I could not help smiling.
“What is it, Wolf?” he asked, smiling with me; and great men’s smiles are sunshine to the heart.
“I don’t think they will cry if you don’t let them do any more.”
“Don’t you? Why, they begged me to let them do the work with their own hands, and I have gratified them thus far.”
I soon convinced him that the boys were not anxious to do any more digging, or to lay any more rails; that hard work was “played out” with them. The magnate was delighted to hear it; and there was no grumbling because the students were not called upon to use the shovels and the hammers. I ran the dummy out with the men, after that, every morning at seven o’clock, and the road progressed rapidly towards Grass Springs.
At noon we heard astounding news from Centreport. All the boats belonging to the Wimpleton Institute—not less than a dozen of them—had mysteriously disappeared. No one knew what had happened to them, and no one had heard anything in the night to indicate what had become of them. Major Toppleton inquired very particularly about the fleet of boats Faxon and I had seen; but our information did not elucidate the mystery. I observed that my fellow-engineer winked at me very significantly, as though he knew more than he chose to tell.
“What did you wink for, Faxon?” I asked, when we started on our trip, and were alone.
“You are blind as the major,” laughed he.
“What do you mean?”
“About forty of the Toppletonians found a way to get out of the Institute last night. You won’t say a word about this—will you?”