# Fairview Boys at Lighthouse Cove/Chapter 10

CHAPTER X
CARRIED OUT TO SEA
"May I steer a bit?" asked Bob, when he and his chums had ridden in the big motor boat some distance down the cove toward the bridge, that was not far from the inlet.
"I guess so," answered Silas. "There aren't many craft about now, and I don't believe you'll run into anybody."
"I wish I'd asked him," murmured Sammy to Frank. "But I didn't think he'd let us."
All the boys were eager to take the wheel.
"We can take turns," said Bob, generously. Now that he had permission to do what he had long been anxious to, he was not going to be selfish. "Can't we take turns, Silas?" he asked.
"Oh, I guess so," was the good-natured answer. "It'll be as good a time as any to give you boys some points on steering. No telling when you may have a boat of your own."
"I wanted my father to get one this year," said Bob, "only he said I was too young to run it, and he didn't have time. When I go back I'll tell him I can steer a boat, and maybe he'll get one."
"I hope he does!" cried Sammy, with visions of what fine fun he and his chums would have in a power boat of their own.
"Well, there's a heap sight more to learn about a motor boat than just steering it," said Silas, with a grin, "though ​maybe steering comes first. Now I'll show you what to do, and how to do it. Of course I can't show you all the different twists and turns of the channel now—it would take too long to learn them. But I can show you how to steer a boat, how to keep her straight, and how to go to port or starboard, or left and right, as they say now."
The three boys gathered about him as he sat at the wheel, which was made fast to a bulkhead, or partition just outside the cabin. The cabin of the Skip took up about half of the boat, the forward part. The after part was an open space, beneath the floor of which was the motor running in a sort of cockpit.
The motor was covered with a cover, or hatch, as it is called, and when this was in place you could not see the machinery, though it was running beneath your feet.
The cabin was of good size, and had small bunks in it that could be made up into beds. There were also lockers for food and water, and a small oil stove on which Silas cooked when he went off on fishing trips. In fact the Skip was a snug little craft.
"This wheel is what is called a sea wheel," went on Silas, beginning his steering lesson.
"Aren't all wheels sea wheels?" asked Bob.
"No, on some motor boats there are what are called land-lubber wheels."
"What's the difference?" asked Frank.
"It's easy to remember, once you've heard it, 'said Silas. "A land-lubber wheel turns in the same direction you want the boat to steer. For instance, if you want to go to the left you twist the wheel toward your left hand, and if you want to go to the right you twist it to the right.
"But a sea wheel is just the opposite from this. With that, if you want your boat to go to the left, you turn the wheel to the ​right, and if you want to go to the right you twist the wheel to the left."
"I should think you'd get all twisted up!" exclaimed Sammy.
"Well, you might, at first, but once you've learned to use a sea wheel you won't want any other," went on Silas. "I'm not saying but what it might not have been better at the start, for every boat to have a wheel you could turn in the direction you wanted to go, but as long as they have sea wheels you might as well learn that way. Now we'll begin."
In turn he let the boys handle the wheel, sending the boat this way and that, until they found how quickly the Skip responded to her rudder.
At first each of the lads got a little confused, and turned the wheel the wrong way. But soon they remembered, and when Silas, pretending he was the captain, ordered them to go to the right or left they did do it without any trouble.
They passed several other boats from time to time, and Silas showed how to get by them without getting too far out of the channel, or without passing too close to the other craft. There was a compressed air whistle on the Skip and the boys took great delight in blowing this.
"It's a heap more fun on a trip like this than trailing that queer old Professor Watson!" exclaimed Bob.
"That's right," said Frank. "I don't believe we'll bother with him any more."
"No, I guess I was wrong about that pirate gold," admitted Sammy, and his chums laughed, for this was the first time he had ever given up. But he was so interested in the motor boat that he thought of little else.
The trip to the bridge, just above the inlet, was rather a long one, but the boys enjoyed every bit of it, and they were sorry when the Skip pulled up to a dock, and Silas announced that ​he would stay there for some time, buying supplies for himself, and for a number of other fishermen, who had asked him to obtain things for them. There was a general store at the bridge—a store which supplied many sailors and fishermen with the things they needed for their work.
While waiting for Silas, the boys went ashore and wandered about the little settlement about the store. Finally the fisherman came out and said:
"Boys, I find I've got to go down near the inlet after some stuff. Now you said your folks didn't want you to go there, and I don't want to take you when Mrs. Bouncer said you weren't to go. So you'd better stay here until I come back. I won't be long."
"Oh, that's no fun!" exclaimed Bob.
"I wonder if we couldn't go," suggested Frank.
"There isn't any danger; is there?" asked Sammy.
"I don't think so," answered Silas, "but them women folks has their own opinions. I never go agin 'em."
The three chums were much disappointed, when Bob saw a telephone on the wall.
"That's the thing I" he cried. "I'm going to telephone my mother at the cottage, and ask her if we can't go. I'll tell her there's no danger."
"And you can tell her I said so," put in Silas, for he liked the Fairview boys, and wanted to give them the pleasures of the trip.
