RAISING THE DUMMY.
“Haven’t you any one in Middleport that can raise that engine?” I
asked, with a pleasant smile, after I had taken a seat in Tommy
Toppleton’s beautiful sail-boat, with my old skiff in tow.
“Of course we have,” replied the Toppleton junior; “but I’m afraid it
will take a week for them to do it. They are talking about rigging a
derrick on the wharf.”
“You don’t need any derrick, or anything of that sort,” I added,
confidently; and I was quite satisfied that with the aid of the
tow-boat I could make good my promise.
“Do you think you can really raise the thing?” asked Tommy, anxiously.
“I know I can.”
“Can you do it right up quick?”
“It may take an hour or so. Can I have your father’s tow-boat?”
“Certainly you can; but my father don’t know I came over after you,”
added the scion of the house of Toppleton.
“I don’t want to do anything without your father’s knowledge and
consent.”
“He won’t find any fault with anything except that you are a
Centreporter.”
“I am no more a Centreporter than I am a Middleporter now,” I replied.
“I have had a row with the powers that be on our side.”
“A row! Good!” exclaimed Tommy, his face brightening up at this
intelligence. “What was it?”
I explained what it was, telling the whole history of the blowing up of
the canal-boat, with the collateral incidents relating to the affair.
“That’s just like Wimpleton,” said Tommy. “We don’t behave in that way
on our side of the lake.”
I hoped they did not; but it was a fact patent to the people, that
Mr. Tommy, though by no means as bad a boy as Waddie, was a spoiled
child. He was overbearing, domineering, and inclined to get into bad
scrapes. Though he was willing to be my friend, and to treat me with
the greatest consideration at the present time, it was only because he
had an axe to grind; and I had not much confidence in the professions
he made to me.
“I wish you would come and live on our side,” added Tommy. “We want
just such a fellow as you are over here.”
“Perhaps I may have to live over here,” I replied. “I suppose Waddie
will not let me rest in peace after what has happened; and I never will
go down on my knees to him or any other person.”
“Don’t you do it, Wolf,” said Tommy, warmly. “If you want a dozen or
twenty of our fellows to go over and whip out the crowd that set upon
you, we will do it--won’t we, fellows?”
“I’ll bet we will,” replied the half dozen particular cronies of Tommy
who were in the boat with him.
“I don’t wish to do anything of that kind. I bear Waddie no ill will;
and if he will only let me alone, I shall never have any trouble with
him.”
“You are too easy with him. If you only licked him once, he would
respect you for it.”
I could not help thinking what the consequences would be if any
plebeian Middleporter took it into his head to “lick” Tommy Toppleton;
and it was about the same on one side of the lake as the other. It
was not prudent to thrash so much pride, conceit, and wealth, as were
embodied in the person of either of the heirs of the great houses.
The sons of poor men had to stand back, and take off their hats to
the scion of either family. Fathers’ situations and mothers’ social
positions depended much upon the deference paid by their children to
the representatives of the nabobs.
“Where shall I land you, Wolf?” asked Tommy, as the sail-boat
approached the wharf, near which the dummy reposed, ignominiously, on
the bottom of the lake.
“Put me on board of the tow-boat, if you please. And you must get the
captain to do what I tell him,” I replied.
“I’ll do that. He shall obey your orders just as though you were the
owner of the steamer.”
We ran up to the tow-boat, which was about to start on a trip up the
lake with a fleet of canal boats that had gathered together. I knew
that she had on board all the rigging I needed for my bold experiment,
including some very long tow-lines. Tommy ran up to the boat, and he
and I leaped upon her deck, for I had assured him I needed no help from
the boys, or any one else.
“Captain Underwood, we want to use your boat for a while,” said Tommy,
as briskly as though he had himself been the owner of the craft.
“Does your father say so?” asked the captain, with some hesitation, and
with the utmost deference.
“No matter whether he does or not; I will be responsible. Now go ahead,
Wolf. You can put her through by daylight.”
The captain consented to take part in the enterprise, when informed
that I was the “young engineer,”--as I had the honor to be called,--and
that I had a plan to put the dummy on shore.
“Shall I explain the plan to you, Captain Underwood?” I asked.
“No, you needn’t, Wolf, unless you wish to do so,” interposed Tommy,
impatiently.
“If you will tell me what to do, I will obey orders,” answered the
captain. “In fact, I don’t care to know anything about it; and then I
shall be responsible for nothing.”
“All right, captain. You shall not be responsible, and if I fail no
harm will be done. Have you a stout iron hook?”
