CHAPTER XXII. OUR NEXT MOVE.

I had written out a plan for the running of the _Ucayga_ an entire day. I had studied it out very carefully, and made all the allowances I deemed necessary. The basis of our anticipated success was the fact that our boat would make sixteen miles an hour, while the old steamers were good for only ten, or when crowded, for twelve, at the most. Waddie looked at my time-table; but he did not exhibit any enthusiasm, and I concluded that he did not understand it.

“What do you think of it?” I inquired, somewhat amused by the puzzled expression on his face.

“I dare say it is first-rate; but I don’t exactly know what all these figures mean. I see Hitaca on the paper, but of course you don’t mean to go up there.”

“That’s just what I mean,” I replied.

“Go to Hitaca!” exclaimed Waddie.

“Certainly--go to Hitaca.”

“But my father promised the people of Centreport and Ruoara that they should have two boats a day to Ucayga, and if you go up to the head of the lake, you can’t possibly make two trips a day from there.”

“That’s very true; nevertheless, we will go to Hitaca once every day, and still make the two trips, as your father promised.”

“Don’t understand it,” answered Waddie, hitching about in his chair.

“I’ll tell you about it. We are in Centreport now.”

“That’s so; and I am willing to make an oath of that,” laughed the president of the steamboat company.

“Good! We will begin here, then,” I added, pointing to the name of the place on my time-table. “We leave here at two-thirty, and arrive at Ucayga so as to start from there at four.”

“Just so; that is the program now.”

“We follow the present arrangement in all respects, but with a little addition. We reach Centreport at five-twenty-five this afternoon.”

“I understand all that,” said Waddie, rather impatiently.

“From that point we strike out a new track. Instead of remaining at Centreport over night, we continue right on to Hitaca, stopping on the way at Gulfport, Priam, Port Gunga, and Southport. We shall be in Hitaca at seven-thirty, about an hour ahead of the railroad line.”

“That will give us a share of the through passengers,” added Waddie, as he began to comprehend the nature of my plan. “But I don’t see how----”

“Hold on a minute, Mr. President,” I interposed. “You agree that my method is all right so far?”

“Certainly.”

“We beat the other line on the through run by about an hour.”

“That’s true.”

“Then we shall take all, or nearly all, the through passengers on the afternoon trip up; for none of them will want to waste an hour on the passage. Besides, we give them a perfect palace of a boat, compared with the old steamers.”

“Oh, we shall take them all!” exclaimed Waddie. “There will be no changing, while the railroad line must change twice.”

“Still further,” I continued. “There is a train for the south which leaves Hitaca at eight in the evening. The old boats are always too late for it; we shall be in season. That will help us again, for passengers going beyond Hitaca will not have to remain there over night.”

“We shall have it all our own way,” said Waddie, rubbing his hands with delight.

“More yet; we can have supper on board, and that will be another source of profit to the boat, and be an accommodation to the passengers, who in the old line have their supper at nine o’clock, after they get to the hotel.”

“It’s all plain enough so far. You will stay in Hitaca over night?”

“Certainly; and now for the rest of the plan,” I continued, glancing at my program. “The old-line boat leaves Hitaca at quarter of six in the morning, so early as to be a very great annoyance to passengers. We will leave at half-past six--three-quarters of an hour later. We can have breakfast on board, which the old boats cannot for the want of the facilities. We shall touch at all the intermediate ports, and arrive at Centreport by half-past eight, or so as to leave at our usual time.”

“That’s first-rate!” exclaimed Waddie. “You get this extra trip to Hitaca by running up at night and down in the morning.”

“Exactly so; but we can make only one through trip a day to Hitaca. We shall reach Ucayga at ten in the forenoon, as we do now, and come right back on the return trip. We go from the head to the foot of the lake in three hours and a half, including stops. The railroad line does the same thing in four and a quarter.”

“They beat us a quarter of an hour between Centreport and Ucayga, and we beat them an hour between Centreport and Hitaca, making a balance of three-quarters of an hour in our favor.”

“That tells the whole story, Waddie,” I replied.

“But how about the other trip?” asked the president anxiously.

“Until the _Hitaca_ is built, we must submit to be beaten on that. We can’t go up to the head of the lake twice a day with one boat. We leave Ucayga at ten, but we come only to Centreport. In other words, we shall make one trip a day to Hitaca, and two to Centreport, from the foot of the lake.”

“That’s a good deal.”

