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Read Ebook: On Time; or Bound to Get There by Optic Oliver
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Ebook has 1255 lines and 69512 words, and 26 pages
"You can't come it over me, as you did over my father."
"I haven't the least desire to come it over you. I expect to go into business on my own account pretty soon," I replied.
"If it hadn't been for me, you would have been captain of this boat," said he, intending to throw his heaviest shot by this remark.
"Well, I suppose you did what you thought was best for the line; and if you are satisfied, I ought to be."
"You didn't make much when you ran away from Centreport."
"Neither did I lose much. If we are both satisfied about that, we need not quarrel."
"I shall always quarrel with you, Wolf Penniman, as long as I live," he added spitefully. "I hate you!"
"Well, I hope you will have a good time. For my part, I don't hate you, Waddie; and if I had a chance to do you a good turn, I would do it now as quick as ever I would."
"You needn't snuffle to me. I don't ask any favors of you. I am president of the steamboat company, and I suppose you would like to have me get down on my knees and beg you to take command of this boat."
"Not much," I replied, laughing.
"You think you are a great man!"
"No, I'm only a boy, like yourself."
"If I had seen you before the boat started, you should not have gone in her."
"That game was tried on the other side of the lake. It don't work well."
"Don't you come on board of this boat again; if you do, we will try it on."
I have been told that I am a machinist by nature. I do not know how this may be, but I am sure that I never see a difficulty without attempting to study out the means to remedy it. As I stood on the wharf, watching the winding course of the splendid steamer, I could not help grappling with the problem of saving this loss of time on the trip. These five minutes might sometimes enable the boat to win the day in the competition with the railroad.
As I have hinted before, I knew every foot of bottom in this part of the lake. I had sailed hundreds of miles among these islands, and, while I was thinking over the matter, the key to the problem flashed upon my mind. I do not mean to say that it was a very brilliant idea; but, simple as it was, it had evidently not occurred to the captain of the steamer, who was a Hitaca man, and knew only the ordinary channels of the lake, used by the steamers. I had an idea; but I deemed it wise to keep my own counsel in the matter, for a suggestion from me would probably have been deemed impertinent.
To most of the people on the lake, any boat beyond a skiff for actual service was regarded as a luxury, especially such a craft as that which floated off the wall. Taking hold of the painter, I hauled her in, and stepped on board. She was a very rakish-looking boat, sloop-rigged, with a cabin forward containing two berths, and the smallest stove it is possible to imagine. She was about twenty-four feet long, and as well appointed in every respect as though she had been fitted up to cross the ocean. The owner had certainly lavished money upon her, which he could afford to do, at the expense of his creditors.
"What are you doing in that boat, Wolf Penniman?"
I raised my head from the diligent search I was making in the bottom of the boat, and discovered Mr. Waddie on the wall.
"I am looking at her," I replied.
"What are you looking at her for?"
"Because I want to see her."
"What do you want to see her for?"
"I take an interest in boats," I answered, not caring to be very communicative with the scion of the Wimpletons.
It immediately occurred to me that Waddie's business at Ruoara was the same as my own, and my heart sank within me, for I could not hope to bid against one who had so much money at his command. But I could not think, for the life of me, why Waddie should want the boat, for he had one of about the same size, which was his own private property. Probably he had taken a fancy to her, as I had.
"Are you going to buy her, Wolf?" asked he, with more interest than he was accustomed to manifest in anything.
"That will depend upon circumstances."
"Who told you that I was going to buy this boat?" demanded he sharply.
"No one."
"You came up to bid against me!"
"I didn't know you were coming till I saw you here."
"If you bid against me, Wolf Penniman, I'll be the death of you."
"I think not," I replied, laughing at this rash threat.
"I will! You will find me an uglier customer to deal with than you did Tom Toppleton. Do you think I'm going to have you dogging my steps wherever I go?"
I could only laugh.
"No one about here wants the boat but me," he added.
"I want her."
"Yes, and you want her only because I do," snarled he.
"It's an open thing, I suppose. This is a public auction; and if you are willing to give more than I can, of course you will have her," I replied.
"If you don't bid against me, she will be knocked off at the first offer."
"We won't quarrel, Waddie."
"Yes, we will, if you bid against me. The auctioneer is coming. You mind what I say. If you bid against me, you will repent it as long as you live."
Such language from an ordinary boy would have been very remarkable; from Waddie it was not at all so. It was his usual style of bullying. It seemed very strange that the young gentleman should attempt to bully me into silence when he could outbid me; but I ascertained afterward that his father objected to buying the boat, and even refused to furnish the money, so that Waddie could only bid to the extent of the funds then in his possession. However weak and indulgent the colonel was, he had not sunk into the condition of subserviency to his son into which the major had fallen.
The auctioneer gave us a grandiloquent description of the "fairy pleasure barge" which was before us. He was not a nautical man, and sadly bungled in his terms. She was the fastest sailer on the lake; was a good sea-boat. She was right and tight in every respect.
"For, gentlemen," he added facetiously, "a boat, unlike a man, is a good deal better when she is tight than when she is not tight"--a witticism at which the auctioneer laughed much more heartily than the auditors. "She is copper-fastened, besides being fastened to the wall. Like myself, and some of you, gentlemen, she is very sharp. And now, how much am I offered for this magnificent yacht, the finest, without exception, on the lake. What shall I have for her?"
"Twenty-five dollars," said Waddie Wimpleton, who could not conceal his interest and anxiety in the result.
"Did you say twenty-five dollars, Mr. Wimpleton?" said the auctioneer, with a look which was intended to manifest his astonishment at the smallness of the bid. "Why, she cost over six hundred dollars! You can't mean that, Mr. Wimpleton."
"Yes, I do mean it!" said Waddie smartly.
"Twenty-five dollars is bid for this splendid yacht, sharp as a Yankee pedler, and copper-fastened, besides being fastened to the wall. Who says a hundred?"
No one said a hundred. No one said anything for a few moments, during which time the auctioneer dwelt upon the beautiful proportions of the craft, and repeated his jokes for a third time.
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