"On shore!" replied Ash Burton, to the hail.

"We should like to hire your boat for a while: can we do it if we pay well for her?" continued the speaker on the point.

"She is not to let," replied the skipper.

"We will give you two dollars an hour for her, with the person to manage her," continued the gentleman on the shore.

"We have to go home to dinner pretty soon," added Ash.

"We will give you all a dinner into the bargain," persisted the stranger.

"Take him up!" said Tom Topover very decidedly.

"Take him up!" repeated several others. "We shall get home too late for dinner."

"We have no business to let her," added Sam Spottwood earnestly.

"We have just as much right to let her as we have to use her at all," added Ash. "Two dollars an hour is a big price."

The last speaker became less earnest when he saw that his friend was inclined to favor the proposition. Doubtless the promise of the dinner was quite as tempting as the money that was offered, though not one of the crew of the Goldwing did not think himself rich when he had a dime.

"Will you all stay on shore while I take the party out?" asked Ash Burton, turning to his companions, when his crony weakened.

The party replied in the affirmative to the question, not even Tom Topover making any objection to the plan. Ash ran for a small staging which answered for a wharf, and the Topovers all went on shore peaceably. The picnickers were having a grand time; for they had music and dancing, and there seemed to be at least a hundred of them. Farther back from the lake were half a dozen long furniture-wagons and other vehicles, while a great number of horses were picketed near them. It was evident that the party had come from some distance back in the country, and were not likely to know any thing about the ownership of the Goldwing.

About a dozen ladies and only two gentlemen were embarked in the boat, and Ash got under way. There was just breeze enough to make it lively and pleasant sailing. The sea was regular and moderate, so that there was nothing to call for any extra skill on the part of the skipper. The wind being west, he ran down the lake as far as Split Rock, and then returned. He did not get her best speed out of the sloop, and by the time he reached the wharf the hour had expired.

The party were landed; and Ash supposed the contract had been completed, especially as the gentleman in charge handed him four half-dollars, of which he seemed to have an abundant supply. But the excursionists were hardly on shore before another gentleman appeared, followed by a dozen more ladies, and took the boat for another trip.

Ash did not object, and he was gone the same time with the second party. On his return to the wharf he found another party ready for him, with the Topovers assembled on the wharf. The gentleman who had paid him before gave him four more half-dollars, and he spoke for the boat for the third trip.

Ash mildly suggested that he had had no dinner. Though he had for the last two hours been the undisputed skipper of the Goldwing, he had not yet become so ethereal as to lose his boyish tendency to be hungry. The gentleman said they were in no hurry, and they would wait for the skipper to take his dinner.

"I'll take this party out, Ash Burton," interposed Tom Topover, with cheek enough to fit out a lightning-rod agent. "You can get your dinner while I am gone."

"That won't do," replied Ash, in the mildest of tones.

"What's the reason it won't do?" demanded Tom, beginning to bluster. "I can handle the boat as well as you can."

"You don't know any thing at all about a sailboat," added Sam Spottwood, more for the benefit of the gentleman in charge of the party than to irritate Tom.

"Say that again, and I'll knock you into the middle of last week," bullied Tom. "I am going with this party, and Ash can get his dinner."

"We prefer the one who has managed the boat before," interposed the gentleman, who measured Tom at a glance.

"I didn't nearly tip the boat over, and fill her half full of water, as Ash Burton did," added Tom.

"It was you that made the row, so that the captain had to leave the wheel," retorted Sam, who did not seem to scare at all at the bluster of the leader.

"I am going to sail this party, or the boat don't go again," said Tom decidedly.

"No, you are not, for Ash is the skipper, and we all agreed to obey his orders," added Sam, retiring from the wharf in order to make room for the ladies.

The rest of the party, with the exception of Tom, had done this before; and he followed Sam. The gentleman began to assist the ladies to their seats in the standing-room, for he thought the skipper could settle the dispute.

"What's the reason I'm not going to sail that party if I want to?" demanded Tom, following up Sam Spottwood.

"Because you don't know how to manage the boat, and I don't believe they would go with you," replied Sam fearlessly.

This was too much for Tom; and he made a pass at Sam with his fist, which the latter parried, and saved himself from harm.

"None of that here!" shouted several of the Topovers.

"Sam Spottwood thinks he is my boss, and I will show him what he is and what I am," continued Tom, rushing upon the plain-spoken boy.

