“Well, I am certainly guilty of the offense charged upon me,” replied Captain Portman. “I will not now pretend to justify it, though your brother was very unreasonable, and detained me, as well as a crowd of others, without the slightest excuse for doing so. The act was done in the anger and excitement of the moment, and I shall cheerfully submit to the penalty of the law, as a good citizen should do.”
I thanked Miss Grace again for her interest in me, and for the trouble she had taken on my account. What she had done was no trivial thing to her, as her fainting fully proved, and I could not but be proud of the devotion she had exhibited in my cause. She took her leave; and after she had been gone a few minutes, Captain Portman departed.
Tommy’s plan included me in the arrest for an assault upon him; but that was only a conspiracy to injure the steamboat line on the other side of the lake. I deemed it my duty to defeat this little scheme, in the interests of my employers. I ate my dinner hastily, and then left the house by the back door, making my way to the lake, where I had left my skiff, by a round-about course. I pulled across, and as I went on board of the Ucayga, I hoped the constable who was waiting for me would have a good time.
I was not quite sure that Grace had not made a mistake, so far as I was to be connected with the arrest. She might have misunderstood the conversation she had heard; for I could hardly believe it possible that Major Toppleton intended to have me arrested. Everybody knew that I had had no hand in putting Tommy out of the car. No one had ever asserted such a thing. But they could affirm that I was in company with Captain Portman at the time, and that I had instigated him to do the deed. Of course this was nonsense; but it might be a sufficient pretense to detain me long enough for the Ucayga to lose her afternoon trip. The warning I had received induced me to prepare for the future, and I instructed the mate to run the boat through, if at any time I should be absent when it was time to start.
I went into the engine-room, and told my father what had transpired during my absence. He listened to me, and seemed to be much annoyed by my story; for it looked like the first of the petty trials to which we were to be subjected, in accordance with Tommy’s threats. While I was thus employed, Waddie Wimpleton appeared, excited and anxious under the defeat we had that day sustained.
“I am sorry your father did not come down this morning,” said I, after he had expressed his dissatisfaction at the movement of Major Toppleton.
“Why?” asked Waddie hopefully.
“Because I have a plan to propose to him.”
“Can’t you propose it to me?” said he, laughing.
“I am the president of the steamboat company.”