“Do so, if you think best,” replied the colonel promptly.
“And the mate?”
“Give him half a dollar a day, if that will help the matter.”
“I think they are not paid fair wages, or I would not have said a word. As it is, I can make friends of them in this way.”
“Only beat the railroad, and I don’t care what it costs,” replied the magnate impatiently.
“I will do it, sir.”
The plan was a stroke of policy on my part. As a boy I could do nothing with these men by bullying and threatening them. By doing a good thing for them, I could conquer them easily. I went up to the wheel-house as the boat neared the wharf.
“Mr. Van Wolter, I will thank you to make this landing yourself,” said I, addressing the mate, who had the wheel.
“I think I can do it,” replied he, with a broad grin, which was as much as to say that I could not do it.
“So can I; but I prefer that you should do it this time,” I added.