Oliver Optic

“ On Monday morning, at quarter-past eight, the Ucayga was in readiness to start as soon as the steamer should arrive from Hitaca. She was in sight, and our runners were on the wharf, prepared to induce through travelers to leave her for our more elegant and spacious boat. Waddie was on board, as excited as though the success of the whole scheme depended entirely upon him. ”

“ She had come up so that we could recognize faces on board of her. Near the wheel-house stood the major and Tommy, looking as ugly as they conveniently could look. They would have sunk us in the deep waters of the lake if they could. I was not disposed to irritate them; for I knew how miserably they felt, as they gazed upon our crowded decks, and as they saw our palatial craft sweeping swiftly by them. It did not appear that the Ruoara had more than forty or fifty passengers.
“We can afford to be polite,” said I to Waddie. [243] “We will give them the compliments of the day as we pass.” ”

“ The five minutes which this circuit required had doubtless caused the Ucayga to miss her connection more than once.
I have been told that I am a machinist by nature. I do not know how this may be, but I am sure that I never see a difficulty without attempting to study out the means to remedy it. As I stood on the wharf, watching the winding course of the splendid steamer, I could not help grappling with the problem of saving this loss of time on the trip. These five minutes might sometimes enable the boat to win the day in the competition with the railroad. ”

“ I pushed the tender up to the wall, and he stepped into it.
“Some of the fellows say you are not a bit like other boys, Wolf; and I begin to think they are more than half-right,” said Dick Bayard, as he came on board of the Belle.
“Well, I don’t know. I don’t suppose I’m very different from other fellows,” I replied, with becoming modesty.
“You don’t seem to have a grudge against any one. If a fellow abuses you, you treat him as well as ever. You knock him over in self-defense, and then behave toward him just as though nothing had happened.” ”

“ She was the fastest sailer on the lake; was a good sea-boat. She was right and tight in every respect.
“For, gentlemen,” he added facetiously, “a boat, unlike a man, is a good deal better when she is tight [23] than when she is not tight”—a witticism at which the auctioneer laughed much more heartily than the auditors. “She is copper-fastened, besides being fastened to the wall. Like myself, and some of you, gentlemen, she is very sharp. And now, how much am I offered for this magnificent yacht, the finest, without exception, on the lake. ”

“ UP THE LAKE.
“What do you mean, Wolf?” demanded Tommy Toppleton, turning fiercely toward me. “Have you told your runners to lie to passengers?”
“Certainly not,” I replied. “They are telling only the truth as I understand it.”
“The truth! Don’t you hear them?” angrily interposed Major Toppleton.
“I hear them, sir. They are saying just what they have been told to say. You will notice that they do not utter a word against the railroad line.”
“But they say your boat is going through to Hitaca!” exclaimed the major. ”

“ Before the Ucayga reached the islands I took a walk through the boat. Among the passengers I met quite a number whom I had known on the Lightning Express, and was very kindly congratulated upon my advancement. Some of them laughed at the idea of a boy like me commanding such a steamer; but I defended myself from the charge of being a boy. I should soon be seventeen; my mustache was beginning to develop itself, and I was only a few inches shorter than my father. Younger fellows than I had done bigger things than to command a lake steamer. ”

“ I had my doubts whether Lewis Holgate was as good a friend as ever; for, being degraded from the locomotive to the dummy would rankle in his heart, however well he succeeded in concealing his real feelings.
“You haven’t resigned your situation as captain of the steamer—have you, Wolf?” asked the little major, with a sinister expression. ”

“ I replied very pleasantly, all of a sudden, for I intended to be as smart as I could.
“They say you are a first-rate fellow, Wolf,” continued the one who had first stepped on board, as he jumped down into the standing-room, where I was.
“Oh, I am!”
“I can’t see why you stick up for such a mean boy as Waddie Wimpleton.”
“I don’t stick up for him. I only like to see a fellow have fair play,” I replied, seating myself, as though I had nothing more to desire or hope for. ”

