CHAPTER XXI. GRACE TOPPLETON’S STORY.

My mother had the reputation of being a skilful person in sickness, or in any emergency. She devoted herself earnestly to the restoration of Grace. I could not help looking at her, alarmed as I was, while she lay pale and beautiful on the sofa. Captain Portman manifested a deep interest in the sufferer, though he knew that she belonged to the family of my persecutor, for the male members of which he had strongly expressed his contempt and disgust.

I tried again to devise some explanation of the singular visit of Grace at our house, and of the violent emotion which agitated her. Although I knew that her father was indulgent to her, I was afraid that everything was not pleasant at home. I had seen her brother strike her a severe blow, and had heard him talk to her in the most violent manner. If he would behave thus brutally to her in the presence of others, what would he not do in the privacy of his own home? Grace was conscientious, and with the highest views of truth and duty.

It was not difficult to believe, therefore, that some trouble had occurred in the family of the great man of Middleport, and that poor Grace had fled from her home in fear of personal violence. I began to flatter myself, in view of the fact that she had come to me for protection, and to fancy myself already a knight-errant. I had all along rejoiced in the belief that she regarded me with favor and kindness; but this last act of confidence crowned all my hopes. While I was thinking what I should do for her, how I should shield her, she opened her eyes.

My mother continued her benevolent ministrations until Grace was wholly restored. Probably she was in the habit of fainting; at any rate, she came out of the swoon with a facility which astonished me, and led me to the conclusion that fainting was not the most serious thing in the world, as I had supposed when I saw her silent and motionless on the sofa. She seemed to gather up her faculties almost as suddenly as she had been deprived of their use.

“Mr. Wolf, I came to see you,” said she, after she was able to speak. “I am sorry I fainted; but I have not felt well to-day.”

“Rest yourself, Miss Toppleton,” interposed my mother. “Don’t try to talk much yet.”

“I feel much better now, and shall do very well. I am much obliged to you Mrs. Penniman, for your kindness.”

“Oh, not a bit!” exclaimed my mother.

“But I must do the errand which brought me here, and go home,” said Grace, rising from the sofa.

“Don’t get up yet, Miss Toppleton; sit still,” added my mother, gently compelling her to resume her place on the sofa.

“I feel quite well now. I always faint when anything disturbs me. Mr. Wolf, I have something to say to you.”

“Well, I think I will go,” said Captain Portman.

“Not yet, if you please, sir,” interposed Grace. “What I have to say concerns you, also. My father and my brother will be terribly incensed against me if they know that I have been here.”

“They shall not know it from any of us,” I replied.

“I am sorry that my brother hates you, Mr. Wolf, and sorry that my father indulges all his whims. My mother and I think that they do very wrong; but we can’t help it. Just before I came away from home, I heard them talking together about the gentleman who put my brother out of the train at the time his leg was broken. That was you, sir, I believe?”

Captain Portman bowed his acknowledgment of the fact.

“They were talking about arresting you, sir, and taking you before the court for an assault upon Tommy.”

The stout gentleman smiled, as though it were not a very serious matter.

“But I don’t think I should have come here if this had been all,” continued Grace. “My brother saw and recognized you in the street, sir.”

“Very likely,” nodded Captain Portman.

“Dear me, I must hurry on with my story, or I shall be too late to do any good!” exclaimed the fair visitor. “Well, my brother is determined that you shall be arrested, too, Mr. Wolf. He insists that you were concerned in the assault. They have gone to find an officer now. Tommy says he shall prevent your running that steamboat this afternoon, and perhaps for a week; and this is really what my brother wants to do, so far as you are concerned, Mr. Wolf.”

Was this all? And Miss Grace had not been driven from her home by the persecution of her father and brother! Tommy had not even struck her again! I was really glad, when I came to think of it, that the matter was no worse. If I had no opportunity to do desperate deeds in the service of my beautiful friend, I had the consolation of knowing that there was no occasion for any. I was happy to realize that peace reigned in the great mansion.

When my anxiety for Grace would permit me to think of myself, I appreciated the obligation under which she had placed me by this timely warning. I was willing to be arrested for my agency in expelling Tommy from the train, for, being entirely innocent, I could afford to face my accusers.

“Now, what will you do, Mr. Wolf?” asked Grace, beginning to be much agitated again.

“First, I shall be under everlasting obligations to you for your kindness in taking all this trouble on my account.”

