CHAPTER II. THE AUCTION AT RUOARA.

It was not yet time for the auction, and I waited on the wharf to see the steamer start. She was still a novelty in Ruoara, and many people came down to the shore to observe her beautiful proportions, and the speed with which she cut through the waters. Hundreds of them made the trip to Ucayga and back for the sole purpose of seeing the boat. After the old steamers were taken off, and before the _Ucayga_ was put on the route, the inhabitants of this town had been obliged to cross the ferry to Grass Springs, and take the trains of the Lake Shore Railroad when they wished to go in either direction. The advent of this palatial steamer was therefore a new era to them, and they regarded her with pride and pleasure.

Ruoara was situated nearly opposite Grass Springs; but the four islands lay off the former town, and a little below. The South Shoe was due west from the wharf where the boat touched, and she was obliged to back, and go over a mile out of her course, to avoid the island and the shoal water which lay near it. The South Shoe, therefore, was a nuisance in its relation to the steamboat navigation of Ruoara. The five minutes which this circuit required had doubtless caused the _Ucayga_ to miss her connection more than once.

I have been told that I am a machinist by nature. I do not know how this may be, but I am sure that I never see a difficulty without attempting to study out the means to remedy it. As I stood on the wharf, watching the winding course of the splendid steamer, I could not help grappling with the problem of saving this loss of time on the trip. These five minutes might sometimes enable the boat to win the day in the competition with the railroad.

As I have hinted before, I knew every foot of bottom in this part of the lake. I had sailed hundreds of miles among these islands, and, while I was thinking over the matter, the key to the problem flashed upon my mind. I do not mean to say that it was a very brilliant idea; but, simple as it was, it had evidently not occurred to the captain of the steamer, who was a Hitaca man, and knew only the ordinary channels of the lake, used by the steamers. I had an idea; but I deemed it wise to keep my own counsel in the matter, for a suggestion from me would probably have been deemed impertinent.

When the _Ucayga_ disappeared behind the South Shoe, I turned my attention to the business which had brought me to Ruoara. A short distance down the lake, and on its bank, was a beautiful and very elaborate cottage, which had evidently been intended as a copy of that occupied by Colonel Wimpleton. Off the lake-wall lay the boat which I hoped to purchase. The owner had made an immense “spread,” and failed out clean in the height of his glory. People who could afford to purchase such rich and gaudy trappings as those with which the bankrupt owner fitted up his mansion, did not care to buy them at second-hand. Everybody expected that the ornamental appendages of the establishment would be sold for a tithe of their cost; and so they were.

To most of the people on the lake, any boat beyond a skiff for actual service was regarded as a luxury, especially such a craft as that which floated off the wall. Taking hold of the painter, I hauled her in, and stepped on board. She was a very rakish-looking boat, sloop-rigged, with a cabin forward containing two berths, and the smallest stove it is possible to imagine. She was about twenty-four feet long, and as well appointed in every respect as though she had been fitted up to cross the ocean. The owner had certainly lavished money upon her, which he could afford to do, at the expense of his creditors.

While I was examining her I saw the crowd of purchasers moving about the house as the sale proceeded. It was a hopeful sign that no one seemed to care a straw about the boat. Men and women were examining everything else about the establishment, but the _Belle_--for that was the name I found upon her stern--was wholly neglected. I continued my examination without the notice of any one for some time. I took the trap off the well, and got at the bottom. I found that she was built in the most thorough manner. I was sure she had cost all of six hundred dollars.

“What are you doing in that boat, Wolf Penniman?”

I raised my head from the diligent search I was making in the bottom of the boat, and discovered Mr. Waddie on the wall.

“I am looking at her,” I replied.

“What are you looking at her for?”

“Because I want to see her.”

“What do you want to see her for?”

“I take an interest in boats,” I answered, not caring to be very communicative with the scion of the Wimpletons.

It immediately occurred to me that Waddie’s business at Ruoara was the same as my own, and my heart sank within me, for I could not hope to bid against one who had so much money at his command. But I could not think, for the life of me, why Waddie should want the boat, for he had one of about the same size, which was his own private property. Probably he had taken a fancy to her, as I had.

“Are you going to buy her, Wolf?” asked he, with more interest than he was accustomed to manifest in anything.

“That will depend upon circumstances.”

“Who told you that I was going to buy this boat?” demanded he sharply.

“No one.”

“You came up to bid against me!”

