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[Illustration: THE BOAT BUILDER SERIES

OLIVER OPTIC

William T. Adams]




The Boat-Builder Series.

I.

ALL ADRIFT;
OR,
THE GOLDWING CLUB.

II.
SNUG HARBOR;
OR,
THE CHAMPLAIN MECHANICS.

III.
SQUARE AND COMPASS;
OR,
BUILDING THE HOUSE.

IV.
STEM TO STERN;
OR,
BUILDING THE BOAT.

V.
ALL TAUT;
OR,
RIGGING THE BOAT.

VI.
READY ABOUT;
OR,
SAILING THE BOAT.

[Illustration: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE? DEMANDED PEARL." PAGE
252.]

[Illustration: OLIVER OPTIC'S

BOAT-BUILDER SERIES.

ALL ADRIFT.

BOSTON, LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS.]




_The Boat-Builder Series_

ALL ADRIFT

OR

THE GOLDWING CLUB

BY

OLIVER OPTIC

AUTHOR OF "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD" "THE GREAT WESTERN SERIES" "THE ARMY
AND NAVY SERIES" "THE WOODVILLE SERIES" "THE STARRY-FLAG SERIES" "THE
BOAT-CLUB STORIES" "THE UPWARD AND ONWARD SERIES" "THE YACHT-CLUB
SERIES" "THE LAKE-SHORE SERIES" "THE RIVERDALE STORIES" ETC. ETC.

_WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS_

BOSTON
LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM
1883

COPYRIGHT, 1882,
BY WILLIAM T. ADAMS.

_All rights reserved._


    TO MY GRANDSON

    ROBERT ELMER RUSSELL

    This Book

    IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.




PREFACE.


"All Adrift" is the first volume of a new set of books, to be known as
"THE BOAT-BUILDER SERIES." The story contains the adventures of a boy
who is trying to do something to help support the family, but who finds
himself all adrift in the world. He has the reputation of being rather
"wild," though he proves that he is honest, loves the truth, and is
willing to work for a living. Having been born and brought up on the
shore of Lake Champlain, he could not well avoid being a boatman,
especially as his father was a pilot on a steamer. Nearly all the scenes
of the story are on the water; and the boy shows not only that he can
handle a boat, but that he has ingenuity, and fertility of resource.

The narrative of the hero's adventures contained in this volume is the
introduction to the remaining volumes of the series, in which this boy
and others are put in the way of obtaining a great deal of useful
information, by which the readers of these books are expected to profit.
Captain Royal Gildrock, a wealthy retired shipmaster, has some ideas of
his own in regard to boys. He thinks that one great need of this country
is educated mechanics, more skilled labor. He has the means to carry his
ideas into practice, and actively engages in the work of instructing and
building up the boys in a knowledge of the useful arts. He believes in
religion, morality, and social and political virtue. He insists upon
practice in addition to precept and theory, as well in the inculcation
of the duties of social life as in mechanics and useful arts.

If the first volume is all story and adventure, those that follow it
will not be wholly given up to the details of the mechanic arts. The
captain has a steam-yacht; and the hero of the first story has a fine
sailboat, to say nothing of a whole fleet of other craft belonging to
the nabob. The boys are not of the tame sort: they are not of the
humdrum kind, and they are inclined to make things lively. In fact, they
are live boys, and the captain sometimes has his hands full in managing
them.

With this explanation, the author sends out the first volume with the
hope that this book and those which follow it will be as successful as
their numerous predecessors in pleasing his young friends--and his old
friends, he may add, as he treads the downhill of life.

DORCHESTER, MASS., AUG. 21, 1882.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.                                            PAGE
A GROWLING PASSENGER                                    13

