CHAPTER XX. GRACE TOPPLETON FAINTS.

It was certainly our next move, and after the _Ucayga_ left the wharf, I went into my stateroom, abaft the wheel-house, to make some figures relating to my plan. My apartment was a little parlor, and though I had scarcely been into it before, I was very much pleased with it. Besides a berth, in which a nice bed was made up, the stateroom was provided with a desk, lockers for books and papers, a couple of armchairs, a table, and other suitable furniture.

This was not the traditional “captain’s office” to which passengers are invited to step up by the boy with the bell. The office was abaft the port paddle-box on the main deck; and the _Ucayga_, in anticipation of doing a large business, was provided with a clerk, so that I had nothing to do but attend to the navigation of the boat.

I felt like a lord in my palatial little room, and I was rather sorry that the exigencies of the service did not require me to sleep in it. I sat down at my desk, and was soon absorbed in my calculation. In my own opinion, I had a splendid idea--one which would induce Major Toppleton and his son to call me a traitor again as soon as it was reduced to practise. I had not time to finish writing out the program before the mate called me, as the _Ucayga_ approached the Horse-Shoe Channel.

I took the boat through the difficult passage, and after we had made the landing at Ruoara, I returned to my room, and finished writing out my plan. Then, with the aid of a handbill which hung up in the apartment, I drew up an advertisement of the proposed new arrangement suitable for the newspapers and for posters, so that, the moment it was approved by Colonel Wimpleton, it could be printed.

I was much excited by the brilliant scheme I had devised, and I was not quite sure that I could not throw the Lake Shore Railroad into the shade, even with one steamer. Certainly with two, the road would be reduced to the condition to which the major had condemned the _Ucayga_--that of doing merely a local business for the towns on its own line. I was very sorry that Colonel Wimpleton did not return by the morning boat, for I was impatient to show him my figures, and to have the new program inaugurated without any delay.

If the short trips of our boat had done nothing else, they had hurried up the Lake Shore Railroad; for, when we reached Centreport, the train had arrived, and the boat for Hitaca had started. Doubtless Major Toppleton and his son continued to be perfectly happy, and believed that they had achieved a decisive and final victory. For the present they had; but it was our next move. As I had nearly three hours to spare, and as Waddie did not appear on board, I went home for an hour, taking the steamer’s jolly-boat, with two deck-hands, to pull me across the lake.

I landed at the steps near the steamboat wharf, and had hardly ascended to the pier when I had the fortune or the misfortune to confront Tommy Toppleton. In the enjoyment of his great victory, he had come down to witness the arrival of the _Ucayga_, ten or fifteen minutes after the departure of the Hitaca boat. He looked quite as pleasant as when I had met him down the lake, a couple of hours before.

“How are you again, Wolf?” said he, halting before me on the wharf.

“First-rate,” I replied. “I hope you are.”

“Yes, all but my leg, and that is doing very well. I only limp a little now. You are not on time to-day, Wolf.”

“Why, yes; I thought I was. The _Ucayga_ was at her wharf at eleven-twenty-five. That was on time, and a little ahead of it.”

“But you were not in season for your passengers to go up to Hitaca in the boat which has just gone.”

“No, I was not; but then, you see, we had no passengers for Hitaca. We did not insure any one a connection at Centreport to-day, and so none came by our boat. I did so on Saturday, because your train was ten or fifteen minutes behind time.”

“Well, that won’t happen again,” added Tommy confidently.

“You haven’t fallen out with Lewis Holgate--have you?” I inquired.

“No--oh, no! But I persuaded him to go on the dummy, where he is more at home.”

“I was satisfied you had some one on the locomotive who understood the business.”

“Lewis and I are as good friends as ever.”

“I am glad to hear that.”

“Are you, Wolf?” sneered Tommy.

“Certainly I am.”

I had my doubts whether Lewis Holgate was as good a friend as ever; for, being degraded from the locomotive to the dummy would rankle in his heart, however well he succeeded in concealing his real feelings.

“You haven’t resigned your situation as captain of the steamer--have you, Wolf?” asked the little major, with a sinister expression.

“I have not.”

“On the whole, I think I wouldn’t do it, if I were you,” he added, laughing.

“I did not think of doing so, unless the circumstances required such a step.”

“Because we are having it all our own way on this side, and we are perfectly willing you should do anything you please now.”