Bob was soon talking to his mother over the wire, and, after some hesitation, she said the boys might make the longer trip. And, on the suggestion of Silas, Bob said they would probably not be home for dinner, since it would be late.
"We'll just get a lunch on my boat," said Silas. "I've got plenty to eat, and a stove to cook it on."
​"Oh, that will be fine!" cried Sammy, and the others agreed with him.
So it was arranged, and a little later the Skip went under the bridge, and pointed her bow toward the broader and deeper waters that led to the inlet.
It was about three miles to where the waters of the ocean and Cove met, and the channel was so twisting, on account of the shifting sands, that Silas did not like to let the boys steer. So he held the wheel himself.
From time to time, as the boat went on Silas would raise the hatch cover, and look at the throbbing motor, to see that it was running all right. Once in a while he would oil it. The boys looked on with interest when he did this, and asked many questions.
Silas explained how he had to spin the flywheel around to start the motor, and how he turned on the spark and gasolene. Sometimes, he said, the motor would start when the electric switch was closed, without the flywheel being turned by hand.
Now and then, as the Skip went along, Silas would look up at the sky, and shake his head as though in doubt.
"What's the matter?" asked Sammy, after a bit.
"I don't like the looks of the weather," was the answer. "It looks to me as though we were in for a heavy thunderstorm."
"They're not dangerous; are they?" asked Bob.
"Oh, well, not specially so. But down here, near the inlet, the wind sometimes blows pretty strong, and when the tide's running out, as it is now, there's a powerful current. I almost wish I hadn't brought you boys along."
"Oh, we're not afraid," said Frank with confidence. "The Skip is a good boat; isn't she?"
"There's none better afloat, for her size," said Silas proudly. "I've ridden out many a gale in her down in the ​
The boys sat about eating the sandwiches.
​big bay. But of course the ocean is different. However, I'll just hurry through and maybe we can get back before she blows too hard. I think we'll have a bite to eat now, for we may not get time later. Here, one of you boys take the wheel. There's a straight course now, and I'll get out the things and make some coffee."
This was soon done, and the boys sat about, eating the sandwiches Silas made. They were having the time of their lives, and the fact that in the West a big bank of black clouds was gathering, from which now and then lightning flashed, did not worry them. They were sure they would get back all right.
Silas had to stop at a small dock, not far from the inlet, where an old sailmaker had his shanty. The fisherman was to call for a sail for one of his neighbors.
Silas made fast the Skip in a hurry, and, leaping out on the dock, called to the boys:
"Wait here until I come back. I won't be long. Then we'll head for Lighthouse Cove."
"All right," answered Bob. "We'll be all right."
The darkness had increased because of the clouds, and now a strong wind sprang up. It whipped the waters of the channel into whitecaps, and this, with the strong tide that was running, made the Skip strain hard at her mooring rope.
The wind blew harder, and then with a sudden outbreak of fury the storm broke, the rain coming down in such torrents that the boys could not see the shanty of the sailmaker.
"Get in the cabin!" cried Sammy.
"That's right!" yelled Frank. "We'll be soaked here!"
They tumbled into the cabin, which was below the level of the cockpit deck, and pulled the sliding doors shut.
"Now we're all snug—let her rain!" cried Bob.
And rain it did. The pelting drops made so much noise ​on the cabin roof that the boys had to shout to make each other hear. The thunder was terrific, and the bright lightning cut through the blackness that was almost as dark as night.
"Say, this boat is bobbing some!" suddenly exclaimed Frank.
Indeed the Skip was in violent motion, and the boys did not know what to make of it. She swung about, and then brought up suddenly as the rope tightened.
Then, all at once, there was a violent jerk, and the boat swung about more than ever.
"I hope that rope holds!" cried Sammy.
"So do I!" exclaimed Bob. "What if it should break?"
Then the Skip seemed to swing entirely around, and a moment later she raced off through the storm, tossing violently up and down on the waves. The boys heard confused shouts above the noise of the storm.
"What is it?" cried Sammy.
"Something has happened!" yelled Frank.
"I'm going to have a look," said Bob resolutely, as he slid back one of the cabin doors. The burst of wind and rain in his face almost drove him within again, but he went out into the little open space.
Then his worst fears were realized. The Skip had broken away from her dock, and was racing before the wind and tide down the channel toward the inlet.
Bob could just make out, on the end of the dock, the figure of an excited man, waving his hands to him. But what he said could not be heard. Bob was sure the man was Silas.
"What is it—what's happened?" called Frank.
"We've broken loose!" shouted Bob, coming back into the cabin. Even in those few seconds he had been drenched with the rain.
"Broken loose from where?" asked Sammy.
​"From the dock. We're adrift!"
"Adrift! Where are we going?" gasped Sammy and Frank together.
"We're being carried out to sea, I guess," answered Bob, and there was fear in his voice, much as he tried to hide it
Meanwhile the Skip, at the mercy of the wind and tide, was being carried faster and faster out toward the inlet that led to the great ocean.