I did not care to present myself to the Wimpletonians just at that moment. If I had, I should have been mobbed as a traitor to my own side; though, after the treatment which Centreport, in the persons of its magnate and its magnate’s son, had bestowed upon me, my conscience did not reproach me for infidelity. I had actually been driven out of the place, and the colonel had no right to expect anything different from me.
The dummy went along very smoothly, and worked so well that I ventured to “let her out” a little more. The outsiders, in their excitement, had followed us so far; but, as I let on the steam, we ran away from them, the outsiders giving a rousing cheer as we distanced them. The ground on which the road was laid was nearly a dead level, though in some places a shelf on the side hill on the border of the lake had been dug out. Between Spangleport and the other terminus, two bridges had been built over a couple of brooks, and the expense of constructing the road was little more than the cost of sleepers and rails.
In about half an hour we reached Spangleport, which consisted of a wharf, a store, and about a dozen houses, on the lake shore, though there was quite a large village a mile distant. The occupants of the dozen houses turned out in a body, as the dummy went hissing and sizzling on its way. The students yelled and cheered, and the Spangleporters manifested their enthusiasm in a proper manner. It was a great occasion for Spangleport, and both natives and visitors made the most of it during the few moments we remained.
As there was no turn-table, we were obliged to run to Middleport backwards; but one of the conductors was placed on the forward platform to keep a lookout, and as he could ring a bell in the engine-room by pulling the strap, the car could be stopped in an instant. But there were no road crossings or obstructions of any kind to bother us, and we went ahead at a high rate of speed, rushing through the crowd of students we had left where the dummy was raised, and stopping only when we reached Middleport.
The whole village turned out to greet the dummy when she appeared; but we left our freight, and immediately returned to take up the waiting party, who were impatiently anticipating their first ride on the machine. I was beginning to grow tired of yelling and cheering; for I was not disposed to be very demonstrative myself, and I hoped the novelty would soon wear off, so that we could move without seeming like a horde of wild Indians. Probably I did not enjoy the stirring events of the day as much as I should if I had no trouble on the other side of the lake; for, in spite of the excitement of running the dummy, I could not help thinking, occasionally, of my poor mother, who was wondering what had become of me. I dreaded to hear from my father, for I was afraid that he had renewed his drinking after I left the boat. It seemed to me just as though our happy family had been broken in pieces by the events of that day; and I could not shake off a certain degree of sadness that hung over me.
I stopped the engine when we came to the party of students who were waiting for us, and they piled in like a flock of sheep. Tommy shouted, “All aboard!” after he was positively sure that every fellow was in the car; and we went off again in the midst of a din of cheers and yells that would have beggared Bedlam.
“Let her slide now—can’t you, Wolf?” said Tommy. “Make her spin!”
“I don’t like to run her too fast, till she gets a little used to it,” I replied.
“Are you afraid of her?”
“No; but it’s all a new thing, and we must be careful, as your father said.”