Chapter I: 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.