[Illustration: Illustrated title page.]
_THE LAKE SHORE SERIES._
LIGHTNING EXPRESS;
OR,
THE RIVAL ACADEMIES.
BY
OLIVER OPTIC,
AUTHOR OF “YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD,” “THE ARMY AND NAVY STORIES,”
“THE WOODVILLE STORIES,” “THE BOAT-CLUB STORIES,”
“THE STARRY FLAG SERIES,” ETC.
BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
NEW YORK:
LEE, SHEPARD AND DILLINGHAM.
1871.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
WILLIAM T. ADAMS,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of
the District of Massachusetts.
ELECTROTYPED AT THE
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,
NO. 19 SPRING LANE.
TO
MY YOUNG FRIEND
_JAMES DEWITT CARSON_
This Book
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
_THE LAKE SHORE SERIES._
1. _THROUGH BY DAYLIGHT_; or, The Young Engineer of the Lake Shore
Railroad.
2. _LIGHTNING EXPRESS_; or, The Rival Academies.
3. _ON TIME_; or, The Young Captain of the Ucayga Steamer.
4. _SWITCH OFF_; or, The War of the Students.
5. _BRAKE UP_; or, The Young Peacemakers.
6. _BEAR AND FORBEAR_; or, The Young Skipper of Lake Ucayga.
PREFACE.
LIGHTNING EXPRESS is the second volume of the LAKE SHORE SERIES, and
has been published in Oliver Optic’s Magazine, Our Boys and Girls. The
story, like its predecessor, relates to the Lake Shore Railroad, though
the war between the rival academies occupies a considerable portion of
the book. Waddie Wimpleton and Tommy Toppleton, as they appear in these
volumes, are not strangers, in real life, to the writer; and probably
all his readers are familiar with similar young gentlemen in their own
spheres.
The author has endeavored to keep the moral movement of the story up to
the proper standard, and is not afraid that any reasonable young man
will like either Tommy or Waddie well enough to imitate their conduct,
while he is satisfied that all will be pleased with the moral heroism
of Wolf Penniman, and will indorse his views of Christian duty.
HARRISON SQUARE, MASS.,
July 21, 1869.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE
A STOCKHOLDERS’ MEETING. 11
CHAPTER II.
THE STOCKHOLDERS IN COUNCIL. 22
CHAPTER III.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE ROAD. 34
CHAPTER IV.
OFF FOR THE CAMP. 45
CHAPTER V.
A BREEZY PROSPECT AHEAD. 57
CHAPTER VI.
A MISSION OF PEACE. 69
CHAPTER VII.
MAJOR TOMMY GETS MAD. 81
CHAPTER VIII.
CHARGE BAYONETS! 93
CHAPTER IX.
FEATHERS AND THE ENGINEER. 104
CHAPTER X.
KEEPING THE PEACE. 116
CHAPTER XI.
AT THE HORSE SHOE. 128
CHAPTER XII.
UP THE LAKE. 139
CHAPTER XIII.
IF THINE ENEMY HUNGER. 150
CHAPTER XIV.
COLONEL WIMPLETON BIDS HIGH. 162
CHAPTER XV.
THE IMPENDING BATTLE. 174
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BATTLE OF THE HORSE SHOE. 186
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PRISONER OF WAR. 198
CHAPTER XVIII.
RESCUING A PRISONER. 210
CHAPTER XIX.
A TYRANNICAL SON. 222
CHAPTER XX.
THE LIGHTNING EXPRESS TRAIN. 233
CHAPTER XXI.
MAKING UP TIME. 244
CHAPTER XXII.
THE NEW FIREMAN. 254
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE PRESIDENT AND THE ENGINEER. 266
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE PRESIDENT HAS A FALL. 278
CHAPTER XXV.
THE PRESIDENT IN TROUBLE. 290
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE NEW STEAMER. 300
LIGHTNING EXPRESS;
OR,
THE RIVAL ACADEMIES.
CHAPTER I.
A STOCKHOLDERS’ MEETING.
“Order, gentlemen, order!” said Mr. Tommy Toppleton, rapping his
gavel on the desk before him. “While I am president of the Lake Shore
Railroad, I will have order!”