“I didn’t know you were coming till I saw you here.”

“If you bid against me, Wolf Penniman, I’ll be the death of you.”

“I think not,” I replied, laughing at this rash threat.

“I will! You will find me an uglier customer to deal with than you did Tom Toppleton. Do you think I’m going to have you dogging my steps wherever I go?”

I could only laugh.

“No one about here wants the boat but me,” he added.

“I want her.”

“Yes, and you want her only because I do,” snarled he.

“It’s an open thing, I suppose. This is a public auction; and if you are willing to give more than I can, of course you will have her,” I replied.

“If you don’t bid against me, she will be knocked off at the first offer.”

“We won’t quarrel, Waddie.”

“Yes, we will, if you bid against me. The auctioneer is coming. You mind what I say. If you bid against me, you will repent it as long as you live.”

Such language from an ordinary boy would have been very remarkable; from Waddie it was not at all so. It was his usual style of bullying. It seemed very strange that the young gentleman should attempt to bully me into silence when he could outbid me; but I ascertained afterward that his father objected to buying the boat, and even refused to furnish the money, so that Waddie could only bid to the extent of the funds then in his possession. However weak and indulgent the colonel was, he had not sunk into the condition of subserviency to his son into which the major had fallen.

The auctioneer, followed by only a small portion of the crowd from the house, approached the spot where Waddie stood. I jumped ashore, and secured a place on the wall. The auctioneer took his stand on the stern of the _Belle_; but none of the attendants upon the sale felt interest enough to go on board, or even to examine the craft. It was plain enough that the competition lay between Waddie and myself alone. I had made up my mind to lose the boat, and I felt badly about it. I could not expect to bid successfully against the son of the rich man. However, I meant to try, and I only hoped that Waddie would keep his temper. He had certainly given me fair warning; but perhaps it was my misfortune that I did not happen to be afraid of him.

While I stood there, I could not help thinking that I was spoiling all my chances of a situation in the future on board of the _Ucayga_, if the colonel should again be disposed to repeat his munificent offers. But I had a dream of doing even a better thing with the _Belle_ than I could on board of the steamer or on the Lake Shore Railroad, and without being subject to the caprices of either of the young gentlemen who were so potent in both.

The auctioneer gave us a grandiloquent description of the “fairy pleasure barge” which was before us. He was not a nautical man, and sadly bungled in his terms. She was the fastest sailer on the lake; was a good sea-boat. She was right and tight in every respect.

“For, gentlemen,” he added facetiously, “a boat, unlike a man, is a good deal better when she is tight than when she is not tight”--a witticism at which the auctioneer laughed much more heartily than the auditors. “She is copper-fastened, besides being fastened to the wall. Like myself, and some of you, gentlemen, she is very sharp. And now, how much am I offered for this magnificent yacht, the finest, without exception, on the lake. What shall I have for her?”

“Twenty-five dollars,” said Waddie Wimpleton, who could not conceal his interest and anxiety in the result.

“Did you say twenty-five dollars, Mr. Wimpleton?” said the auctioneer, with a look which was intended to manifest his astonishment at the smallness of the bid. “Why, she cost over six hundred dollars! You can’t mean that, Mr. Wimpleton.”

“Yes, I do mean it!” said Waddie smartly.

“Twenty-five dollars is bid for this splendid yacht, sharp as a Yankee pedler, and copper-fastened, besides being fastened to the wall. Who says a hundred?”

No one said a hundred. No one said anything for a few moments, during which time the auctioneer dwelt upon the beautiful proportions of the craft, and repeated his jokes for a third time.

“Only twenty-five dollars is bid for the _Belle_! Why, gentlemen, that would not pay for one of her sails.”

“Thirty dollars,” I added.

“Thirty dollars!” repeated the auctioneer, glancing curiously at me. “Perhaps I ought to say that the conditions of this sale are cash on delivery. Thirty dollars! Shall I have a hundred?”

Waddie glanced furiously at me, and I saw that his fists were clenched.

“Thirty-five,” said he.

“Forty.”

“Forty-five,” snapped he.

“Fifty,” I added quietly.

I had hardly uttered the word before Waddie’s fist was planted squarely on the end of my nose, and the blood spurted from it. He was about to follow it up with another, when I deemed it necessary to do something. I parried his stroke, and hit him so fairly in the eye that he reeled, lost his balance, and went over backwards into the lake with a fearful splash.