AT THE HORSE SHOE.
“I should like to stay with you a few days, Major Tommy,” I ventured to
say, after the young lord had given me the imperative order to depart
on the steamer.
“I say I don’t want you here,” replied Tommy, flatly. “We can get along
without you.”
“Perhaps I may be of some service to you,” I modestly suggested.
“I don’t want any fellow about me that won’t obey orders,” protested
the little major. “You advised the captain to keep us locked up in that
cabin, when we might have cleaned out the Wimps, and paid them off for
what they did.”
“Your father sent me down here, Tommy, to do anything I could to assist
you,” I added.
“I don’t care if he did!” replied Tommy, irritated rather than
conciliated by this remark.
“He wished me to stay with you; it was not by my own desire that I
came.”
“Did he send you here to be a spy upon our actions? If he did, so much
the more reason why we should get rid of you. We don’t want any spies
and go-betweens here.”
“I am not a spy, Tommy.”
“Go on board the steamer, and tell my father I won’t have you here.”
“Very well,” I replied, as I walked away from the imperious little
magnate.
“Wolf is a good fellow,” I heard the dignified Skotchley say to Tommy,
as I departed. “I wouldn’t send him off.”
“You wouldn’t, and you needn’t. I will, and shall,” replied Tommy,
curtly.
By this time the officers and soldiers of Company A had gathered at the
shore, and I found I had quite a number of friends who were willing to
intercede for me; but if all the officers of the battalion had gone
down upon their knees to him in my behalf, he would not have yielded.
I was banished from the island; and, though I was very willing to go,
much preferring to spend my vacation in some contemplated improvements
upon our garden, I did not wish to be sent away in disgrace. I saw that
Skotchley did not like the manner in which his interposition had been
treated, and just as the boat was about to start, I was not a little
surprised to see him come on board.
“Faxon is as mad as a March hare,” said he, walking up to me.
“What is the matter?”
“He says it is mean to send you off in this way.”
“I am willing to go; I don’t care about staying here, for there will
be a fight soon,” I added. “But Major Toppleton sent me here, and I
thought I ought to stay.”
“I would stay, if I were you,” said Skotchley.
“No; I won’t make any trouble. But the steamer is starting; you will be
carried off if you don’t go on shore.”
“That is just what I want,” replied the dignified student, with a
smile. “Like yourself, I don’t wish to make any trouble; but I will not
be snubbed by Major Tommy Toppleton. I prefer to spend my vacation in
some other place.”
“All ashore,” said Captain Underwood, nodding to my companion.
“I am going with you, captain.”
“Very well;” and the bell was rung to start her.
“Hallo, there! Stop her, Captain Underwood!” called the imperious major.
The captain obeyed, of course.
“Where are you going, Skotchley?” demanded Tommy.
“I am going to Middleport,” replied Skotchley, in his quiet manner.
“I don’t see it!” added the major, his face reddening with anger at
this breach of discipline. “You are first lieutenant of Company B.”
“I prefer not to remain.”
“But I prefer that you should remain,” stormed Tommy.
“I am sorry to disappoint you, but I have decided to go.”
“Will you come on shore, or will you be brought on shore?”
“Neither.”
“Captain Briscoe, take a file of men, and bring Skotchley on shore. He
is a deserter,” added Tommy.
Whew! A deserter!
“Go ahead, captain,” I suggested to the timid master of the steamer.
“There will be a row here in five minutes, if you don’t.”
“It is all my place is worth to disobey that stripling,” replied
Captain Underwood, disgusted with the situation. “His father rules all
Middleport, and he rules his father.”
I saw Faxon remonstrating in the most vigorous manner with the
commander of the battalion, and presently the former came on board with
the olive of peace in his hand. He begged Skotchley to return to the
shore, in order to save all further trouble.
“If Tommy will permit Wolf to remain, I will,” replied the dignified
student.
Faxon returned to the shore with these terms; but Tommy indignantly
declined them. He would have Skotchley, and he would not have me. The
order was given again for Captain Briscoe to bring the refractory
lieutenant on shore with a file of soldiers; but the men would not
“fall in” to execute such a command. Skotchley was the most influential
fellow among the students, as his election to the presidency of the
railroad proved. Though he was dignified, and remarkably correct in his
deportment, he was very popular. Tommy had just snubbed him, and this
had excited the indignation of the crowd. Briscoe and a dozen others
threatened to leave the camp, and actually made a movement towards the
steamer.
Major Tommy was in a quandary. There was a mutiny among the forces,
and the prospect at that moment was the breaking up of the camp. The
students had long been disgusted with Tommy’s tyranny, and it did not
require much to kindle the flames of insurrection in the battalion.