Tommy was the son of his father; on this question there could be no
dispute. Not only was his father a great man, but Tommy, in his own
estimation, was a great man also; on this question, unfortunately,
there was some dispute. Perhaps it was the young gentleman’s
misfortune, certainly it was not his fault, that he was the only son
of a very rich father, and had been indulged until he was, so far as
the circumstances would admit, a spoiled child. He had many excellent
qualities; but he had come to think that among the boys he was the
central figure, and that without him they were nothing, and could do
nothing.
Tommy regarded other boys, even the students of the Toppleton Institute
who were his equals in wealth and social position, as in some sense
footballs for his capricious toes. Many of his companions did not
like him, because he “put on airs,” because he was overbearing and
tyrannical to his inferiors, and because he always claimed the highest
position and the loftiest dignity among them. When the Lake Shore
Railroad Company was organized, he was elected one of the board of
directors, and then by them was chosen president. He had filled this
office from the beginning, and he expected always to fill it.
The company had been in operation about a year, during which time it
had dealt mainly with imaginary certificates of stock, bonds, rolling
stock, and other material, the object being to give the students a
knowledge of railroad business. The actual building of the road had
rendered the company somewhat more real; but, as all the property was
in fact owned by Major Toppleton, who held the bonds of the company for
its full value, it was still to the students an educational rather than
a practical business enterprise. The real owner, therefore, was the
real manager of the road. He told the directors what votes to pass, and
they were pliant enough to obey. All the forms of electing officers,
appointing the superintendent, road-master, engineers, and other
officers, were punctiliously adhered to.
The capital stock of the company was two hundred thousand dollars,
represented by two thousand shares of one hundred dollars each, which
had been apportioned among the students of the Institute, in unequal
parts. Some owned one hundred shares, others only two or three. Tommy
Toppleton was the happy possessor of a quarter part of the capital
stock of the concern, and threw five hundred votes, each representing a
share, in a stockholders’ meeting. An account was kept with each owner
of stock, and transfers from one to another were frequent. I am sorry
to detract from the dignity of the enterprise by confessing that a
share, whose par value was one hundred dollars, was frequently bartered
away for a pint of pea-nuts, though, as the road, like many others, was
mortgaged for its full value, perhaps the compensation was adequate.
Two thousand mortgage bonds of one hundred dollars each had been
issued, duly signed by the officers, and bearing interest at seven per
cent. As the company had no receipts for the first quarter of the year,
the railroad was heavily in debt, and the students were not likely to
be burdened with any extra spending money from their dividends. I had
run the dummy during the fall and winter, carrying passengers as far
as Grass Springs; not for the fun of it, but at regular fares--twenty
cents to Spangleport, five miles distant, fifty cents to the Springs,
thirteen miles, and between the two latter points, thirty cents.
There had been considerable travel, enough to make a breeze with the
steamboat company, though not enough to pay the interest and expenses
of running.
As the students were not permitted to neglect their studies for the
purpose of serving as conductors and engineers, outsiders had been
employed to some extent. Major Toppleton did not regard the Lake Shore
Railroad as a mere plaything. During the winter he had procured his
charter, and he had expended an immense sum of money on the road since
he commenced, for his ideas had enlarged as he progressed, and he
intended to have a regular line to Ucayga, at the foot of the lake.
In a quiet way he had bought up the stock of the steamboat company,
and a report was circulated in the spring that the boats would run
only between Middleport and Hitaca, at the head of the lake, when the
railroad was completed. The Centreporters were filled with horror and
indignation, for this scheme would leave them no means of communication
with Ucayga, on the great lines of railroad, except by the way of
Middleport, and would compel them to patronize the hated Lake Shore
line. But this project was only rumored; it had not yet been developed.
The assembly in which Mr. Tommy Toppleton insisted that order should
be preserved while he was the president of the Lake Shore Railroad,
was the annual meeting of the stockholders, at which the election of
officers was to take place. By permission of Major Toppleton I was
allowed to own five shares in the road, though, as I was not a member
of the Institute, I was not eligible as a purchaser of stock. But I
felt an interest in the enterprise, and an interest in the method of
conducting the business, and I had purchased my stock at a fearful
depreciation from the par value. One of the fellows, by the name of
Limpenfield, had run out of pocket money, and being sorely tempted to
enjoy a feast of cream cakes, I had taken advantage of his necessities,
and bought five shares for twenty-five cents!
