CHAPTER XIII. IN THE WHEEL-HOUSE.

Colonel Wimpleton was evidently very anxious, as he had been from the beginning, for the success of the steamer. On the present occasion, when the _Ucayga_ was nearly ten minutes behind her ordinary time, I grant that he had not much to hope for in the light of past experience; but he did not know my plans, and I did not wish to startle him by announcing them, fearful that, if I did so, he would not permit me to carry them out. I repeated my promise to be on time, and though he was far from satisfied, he could not do anything but wait the result.

My calculations were based upon the assured fact that the _Ucayga_ could easily make sixteen miles an hour. She had the reputation of being a fast boat, and I intended that she should sustain her reputation. Immense expense had been lavished upon her to give her great speed, as well as to make her elegant and commodious. The testimony was that she had repeatedly made her sixteen miles without straining or undue crowding. This was all I asked of her. If she did only what she was warranted to do, and what she had often accomplished, I was safe.

I knew every tree and point on the west shore, along which the railroad extended, and its exact distance from Middleport. I watched these points, and consulted my watch frequently, to assure myself that the boat was not falling behind my calculations. Her first four miles were made inside of fifteen minutes, and I was not sure that my father was not overdoing the matter; but he was a safe man, and I did not think it necessary even to see him.

On the forward deck I attended to the arrangement of the baggage, so as to make the stay at Ruoara as brief as possible. There were two baggage-trucks, upon which I caused to be loaded all the freight, luggage, and merchandise for Ruoara. I saw that the deck-hands were rather disposed to snuff at a boy like me in command of the steamer; but, in self-defense, I must add that I was nearly as tall as a man. They were slow, and did not obey promptly. I thought I could, in part, explain the failure of my predecessor to be on time. But it was of no use for me to bluster at these men, though they were probably working more leisurely than usual.

“Is everything going to suit you?” asked the colonel, as they were approaching the wharf at Ruoara.

“Not quite, sir.”

“What’s the matter?” he demanded anxiously.

“The men work as though they were digging their own graves, which were to be occupied as soon as finished.”

“Don’t they mind you?”

“They don’t refuse to mind, but they are slow. They think I’m only a boy.”

“I’ll discharge every one of them!”

“Excuse me, sir; but don’t do that. I would rather add a quarter a day to their wages,” I replied; for I happened to know that they were greatly dissatisfied with their pay, and justly so, I thought. “Then, if they don’t work, they shall be discharged.”

“Do so, if you think best,” replied the colonel promptly.

“And the mate?”

“Give him half a dollar a day, if that will help the matter.”

“I think they are not paid fair wages, or I would not have said a word. As it is, I can make friends of them in this way.”

“Only beat the railroad, and I don’t care what it costs,” replied the magnate impatiently.

“I will do it, sir.”

The plan was a stroke of policy on my part. As a boy I could do nothing with these men by bullying and threatening them. By doing a good thing for them, I could conquer them easily. I went up to the wheel-house as the boat neared the wharf.

“Mr. Van Wolter, I will thank you to make this landing yourself,” said I, addressing the mate, who had the wheel.

“I think I can do it,” replied he, with a broad grin, which was as much as to say that I could not do it.

“So can I; but I prefer that you should do it this time,” I added.

“I suppose so!” he answered, with something like a sneer. “The mate, on a dollar and a half a day, is always expected to do the captain’s work on this boat.”

“I shall not ask you to do mine; but are you dissatisfied with your wages?”

“I think the pay is mean.”

“So do I; and from to-day your wages shall be two dollars a day. I have already spoken to Colonel Wimpleton about this matter, and he consents to it.”

“Thank you; that’s handsome,” replied Van Wolter. “Excuse me for what I said just now; I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“All right. I want you to have the boat ready to start in just seven minutes after she stops at the wharf. And, to help the matter, you may say to the hands that their pay shall be raised a quarter of a dollar each per day. They must work lively when we make a landing.”

“You are a gentleman and a scholar, Captain Penniman, and what you need most time will give you.”

“What’s that?”

“More years.”

He rang the bell, slowed the boat, and made as beautiful a landing as I had ever seen in my life. The moment the steamer touched the wharf he rushed down the ladder to the forward deck.