“ I was not quite willing to believe that the four stout fellows in the vicinity of the kettle really intended to “tar and feather” Waddie Wimpleton. In the first place, it was astounding that any one on the Centreport side of the lake should have the audacity to conceive such an outrage upon the sacred person of the magnate’s only son. Why, the people generally held the great man in about the same reverence as the people of England hold their queen. The idea of committing any indignity upon his person, or upon the persons of any of his family, seemed too monstrous to be entertained. ”

“ People who could afford to purchase such rich and gaudy trappings as those with which the bankrupt owner fitted up his mansion, did not care to buy them at second-hand. Everybody expected that the ornamental appendages of the establishment would be sold for a tithe of their cost; and so they were.
To most of the people on the lake, any boat beyond a skiff for actual service was regarded as a luxury, especially such a craft as that which floated off the wall. Taking hold of the painter, I hauled her in, and stepped on board. ”

“ We made a détour toward my boat, closely pursued by the two ruffians, now foaming with rage at the failure of their wicked scheme. We outran them, and soon had placed a sufficient distance between us and them to justify a halt. But we were not a great way from the boat.
“What has become of the other two fellows?” asked Waddie, puffing under the exhaustion of his hard run.
“They are safe,” I replied; and involuntarily I put my hand into my pocket, to search for the key of the padlock on the cabin slide. ”

“ Just as the Middleport, with her indignant passengers, approached the wharf, the Ucayga backed out, and commenced her trip up the lake.
“You appear to be in a hurry, Wolf?” said Colonel Wimpleton, taking a seat with me in the wheel-house, where Van Wolter had the helm.
I showed him the card on which I had written out the time I proposed to make.
“We can leave Ucayga at four o’clock as well as quarter of an hour later,” I added. “The Lightning Express cannot land a passenger in Centreport in a minute less than an hour and a quarter. We can make our sailing-time in just that space. ”

“ But we have only half an hour—less than that,” replied the great man, looking at his watch again.
“We can make time if we are fifteen minutes late. Do you accept, Wolf?”
“I do; with many thanks.”
“But the engineer?” said the colonel anxiously.
“Send over for my father with all possible haste. I will go down and look out for the engine until he comes,” I replied.
“I will go over myself in your boat, Wolf. In this breeze I can cross in five minutes,” added Waddie, seizing his hat and rushing out of the house.
“I will go with you to the steamer, Wolf,” said Colonel Wimpleton. ”

“ But I felt that a failure to be on time at Ucayga would be hardly less fatal to me. I had fought the battle faithfully for the Lake Shore Railroad, when I was in the employ of the company, and had never missed a train. I intended to be equally faithful and devoted to the [136] steamboat company. I knew what was expected of me, and I was determined that my boat should always be on time.
Success was a duty. The first step toward a failure was to believe in one. I had figured up my plan so carefully that I knew what could be done, always providing that the steamer was up to her guaranty. ”

“ I ran away from Waddie, and went up the lake as far as Gulfport. I soon lost sight of him, and I concluded that he had made a landing somewhere on the shore. It was too rough to explore the coast, for the wind was driving the waves upon the rocks and beaches with savage power, and it was not prudent to go too near the land. I put the Belle about, and commenced beating down the lake. I thought no more of Waddie, my mind being wholly taken up in sailing my boat, and in the pleasant anticipation of making a profitable thing of her. ”

“ I stood on the hurricane-deck, by the wheel-house, where I could overlook the operations of the mate and the deck-hands, and be in readiness to start the boat the instant the last piece of freight was on board. I was delighted with the zeal of the mate, and, I may add, with his politeness and discretion. He did not break things, and he did not tip over the passengers as they came on board. He did not yell like a wild Indian, and say impudent things to gentlemen who incautiously placed themselves in his way. ”

“ A NEW PROJECT.
“You don’t want that boat, Wolf, any more than the lake wants water,” said my father, after I had read an advertisement, in the Ruoara Clarion, of the effects of a bankrupt which were to be sold at auction the next day.
“I don’t think the lake would amount to much without water; in fact, to no more than I do without business,” I replied. “I want something to do, and if I can buy this boat at a low price, I am sure I can make something out of her.”
“What can you do with her? She is a very pretty plaything; but you and I can’t afford such luxuries,” added my father. ”