CHAPTER II.
A SHORT AND DECISIVE CONFLICT                           24

CHAPTER III.
A BRILLIANT SCHEME MADE POSSIBLE                        34

CHAPTER IV.
IN THE CABIN OF THE GOLDWING                            45

CHAPTER V.
A BOAT WITH A BAD REPUTATION                            55

CHAPTER VI.
THE ROBBERY AT THE HOTEL                                66

CHAPTER VII.
THE MAN THAT LOOKED THROUGH THE KEYHOLE                 76

CHAPTER VIII.
THE COLCHESTER CLUB CHANGES ITS NAME                    87

CHAPTER IX.
A WEATHER HELM AND A LEE HELM                           98

CHAPTER X.
THE MISSISQUOI IN PURSUIT                              109

CHAPTER XI.
THE BEGINNING OF THE CHASE                             119

CHAPTER XII.
A ROUGH TIME OF IT                                     129

CHAPTER XIII.
SAFE UNDER A LEE                                       140

CHAPTER XIV.
EARLY IN THE MORNING                                   150

CHAPTER XV.
THE STRATEGY OF THE CHASE                              161

CHAPTER XVI.
A GRAVE CHARGE AGAINST THE SKIPPER                     172

CHAPTER XVII.
DORY DORNWOOD DECIDES TO "FACE THE MUSIC"              183

CHAPTER XVIII.
DORY LOCKS HIS PASSENGERS INTO THE CABIN               194

CHAPTER XIX.
PEARL HAWLINSHED RESORTS TO VIOLENCE                   205

CHAPTER XX.
MR. PEPPERS FINDS THE TABLES TURNED                    215

CHAPTER XXI.
Another Element in the Contest                         226

CHAPTER XXII.
THE GAME AMONG THE SHALLOWS                            237

CHAPTER XXIII.
HEADED OFF ON BOTH SIDES                               247

CHAPTER XXIV.
THROUGH VARIED STRIFE AND STRUGGLES                    257

CHAPTER XXV.
WIND SOUTH-SOUTH-WEST BLOWING FRESH                    268

CHAPTER XXVI.
DORY DORNWOOD MANOEUVRES TO ESCAPE                   278

CHAPTER XXVII.
DORY MAKES A HARBOR FOR THE NIGHT                      289

CHAPTER XXVIII.
TERRIBLE INTELLIGENCE FROM HOME                        300

CHAPTER XXIX.
CAPTAIN GILDROCK HAS DECIDED OBJECTIONS                310

CHAPTER XXX.
CAPTAIN GILDROCK DILATES UPON HIS NOTABLE SCHEME       321




ALL ADRIFT;

OR,

THE GOLDWING CLUB.




CHAPTER I.

A GROWLING PASSENGER.


"Boy, I told you to bring me some pickles," said Major Billcord, a
passenger on a Lake Champlain steamer, to a boy in a white jacket, who
was doing duty as a waiter at dinner in the cabin.

"Yes, sir; and I brought them," replied Dory Dornwood, as he took the
dish of pickles almost from under the passenger's nose, and placed it
quite under his nose.

"No impudence to me, boy!" exclaimed Major Billcord, as he bestowed a
savage glance at the young waiter.

"I beg your pardon, sir: I did not mean to be impudent," replied Dory
meekly.

"Waiter, bring me a piece of roast beef rare. Now, mind, I want it
rare," said the passenger sitting next to the major.

"Yes, sir; in a moment, sir," added Dory, to indicate that he heard the
order.

"When I send you for any thing, you should put it where I can see it,"
added Major Billcord sternly.

"I thought I put the pickles where you could see them," answered Dory,
as he started for the pantry to obtain the roast beef rare.

"Here, boy, stop!" called the major. "Where are you going now? Bring me
the boiled onions, and I want them well done."

"Yes, sir," replied the waiter, as he darted after the onions, and
returned with them in an instant; for he found the dish in another part
of the table. "The boiled onions," he added, as he placed them beside
the snappy passenger's plate, so that he should be sure to see them.

"Isn't it about time for my roast beef, waiter?" asked the next
gentleman.

"In a moment, sir."

"These onions are not half done, boy!" exclaimed the major. "I told you
to bring me onions well done, and not raw onions."

"I don't cook them, sir; and I brought such as I find on the table,"
pleaded Dory, as he started to fill the order of the next passenger.

"Here! come back, boy! I want boiled onions well done, and I don't want
any impudence," snarled the major.

Dory brought another dish of onions, and placed them by the side of the
gentleman's plate. He repeated the order of the next passenger to assure
him that he had not forgotten it, and was in the act of rushing for it,
when Major Billcord broke out again.

"These onions are no better than the others: they are not half cooked.
Now go to the steward, and tell him I want boiled onions well done."

"Get my roast beef first," added the next passenger.

"Here, waiter! bring me a sidebone of chicken, some green pease,
string-beans, pickled beets, boiled cabbage, a plate of macaroni, and
any other vegetables you may happen to have; and don't be all day about
it," said the passenger on the other side of Major Billcord.

"In a minute, sir," replied Dory.

"Go to the steward at once, and tell him what I want," stormed the
major.

"Waiter, bring me a plate of roast stuffed veal, with a specimen of all
the vegetables on the bill of fare. Don't leave out any. If you leave
out any of them, I will travel by railroad the next time I go north,"
shouted another passenger.

Dory did not wait to hear any more. He was not a waiter of great
experience, and he found that the confusion of orders was rather trying
to him. He went to the carving-table, delivered the message of Major
Billcord to the steward, and called for the orders he had received.
Before he had his tray ready, the steward brought him the onions; and he
carried them with the other articles to the table.

"Your onions, sir," said he, as he placed the little dish where the
irate gentleman could not help seeing them.

While Dory was serving the other passengers, whose orders he had taken,
and while half a dozen others were clamorous for every item on the bill
of fare, Major Billcord thrust his fork into one of the odoriferous
vegetables brought to him.

"These are not a whit better done than the others were!" exclaimed Major
Billcord, dropping his knife and fork in disgust. "What do you mean,
boy, by bringing me such onions as these?"

"The steward gave me those onions for you, sir," pleaded Dory, who was
certainly doing his best to please all the passengers at the dinner
table; and the young waiter had already learned that this was not one of
the easiest tasks in the world.

"Don't tell me that, you young rascal! You haven't delivered my message
to the steward," growled the irate passenger.

"Yes, sir: I told him just what you wanted, and he sent the dish of
onions to you, sir," Dory explained.

"The steward would never have sent me such onions as these. You haven't
been to him as I told you. You are an impudent young cub, and you are no
more fit for a waiter than you are for a steamboat captain."

"I brought