“Mr. Portman, or Captain Portman, I think he said. He was very anxious to see you.”
“Portman, Portman,” I replied, repeating the name, and trying to recall the owner thereof, for it sounded familiar to me.
“He is a stout gentleman, and wore gray clothes.”
“Oh, I know!” I exclaimed, pulling out my pocket-book, and taking therefrom the card of the stout stranger who had pitched Tommy Toppleton out of the car on the railroad.
“He told me, if you came over to-day noon, to send word to him at the hotel.”
My mother accordingly sent the message by one of my sisters; and, while she was absent, I related all the events of the forenoon. Presently Captain Portman presented himself. He was very glad to see me, and spoke of me very handsomely, to my face, for my conduct on the railroad.
“As you are no longer in the employ of the Lake Shore Railroad, Wolf, I thought I would like to offer you a place,” he said. “But your mother tells me you have a good situation now.”
“Yes, sir; I am running the new steamer from Centreport to Ucayga.”
“I am sorry you are engaged, though I congratulate you on your splendid situation. I am going to keep a yacht at my place, near Hitaca, and I wanted you to take charge of her next spring, and I will give you plenty of work, and good pay for the winter.”
“I am very much obliged to you for your kind offer; but as things stand now, I shall be obliged to decline.”