CHAPTER XII. CAPTAIN WOLF PENNIMAN.

My impression now is that neither the captain nor the engineer really intended to throw up his situation. While I could not, and did not, blame them for refusing to submit to the savage abuse of Colonel Wimpleton, I did not think it was quite fair to spring this trap upon their employer within thirty minutes of the time the boat was to start. But the colonel was not altogether unreasonable in his complaints. The men did not use every exertion to be on time. There was fault on both sides.

The captain had been instructed not to lose his connection, even if he always went without the up-lake passengers. On this day, as I learned, he had failed to connect, though he had not waited for the Hitaca boat. Passengers were dissatisfied, and the new steamer was rapidly losing the favor of the traveling public.

Colonel Wimpleton, as he stood before the fire in his library, realized that these men were trying to punish him. The whispered words of Waddie evidently made their impression upon him. He curbed his wrath and was silent for a moment.

“Let them go, father,” said Waddie.

He did let them go, and gave them an order on his agent for their wages.

“Will the boat make her trip this afternoon?” asked the captain, who did not seem to be pleased with the result of the interview.

“That’s my affair,” replied the colonel.

“We are going on board for our things. We have steam up, and, if she is not going, my brother will have the fires raked down.”

“He needn’t trouble himself. You have an order for your money. Good afternoon.”

The two men took this hint and left.

“By the great horn spoon!” shouted Waddie, springing to his feet.

“What’s to be done?” queried the colonel, glancing at me.

“Wolf, you are the captain of the _Ucayga_ from this moment!” roared Waddie, slapping me furiously on the back. “This is my last act as president of the steamboat company! Do you approve it, father?”

“It is what I wanted before. 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.

All this was so sudden that I had not time to realize the situation. As I walked down to the wharf with the magnate of Centreport, I recalled some mysterious words of Waddie, which seemed now to have a point. He had told me that I should not care to go up the lake the next week with the fishing-party. Certainly he could not have known that the event which had just occurred would open the way for me; but he was doubtless aware that the moment he said the word the captain of the _Ucayga_ would be discharged. He knew that his father was dissatisfied with the management of the boat, and I suppose, as soon as he had determined to be my friend, he meant to give me the position.

“Wolf, I have intended this place for you ever since you used me so well in the yacht,” said the colonel, as we walked down the street. “Waddie would not consent. He hated you like a demon. But you have conquered him, and that is more than I could ever do.”

I wanted to tell him that good was all-powerful against evil; but the remark looked egotistical to me, and I suppressed it.

“I hope you don’t expect too much of me,” I replied.

“No; but I expect a good deal of you. Everybody on the lake knows you, and you are smart. We must beat that railroad somehow or other.”

“I think we can, sir, if we have any kind of fair play. But Major Toppleton’s boats are always ten or fifteen minutes behind time.”

“No matter if they are. If you leave at half-past two, you can always make time, if you don’t waste your minutes, as our captain often has done. Wolf, I believe he has been bribed by Toppleton to lose his connections.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“He is a Hitaca man, and has no sympathy with our side of the lake.”

Perhaps the colonel was right. When I looked the matter over afterward I was satisfied that there was some ground for the suspicion. We reached the wharf, and went on board of the _Ucayga_. We arrived at just the right time, for both the captain and the engineer were stirring up ill feeling among the crew of the boat; and the latter was at work on the engine, with the evident intention of spoiling the afternoon trip. Colonel Wimpleton drove them ashore without indulging in any unnecessary gentleness. I directed the fireman to fill up the furnaces, and overhauled the machinery. While I was thus engaged my father arrived. He was conducted to the engine-room by Waddie.

“Mr. Penniman, allow me to introduce you to Captain Penniman, master of the steamer _Ucayga_,” said the president of the steamboat company, with a degree of good-nature of which I had never before supposed him capable.

“Captain Penniman, I am happy to make your acquaintance,” laughed my father, as he grasped my hand and gave it a significant pressure. “I think our family is getting up in the world, for we have now the honor to boast that we have a steamboat captain in it.”

“A very great honor, no doubt; but it will depend somewhat upon the manner in which he discharges his duties,” I replied, as good-naturedly as either of my companions. “Father, we are on duty now, and we must be on time.”

I looked at my watch. It still wanted ten minutes of half-past two. Waddie had been so fortunate as to find my father on the wharf, and had not been delayed a moment in procuring his services. While at work on the engine I had been making a close calculation. It was necessary to land our passengers on the wharf at Ucayga by four o’clock, which gave me an hour and a half to make the distance--twenty miles--including the stay in Ruoara, generally of fifteen minutes.

My predecessor, when he left the wharf in Centreport at half-past eight in the forenoon, or half-past two in the afternoon, was pretty sure to miss his connection; but he had gone over twenty-one miles, while I intended to save more than a mile, equivalent to five minutes of time, in the passage. I had thought over this matter before, and though my appointment had been sudden, I was not unprepared for my difficult and delicate task.

“Father, great things are expected of us,” said I, as Waddie went out of the engine-room, to witness the arrival of the old _Ruoara_, which was just then coming in at the other side of the wharf.

“I trust we shall not disappoint them; but I hope you know what you are about,” replied he, casting an anxious glance at me.

“I do, father; I am just as confident as though I had been running this boat for a year. I want you to run her at the highest speed you can with safety.”

“I will do it. I served my time on a steamer, and I am at home here.”

“Keep her moving lively; that’s all I want,” I replied, as I left the engine-room and made my way to the hurricane-deck.

Colonel Wimpleton had employed a couple of “runners” properly to set forth to the passengers who were going through the merits of his new and splendid steamer. They were duly posted up in the change which had just been made.

“Take the _Ucayga_, Captain Wolf Penniman!” shouted these worthies. “Sure connection! No failure this time! You have to change three times by the railroad. The _Ucayga_, Captain Wolf Penniman, gentlemen!”

I was rather startled to hear my name thus freely used; but I was surprised and gratified to see that not a few of the passengers came on board of the steamer, though they were told by the railroad runners that they would be sure to miss the train at Ucayga. I recognized not a few of those whom I had known on the railroad, persons who had come to the engine to talk with me, while waiting for the train or the boat.

“All aboard that’s going!” shouted the mate of the _Ucayga_.

“Haul in the planks, and cast off the fasts!” I called to the hands who were in readiness to discharge this duty.

I confess that my bosom thrilled with strange emotions as I issued my first order. But I felt quite at home, for I had run a great deal upon the old boats, both in the engine-room and on deck. I had witnessed the operation of making a landing so frequently that I was sure I could do it without assistance, if necessary. I had measured the distance, estimated the force of winds and currents, so many times that I had thoroughly conquered the problem.

The _Ruoara_ backed out and headed for Middleport at quarter of three, for the train started at three. Lewis Holgate still ran the locomotive, and it had been found that he must start on time or he was sure to miss his connection.

No regular pilots were employed on any of these steamers. The mate and deck-hands took the wheel when required, and any of them were able to make the landing. I told the former to take the wheel, for I had decided to let him make the landings on this trip, rather than run even the slightest risks by my own inexperience. The _Ucayga_ slipped out from the wharf, and my father, true to his instructions, gave her full steam.

“We are nearly ten minutes later than usual,” said Colonel Wimpleton, shaking his head ominously, as we met on the forward deck.

“I pledge you my word, sir, that the boat shall be in Ucayga on time,” I replied confidently.