CHAPTER XVII. TOMMY TOPPLETON THREATENS.

Tom Walton always had a pleasant way of doing an unpleasant thing. I suppose he thought Tommy Toppleton intended to ride over me, or at least intimidate me by the movements of his high-spirited little charger, and, as a friend, he considered it his duty to do something in my defense. This was the reason why he asked if he should not hold the little major’s horse.

I had hardly seen Tommy since he had broken his leg; but I had no difficulty in believing that he hated me. He was haughty, tyrannical, and overbearing, even to a greater degree, when incensed, than my new-made friend Waddie Wimpleton. He seemed to think I had no business to live, and move, and have my being, after I had ceased to be serviceable to him. He wanted to crush me, and the demonstration of his pony was only suggestive of what the rider really desired to do.

Tom Walton was a tough fellow, and not at all thin-skinned, in the literal signification of the term. He did not mind the blow which Tommy had given him; but, putting himself on the left of the horseman, and out of the convenient reach of his weapon, he backed the pony out into the middle of the street.

“Let him alone!” shouted the major, struggling to hit, and then to punch, my friend with the sword.

“Oh, certainly! I’ll let him alone first-rate,” laughed Tom, as he released the steed from his iron grasp.

“You puppy, you!” snapped Tommy, foaming with wrath that a plebeian, like my companion, should venture to take hold of the bridle of his pony. “How dare you touch my horse?”

“Well, I haven’t much pluck; but I didn’t want him to tread on Wolf’s corns.”

“Wolf’s a rascal, and you’re another!”

“Then we are well matched,” chuckled Tom Walton.

“If I don’t clean you fellows out of this place, it will be because I can’t!” snarled Tommy.

“What’s the matter, Major Toppleton?” I inquired, my indignation entirely appeased by the pleasant manner in which my companion had treated the case.

“Wolf, you are a traitor!” exclaimed Tommy, with emphasis.

“Well?”

“You are an adder, that bites your best friends!”

“I think you are an adder, major, for you are adding one hard word to another,” laughed Tom Walton.

“Don’t give me any of your impudence!”

“Certainly not; I leave that to my betters.”

“Wolf, I only halted to tell you that Middleport will soon be too hot to hold you.”

“What do you mean by that, Tommy?” I asked gently.

“You know what I mean, well enough. You are a traitor, and are willing to bite the hand that feeds you.”

“I think not.”

“What have we done for you? Where did you get that watch and chain in your pocket?”

“My friends on this side of the lake gave me the watch and chain.”

“Humph! Well, my father paid for it!”

“Then I shall take the liberty to return it to him,” I replied. “If you will relieve me of it now, it is at your disposal.”

I took the watch from my pocket, detached the chain from my vest, and offered it to him.

“I don’t want it. It only shows what a fellow you are. After all we have done for you, Wolf, you go over on the other side, and do all you can to injure us--to injure the Lake Shore Railroad.”

“Allow me to call your attention to the fact that you discharged me,” I answered mildly. “I must work for a living, and when the president of the steamboat company offers me a situation at three dollars a day, I can’t afford to refuse it.”

“Can’t you!” sneered he. “Allow me to call your attention to the fact that, after all we have done for you, on this side, you got up a row in the car, and broke my leg.”

“You got up the row yourself, as you will remember, if you recall the facts. You insisted upon putting two passengers out of the car after they had paid their fare, and while they were behaving themselves in a proper manner.”

“You thought you were going to rule the Lake Shore Railroad. You tried to do it; and that was what made the row. Do you suppose I would submit to your dictation? Do you think I had not the right to discharge an employee of the road? I don’t see it.”

“Probably we shall not make much by discussing the matter here, though, if you wish to do so, I will meet you for that purpose when and where you please,” I replied.

“I’ll meet you on Monday forenoon, at ten o’clock,” said he suddenly and maliciously.

“I am engaged then. Of course I mean any time when my business will permit.”

“I thought you didn’t mean what you said,” added he, turning up his nose and pursing out his lips. “I want to give you a fair warning. The Wimpletons wouldn’t have you on the other side after you had turned traitor to them. I don’t blame them; and we won’t have you on this side after you have turned against us. If you mean to stay on this side of the lake, you must have nothing to do with that steamer.”

“Don’t you think our family has a right to live on this side of the lake?” I inquired.

“No matter whether you have or not. We won’t have you here,” replied Tommy sharply.

“I think we shall stay as long as we think it best to do so. I will return this watch to your father, and then I believe I shall not owe him anything.”

“Didn’t my father save all the property you had when Wimpleton foreclosed the mortgage?”