“That’s handsome; that’s magnanimous, Tommy; and I thank you for your condescension,” I answered, as cheerfully as I could. “I am very pleasantly situated just now, and it affords me very great pleasure to know that anything in the way of fair competition will not be considered as interfering with your rights and privileges.”

“Do anything you like, Wolf. You will be beaten both ways, now, and I think you have come about to the end of your rope. After Colonel Wimpleton has spent so much money on that new steamer, we ought not grudge him the little business he can obtain in Centreport and Ruoara.”

“I am glad you feel so, Tommy, and that I have your kind permission to take any step I may think proper.”

“Do just what you think best now.”

“Thank you.”

“I don’t mean to say that my opinion of your conduct toward us is at all changed; but as I look at it, your treachery will be its own reward.”

“That’s rather cool, Tommy. After turning me off with every indignity and mark of contempt you could devise, you talk about my treachery!”

“We won’t jaw about that. I don’t love you now; but we won’t quarrel, if you will only take yourself out of Centreport.”

“We may not find it convenient to do that immediately; but probably our business will require us to leave soon.”

“We have made our next move, and we are satisfied.”

“I hope you won’t find any fault when we make ours.”

“Certainly not,” sneered the little major. “You can’t do anything now.”

“You may be mistaken; but I hope you will take it as kindly as we do, if things should not go to suit you.”

“Oh, yes!”

“I have your permission to do what I think best,” I replied, walking up the pier.

The little major evidently saw no possible way by which the _Ucayga_ could compete with the railroad, as long as the Hitaca boats did not land first at Centreport. I did. I walked to my father’s house, thinking over what he had said, and anticipating the storm which would take place when my plan was carried out, as I was confident it would be, as soon as it was submitted to Colonel Wimpleton.

“There has been a gentleman here to see you, Wolfert,” said my mother, as I went into the house.

“Who was he?”

“Mr. Portman, or Captain Portman, I think he said. He was very anxious to see you.”

“Portman, Portman,” I replied, repeating the name, and trying to recall the owner thereof, for it sounded familiar to me.

“He is a stout gentleman, and wore gray clothes.”

“Oh, I know!” I exclaimed, pulling out my pocket-book, and taking therefrom the card of the stout stranger who had pitched Tommy Toppleton out of the car on the railroad.

“He told me, if you came over to-day noon, to send word to him at the hotel.”

My mother accordingly sent the message by one of my sisters; and, while she was absent, I related all the events of the forenoon. Presently Captain Portman presented himself. He was very glad to see me, and spoke of me very handsomely, to my face, for my conduct on the railroad.

“As you are no longer in the employ of the Lake Shore Railroad, Wolf, I thought I would like to offer you a place,” he said. “But your mother tells me you have a good situation now.”

“Yes, sir; I am running the new steamer from Centreport to Ucayga.”

“I am sorry you are engaged, though I congratulate you on your splendid situation. I am going to keep a yacht at my place, near Hitaca, and I wanted you to take charge of her next spring, and I will give you plenty of work, and good pay for the winter.”

“I am very much obliged to you for your kind offer; but as things stand now, I shall be obliged to decline.”

“I see you must; but I am glad to meet you, for I took a fancy to you. My place is only five miles from Hitaca, and I should be pleased to see you there.”

We talked for half an hour about affairs on the lake, and I invited him to dine with me; but he was engaged with a friend at the hotel. Just as he was taking his leave, we heard a timid pull at the door-bell.

“Miss Grace Toppleton,” said my mother, showing her into the room where we were, which was the parlor.

“Grace!” I exclaimed, delighted to see her.

But I perceived in an instant that she was intensely agitated, and I realized that her visit was not one of ceremony. Indeed, I could not help fearing that some terrible calamity had happened.

“Oh, Mr. Wolf! I am----”

“Take a chair, Miss Grace,” I interposed, as she gasped, and seemed to be entirely out of breath.

I placed the rocking-chair for her, and she began to move toward it. Then I saw that her face had suddenly become deadly pale. Her step tottered, and she was on the point of falling to the floor, when I sprang to her assistance, as did my mother also at the same time. I received her into my arms, and bore her to the sofa.

“Bless me, the poor child has fainted! What can have happened to her?” exclaimed my mother, running for her camphor-bottle.

Though it was not very strange that a young lady should faint, I was utterly confounded by the situation. Something had occurred to alarm or agitate her; but I could not imagine what it was. I looked out the window; but I could see not even a horse, cow, or dog, to terrify her.