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The Rival Campers Afloat Or, THE PRIZE YACHT VIKING
By Ruel Perley Smith Author of “The Rival Campers”
_Copyright_, _1906_ By L. C. Page & Company (INCORPORATED)
_COLONIAL PRESS Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. Boston. U. S. A._
CHAPTER PAGE I. Down the River 1 II. The Collision 15 III. A Rescue Unrewarded 28 IV. Squire Brackett Discomfited 39 V. Harvey Gets Bad News 56 VI. Out to the Fishing-grounds 73 VII. Near the Reefs 91 VIII. Little Tim a Strategist 108 IX. Harry Brackett Plays a Joke 126 X. Mr. Carleton Arrives 143 XI. Squire Brackett Is Puzzled 160 XII. The Surprise Sets Sail Again 180 XIII. Stormy Weather 192 XIV. The Man in the Cabin 206 XV. Mr. Carleton Goes Away 224 XVI. Searching the Viking 239 XVII. A Rainy Night 259 XVIII. Two Secrets Discovered 278 XIX. The Loss of the Viking 298 XX. Fleeing in the Night 318 XXI. A Timely Arrival 336
PAGE The Crew of the Viking Meet Skipper Martel (_Frontispiece_) 98 “The boom brought up with a smashing blow against the Viking’s starboard quarter” 25 “‘Nonsense,’ roared the infuriated Squire. ‘He can sail a boat as good as you can’” 54 “‘Here, that’s our boat,’ cried Joe. ‘You’ve got no right to touch it’” 112 “‘Just tell them that you heard me say I was going back to Boston’” 236 “‘Get out of here,’ exclaimed Mr. Carleton, sharply” 335
It was a pleasant afternoon in the early part of the month of June. The Samoset River, winding down prettily through hills and sloping farm lands to the bay of the same name, gleamed in the sunlight, now with a polished surface like ebony in some sheltered inlet, or again sparkling with innumerable points of light where its surface was whipped up into tiny waves by a brisk moving wind.
There had been rain for a few days before, and the weather was now clearing, with a smart westerly breeze that had come up in the morning, but was swinging in slightly to the southward. The great white cloud-banks had mostly passed on, and these were succeeded at present by swiftly moving clumps of smaller and lighter clouds, that drifted easily across the sky, like the sails below them over the surface of the water.