Captain Pratt was standing near them, but he was so much engaged in giving orders for the proper landing of the boat that he did not notice his cabin boy, who was breaking one of the rules of the steamer by loitering on that deck.
The boat was still quite a distance from the shore, and Bobby was pointing out his father’s house when they heard a furious barking, and before they could turn Tip was jumping up around them. He had found no difficulty in escaping from the half-tied rope, and after that was done it was an easy matter for him to find his young master.
Captain Pratt had heard Tip’s joyful greeting also, and as he turned to see the cause of it, the dog, who was in such high spirits at having escaped from his imprisonment that he was ready to show his good-will for every one, left the boys and fawned upon the captain as if he was his best friend.
Captain Pratt showed very little consideration for the dog, even while he thought he belonged to one of the passengers, and gave him such a kick as sent him half the length of the deck, changing his note of joy to deep yelps of pain.
The place in which Tip had been confined was anything but a clean one, and, as a natural consequence, when he jumped upon the captain he left the muddy imprints of his paws on the clean blue clothes in which the commander of the Pride of the Wave had that day arrayed himself.
“Whose dog is that?” roared the captain, as he surveyed the damage done.
“He’s mine,” answered Tim, who, at the first blow struck his pet, had jumped toward the poor brute and taken him to his bosom to soothe him.
Then it was that the captain first saw his cabin-boy on the forbidden ground of the upper deck, and it is positive that if he had had the time just then he would have given him a painful intimation of the mistake he had made. As it was, he walked up to Tim quickly, seized poor Tip by the neck, and flung him as far as possible into the water.
“Now you go below,” he said, in a low, angry tone, to Tim, “and after we make this landing I’ll settle with you.”
Tim paid no more attention to the captain’s words than if they had been uttered by a boy smaller than himself, but rushed frantically to the rail as if he was about to jump after his pet.