Jerry looked around anxiously for Harry and Blumpo, but for a long while could see nothing of them.
“Look here,” demanded Clarence Conant, recovering his composure, now the greatest of the danger was over. “What—ah—do you mean by talking to me in this fashion?”
“I mean just what I say,” retorted Jerry. “You had no right to take these young ladies out and expose them to such peril.”
“The—ah—hurricane took me by surprise,” was the dude’s lame excuse.
“I am very thankful to you, Jerry Upton,” cried Dora Vincent, the oldest and prettiest of the girls on board.
“Thank you,” replied the boy, blushing. “But now is no time to talk. Which of you will take the tiller, if I tell you exactly what to do?”
“I can—ah—take the tiller,” interposed Conant, haughtily.
“You won’t touch it!” cried the young oarsman, sternly.
“Sit down! If you dare to stir I’ll pitch you overboard!”
Overcome with a new terror, the dude collapsed. He was hatless, the curl was out of his mustache and hair, and altogether he looked very much “washed out.”
He sank down near the bow, and it was well that he did so, for just then came an extra heavy blast of the gale.
“Hold hard, every one!” yelled Jerry. “Perhaps you ladies had better go into the cabin,” he added.
“I am to take the tiller, you know,” said Dora Vincent.
“Well, then, let the others go. We can work along better with a clear deck.”
So while Dora went aft, the others crawled into the cabin, or cuddy. Under pretense of seeing after their comfort, Conant crawled after them.
“Now I will tell you just how to move the tiller,” said Jerry to Dora Vincent.
“All right, I am ready,” responded the brave girl.
Now that she had Jerry with her, and knowing he was well acquainted with boats, she felt that she was safe, no matter how bad the storm might prove itself.
After giving the girl some instructions Jerry hoisted the main-sail a few feet only. The sloop then swung around and moved in a beating way against the storm.
Jerry wished to learn what had become of his companions. He was fearful that they had been drowned.
It took quite some time to reach the vicinity where the accident had occurred, and even then but little was to be seen through the driving rain.
No answer came back and he repeated the cry a dozen times. Then he fancied he heard a response directly ahead. The sloop was moved cautiously in the direction, and presently they saw Blumpo clinging to part of the shattered row-boat.