IF THINE ENEMY HUNGER.
As soon as the Grace came within reach of Colonel Wimpleton, on the
raft, he improved his opportunity. Grasping the bob-stay, he made
his way on board, with my assistance. He was so clumsy and terrified
that without my help he would certainly have fallen overboard. He
plumped upon the deck on all fours, in a most undignified attitude
for the magnate of Centreport. I helped him to rise. In doing so, I
discovered that his breath was very odorous of liquor, which seemed to
do something towards explaining the unfortunate plight in which we had
found him. He was not intoxicated at the time he was pulled on board
the Grace; but perhaps he had had time to work off the effects of the
potions whose incense still lingered about him.
“Wolf Penniman!” exclaimed he, as he grasped one of the fore-stays,
and, steadying himself with it, gazed into my face; and his expression
seemed to indicate that he would rather have been rescued by any other
person than by me.
“Colonel Wimpleton!” I replied, returning his compliment.
“Is it you, Wolf?” he added, as if unwilling to believe the evidence of
his own eyes.
“Yes, sir; it is I. But if you feel bad about it, you can return to the
raft.”
He glanced at the little staging of three planks on which he had made
his involuntary cruise, and shuddered as he did so, partly with cold,
and partly with dread.
“I will pay you well for whatever you do for me, Wolf,” said he,
glancing doubtfully at the boat, and then at me.
“Let me tell you in the beginning, Colonel Wimpleton, that you can’t
pay me the first red cent,” I replied, with proper spirit.
“You won’t turn me adrift again--will you?”
“No, sir; I will do anything I can for you.”
“We have not been very good friends lately.”
“No, sir; but that shall not prevent me from assisting you to any
extent within my power. What shall I do for you, sir?”
“I am very cold and numb,” said he, curling up with the chills that
swept through his frame.
“Come into the cabin, sir. I think we can warm and dry you so that you
will be quite comfortable.”
“Thank you, Wolf;” and I think this was the first time he had ever used
a gracious word to me.
Tom Walton had put the helm up, and the yacht filled away on her course
again. I took Colonel Wimpleton’s arm, and conducted him to the cabin.
The fire was still burning in the little cook-room, and shutting down
the hatch on the deck, I soon made the place so hot that it almost
melted me. Seating my distinguished guest before the stove, I gave him
a mug of hot coffee, though, before he drank it, he asked me if there
was any brandy on board. I told him we had none, and he contented
himself with the coffee, which was quite as beneficial.
Under my mild treatment, the patient gradually recovered the use of his
limbs. I went on deck, and sent Tom down to give him some supper; and
our zealous cook provided him a fresh beefsteak, coffee, and toast,
which Tom said he ate just as though he had been a common man. It was
now quite dark, and we were off Southport, on the east shore. The
wind had subsided, and we were not likely to reach Middleport before
morning. I gave Tom the helm again, and went below to inquire into
the colonel’s condition. He was still wet, and was fearful that his
exposure would bring on the rheumatic fever, to which he was liable. I
suggested to him that he should go to bed, and have his clothes dried.
For such a man as he was, he was very pliable and lamb-like.
I conducted him to one of the little state-rooms, which contained a
wide berth. I put all the blankets on board upon the bed, and the
colonel, taking off all his clothes, buried himself in them. I tucked
him up, and he declared that he felt quite comfortable. Hanging up all
his garments in the cook-room, I filled the stove with wood, assured
they would soon dry in the intense heat of the apartment.
“Can I do anything more for you, colonel?” I asked, returning to his
room.
“No, thank you, Wolf; I am very comfortable now,” he replied from the
mass of blankets and quilts which covered him.
“Where do you wish to go, sir?”
“Home! Home!” he answered with energy.
“We are bound for Middleport, sir, and we will land you as soon as we
arrive.”
“Thank you, Wolf. I feel like a new man now. I was sure I should be
drowned. I had been on that raft over three hours.”
“Indeed, sir! It was a very uncomfortable craft.”
“The lake was very rough, and the waves washed over me every minute.
I gave myself up for lost. I suffered all that a man could endure in
those three hours,” said he, shuddering as he thought of his unpleasant
voyage.
Probably, accustomed as he was to luxury and ease, he had had a hard
time of it; but a man inured to work and weather would not have
suffered half so much as he did; though, chilled and terrified as he
was, I did wonder that he had not been washed from his raft, to perish
in the deep waters beneath him.
“I am very glad we happened to come along as we did,” I added.
“It was fortunate for me, Wolf. I will give you a thousand dollars for
the service you have rendered me as soon as I get home.”
“Excuse me, sir; but I cannot take anything,” I replied, warmly.
“Why not, Wolf?”
“Because I should despise myself if I took anything. There are some
things in this world that cannot be paid for with money.”
“You are a strange boy, Wolf.”
“Perhaps I am; but I think too much of myself to take money for doing a
kindness to any one in distress.”
“Very likely I can do something else for you.”
“I don’t require anything to be done for me, Colonel Wimpleton,” I
persisted.
“If you have been up to Hitaca, probably you have seen the steamer I am
building there.”
