Almost any kind of a fresh-water sailor can run a craft with the wind dead astern, therefore there was no danger of any mistake being made until it should be necessary to change the course; but as he took his station at the wheel, Ned could not fail to ask himself what might be the result before the voyage came to an end.
“I never run a boat before with more than one sail,” he said to himself, “an’ am afraid I’ll make a mess of it before we got very far; but things can’t be much worse than they were when we was on the island waitin’ for a craft that never hove in sight.”
His unpleasant thoughts were interrupted by a shout from his companions, who were standing directly in front of the pilot-house watching as the yacht glided slowly away from the land.
“We’re not only afloat, but moving!” Roy cried, “so let’s give three cheers for good luck!”
Vance aided him in thus starting the yacht with proper ceremony, while Ned remained silent, his face wearing an expression of deepest anxiety.
“Why don’t you cheer?” Vance asked. “Any one would think you didn’t feel glad at getting away from the key.”
“I am all the same; but now I can’t help feelin’ nervous about the trip. Neither of us know how to handle a craft properly, and, to make the matter worse, we can only guess at the direction we want to go. It begins to look more serious than when we were only talkin’ the matter over.”
“Don’t borrow trouble before we’ve fairly got clear of the land,” Roy cried cheerily. “It’s enough for me that we’re under way, and I’ll let the future take care of itself.”
Sailoring under such circumstances as the boys experienced immediately after leaving the key was decidedly pleasant work, and it appeared to be a very easy matter to navigate a vessel.
The wind was hardly more than what might have been called a gentle breeze, and the Zoe glided through the water at the rate of three or four knots an hour.
Ned was at the helm, and his companions, in order to discuss the question of a course in case land should be sighted suddenly, were also in the pilot-house.
“If it wasn’t for the drag of the screw we’d be slippin’ along right lively now,” Ned said as he looked back at the island they had been so eager to leave.