“Yes; here is one on the end of this tow-line,” he replied, pointing to
a coil of large rope.
“That’s just what I want,” said I, throwing off my coat. “Now run up to
the north side of the dummy.”
Before the steamer reached the spot I had thrown off all my clothes.
Jumping into my skiff with Tommy, who was proud and happy to have a
finger in the pie, we took the tow-line on board, and pulled to the
end of the dummy, to which I made fast. I had ascertained from my
companion that there was a shackle eye in each end of the engine, by
which another car could be attached to it; and my present purpose was
to fasten the hook into this eye.
The water of Lake Ucayga is as clear as crystal, and I had no trouble
in finding the eye, which was no more than four feet below the surface
of the lake. I dropped down into the engine-room, standing up to my
neck in water, and Tommy lowered down the iron hook. I then stooped
down, disappeared from the view of the world above me for a moment, and
attached the hook to the eye.
“All right, Tommy,” said I, when I had cleared the water from my mouth.
“Bully for you, Wolf; but I don’t see how you are going to put the
thing on shore,” replied he.
“I’m going to do it; if I don’t I never will go on shore again myself,”
I added, as I sprang upon the roof of the dummy again.
“I should hate to fail, for the fellows are a-gathering on the wharf to
see the fun.”
“There’s no such word as fail,” I answered, leaping into the boat. “Now
pull for the tow-boat, and let me put on my rags again.”
I jumped upon deck, and in a few moments had my clothes on. I glanced
at the wharf, and saw that quite a number of students and grown-up
people had gathered there, as the intelligence spread that something
was going on.
“What next, Wolf?” asked Captain Underwood, bestowing upon me a smile
which seemed to indicate an utter want of confidence in my operations.
“Go ahead, captain,” I replied, seizing the tow-line, and making it
fast at the bits provided for the purpose.
I knew what the bottom of the lake was at the Middleport wharf, for I
had been down there more than once. It was composed of hard gravel, and
almost as smooth as the surface of the lake in a calm day. I knew that
the flanges of the car wheels would cut into the ground and make it go
hard and they would run as well there as on a hard road.
“Go ahead!” said Captain Underwood to the engineer.
“Steady, captain! Work her up gradually,” I added.
The wheels turned slowly at first, so as not to part the tow-line, or
needlessly wrench the sunken car; but in a few moments she had full
steam on. It was an anxious moment to me, and the gathering crowd on
shore watched the movement in silence.
“She starts!” exclaimed Tommy, highly excited. “She’s coming!”
“Of course she’s coming; I knew she would,” I replied, struggling to
keep down the emotions which agitated me.
“Hurrah!” yelled Tommy, as the dummy began to follow us, as though she
were a part of the steamer.
“Starboard your helm, Captain Underwood,” I called.
“Starboard it is,” replied the captain, when he had given the order to
the wheelman.
“Keep as well in shore as your draught will let you,” I continued.
“I can’t run the boat up on the shore, Wolf,” said the captain.
“I don’t want you to do so. The dummy travels very well on the bottom.”
“Yes; but we can’t drag it out of the water without running upon shore
with the boat.”
“I think we can, captain. At any rate, don’t let the boat get aground,”
I replied.
The steamer continued on her course till she came abreast of a large
tree growing on the shore, between which and the lake the rails were
laid down.
“Stop her!” I shouted; and my order was promptly obeyed.
The dummy was now in about six feet of water, and not more than a
hundred feet from the tree. It was headed in a diagonal towards the
railroad.
“Now, Captain Underwood, have you a heavy snatch-block?” I asked as the
boat stopped.
“I have--one used with that tow-line,” replied the obliging captain,
to whom the request indicated the nature of further operations; and I
ought to add, in justice to him, that the look of incredulity which had
played upon his face was all gone.
I took the snatch-block, with the ropes to make it fast, and the end of
the tow-line, into the skiff, and, attended by Tommy, pulled ashore. My
companion, in spite of the fact that he usually wore kid gloves, made
himself exceedingly serviceable. I rigged the snatch-block to the tree,
and passed the tow-line over the sheaf, carrying the end back to the
steamer in the boat, where I made it fast to the stern bits.
“Go ahead, captain!” I called.
Working her up to her speed slowly and carefully, the steamer ploughed
and strained for a few moments, then went ahead. The rope strained, but
it did not part, and the dummy walked up out of the water as though she
had been a sea-horse emerging from his native element.
The crowd which had followed the steamer cheered lustily, and my
promise was redeemed.