aight, and the water
high in the lake, I considered myself competent to take her through.
The boat minded her helm very prettily, and there was no current in
the channel to interfere with my calculations, so that I did not
regard the place as very difficult navigation. I had been through the
channel twenty times in the Splash. The pier ran out from the island
to the deep water, so that I had only to run the bow up to it, and
make fast to the ring. The steamer would be safe here, and, being
concealed between the islands, could only be seen from one point above
and one below; and here we could have our dinner, and hold our
important consultation without the danger of interruption.

I had another and stronger motive for entering this channel, and
without which, perhaps, I might not have had the confidence to run
even the slight risk which the navigation of the passage involved. It
was so fully ground into my bones that the Champion would be after us
about three o'clock, or as soon as she had landed her passengers at
Parkville, that I wished to be fully prepared for any emergency. To
the north of the "North Sister," and to the south of the "South
Sister," the water was shoal for a mile in each direction, while the
channel between the islands seemed to have been kept open by the
strong south-west and north-east winds, as they forced the waters
through. At any rate, there was a channel with five feet of water in
it, though I was not entirely certain in regard to the explanation of
the fact.

The Champion was a larger boat, drawing one foot more water aft than
the Adieno, and therefore could not pass through the channel, or come
within half a mile of the wood pier. My idea was, that in this
position we could not be approached by our anticipated pursuer, as we
lay moored at the wharf. If chased, I might be able to gain on the
Champion by running through The Sisters Channel, which would enable me
to come out two or three miles ahead of her on the opposite side, as
she would be obliged to go a mile, north or south, to get round the
shoal water.

I was so pleased with the calculation I had made, that I could not
help wishing I was employed in a better cause than in fighting the
battle of a parcel of runaway students,--it would have been so
exciting to play the game of strategy in real earnest, and in a good
cause. I plumed myself just then on being a great navigator, and a
shrewd calculator, and I wished to test my plans. It s