“I hope you don’t expect too much of me,” I replied.
“No; but I expect a good deal of you. Everybody on the lake knows you, and you are smart. We must beat that railroad somehow or other.”
“I think we can, sir, if we have any kind of fair play. But Major Toppleton’s boats are always ten or fifteen minutes behind time.”
“No matter if they are. If you leave at half-past two, you can always make time, if you don’t waste your minutes, as our captain often has done. Wolf, I believe he has been bribed by Toppleton to lose his connections.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“He is a Hitaca man, and has no sympathy with our side of the lake.”
Perhaps the colonel was right. When I looked the matter over afterward I was satisfied that there was some ground for the suspicion. We reached the wharf, and went on board of the Ucayga. We arrived at just the right time, for both the captain and the engineer were stirring up ill feeling among the crew of the boat; and the latter was at work on the engine, with the evident intention of spoiling the afternoon trip. Colonel Wimpleton drove them ashore without indulging in any unnecessary gentleness. I directed the fireman to fill up the furnaces, and overhauled the machinery. While I was thus engaged my father arrived. He was conducted to the engine-room by Waddie.
“Mr. Penniman, allow me to introduce you to Captain Penniman, master of the steamer Ucayga,” said the president of the steamboat company, with a degree of good-nature of which I had never before supposed him capable.
“Captain Penniman, I am happy to make your acquaintance,” laughed my father, as he grasped my hand and gave it a significant pressure. “I think our family is getting up in the world, for we have now the honor to boast that we have a steamboat captain in it.”
“A very great honor, no doubt; but it will depend somewhat upon the manner in which he discharges his duties,” I replied, as good-naturedly as either of my companions. “Father, we are on duty now, and we must be on time.”