“Now, lively, my men!” shouted he, as he grasped the handles of one of the trunks.

I saw him say something in a low tone to the hands. I knew what it was, and the effect was electrical. They worked well, and tumbled in the freight with an alacrity which must have astonished the staid citizens of that place who had gathered on the wharf. It was Saturday, and there was a large quantity of freight, and a great many passengers; but within the seven minutes I had named the steamer was ready to be off. I had saved half the time usually taken up in this landing, and there was room to reduce it still more.

“You are late again,” said a gentleman to Colonel Wimpleton, as he came on board. “We shall lose the train.”

“I hope not.”

“Oh, I know we shall. I think our people will have to go over to Grass Springs and take the train.”

“We shall be on time, sir,” I ventured to say.

“I think we shall,” added the colonel.

“All aboard and all ashore!” shouted the mate, with a zeal born of the half-dollar per day his pay had been increased.

I sprang up the ladder, and took my place in the wheel-house. It was just ten minutes past three. I was five minutes inside of my own calculations, but more than ten behind the steamer’s usual time. “The tug of war” had come for me, for I intended to steer the boat myself, and save from five to ten minutes of the boat’s ordinary time. I must now explain, more particularly than I have before done, how this feat was to be accomplished.

As I have before stated, the South Shoe lay off the town of Ruoara. It was exactly due west from the wharf where the _Ucayga_ made her landing. To the southward and westward of this island the water was shallow, and more than a mile was added to the distance from Ruoara to Ucayga by going round these shoals, or about five minutes to the time. But this was not all. The boat was obliged to back, and actually turn, before she could go ahead at full speed; and this operation would consume all of five minutes more.

I have before spoken of the narrow passage between the Horse Shoe and the Shooter, where the Toppletonians landed when they took possession of the former island. This channel was very narrow, but it was also very deep. I proposed to run the _Ucayga_ through this passage, and thus save ten minutes on the trip. The steamer made her landing at the end of the wharf, so that she did not have to turn; and all we had to do, making the passage in the direction indicated, was to cast off the fasts and go straight ahead.

Ruoara was built on a broad point of land which projected out into the lake, so that the narrow channel lay due north of the end of the pier. A straight line through the channel, as the needle points, would strike the North Shoe; and this circumstance rendered the navigation beyond the passage rather difficult. But I had thought of the problem so many times that I was satisfied, knowing the channel as well as I did, that I could take the steamer through without any trouble.

“Cast off your fasts and haul in the plank!” I shouted from my position, as I grasped the wheel.

The zealous crew, inspired by the increase of their wages, promptly obeyed the order. I rang the bell to go ahead, just as Van Wolter entered the wheel-house. Perhaps my readers may not feel much confidence in my skill, and it may be necessary for me to repeat the statement that I had spent a great deal of time on board of the steamers on the lake, most of it in the engine-room with Christy Holgate, it is true, but not a little of it on deck and in the wheel-house. I had often steered the boat. I had found the helmsman was as willing to be relieved as my instructor, the engineer, had been. I knew the wheel, and I knew the bells. I rang to go ahead, and gave the wheel a sheer to port.

“You want to back her first, don’t you?” suggested Van Wolter, in a very respectful tone.

“No; I’m going to show you what I can do now,” I replied, with a smile.

“But, captain, you will be aground in three minutes,” protested the mate, laying his hand on the wheel.

“Let me alone! Don’t bother me now,” I replied rather sharply, as the steamer gathered headway.

I snapped the bell again, to go ahead full speed, and away she buzzed toward the narrow channel.

“I don’t know about this!” exclaimed Van Wolter.

“I do; don’t say a word.”

He did not; but in half a minute more Colonel Wimpleton and Waddie both appeared at the door of the wheel-house, and rushed in, highly excited, and evidently expecting to be smashed in a couple of minutes.

“Where are you going, Wolf?” demanded the colonel almost fiercely.

“To Ucayga, sir,” I replied.

“Stop her this instant!”

“Too late now, sir. I’m all right; I know what I’m about,” I answered.

The boat rushed into the narrow channel.