CHAPTER XIV. THE HORSE-SHOE CHANNEL.

Colonel Wimpleton, Waddie, and the mate all held their breath, as though they expected to see the magnificent _Ucayga_ knocked in splinters the next instant. She was going at full speed through the narrow channel; but, if I had been underneath her, I could not have told any better how many feet and inches there were between her keel and the sands at the bottom of the channel. If the passage through this narrow place was thrilling to others, it was more so to me, and I was fully conscious of the responsibility that rested upon me.

If the steamer struck the ground, it would be ruin to me. My new-found situation, and all the emoluments attached to it, would be lost. 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 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 was thrilled by the situation; but I was confident and determined. I could not take my eye off the course for an instant to look at Colonel Wimpleton and his son; but I could judge of their suspense and anxiety by the breathless silence they maintained. If the _Ucayga_ took the ground, I should hear from them then; and that would be as soon as I cared to have the spell broken.

I had not yet reached the most difficult point of the navigation. If I continued on my straight course, the steamer would strike on the North Shoe, and the problem to be practically solved was whether the boat could be turned about forty-five degrees without being swept upon the shoals to the northward. She was a long vessel, and it required all the philosophy and science I possessed to meet the question. When the helm was put to starboard, the momentum of the steamer would tend to throw her course outside of the arc of the circle she would describe in turning. The faster she went the greater would be her momentum, or, after she had begun to turn, her centrifugal force.

I had studied a great deal over this question since I visited Ruoara to purchase the _Belle_, for I was convinced that this passage must be open to the boat in order to enable her to compete with the railroad, by saving at least ten minutes of precious time. I had studied it over very carefully, with every possible allowance for wind and current. I had chalked out diagrams of the channel on the ceiling-boards of the _Belle_, and my policy was thoroughly defined in my own mind. The channel between the Horse Shoe and the North Shoe was perhaps a hundred and twenty feet wide--it did not vary twenty feet from this distance, I knew. When the boat was within a hundred feet of the bend in the channel, I rang to stop her.

“I thought you would have to back out,” said Colonel Wimpleton, drawing a long breath, perhaps of relief to find that the magnificent craft was not already high and dry on the shoals.

“I’m not going to back out, sir--by no means,” I replied, as I threw the wheel over to starboard.

The _Ucayga_ surged ahead under the impetus she had attained, and turned her bow to the west, with the shoal close aboard of her on the port side. She minded her helm beautifully, and as soon as I had brought the bow flagpole in range with the chimney of a certain cottage on the west shore, I rang to go ahead. Righting the helm, I let her go again at full speed. The allowance I had made for the centrifugal sweep of the boat carried me clear of the shoals on the starboard hand; and, though I had hugged the shoal on the port hand, the actual course of the boat was very nearly in the middle of the channel. In a couple of minutes more all danger had been passed.

“You may take the helm now, if you please, Mr. Van Wolter,” said I to the mate.

“By the great horn spoon,” roared Waddie, “we are out of that scrape!”

“That was done as handsomely as ever I saw anything done in my life!” exclaimed the mate, with a broad grin on his good-natured face.

“I don’t know about that, Wolf,” said the colonel, shaking his head, while the relief which he felt was plain enough upon his face.

“You know that we have saved ten minutes by that operation, sir,” I replied, looking at my watch. “It is seventeen minutes past three and we have only nine miles more to make which can be done in thirty-five minutes. This will bring us in at the wharf at seven minutes before four. We shall have at least five minutes to spare. We should certainly have been behind time if we had gone around the South Shoe.”

“But do you think it is safe to go through that narrow place, Wolf?” asked the great man.

“I think I can take this boat through a thousand times without failing once,” I answered, wiping the perspiration from my brow, for the intense excitement of the passage, overlooked and criticized as I was by the magnate and his son, had thrown me into a fever heat.

“If I had known what you intended to do, I would not have permitted it.”

“For that reason, sir, I did not tell you,” I replied, laughing. “I want to say, sir, that I haven’t done this thing blindly and recklessly.”

“That’s so!” exclaimed the mate, who understood the matter better than any one present except myself.

“You said something to me a few weeks ago about taking command of this boat, Colonel Wimpleton. Well, sir, I have studied up this subject, and taken the shore bearings. I can give you the precise rule I followed.”

“I should like to hear it,” said the colonel, bestowing upon me a cheerful smile of approbation.

“Yes, sir. When the pine tree on the Shooter ranges with the barn on the east shore, stop her. Then, when the north point of the Shooter ranges with an oak tree on the east shore, starboard the helm. When the boat has turned so that the chimney of the cottage ranges with the bow flagpole, the pilot sighting from the center of the wheel-house, go ahead again. Then you are all right; and it can be done a thousand times without a single failure if you follow the directions.”

“But why do you stop her?” asked the colonel curiously.

“So that, in turning, the tendency to sweep too far to starboard may be counteracted in part. But after I have tried it a few times, I can go through without stopping her.”

“You are a genius,” laughed the colonel. “I begin to hope that we shall beat the railroad, after all.”

“We are sure of it every time we can leave Centreport at two-thirty.”

“The up-lake boats must get to Centreport as soon as that in order to enable the train to be on time,” replied Colonel Wimpleton, rubbing his hands as though he was master of the situation.

“I don’t think you are quite ready for Major Toppleton’s next step,” I replied, rather amused at his want of forethought.

“What do you mean by his next step?”

“The one I should take myself if I were in his place.”

“What’s that?”

“I think we are beating him just now, sir; and, as soon as the major finds out that we are getting ahead of him, he will make another move. We are sure of the Centreport and Ruoara trade, as long as we are on time. He can’t get that away from us. But we want our share of the up-lake business.”

“Yes and we must have it,” added the great man impatiently.

“Major Toppleton has bought up the stock of the old line of boats, and runs them to favor the railroad. The only possible motive he can have for sending his boats to Centreport is for the accommodation of passengers from Hitaca to that place. There are only a few of them. His next step, then, will be to run his boats only to Middleport, so that you shall not have an opportunity to catch a single through passenger.”

“That occurred to me,” replied the colonel.

If it had occurred to him, he had been singularly careless about providing a remedy.

“It will be done just as soon as the major sees that we can make our trip from Centreport to Ucayga in one hour and a half, including the stop at Ruoara. I am satisfied you will see the posters announcing a new arrangement within a week.

“I don’t see that I can help myself,” added the magnate, biting his lips with vexation.

“Don’t you, sir?”

“No, I do not,” continued the colonel, opening his eyes.

“If you wish it, you can have the entire control of the travel on this lake. After you have made your next move, Major Toppleton and the railroad will be nowhere.”

“I don’t understand you, Wolf.”

“You must build the mate to this steamer as soon as possible.”

“That’s rather a costly experiment,” mused the great man.

“But it will pay, for you will have the entire travel on the lake, with the exception of the three towns on the railroad. The through travel pays the bills, and you can have all that. Those old boats make only ten miles an hour, and it takes them three hours, including stops, to come from Hitaca to Centreport. The _Ucayga_ would make the distance in two. Your line can leave the head of the lake an hour later than the old line, and get to Ucayga in three hours and a half, while it will take the old line four hours and a quarter.”

“You are right, Wolf!” exclaimed the colonel. “I’ll build another boat at once, and call her the _Hitaca_. Let me see you to-night, when you get in, and we will talk it over again.”

The _Ucayga_ was approaching the railroad wharf. The Lightning Express train was just coming in sight, at least ten minutes behind time. When my boat touched the wharf it was just eight minutes of four.