“Never mind that, Mr. Wolf,” she said, blushing. “I know you had nothing to do with injuring my brother, and I do not want you to suffer for this, or to have your steamboat stopped for nothing. The constable and Tommy are going to wait for you at the corner of the street,” she added, indicating the place where I was to be captured. “You must go some other way.”

“I will, Miss Grace.”

“And I will go and throw myself into the hands of the Philistines at once,” added Captain Portman, laughing.

“I suppose they can’t hurt you, sir,” said Grace.

“Well, I am certainly guilty of the offense charged upon me,” replied Captain Portman. “I will not now pretend to justify it, though your brother was very unreasonable, and detained me, as well as a crowd of others, without the slightest excuse for doing so. The act was done in the anger and excitement of the moment, and I shall cheerfully submit to the penalty of the law, as a good citizen should do.”

I thanked Miss Grace again for her interest in me, and for the trouble she had taken on my account. What she had done was no trivial thing to her, as her fainting fully proved, and I could not but be proud of the devotion she had exhibited in my cause. She took her leave; and after she had been gone a few minutes, Captain Portman departed.

Tommy’s plan included me in the arrest for an assault upon him; but that was only a conspiracy to injure the steamboat line on the other side of the lake. I deemed it my duty to defeat this little scheme, in the interests of my employers. I ate my dinner hastily, and then left the house by the back door, making my way to the lake, where I had left my skiff, by a round-about course. I pulled across, and as I went on board of the _Ucayga_, I hoped the constable who was waiting for me would have a good time.

I was not quite sure that Grace had not made a mistake, so far as I was to be connected with the arrest. She might have misunderstood the conversation she had heard; for I could hardly believe it possible that Major Toppleton intended to have me arrested. Everybody knew that I had had no hand in putting Tommy out of the car. No one had ever asserted such a thing. But they could affirm that I was in company with Captain Portman at the time, and that I had instigated him to do the deed. Of course this was nonsense; but it might be a sufficient pretense to detain me long enough for the _Ucayga_ to lose her afternoon trip. The warning I had received induced me to prepare for the future, and I instructed the mate to run the boat through, if at any time I should be absent when it was time to start.

I went into the engine-room, and told my father what had transpired during my absence. He listened to me, and seemed to be much annoyed by my story; for it looked like the first of the petty trials to which we were to be subjected, in accordance with Tommy’s threats. While I was thus employed, Waddie Wimpleton appeared, excited and anxious under the defeat we had that day sustained.

“I am sorry your father did not come down this morning,” said I, after he had expressed his dissatisfaction at the movement of Major Toppleton.

“Why?” asked Waddie hopefully.

“Because I have a plan to propose to him.”

“Can’t you propose it to me?” said he, laughing.

“I am the president of the steamboat company.”

“I know you are; but I did not think you would be willing to take a step so decided as the one I shall propose, without the advice and consent of your father.”

“Let me hear what it is, and then I can tell you whether I will or not.”

“Come to my stateroom, then, and I will show you all the figures. If I mistake not, we can do a big thing, even before the keel of the _Hitaca_ is laid down.”

“I have been thinking a good deal about our affairs to-day, Wolf,” said Waddie, as we went upon the hurricane-deck. “I have tried to feel kindly toward the folks on the other side. It’s hard work, and I’m not up to it yet--by the great horn spoon I’m not!”

“You must not try to overdo the matter,” I replied, pleased with his enthusiasm.

“They are endeavoring to injure us all they can. If Major Toppleton had not prevented his boat from coming to Centreport this morning, it would have been easier to feel right toward him.”

“You need not feel unkindly toward him on that account. Major Toppleton, as an individual, is one affair; his railroad and steamboat line is quite another. A fair competition is all right. We will not say a word, or do a thing, against the major or his son, personally; but we must do the best we can for the success of our line. We are in duty bound to do it, as much for the public good as our own. If we lessen the time between Hitaca and Ucayga by an hour, so far we confer a benefit upon the traveling community. We need have no ill-will toward any person. If the major and his son need our help, our kind words, let them be given. We will not say anything to injure their line; but we will do the best we can to build up our own.”

“But we don’t shorten the time between Hitaca and Ucayga by an hour, or even a minute,” said Waddie.

“Perhaps we shall. Sit down, and I will show you the figures,” I replied, as I took my program from the desk.