“He did; he was very kind to us then, and we shall always gratefully remember all that he did for us, though he was not called upon to pay out a single dollar on our account.”

“And for this you are doing your best to ruin the Lake Shore Railroad, which cost my father two hundred thousand dollars! Deny that, if you can!” stormed Tommy.

“I do deny it.”

“Are you not running that steamer on the other side?”

“I have that honor.”

“Hasn’t she beaten the Lightning Express-train twice to-day?”

“If she did, it was in fair and honorable competition. You discharged me, and you are responsible for the consequences, not I.”

“What’s the use of talking to an ingrate, like you!” exclaimed the major impatiently. “I give you fair warning that I intend to clean you out of the place, the whole kit of you, Tom Walton included.”

“All right! It is your next move, Tommy. I hope you won’t burn your fingers in the scrape, as you have done several times before.”

“Do you threaten me?”

“No, by no means. I only wish to tell you that those who act unjustly must bear the burden of their own injustice. When you attempted to have me put out of the car, it cost you a broken leg, though that was by no act of mine. I shall try to keep the peace, but if attacked, I shall defend myself. For all the good you and your father have done to me and mine, I shall remember you kindly. I shall forgive and forget all the injury. I stood by you and your father as long as you would let me. I refused the very situation which I have now accepted when in your employ, for no money could tempt me to forsake my friends. I hope you will not try to get up a quarrel with me, Tommy, for I have no ill-will towards you, and would rather serve you now than injure you.”

“Do you mean that?”

“Upon my word I do!” I answered earnestly; and if I know my own heart, I spoke the simple truth.

“Perhaps we will give you a chance to prove what you say,” said Tommy, with an incredulous shake of the head. “Attention--battalion! Forward--march!”

As abruptly as he had come upon me, he left me. Evidently my words had suggested some plan to him, and I had a right to expect some proposition from him. To sum up Tommy’s threats, he intended to drive me out of the town--not by force or by legal measures, but by making “the place too hot to hold me;” which, being interpreted, meant that he and his friends would vex and annoy our family until we should be glad to seek a new home elsewhere. Of course a man so influential as Major Toppleton, senior, had the power to make Middleport very disagreeable to us.

“Tommy’s dander is up,” said Tom Walton, as the battalion marched up the street.

“It doesn’t take much to bring his wrath up to the boiling-point,” I replied.

“I think you have given them an awful heavy dose to-day, Wolf, if all the stories are true,” added Tom, rubbing his hands as though he enjoyed the situation.

“What stories?”

“They say that Colonel Wimpleton, or Waddie, made you captain of the _Ucayga_.”

“That’s so.”

“And your father the engineer.”

“That’s so, too.”

“Then the boat beat the Lightning Express both ways.”

“All true.”

“There’s a big excitement on this side of the lake. Everybody says Lewis Holgate must step down, and take the dummy.”

“I’m willing.”

“Can you beat them then, Wolf?”

“We can beat them on the down trip from Centreport. But we don’t expect to do much till next spring; then the Lake Shore Railroad may hang up its fiddle, except for business with Middleport and the towns upon the line.”

“Is that so?” asked Tom, opening his eyes.

“No doubt of it. But I wanted to see you about another matter. Have you any work on hand?”

“Nothing but odd jobs,” replied Tom, suddenly looking as sad as it was possible for so good-natured a fellow to look. “I must find something to do that will pay me better, or it will go hard with my mother this winter. She isn’t able to do much.”

“I can put you in the way of doing something for a week or two, which will pay you pretty well. The _Belle_ is engaged to go up the lake next week with a fishing-party; but, as things are now, I can’t go with her.”

“I’m your man!” exclaimed Tom, his eyes sparkling with pleasure, for this was a job after his own heart.

“All right. Let us settle on the terms.”

“Oh, you may fix them to suit yourself.”

“How much are you making now, Tom? I don’t want to be hard with you.”

“You won’t be hard with me,” laughed he.

“But let us have the matter understood. I will do as well as I can by you. How much do you earn now?”

“Some days I make a quarter of a dollar; some days a half; and I have earned a dollar. If I get three dollars a week I am pretty well satisfied.”

“I am to have five dollars a day for the boat when she is taken by the week, and seven for a single day. Suppose I give you two dollars a day for every day the _Belle_ is used.”

“That’s handsome!” exclaimed Tom. “I shall be rich on those terms.”

“No, you won’t. She will not have anything to do for more than two or three weeks this season. In the spring she will do well. After she is paid for, we will divide equally.”

“Thank you, Wolf. You are a glorious fellow!”

We went down to the _Belle’s_ moorings, and I gave my friend such instructions as he needed. I was sure my party would have no reason to regret the change in the skippership of the boat.