CHAPTER XIX.

A TYRANNICAL SON.

“I suppose my time is out, Miss Toppleton,” said I to Grace, as I saw the big major and the little major approaching the pier.

“Your time out?” she replied, looking anxiously at me.

“I shall be discharged from my situation, and perhaps be driven out of Middleport.”

“O, no! I hope not, Mr. Wolf.”

“Tommy is very arbitrary, and after what has happened, he will not permit me to remain on the same side of the lake with him.”

“I am sorry you touched him,” said she, musing.

“I should not have touched him if he had struck me. I was indignant and angry.”

“Well, I don’t blame you, Mr. Wolf, for it is abominable for a boy to strike his sister,” she added, placing her hand upon her pretty face, where her brother’s rude hand had left its mark. “But Tommy rules the whole house at home; and I suppose he will have his own way now, as he always did.”

As Tommy got into the boat which I had sent for him and his father, I saw that he was still in a very unamiable frame of mind. He was talking loudly and indignantly to his father, who appeared to be trying to soothe him and moderate his wrath. For my own part, I could not regret what I had done, unpleasant as the consequences promised to be. It was not in my nature to stand by and see a little bully, like Tommy, strike a young lady,--not pat her gently, but strike her a heavy blow,--not even if he were her brother. I had been tempted to give the young ruffian the pounding which he richly deserved, and to continue the operation until he was willing to promise better things.

Perhaps the handsome offer which Colonel Wimpleton had made me rendered me somewhat more independent than I should otherwise have been. I was certainly in good condition to be discharged, and did not feel much like submitting to any gross indignities from the great man of Middleport, or his hopeful son. But Major Toppleton had been very kind to me, and to my father, and I could not forget the service he had rendered to us.

The boat came alongside, and Tommy leaped upon the deck, followed by his father; and I could not help noticing that the senior major looked very anxious and uncomfortable. Tommy had doubtless been making strong speeches to him, and it was really melancholy to think of a man of his abilities, dignity, and influence reduced to a kind of slavery by the tyranny of his own son; and all the more melancholy because he could not realize that he was spoiling the boy by this weak indulgence.

“Wolf Penniman,” said the little major, majestically, “I always keep my promises.”

“Keep cool, Tommy,” interposed his father, stepping into the standing-room, where Grace and I were seated alone, for Skotchley and Tom Walton had gone forward.

“You know what I said, father. I won’t have Wolf around me any longer. He has been a coward and a traitor, and he had the audacity to knock me down. Wolf Penniman, you are discharged!” continued Tommy, blustering furiously.

“Don’t be too fast, Tommy,” interposed his father. “Wolf went after the boat in which you were a prisoner, captured it, and restored you to your command. Captain Briscoe told you that he did not dare to make his last move till he saw that Wolf had taken you out of the hands of the enemy.”

“I don’t blame him for that; but he refused to obey my orders, and then knocked me down. I say you may discharge him, or discharge me.”

The alternative was a reminder of the Hitaca incident, and a hint that, if his father did not obey orders, Tommy would run away again, and there would be no suitable person to inherit the great man’s millions. I made no reply, but bowed meekly to my fate. It appeared that, after all, I was not to run the Lightning Express train, about which so much had been said.

“Don’t let him discharge Mr. Wolf, father,” interposed Grace, her pretty cheeks red with indignation; and with such an advocate I could afford to be still.

“Discharge Mr. Wolf!” sneered the little magnate. “Will you learn to mind your own business, Grace?”

“He struck me in the face, father, and that was the reason why Mr. Wolf knocked him down. I am sorry he did so, but I think Tommy was to blame,” continued Grace.

“You needn’t stick up for him; if you do, it won’t make any difference.”

“I am astonished that you should strike your sister,” added Major Toppleton, whose painful expression fully proved his sincerity.

“Well, you needn’t be!” replied Tommy, rudely and disrespectfully. “If she don’t mind her own business, and let my affairs alone, I shall teach her better. I have said all I have to say, and I’m going ashore to look out for my battalion. Remember, Wolf is discharged!”

Tommy abruptly left the yacht, and, leaping into the boat, ordered Joe Poole to pull him ashore. The fiat had gone forth. I was discharged. Tommy was the president of the road, and doubtless he had the power to dismiss me.

“Here is trouble,” said Major Toppleton, with a sigh.

“I hope you won’t let Mr. Wolf be discharged,” said Grace, when the irate little magnate was out of hearing.

“What can I do?” replied the major, impatiently. “Tommy is the president of the road, and he has the right to discharge an employee. If I interfere, there will be such a tempest as we had a year ago.”

