Read "Breaking Away" by Oliver Optic online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The Champion could not pass through the narrow and shoal channel between The Sisters, and my calculation had been correct. I was so elated at the victory that I could not refrain from calling for the cheers, though it was bad policy for us to crow over such rivals. A moment before, the nerves of all on board of the Adieno had been strained to their utmost tension by the exciting peril of the moment. The bow of our pursuer had actually lapped over the stern of our steamer, and we expected the captain of the Adieno, who stood on the rail, holding on to an awning stanchion, would leap on board of us, after he had bawled himself hoarse in ordering us to stop.
The pilot of the Champion was evidently the coolest man in the steamer, and he had run her to the very mouth of The Sisters Channel; but he knew that she could not go through, and at the last practicable instant, he had "stopped" and "backed," leaving the victory with us. It was a tremendous relief when the pressure was removed from our overstrained nerves; and never were cheers given more enthusiastically, even madly, than those which saluted the people of the Champion at the dawn of our triumph.