“Yes, sir, I saw her; and a very fine boat she will be.”
“I shall want an engineer for her,” he suggested.
“Of course you will, sir. An engineer is a necessity in a steamer,” I
replied; but I refused to bite at the bait he threw out to me.
“Are you the captain of this boat, Wolf?” he asked, glancing round at
the pleasant little state-room in which he was lying.
“For the present I am.”
“Whose boat is it?”
“Major Toppleton’s.”
“I saw her at the yard in Hitaca; but I had no idea she was so large
and fine, as she lay in the river.”
“She is just finished, and the major sent me up to bring her down to
Middleport. I don’t suppose I shall go in her again, for I belong on
the railroad.”
“I know you do,” he replied; and his tone seemed to indicate that, at
that moment, he was sorry I did.
I did not care to discuss the relations of the two sides of the lake
with him, and I turned his attention from the subject by asking what I
could do for him.
“I do not need anything more, Wolf. I am warm and comfortable, and I am
very much obliged to you for what you have done. Did you know who it
was when you saw me on the raft?”
“Yes, sir; I recognized you when the boat came up to the raft.”
“You did?”
“Yes, sir; certainly I did.”
“Were you not tempted to let me remain where I was?” he asked, raising
his head on the bed, so as to see my face.
“No, sir, I was not.”
“I should think you would have been.”
“Why, I am not a heathen, Colonel Wimpleton!” I replied.
“No; we have had considerable trouble, and I suppose you have no reason
to think very kindly of me,” stammered he, as though the words almost
choked him.
“I don’t think you used me just right, sir; but I’m not an Indian.”
“I think I should have perished in half an hour more. It was getting
dark, and I was as numb as though I had been frozen. But I shall make
it all right somehow, Wolf.”
“It is all right now.”
“Did you see anything of Dr. Pomford as you came up the lake?”
“Dr. Pomford? I don’t know him, sir.”
“I suppose not. He is from Philadelphia, and is spending a week with
me. He is fond of fishing, and we came up here to try our luck.”
“But how came you on that raft, sir?” I inquired. “Did you lose your
friend overboard?”
“No; we had a boat, which we fastened to the raft on the
fishing-ground. We found the raft there, moored with stakes in the deep
water. Dr. Pomford had the misfortune to drop his bottle of brandy
overboard, after we had been fishing about an hour. Being quite chilly,
he went back to the hotel after some more, leaving me on the raft, for
the fish were biting well, and I did not like to leave them; besides,
he is a younger man than I am, and can move about easier. His boat was
fastened to one of the stakes, and I think, when he started, he must
have pulled it up. I don’t know how it happened, but as soon as the
doctor was out of sight behind the cliff, I found myself adrift.”
It was not polite for me to say anything; but I could not help
thinking, that if the brandy bottle had dropped overboard sooner, the
colonel would have understood the matter better. I had never heard that
the great man was in the habit of drinking too much; but the odor of
his breath led me to my conclusion. I think he was somewhat fuddled, or
he would have gone with the doctor in the boat.
“I never suffered so much in three hours before in my life,” continued
the colonel. “No canal boat, steamer, or other craft came near me, and
I cried for help till my voice gave out. Wolf, I would have given half
my fortune, if not the whole of it, to have been taken from that raft
a moment before you saw me. If I had known you were in charge of the
boat, I should not have expected you to save me.”
“My mother always taught me to love my enemies,” I answered.
“I hear the ministers talk about such things, but I never believed
much in them. I am under very great obligations to you, Wolf. You have
treated me as well as though I had always been your best friend.”
“It is all right, sir. I am satisfied, if you are.”
“I am not satisfied; and I shall never be satisfied until I have made
you some return for all this.”
“I shall not take anything, sir,” I replied, resolutely.
“I will give you a man’s wages, if you will take the place as engineer
of the new steamer.”
“Thank you for the offer, Colonel Wimpleton; but I cannot accept it at
present. I never desert my friends till they kick me.”
“That is as much as to say that I kicked you before you left
Centreport.”
“I think we had better bury the past.”
“I will make it all right with your father; he shall have better wages
than he has now.”
“I am much obliged to you, sir; but we are both of us very well
satisfied where we are.”
The great man seemed to be intensely annoyed at my obstinacy; and it
certainly was a hard case for him that he was not permitted even to do
me a favor. My pride would not permit me to accept a gift from one who
had treated me so badly as he had; but it was a pleasure to serve him,
to heap the fiery coals of kindness upon his head.
As I had feared, the wind died out entirely, and the Grace lay
helpless upon the smooth surface of the lake. But below, everything
was cheerful--even Colonel Wimpleton. The lamps burned brightly in the
cabin and state-room, and I enjoyed myself hugely, not caring whether
the wind blew or not. I gave the great man his underclothing when it
was dry, and he put it on. He wanted to talk, and he did talk in his
bed till nearly midnight, when a breeze from the southward sprang up,
which compelled me to take my place at the helm. The wind freshened,
and the Grace flew before it, so that we came to anchor at two o’clock
off Major Toppleton’s mansion.