“ Doubtless both of us had been guilty, to some extent, of this subserviency; but we were determined not to fall below our standard [106] again. Colonel Wimpleton and Major Toppleton had money and influence; but we had skill and labor. We could do without them quite as well as they could do without us. Avoiding all conspiracies, all impudence, and all intentions to quarrel, we meant to maintain our own self-respect. If neither of the great men wanted us, we could go elsewhere, and “paddle our own canoe” to our own satisfaction. ”

“ I did not desire to do anything more than defend myself; but Waddie stood between me and the water, and when I hit him, he went over. I have never claimed to be saint or angel. I was human enough to “get mad” when the young gentleman flattened my nose and made it bleed. I simply defended myself by the only means within my power, though I did not intend to throw Waddie into the lake.
The water was not more than three or four feet deep near the wall; but Waddie might have been drowned in it, if he had not been promptly assisted by the auctioneer and others. ”

“ Step right on board of our boat, and we will see that you are enabled to obey the command to the letter.”
“I am satisfied,” answered the constable.
“But I am not,” interposed Major Toppleton angrily.
“All aboard!” shouted Van Wolter.
“I shall do my duty as I understand it,” continued the constable, as I led the way to the deck of the Ucayga.
“It is your duty to commit him to jail,” growled the magnate of Middleport.
“I will be responsible for the consequences,” added Colonel Wimpleton, who could afford to be good-natured, as he saw his great rival defeated in his purpose. ”

“ You won’t find any men who can do better than we have.”
“If I can’t, I will sink the boat in the middle of the lake.”
“We don’t want to talk; our time is out.”
“Don’t you mean to run the trip this afternoon?” demanded the colonel, whose face suddenly flushed, as he saw the trick of his employees.
“No, sir! We do not,” replied the captain, a gleam of satisfaction on his face, as he realized that he was punishing the great man.
[114]
“Don’t say a word, father. Let them go,” whispered Waddie.
“You will find that we are not slaves,” added the captain.
Colonel Wimpleton looked at his watch. ”

“ I should have been arrested the day before if Grace Toppleton, whom I had come to regard as an angel of peace in my path, had not given me warning. My enemies must have been entirely satisfied that they could not hold me responsible for the damage done to Tommy, and my arrest was only intended as a blow at the steamboat line. At Hitaca, doubtless, they expected to detain my boat long enough, at least, to make her lose her connection at the lower end of the lake. ”

“ I answered respectfully.
“Then I am to understand that you and your father have arrayed yourselves against me.”
“By no means, sir.”
“Do you not understand that Wimpleton’s steamer and the Lake Shore Railroad are running against each other?” demanded my late patron severely.
“I do, sir; but I do not think that a fair business competition means any personal ill-will. If it does, it is entirely a matter between you and Colonel Wimpleton. I am not the owner of the Ucayga, and she will run just the same whether I go in her or not.”
Major Toppleton bit his lips. ”

“ I don’t see why we can’t beat the Lightning Express every day.”
“We can never do it when the train is on time; and I tell you Major Toppleton is too smart to let things drag on the other side as they do just now.”
“I don’t believe they can go through on time.”
“Yes, they can. The engineer who is running the dummy now will see that the train is never behind time when they give him the place. I never missed a connection while I was on the road.”
“Lewis Holgate is not you.” ”

“ Will you help us, Wolf?” replied one of the conspirators.
“No, certainly not. You have no right to meddle with him.”
[52]
“Well, we are going to do it, whether we have any right or not. We will tar and feather him, as sure as he lives.”
“Who are you?” I asked innocently.
“No matter who we are. Has Waddie any right to insult us? Has he any right to cowhide a fellow smaller than he is, within an inch of his life?”
“No; but two wrongs don’t make a right, anyhow you can fix it. Don’t you think it is mean for four great fellows like you to set upon one, and abuse him?” ”