The meeting threatened to be rather stormy, for I happened to know
that there were two tickets in the field for a board of directors, on
one of which the name of Tommy Toppleton did not appear, though the
canvassing had been so carefully conducted that the person principally
concerned had no suspicion of his own unpopularity, and least of all
that the stockholders would have the audacity to tip him out of his
exalted position. But this question had not yet come to an issue. The
excitement was over another matter.
“I move you that we proceed to the election of officers at once,” said
Barnscott.
“I move you that we adjourn to Grass Springs!” shouted Wetherstane.
“Second the motion!” added Putnam.
“Order, gentlemen! What motion do you second, Putnam?” demanded the
president.
“The motion to adjourn to Grass Springs, of course.”
“What do we want to adjourn to Grass Springs for?” demanded Barnscott.
“Question! Question!” called the crowd.
“There is no motion before the stockholders!” roared Tommy, hammering
the desk vigorously with his gavel, for he was a model presiding
officer, and would no more have served in this capacity without a gavel
than he would have gone to meeting without a coat.
“Mr. President, I made a motion,” said Barnscott.
“So did I,” added Wetherstane.
“Neither of them is before the house. Gentlemen, you interrupt the
company’s business by your disorder. I insist that the proceedings
be conducted with parliamentary propriety.” Tommy had been to the
legislature with his father when the charter was obtained, and indulged
in technical phrases which all the students did not fully comprehend.
“I move you--”
“Order!” screamed Tommy, at the top of his lungs, and as savage as a
yellow wasp.
“I move you--”
“Order!” repeated the vigorous president, indicating each of the movers
by pointing at them with his gavel. “Take your seat, Barnscott! Sit
down, Wetherstane! This business shall be done in an orderly manner, or
not at all;” and Tommy swelled up till he was as big as the presiding
officer of the Senate of the United States.
“I thought this was a free country, and that the stockholders of the
Lake Shore Railroad had a right to speak in the meetings,” growled the
irrepressible Barnscott.
“Sit down!” thundered Tommy.
“I have a certificate for ten shares; and that gives me the right to
speak and to vote in this meeting,” added the indignant Wetherstane.
“Take your seat, or I will have you put out of the hall!” yelled the
president.
“I’ll sell my stock to any fellow that wants it for a stick of molasses
candy,” continued the wrathy Barnscott. “What is the use of owning
stock if you are to be muzzled like a mad dog?”
“Shall we have order, or not?” cried the president, disgusted with the
irregular proceedings of the turbulent stockholders.
“Order! Order!” shouted a respectable majority of the assembly.
Tommy was evidently out of breath, and disposed to resort to
disagreeable measures. The meeting was held in the chapel of the
Institute, and the principal, if not the major, was within calling
distance. Rather than have a lecture from either of them, the violent
makers of motions subsided for a time, and permitted the president to
do the lecturing. Tommy took a swallow of water from a tumbler on the
desk, and then looked majestically around the room, as if to satisfy
himself that no further disorder was intended, and that the turbulent
ones were disposed to listen to his remarks.
“Gentlemen, order is Heaven’s first law, and it must be the first law
of the Lake Shore Railroad Company, especially in a meeting of its
stockholders,” Tommy began, and then paused, looking as solemn as an
owl at noonday, to note the effect of his impressive words.
As no one objected to this proposition, Tommy took another swallow of
cold water, and proceeded with his remarks.
“No business can be done while we are in confusion,” he continued,
with due seriousness, as he straightened back his neck. “This
is a parliamentary assembly, like the legislature of the state,
and we purpose to do all things in a parliamentary manner. Such
bodies, met together for purposes of debate, are subject to certain
well-established rules, sanctioned by usage, and governed by
precedents.”
“Whew!” whistled Briscoe. “I wonder what book he stole that from.”
“I beg your pardon, Mr. President, but I made a motion, which was
properly seconded,” interrupted Wetherstane, quite mildly now. “I don’t
think any other business can be brought before the house till that one
has been settled.”
“The motion was in order,--a motion to adjourn is always in order,--but
it was not properly before the stockholders. The motion does not become
a question, and is not before the house, until it has been stated by
the presiding officer. A motion cannot be entertained until it has been
seconded; and made and seconded, it does not become a question until
it has been stated by the president. One question must be disposed of
before another can be entertained. Gentlemen, I insist upon order. I
am now ready to hear any motion;” and Tommy, having laid down the law,
intended that everybody should abide by it.