Poor magnate! How I pitied him! Just as I had seen a baby tyrannize over its loving mother, so did Tommy tyrannize over his father. The great man--how little he seemed to be then!--mused for a while over the unpleasant situation.

“I’ll tell you what we can do, Wolf. I want a skipper for this boat. If you will withdraw from the railroad for a time, I will give you this situation, with the same pay you are now receiving.”

“I am entirely satisfied, sir, and shall be, whatever you or Tommy may do,” I answered, meekly. “I certainly like the boat better than the train; but I suppose Tommy will not permit me to take charge of her.”

The major bit his lips with vexation. His fetters galled him, and he had not the resolution to shake them off. He ordered me to get the yacht under way, and start for Middleport. As soon as she was clear of the narrow channel, the major asked me down into the cabin, and we had a talk, which lasted till the Grace came to anchor before the owner’s mansion.

“You know how I’m situated, Wolf,” said he, turning his gaze from me, as if ashamed to acknowledge his subservience to the wilful boy. “Tommy must have his own way; he is desperate if he does not. He will run away, or drown himself in the lake, if he does not.”

I could not help smiling at the infirmity of the father, and he made haste to defend himself. Tommy was subject to fits when he was a child, and he was fearful that irritation would bring on a return of the malady. The young gentleman had actually threatened to commit suicide if he could not have his own way.

“I only wish to smooth the thing over for a time, for Tommy is a good-hearted boy, and he will come to his senses if he is not thwarted,” added he. “You are not a father, Wolf, and you can’t understand the matter.”

“I am willing to do whatever you desire, sir,” I replied. “Perhaps I ought to say, that I can afford to be discharged just now. You have used me very handsomely, Major Toppleton, and I am grateful for your kindness. I will never leave your service of my own accord. Last night Colonel Wimpleton told me about his new steamer, which is to run in opposition to our Lightning Express, and offered me a man’s wages to go either as engineer or as captain of her. I told him I could not leave my friends while they used me so well, and declined the offer. I did not mean to tell you of this, and should not, if things had not turned out just as they have.”

The major bit his lip again. He was disposed to be angry; and, in a passion, he was as nearly like Tommy as one pea is like another. But he did not give way to the inclination.

“I declined the offer,” I repeated, when I saw him struggling with the mischief within him.

“When will that steamer be ready to run?” he asked.

“In a couple of months, the builder told me.”

“I’m glad you told me of this,” he continued, after chewing upon it for some time. “Perhaps it will have some influence upon Tommy.”

And there the matter ended for the present, Grace said she would do all she could for me; and however the rest of the house might regard me, I felt sure of an earnest advocate in her. She went on shore with her father, and as the skipper of the yacht, I spent the rest of the day in working upon her, and in putting down a set of moorings for her.

The next day I took a party up the lake in her, and for the rest of the week I was kept busy in my new occupation. I acquitted myself to the satisfaction of my employers, not only in pleasant weather, but in a heavy squall, which caught us in the middle of the widest part of the lake, off Gulfport.

The Wimpletonians encamped on the Shooter after they were driven from the Horse Shoe. The combat of Monday was not decisive enough to satisfy them, and the war was renewed, and continued during the week, with varying success. Each party stole the boats of the other, and inflicted whatever mischief it could. On Thursday night, in the midst of a violent storm, when the Toppleton Guards sought shelter in their tents, the invading hordes of Wimpletonians crossed the channel, and actually conquered the territory of their rivals. Having levelled their tents, cut the cords, and broken up the tent-poles, they retired, satisfied with the mischief they had done. The Toppletonians were defeated in a similar attempt to invade the Shooter the next night; and when the end of the week arrived, neither could claim any material advantage over the other. The Wimpletonians had retrieved the disaster of the first day, and would have held the island if they had not been afraid of the interference of the owner.

Both parties returned to their studies, their hatred of each other not a jot abated, and more than ever before the Toppletonians were on the lookout for some opportunity to spite the other side.

When the battalion returned on Saturday night, I was up the lake in the Grace, and I did not see Major Tommy for several days. When we did meet, he seemed to have forgotten everything that had happened; but Grace told me she had listened to the conversation between her father and him relating to the affair with me. At first the young gentleman was furious at the idea of retaining me in the yacht; but when he heard of Colonel Wimpleton’s offer he yielded the point, and permitted me to remain.

On the 1st of September the Lake Shore Railroad was completed. Lewis Holgate had run the dummy while I was skipper of the yacht; but the major would not permit him to go on the locomotive, and I was summoned back to my old position without opposition from the little magnate.