Tom Walton always had a pleasant way of doing an unpleasant thing.
I suppose he thought Tommy Toppleton intended to ride over me, or
at least intimidate me by the movements of his high-spirited little
charger, and, as a friend, he considered it his duty to do something in
my defense. This was the reason why he asked if he should not hold the
little major’s horse.
I had hardly seen Tommy since he had broken his leg; but I had no
difficulty in believing that he hated me. He was haughty, tyrannical,
and overbearing, even to a greater degree, when incensed, than my
new-made friend Waddie Wimpleton. He seemed to think I had no business
to live, and move, and have my being, after I had ceased to be
serviceable to him. He wanted to crush me, and the demonstration of his
pony was only suggestive of what the rider really desired to do.
Tom Walton was a tough fellow, and not at all thin-skinned, in the
literal signification of the term. He did not mind the blow which Tommy
had given him; but, putting himself on the left of the horseman, and
out of the convenient reach of his weapon, he backed the pony out into
the middle of the street.
“Let him alone!” shouted the major, struggling to hit, and then to
punch, my friend with the sword.
“Oh, certainly! I’ll let him alone first-rate,” laughed Tom, as he
released the steed from his iron grasp.
“You puppy, you!” snapped Tommy, foaming with wrath that a plebeian,
like my companion, should venture to take hold of the bridle of his
pony. “How dare you touch my horse?”
“Well, I haven’t much pluck; but I didn’t want him to tread on Wolf’s
corns.”
“Wolf’s a rascal, and you’re another!”
“Then we are well matched,” chuckled Tom Walton.
“If I don’t clean you fellows out of this place, it will be because I
can’t!” snarled Tommy.
“What’s the matter, Major Toppleton?” I inquired, my indignation
entirely appeased by the pleasant manner in which my companion had
treated the case.
“Wolf, you are a traitor!” exclaimed Tommy, with emphasis.
“Well?”
“You are an adder, that bites your best friends!”
“I think you are an adder, major, for you are adding one hard word to
another,” laughed Tom Walton.
“Don’t give me any of your impudence!”
“Certainly not; I leave that to my betters.”
“Wolf, I only halted to tell you that Middleport will soon be too hot
to hold you.”
“What do you mean by that, Tommy?” I asked gently.
“You know what I mean, well enough. You are a traitor, and are willing
to bite the hand that feeds you.”
“I think not.”
“What have we done for you? Where did you get that watch and chain in
your pocket?”
“My friends on this side of the lake gave me the watch and chain.”
“Humph! Well, my father paid for it!”
“Then I shall take the liberty to return it to him,” I replied. “If
you will relieve me of it now, it is at your disposal.”
I took the watch from my pocket, detached the chain from my vest, and
offered it to him.
“I don’t want it. It only shows what a fellow you are. After all we
have done for you, Wolf, you go over on the other side, and do all you
can to injure us--to injure the Lake Shore Railroad.”
“Allow me to call your attention to the fact that you discharged me,” I
answered mildly. “I must work for a living, and when the president of
the steamboat company offers me a situation at three dollars a day, I
can’t afford to refuse it.”
“Can’t you!” sneered he. “Allow me to call your attention to the fact
that, after all we have done for you, on this side, you got up a row in
the car, and broke my leg.”
“You got up the row yourself, as you will remember, if you recall the
facts. You insisted upon putting two passengers out of the car after
they had paid their fare, and while they were behaving themselves in a
proper manner.”
“You thought you were going to rule the Lake Shore Railroad. You tried
to do it; and that was what made the row. Do you suppose I would submit
to your dictation? Do you think I had not the right to discharge an
employee of the road? I don’t see it.”
“Probably we shall not make much by discussing the matter here, though,
if you wish to do so, I will meet you for that purpose when and where
you please,” I replied.
“I’ll meet you on Monday forenoon, at ten o’clock,” said he suddenly
and maliciously.
“I am engaged then. Of course I mean any time when my business will
permit.”
“I thought you didn’t mean what you said,” added he, turning up his
nose and pursing out his lips. “I want to give you a fair warning. The
Wimpletons wouldn’t have you on the other side after you had turned
traitor to them. I don’t blame them; and we won’t have you on this side
after you have turned against us. If you mean to stay on this side of
the lake, you must have nothing to do with that steamer.”
“Don’t you think our family has a right to live on this side of the
lake?” I inquired.
“No matter whether you have or not. We won’t have you here,” replied
Tommy sharply.
“I think we shall stay as long as we think it best to do so. I will
return this watch to your father, and then I believe I shall not owe
him anything.”
“Didn’t my father save all the property you had when Wimpleton
foreclosed the mortgage?”
“He did; he was very kind to us then, and we shall always gratefully
remember all that he did for us, though he was not called upon to pay
out a single dollar on our account.”
