dormitory, but the wind had blown the light out as soon as he came out of the building. He retained it in his hand as they walked to the shops, as the structure was called, taking its name from the working, rather than the school, room.

It was a dark night, cloudy and windy: in fact, it was blowing a smart gale from the south. Coming from the light into the gloom outside, Dory and Matt might as well have been blind, so far as seeing any thing was concerned. But every inch of the ground was familiar to them, and they walked directly to the shops. The chemical odor became more pronounced. They halted in front of the office. This apartment was locked, and they had no key to the door. They could not yet see any thing in the deep gloom, though their sight was improving.

"The explosion came from some point near us," said Dory, as he walked up to the door of the office, guided by instinct rather than sight.

"I can smell something, but I can't see a thing," added Matt.

"Here we are!" exclaimed Dory, when he had passed from the door to one of the windows of the office. "This window is open, and the mischief came from here!"

"Is it a break?" demanded Matt, beginning to be a little excited.

This was police slang; but Dory understood it, as any one might have done; and he replied that it was a "break."

"Look out, then, Dory!" added Matt, laying his hand on the shoulder of his companion. "The burglars may be still in the office; and such fellows carry revolvers, which they use when they get into a tight place."

"They can hardly be here now, after they have taken the trouble to wake up the entire neighborhood with such an explosion," replied Dory. "Take this lamp, Matt, and I will get in at the window, and strike a light."

"Don't do it, Dory!" protested Matt. "Wait a moment, and I will go back to the dormitory, and get a lantern out of the lower hall."

Without waiting for his companion, Matt ran back to the dormitory. A couple of lanterns were kept there for the use of the students in the evening, if they had occasion to go to the shops or elsewhere. Matt took one of them down, and lighted it, for there were matches in the tin box on the wall. When he had done so, he concluded to light the other, so that each of them could have one in conducting the examination.

Dory stood at the open window while his companion was gone; for he agreed with Matt, that prudence was a virtue at all times: and reasonable people practise it, unless they get too angry to do so, and then they regret it afterwards. He had begun to think that Matt was gone a long time, when he heard a sound inside of the office.

The noise startled him, for he had not believed the robbers delayed their flight so long after they had taken the trouble to announce themselves to all within hearing. He listened with his head thrust into the open window as far as the length of his neck would permit, and he was intensely interested from that moment.

If there were any robbers in the office, they must have heard what Matt said when he proposed to go for the lantern. Dory had always read the newspapers; and he knew something about the operations of burglars, though he lived far from any great city. The night-visitors to the office of the institution, he concluded, had blown open the steel safe, or attempted to do so. If they had succeeded, it could not have taken them more than a minute or two to scoop out the contents of the safe, or at least to pocket the money it contained.

He was just making up his mind that the burglars must have departed before any one had had time to come to the office, when the noise he had heard before was repeated. It sounded like some mechanical operation, and appeared to be on the farther side of the room, where there was a door opening into the carpenter's shop.

"I was a fool not to open this door before we finished the safe!" said some one in the room, in a low and subdued voice, and in a tone which indicated his disgust at the situation in which he found himself.

"Hurry up! The fellow will be back with the lantern in a moment, and then we shall be blown," added another voice.

"Then some one will get shot!" said the first speaker.

But at the same moment, the sound of the opening door came to Dory's ears. He was on the point of springing in at the window, to prevent the escape of the burglars, when he realized that he was almost sure to be shot, as the first speaker had suggested. He was unarmed; and against two men, as he supposed they were, he had a small chance of accomplishing any thing in the way of capturing them.

Through the open door into the shop he saw several flashes of light, and then he understood that the operators were provided with one or more dark-lanterns. He could hear their retreating footsteps in the shop; and he concluded that they intended to escape through one of the rear windows, which they could easily open, as they were fastened on the inside.

Two lights were approaching from the dormitory, Dory saw, as he withdrew his head from the window. But what use were they now? He had solved the enigma, and any further light on the subject was superfluous. The burglars had effected an entrance: whether the explosion had opened the safe, or not, was yet to be discovered. But while he was thinking of the matter, the robbers were getting away. This was all wrong, Dory suddenly realized.

"Help! Help! Burglars! Robbers!" shouted Dory, at the very top of his voice; and he had never been accused of having weak lungs.

