“Don’t you worry about that,” laughed the man. “It’s worth ten times five dollars to me to get here on time. Here we are! Much obliged to you, Tobias. See you again. Good-by!”
Mr. Whitney, bag in hand, jumped nimbly to the float, waved a hand, and hurried away, leaving Toby the happy possessor of the magnificent sum of five dollars, a beatific prospect of more, and a wonderful idea!
CHAPTER XII
“T. TUCKER, PROP.”
The wonderful idea he explained to Arnold as, half an hour later, they started off in the Frolic for Riverport.
“What he said about the ferry put it in my head,” said Toby. “There used to be a ferry across to Johnstown five or six years ago. I guess there weren’t many passengers then, but it must have paid or else old Captain Gould wouldn’t have run it so long. And it seems to me there’d be more folks wanting to get across now than there was then. Why, six years ago there wasn’t a half dozen summer cottages around Greenhaven. And the hotel at Johnstown wasn’t built, either. I guess if folks knew there was a regular ferry across they’d use it. Don’t it seem so to you, Arn?”
“Sure! But would the Turnover be big enough, Toby?”
“She’ll hold eight without crowding, and I guess if I ever get eight folks at once I’ll be pretty lucky.”