“All right, Tommy,” said I, when I had cleared the water from my mouth.
“Bully for you, Wolf; but I don’t see how you are going to put the thing on shore,” replied he.
“I’m going to do it; if I don’t I never will go on shore again myself,” I added, as I sprang upon the roof of the dummy again.
“I should hate to fail, for the fellows are a-gathering on the wharf to see the fun.”
“There’s no such word as fail,” I answered, leaping into the boat. “Now pull for the tow-boat, and let me put on my rags again.”
I jumped upon deck, and in a few moments had my clothes on. I glanced at the wharf, and saw that quite a number of students and grown-up people had gathered there, as the intelligence spread that something was going on.
“What next, Wolf?” asked Captain Underwood, bestowing upon me a smile which seemed to indicate an utter want of confidence in my operations.
“Go ahead, captain,” I replied, seizing the tow-line, and making it fast at the bits provided for the purpose.
I knew what the bottom of the lake was at the Middleport wharf, for I had been down there more than once. It was composed of hard gravel, and almost as smooth as the surface of the lake in a calm day. I knew that the flanges of the car wheels would cut into the ground and make it go hard and they would run as well there as on a hard road.
“Go ahead!” said Captain Underwood to the engineer.