Lightning Express

Tommy was the son of his father; on this question there could be no dispute. Not only was his father a great man, but Tommy, in his own estimation, was a great man also; on this...

Mr. Tommy Toppleton had reduced the riotous assembly before him to a tolerable degree of subjection. The president was obliged to embody in his own person the dignity of the Lak...

“What does it mean?” I repeated, moved by the condescension of the high and mighty scion of the house of Toppleton in addressing me, and, in some sense, making a confidant and a...

“The time to which this meeting was adjourned has arrived, gentlemen, and you are requested to come to order,” said Tommy Toppleton, rapping on the table with the gavel, which h...

I am not quite sure that Major Toppleton did not know the Wimpletonians had selected the Horse Shoe for their camp ground, and that a collision was likely to occur between the s...

I could not exactly see that I was a traitor to the Toppletonian interest because I believed that a steamer could successfully compete even with a “lightning express.” I intende...

Though I was nominally sent to the Horse Shoe as an ambassador of peace, I fully understood the real object of the magnate in giving me a vacation. The mission was certainly com...

Major Tommy, in my judgment, was more inclined to have his own way than he was to annihilate the Wimpletonians by crushing them under the wheels of the steamer. He had been irri...

Major Tommy Toppleton and Company B were prisoners in the little cabin, while Major Waddie Wimpleton and Companies A and B of his battalion were in possession of the steamer. Th...

Doubtless he fully agreed with me; but he dreaded the wrath of his employer’s son even more than the violence of the Wimpletonians. He went up to the wheel-house, and rang the b...

“I should like to stay with you a few days, Major Tommy,” I ventured to say, after the young lord had given me the imperative order to depart on the steamer.

Major Toppleton was absolutely afraid of his son. There was a rumor in Middleport--though I did not hear of it until after the events narrated had transpired--that his father ha...

As soon as the Grace came within reach of Colonel Wimpleton, on the raft, he improved his opportunity. Grasping the bob-stay, he made his way on board, with my assistance. He wa...

During the run of twenty miles down the lake, I had sat alone at the helm the greater portion of the time, for my companions were disposed to sleep. Colonel Wimpleton snored so...

I certainly did not expect to find anything at the Horse Shoe or in its vicinity, so early in the morning, to indicate a battle, or even a change of position. Men engaged in a h...

Miss Grace Toppleton turned pale when Tom announced that the battle had commenced; but her father only uttered an exclamation of rage and impatience. The yacht was just entering...

Colonel Wimpleton was just landing from a boat, in which he had been ferried over from the main shore, having come from Centreport to this point in his chaise. As soon as he lan...

On the passage I told Grace and Ned Skotchley what had transpired during the time I had been on shore; and both of them agreed with me that it was disgraceful to allow boys to f...

“Well, I don’t blame you, Mr. Wolf, for it is abominable for a boy to strike his sister,” she added, placing her hand upon her pretty face, where her brother’s rude hand had lef...

There was something about Tommy’s actions which I did not like. Though he spoke to me, as before, the old grudge was not wiped out. I saw that he and Lewis Holgate were very thi...

It seemed to me, if the locomotive ran over that child, that I could not have the audacity to live another day, though it would not be my fault. It was so awful, so horrible, th...

He wore a gold badge on the lapel of his coat, wrought in the shape of a train of cars, on which was inscribed the word “Conductor,” in such curious old English text that no one...

In five minutes it would be time for the Lightning Express train to start, and that was a very short time in which to fight the impending battle. Tommy was as unreasonable as a...

I do not think, after all Tommy’s blustering, that he believed I would really leave the service of the Lake Shore Railroad. It was plain enough that Major Toppleton had been cro...

I had not waited to ascertain the condition of Tommy Toppleton. I had seen the stout stranger pitch him down the bank. The gentlemanly conductor had rushed down after him, to re...

However much Tommy Toppleton deserved the fate which had befallen him, I really pitied him. I am sure that not a single emotion of triumph had a place in my heart. I neither sai...