“So it is; and, by this new arrangement, we shall all have to work from about five o’clock in the morning till eight or nine in the evening.”

“That will be rough on you.”

“But we shall have to do it only till the other steamer is built. The boat will make a good deal of money. The old line charges two dollars a passenger for through tickets. We can afford to carry them for a dollar and a half.”

“But what shall be done about it? This is all talk.”

“If your father were here, I think he would send the boat to Hitaca this very night,” I replied.

“Then I will do so,” added the president promptly.

“If there is any blame, I will share it with you.”

“Go ahead, Wolf! If you only beat the other line, my father will be satisfied. I shall go up to Hitaca with you.”

“I will have a stateroom ready for you, if you wish to sleep on board.”

“Thank you, Wolf.”

“But we want some handbills, Mr. President, to inform the public of the new arrangement. You can have them printed so that we can take them as we return, and have them ready to scatter all over Hitaca when we get there to-night.”

“I will have them done.”

I sat down at my desk, and wrote the following advertisement:

_NO MONOPOLY!_

THROUGH LINE TO UCAYGA!

THE NEW AND SPLENDID STEAMER UCAYGA,

CAPTAIN WOLFERT PENNIMAN,

Will leave Hitaca every day at 6-1/2 o’clock A. M. Touching at Southport, Port Gunga, Priam, Centreport, and Ruoara, and arriving at Ucayga in season to connect with trains east and west. Will leave Ucayga at 4 o’clock P. M., and arrive at Hitaca at 7-1/2 o’clock P. M. Fare, $1.50.

W. WIMPLETON, _President_.

Waddie took this copy, and hastened to the printing-office with it. I was confident that this program would carry consternation into the ranks of the old line. After Waddie had gone, I went down to see my father. I explained my plan to him, and told him that the boat would go through to Hitaca that night. He was a prudent man, and suggested some difficulties, nearly all of which I had considered and provided for. Except at Middleport, the wharves were free to any one who chose to use them, so that there was no trouble about the landings. Van Wolter was a pilot for the upper part of the lake. As the public generally were to be benefited by the new line, we had no opposition to dread except from the railroad company.

At half-past two, the _Ucayga_ left her wharf, and, as usual, arrived at the foot of the lake just before four o’clock. I had fully explained my purpose to the mate, and to all on board, that they might make their arrangements to be absent over night. The railroad passengers were already in waiting when we reached Ucayga, and the trains from the east and west were in sight. Our runners were duly instructed to “ring in” for through passengers, at a dollar and a half each, with the time nearly an hour less than by the railroad line.

This was really the first day of the exciting competition. We had not yet unmasked our great battery, and the victory was still with the Lake Shore Railroad. I was not at all surprised to see Major Toppleton and Tommy among the passengers, as we landed. They had come up a second time that day to enjoy their triumph, and perhaps, also, to look out for the interests of their road. They were quite as pleasant as they had been in the morning, and both of them took the trouble to pay me another visit.

“Well, Wolf, how goes it with the new and splendid steamer?” asked the magnate of Middleport.

“First-rate, sir.”

“You don’t seem to have any through passengers,” laughed he.

“No, sir; none on this trip.”

“That is very unfortunate for the new and splendid steamer,” he added, chuckling.

“Yes, sir, it is rather bad; but we have to make the best of it. We hope to do better by and by.”

“I hope you will, for you seem to have plenty of room to spare.”

“Yes, sir; rather more than we wish we had.”

“I shall be obliged to have some new cars built, for we had about two hundred through passengers by this trip, and we could not seat them all in three cars.”

“I wouldn’t have any built just yet, Major Toppleton,” I answered pleasantly.

“There will be more passengers before there are less. On our morning trip down, and our afternoon trip up, we are always crowded,” chuckled the major.

“If you have more than you can accommodate comfortably, we should be glad to take some of them.”

“I dare say you would, Wolf; but the fact of it is, you are so slow that people will not ride with you.”

“No use, Wolf,” interposed Tommy. “You might as well hang up your fiddle. You can’t compete with the Lake Shore Railroad.”

“We never say die. We intend to have our share of the business.”

“Perhaps you do; but you won’t have it,” said Tommy, as the two trains came in, nearly at the same time.

“Steamer _Ucayga_; new boat! Through to Hitaca!” shouted our runners. “No change from boat to cars! Magnificent steamer! Land you in Hitaca at half-past seven, gentlemen! Fare only a dollar and a half!”

Major Toppleton and Tommy looked aghast, and turned to me for an explanation.