Sam did not run: he hit back, and after a brief struggle the bruiser went over on his back. He jumped up, and began to declare that Sam did not fight fair; when the other Topovers crowded around him, and prevented him from renewing the battle if he was disposed to do so, though it generally was the case with him, that he did not follow up a contest when the other party "meant business." The others talked to him of the impropriety of getting up a quarrel in the presence of the ladies.

"I don't care nothing about that," replied Tom; and he rushed back to the wharf, where the gentleman was just going on board of the sloop. "Stop, Ash Burton! I tell you I'm going to sail the boat this time."

"Stop where you are, young man," interposed the gentleman, as he took Tom by the collar. "You want to make a row; if you don't get out of the way, I will duck you in the lake."

"Let me alone!" howled Tom, as the man hurled him away.

Ash shoved off the bow of the Goldwing, and the gentleman stepped on board as the stern swung in. Ash was disgusted with the conduct of the leader of the Topovers, and he decided then and there to have nothing to do with him after that time. He sailed the party for the hour, though he did it on a growling stomach. On his return, he received four more half-dollars, making twelve in all which his pocket now contained. His employer conducted him to the tables, and he proceeded to partake of the collation.

While he was thus pleasantly occupied, the rest of the Topovers, seeing the return of the sloop, hastened to the wharf. No other party wished to sail, and Tom proposed that they should start on their way back to Beechwater. The others were ready, and most of them seated themselves in the standing-room.

"Ash Burton is the captain, and he is at his dinner," said Sam Spottwood.

"We can get along without him," replied Tom with a coarse grin. "I am going to sail the boat back."

At these words Chick Penny and Hop Cabright jumped on the wharf again, declaring they would not go in the boat if Tom was to be the skipper. The bruiser insisted on his point, and that the boat should leave at once. Then Con Binker and Syl Peckman followed the example of Chick and Hop. Even Kidd Digfield and Nim Splugger had some doubts about trusting themselves with Tom, and they began to reason with him. There was no reason in him, and in spite of them he shoved off the boat. Taking the wind on the starboard tack, the usurping skipper headed the sloop to the southward. Tom had his own way this time.

"Hold on, Tom!" shouted Pell Sankland. "Ash Burton has all the money he has taken for the boat. Is he to have the whole of it?"

"Six dollars," added Nim Splugger. "He ought to make a divvy."

"He is not going to keep the whole of it anyhow," said Kidd Digfield.

"There he is, coming down to the wharf," continued Pell. "We have as much right to some of the money as he has. The boat don't belong to him."

"We can get it out of him the next time we see him," said Tom, who did not like the idea of returning to the shore, for he was afraid of losing his position at the wheel.

"He will spend it all, and I won't trust him," replied Pell.

The original Topovers were in a majority of the present crew, and perhaps Tom was tempted by the prospect of putting some money in his pocket. At any rate, he attempted to put the boat about. The sloop was far enough out from behind the point to feel the force of the wind. If there was any wrong way to take, Tom Topover always took it; and he put the helm up instead of down. The effect was to gybe the boat, and nearly upset her. However, she did not ship any water this time, but Tom was bewildered by the behavior of the boat. She was about two hundred feet from the shore.

"There comes the Sylph!" shouted Nim Splugger, as the sharp bow of the steam-yacht appeared beyond Porter's Bay.

This cry filled the Topovers with consternation. They realized that Tom at the wheel was utterly powerless to get them out of the scrape, and it looked as though he would tip them over before he got the boat under way again. The Sylph seldom if ever returned from her excursions in the summer till night, and she was not expected at three o'clock in the afternoon.

"Start her up, Tom!" yelled Kidd, almost frantic at the idea of being caught in possession of the Goldwing by the yacht's people.

"She don't behave right," replied Tom, who had made several attempts to get the boat under way.

"Run her ashore, and let us get out of the way."

"I tell you she won't start for me," added Tom, as the boom banged over from one side to the other as it had done half a dozen times before.

It was clear enough to the culprits, that the captain of the Sylph, who was also the owner of the Goldwing, had recognized the craft; for the steamer was headed directly for the point. If she were going down the lake, she would have headed for the other side of Diamond Island.

At last, by some accident, Tom got the sail filled, and the boat under way; but she had caught the wind on the starboard tack, upon which it was not possible to reach the nearest land. The Topovers growled and yelled to Tom that he was going the wrong way. The bungling skipper put the helm down; but he met her too soon, and she missed stays. The Sylph was close aboard of her, and placed herself between the yacht and the shore.