Hurried consultations among groups of officers and privates indicated
a tempest. The little magnate was shrewd enough now to see that he had
gone too far, but his pride would not permit him to recede.
The disaffected ones who had the courage to strike for their own rights
were collecting near the pier. Briscoe appeared to be the leading
rebel, and the force which gathered around him included half the
battalion. Tommy was informed that they intended to desert in a body.
“Start your boat, Captain Underwood,” said Tommy, in order to prevent
the departure of the rebels.
The captain pulled the bells, and the wheels of the Middleport turned.
“Now stop her!” shouted the major; and it was evident that he intended
only to move the steamer far enough from the shore to prevent the
escape of the disaffected portion of his command.
I heard the last order, but the captain did not, for I had moved to the
stern, in order to see the result.
“Stop her, I say,” repeated Tommy, savagely.
Still Captain Underwood did not, or would not, hear him, and the
Middleport went on her way.
“Tell the captain to stop her!” screamed Tommy, at the top of his lungs.
I deemed it to be in the interests of peace not to heed this order, for
I was afraid, if I communicated it to the captain, he would obey. The
little major screamed till he was hoarse; but we were clear of the
island, though it was certain there was an account to be settled in the
future.
“Our Academy would be a great institution, if Tommy Toppleton went to
school somewhere else,” said Skotchley.
“It is a great pity he is so overbearing,” I replied.
“He seems to think all the rest of the fellows were created only to be
his servants, and he treads upon them as though they were worms beneath
his feet. I have not been accustomed to have a fellow speak to me as he
did to-day.”
“He is very haughty; but he is a generous fellow, and has many other
good qualities.”
“But one can’t live with him, he is so overbearing. I am rather sorry
now that I did not accept the office of president of the Lake Shore
Railroad, when I was elected. It would have brought affairs to a head.
But I did not want to spite him, for he never treated me so badly
before.”
Tommy had made a great mistake in alienating such a fellow as
Skotchley. It was evident that the tempest among the students could
not much longer be delayed, if it had not already commenced. From
the deck of the Middleport, we saw the two companies march to the
camp ground, and begin to pitch the tents. It was probable that the
mutiny had been nipped in the bud by the departure of the steamer with
Skotchley on board. I was afterwards told that the students regarded
Tommy’s order to start the boat as yielding the point, and that, when
he failed to stop her, he accepted the situation, and made a virtue
of necessity, permitting the boys to believe that the Middleport had
departed in obedience to his command.
The boats of the Wimpletonians were moving towards North Point, for
those in charge of them had comprehended the final defeat of their
party. It only remained for them to seek another camp ground, or make
the attempt to drive the Toppletonians from their position. Skotchley
and I agreed that they would not long be quiet, and that the week would
be filled up with quarrels and skirmishes between the students of the
rival academies.
In an hour the steamer arrived at the wharf in Middleport, and we went
on shore. I invited Skotchley, as the Institute was closed, to spend
the week with me at my father’s house. He thanked me very cordially,
and accepted the invitation; but before I went home, I deemed it proper
to report to Major Toppleton the events which had transpired during the
forenoon. I intended to call at his house on my way home; but we met
him coming down the street towards the pier.
“I thought you went up to the camp, Wolf,” said he, much surprised when
he saw me.
“I have been, sir, and a sweet time we have had of it. Tommy sent me
off, and would not permit me to remain on the island.”
“What has happened?” he asked, anxiously.
I told him the story of the morning’s adventures, though it took me
half an hour to do so.
“And Tommy sent you off--did he?” laughed the major.
“Yes, sir--because I advised the captain not to let our fellows out of
the cabin until we got rid of the Wimps; but if they had been let out,
there would have been a fight with bayonets.”
“I am very glad you didn’t let them out then; but Tommy is rather a
difficult subject to manage,” continued the major, lightly. “I have to
coax him a great deal, for he is bound to have his own way. If he is
thwarted, it has a bad effect upon him. I sent you up to the island to
keep the run of things there; but of course I did not expect you to
oppose him.”
“I did the best I could, sir.”
“You did very well; but I am sorry Tommy sent you away, for I thought
you might have some influence with him. Did he send you away too,
Skotchley?” he added, turning to my companion.
“No, sir; I came of my own accord,” replied the dignified student: but
he did not think it necessary to add that he and Tommy had fallen out.
“You think there will be a fight between the two sides up there?”
continued the major.
“Before the week is out there will be.”
“Something must be done,” said the major, anxiously.
I saw now that he was quite as much the victim of Tommy’s waywardness
as the students of the Institute.