eans to catch us, why don't she stick to it?" continued
Corny.

"She is sticking to it. The way to catch a pigeon is to put salt on his
tail, you know," answered Dory, laughing. "She is beginning to play her
game now. If she had gone to the north-west, instead of to the west, I
might believe she had given it up; and I should be ready to head the
Goldwing for Burlington as soon as I saw her to the eastward of
Valcour's Island."

"What do you think she means to do, Dory?" asked Thad.

"I am very clear what she means to do. I wouldn't give anybody two cents
to write it down for me," replied the skipper confidently. "She has gone
to the west so that she can coax us out from these ledges. If she could
get us away from these dangers, where she could chase us, she would soon
be up with us."

"There are plenty of rocks and shoals south of us," suggested Thad.

"But there are buoys on them, and a hundred feet of water between them.
Very likely Captain Vesey knows his way among them. We can very soon see
whether she has given up the chase or not," said Dory, as he put the
boat about, and headed her to the south.

"Are you going to run for Burlington, Dory?" asked Corny.

"We are headed in that direction now," replied the skipper.

"But the steamer does not change her course," continued Corny.

"And she won't change her course until we have gone a couple of miles
farther to the southward. They are getting smart on board of the
Missisquoi," added Dory, like one who is driving a winning horse.

All hands watched the steamer very closely, and Corny would have given
something handsome to have it made out that Dory was mistaken in his
calculations. He was loyal to the skipper, but he did not like to have
statements of the latter prove true every time. The steamer did not
change her course, but she did not seem to get ahead very fast.

In half an hour the Goldwing was off Colchester Reef Light. The
Missisquoi was still headed to the west; and Corny was beginning to feel
triumphant, though he was not confident enough to say much. The steamer
was three miles distant; but Dory was satisfied by this time that she
had stopped her propeller, and was only waiting for the schooner to get
a little farther to the southward, where she could not dodge in among
the dangerous rocks.

"She is coming about!" shouted Thad.

"It is about time for her to do something," replied Dory. "But she is
not coming down this way."

"How do you know