"What are you about, Dory?" called Matt, as he rushed towards him.

"Doing the next best thing!" said Dory hastily. "Run to the dormitory, Matt, with all your might, and ring the bell, just as you would for fire."

"Do you think there are any burglars in the office?" asked Matt.

"Not now! But there have been at least two of them there, and now they are escaping by the back windows of the carpenter's shop! They are armed too. Hurry up, and ring the bell, Matt!" shouted Dory, in the ears of his companion, as he took one of the lanterns from him.

Placing the lantern on the doorstone of the office, Dory darted off at the fastest run he could get up for the rear of the building. He appeared to have forgotten that the burglars had revolvers.

CHAPTER V.
ON THE TRACK OF THE BURGLARS.

Matt Randolph lost no time in discharging his duty at the bell-rope, and he performed it with the utmost vigor and determination. He rang the bell, which was in a cupola at the top of the building, as the students had been instructed to do in case of fire. There was no art or skill to be used in the operation, and the ringer was simply required to make all the noise he could; and Matt made it.

Dory reached the rear of the shops in season to escape being shot by the reckless burglars, and even to avoid being shot at. Perhaps it was fortunate that he was too late to see the marauders leap from the window, as he had expected; for his life, or the comfort and well-being of his well-developed frame, might have been endangered.

When Dory reached the rear of the shops, he found one of the windows open; and he halted under it to obtain further information, for he was not a fellow to lose his head, and fly off at random. The rapid ringing of the bell was rather exhilarating; but he considered it quite necessary to keep cool, and he did not allow himself to be carried away by the excitement of the moment. He stopped short under the open window.

It was too dark to see any thing. He had thought of bringing the lantern with him; but when he thought that it would be of more assistance to the burglars in avoiding him, than it would be to him in finding them, he concluded to let the darkness hide his movements. It occurred to him that the light would enable them to use their revolvers effectively.

All he could do was to stop and listen. The wind was blowing very hard; and the noise it made in the trees prevented him from hearing the tramp of footsteps, if there were any to be heard. There was not a sound that could be distinguished above the rattling of the leaves and the swaying of the branches.

It was rather discouraging to the volunteer thief-taker; and he began to feel that he had come to the end of his rope, for it was useless to run here and there without something to guide his steps. As he had no clew to the marauders, he could only consider probabilities. What direction would the burglars take to make their escape? If they had come in a boat, they could embark anywhere between the bridge above the quarries and Beaver River.

By land they could pass through the grounds of the estate, and reach the street; or they could follow the cart-path through the quarries, pass over the bridge, and reach Lake Champlain at Porter's Bay, or any point below it, or strike a road which would lead them to the north.

While he was thinking of it, he heard the voice of Matt Randolph calling to him. But the bell was still ringing, even more furiously than at first; and it was plain that he had turned this task over to some other student, for no one but a boy would have put so much vigor into the operation. And by this time the tremendous racket ought to bring a crowd to the centre of the disturbance.

"Have you seen any thing of them, Dory?" shouted Matt, as he reached the corner of the building.

"Not a thing," replied Dory.

The sound of his voice directed the steps of his companion, and brought him to the vicinity of the open window. He had a lantern in his hand, and by its aid they examined the window by which the burglars had made their exit from the shop. But there was nothing there to afford them a particle of information in the quest.

"Don't you know which way they went?" asked Matt.

"I have not the least idea," answered Dory; and he stated the avenues of escape open to the robbers, as he had just been over them in his own mind.

"But while we are standing here, doing nothing, the villains are getting away," said Matt, with some excitement in his manner.

"It's no use to tear around wildly without knowing what you are about," replied Dory quietly. "I am in favor of looking over the chances before we strike in any direction. With all the racket of that bell, they did not go through the grounds to the nearest road."

"They will give the roads a wide berth," added Matt.

"Then, they have either taken a boat on the little lake, or they have gone up to the bridge above the quarry. I feel almost sure they have done one or the other of these things," continued Dory, who had reached a decided conclusion, and was ready to act.

"I think you are right, Dory; and what to do is the next article in the warrant," replied Matt, whom the influence of the other had completely cooled off, and he saw the folly of running about at random without any plan of operations.

"All we have to do is to cover the open points of escape, as we understand them. Have the fellows turned out yet?"