“There are two ways to do it. Your tow-boat can ply up and down the shore, or we can run the dummy all night.”
“Do you think you can stand it to run the dummy all night, Wolf?” laughed he.
“My father and I could for a few nights.”
The tow-boat had gone up the lake with a fleet of canal boats, and the other plan was the only alternative. I saw my father at six o’clock. He was ready to serve on the watch, but he was not willing to leave my mother alone with my sisters at home all night, fearful that some of the chivalrous Wimpletonians might undertake to annoy her. But Faxon volunteered to serve with me, and was pleased with the idea. We lighted up the reflecting lamp over the door of the engine, and, though it was dark, we put her “through by daylight,” in a figurative sense.
We talked till we were sleepy, and then by turns each of us took a nap, lying upon the cushions of the passenger compartment. It was a good bed, and we enjoyed the novelty of the situation. Faxon by this time understood the machinery very well, and I was not afraid to trust him. We did not run on regular hours, and lay still more than half the time, after Faxon had run the car as much as he desired. We kept an eye on the lake for boats, of which the Wimpletonians had a whole squadron.
Only once during the night was there anything like an alarm. We saw half a dozen boats come down through the Narrows about eleven o’clock, but we soon lost sight of them under the shadow of the opposite shore. We saw nothing more of them, and I concluded that the dummy, with her bright light on the shore, had prevented another attack upon the railroad. After this all was quiet, and there was nothing to get up an excitement upon.
The next day I was rather sleepy at times, and so was Faxon. At eight o’clock the major appeared, and I told him we had probably prevented another raid upon the road, for we had seen a fleet of boats pass through the Narrows.
“All right, Wolf; I am glad we balked the scoundrels,” answered the major; and almost anything seemed to be a victory to the great man of Middleport.
“I suppose they will try again some other time,” I added.
“We will see that they don’t succeed. Now we must push along the road as fast as we can. I don’t like to disappoint the boys, but I can’t wait for them to build the rest of it.”