“And for this you are doing your best to ruin the Lake Shore Railroad,
which cost my father two hundred thousand dollars! Deny that, if you
can!” stormed Tommy.
“I do deny it.”
“Are you not running that steamer on the other side?”
“I have that honor.”
“Hasn’t she beaten the Lightning Express-train twice to-day?”
“If she did, it was in fair and honorable competition. You discharged
me, and you are responsible for the consequences, not I.”
“What’s the use of talking to an ingrate, like you!” exclaimed the
major impatiently. “I give you fair warning that I intend to clean you
out of the place, the whole kit of you, Tom Walton included.”
“All right! It is your next move, Tommy. I hope you won’t burn your
fingers in the scrape, as you have done several times before.”
“Do you threaten me?”
“No, by no means. I only wish to tell you that those who act unjustly
must bear the burden of their own injustice. When you attempted to
have me put out of the car, it cost you a broken leg, though that was
by no act of mine. I shall try to keep the peace, but if attacked, I
shall defend myself. For all the good you and your father have done to
me and mine, I shall remember you kindly. I shall forgive and forget
all the injury. I stood by you and your father as long as you would
let me. I refused the very situation which I have now accepted when in
your employ, for no money could tempt me to forsake my friends. I hope
you will not try to get up a quarrel with me, Tommy, for I have no
ill-will towards you, and would rather serve you now than injure you.”
“Do you mean that?”
“Upon my word I do!” I answered earnestly; and if I know my own heart,
I spoke the simple truth.
“Perhaps we will give you a chance to prove what you say,” said
Tommy, with an incredulous shake of the head. “Attention--battalion!
Forward--march!”
As abruptly as he had come upon me, he left me. Evidently my words
had suggested some plan to him, and I had a right to expect some
proposition from him. To sum up Tommy’s threats, he intended to drive
me out of the town--not by force or by legal measures, but by making
“the place too hot to hold me;” which, being interpreted, meant that he
and his friends would vex and annoy our family until we should be glad
to seek a new home elsewhere. Of course a man so influential as Major
Toppleton, senior, had the power to make Middleport very disagreeable
to us.
“Tommy’s dander is up,” said Tom Walton, as the battalion marched up
the street.
“It doesn’t take much to bring his wrath up to the boiling-point,” I
replied.
“I think you have given them an awful heavy dose to-day, Wolf, if
all the stories are true,” added Tom, rubbing his hands as though he
enjoyed the situation.
“What stories?”
“They say that Colonel Wimpleton, or Waddie, made you captain of the
_Ucayga_.”
“That’s so.”
“And your father the engineer.”
“That’s so, too.”
“Then the boat beat the Lightning Express both ways.”
“All true.”
“There’s a big excitement on this side of the lake. Everybody says
Lewis Holgate must step down, and take the dummy.”
“I’m willing.”
“Can you beat them then, Wolf?”
“We can beat them on the down trip from Centreport. But we don’t expect
to do much till next spring; then the Lake Shore Railroad may hang up
its fiddle, except for business with Middleport and the towns upon the
line.”
“Is that so?” asked Tom, opening his eyes.
“No doubt of it. But I wanted to see you about another matter. Have you
any work on hand?”
“Nothing but odd jobs,” replied Tom, suddenly looking as sad as it was
possible for so good-natured a fellow to look. “I must find something
to do that will pay me better, or it will go hard with my mother this
winter. She isn’t able to do much.”
“I can put you in the way of doing something for a week or two, which
will pay you pretty well. The _Belle_ is engaged to go up the lake next
week with a fishing-party; but, as things are now, I can’t go with her.”
“I’m your man!” exclaimed Tom, his eyes sparkling with pleasure, for
this was a job after his own heart.
“All right. Let us settle on the terms.”
“Oh, you may fix them to suit yourself.”
“How much are you making now, Tom? I don’t want to be hard with you.”
“You won’t be hard with me,” laughed he.
“But let us have the matter understood. I will do as well as I can by
you. How much do you earn now?”
“Some days I make a quarter of a dollar; some days a half; and I
have earned a dollar. If I get three dollars a week I am pretty well
satisfied.”
“I am to have five dollars a day for the boat when she is taken by the
week, and seven for a single day. Suppose I give you two dollars a day
for every day the _Belle_ is used.”
“That’s handsome!” exclaimed Tom. “I shall be rich on those terms.”
“No, you won’t. She will not have anything to do for more than two or
three weeks this season. In the spring she will do well. After she is
paid for, we will divide equally.”
“Thank you, Wolf. You are a glorious fellow!”
We went down to the _Belle’s_ moorings, and I gave my friend such
instructions as he needed. I was sure my party would have no reason to
regret the change in the skippership of the boat.