Through by Daylight by Oliver Optic

The enthusiastic cheering which followed the passage of the dummy from the water to the land was grateful to me, and I enjoyed it to a degree which I cannot express. I felt just as though the Centreporters had cast me out, and the Middleporters had taken me up. I was quite confident that there were many persons in Middleport who could have raised the dummy; but no one seemed to have thought of my plan. Perhaps few of them knew the bottom of the lake as well as I did, for diving was one of my accomplishments; and I had oftener gone into the water on the Middleport side than on the other, because the beach was better.

"By gracious, Wolf! you have done it! " exclaimed Tommy Toppleton, as I directed the captain to stop the steamer; and his mouth and his eyes were opened as wide as if an earthquake had rent the lake beneath us.

"Of course I have done it; I expected to do it," I replied, as indifferently as I could, for, however big one may feel, he does not always like to show it.

"You have done it handsomely, too," added Captain Underwood; and praise from Sir What's-his-name was praise indeed.

"I hope the Wimpleton fellows saw that," said Tommy, puffing out his cheeks, and looking as grand as an alderman. "It would take them down a peg if they did."

"I expect to catch it for helping you out," I added, as I thought of the wrath of Colonel Wimpleton, when he should hear that I had been playing into the hands of the Toppletonians.

"Don't you be afraid of the whole boodle of them," replied Tommy, shaking his head, as though he thought the other side would make a great mistake if it attempted to punish me for what I had done.

"We'll talk about that some other time," I answered, turning my attention to business again.

"We haven't quite done the work yet. We must put the dummy on the track."

"Can I help you any more? " asked the captain, with a deference which amazed me.

"You may give us one more pull, if you are not in a hurry. I'm going on shore now, and I will make a signal to start and to stop her, with my handkerchief," said I, jumping into the skiff with Tommy.

The dummy stood within a couple of rods of the track, which was in readiness as far as Spangleport, five miles down the lake. We landed, and marched in triumph through the crowd of men and boys on the shore, though I ought to say that Tommy did the triumphal part of the programme, and looked as grand as though he had himself been the engineer of the movement. Scores of the students offered their services, and as I was on the point of sending some of them for a few planks on which to roll the dummy to the track, a platform car, which had constituted the entire rolling stock of the Lake Shore Railroad, rumbled up to the spot, in charge of a portion of the students, attended by Major Toppleton himself. The car was loaded with planks and rigging, which the Middleport magnate had foreseen we should want.

"We've got her out, father! " shouted Tommy, when he saw the major.

"I see you have," replied the great man, with a cheerful smile.

"But we haven't quite finished the job yet," added the young gentleman, bustling about as though the completion of the work rested heavily on his shoulders. "What next, Wolf? " said he, turning to me, and speaking in a lower tone.

"We must lay down some planks to roll it on the track with," I replied.

"Bring up the planks, fellows! " cried Tommy; and the students rushed to obey his commands.

"This is Wolf -- is it? " said Major Toppleton, bestowing a patronizing glance at me.

"Yes, father; this is Wolf, and he puts things through by daylight, I can tell you. He and I have managed this thing ourselves," replied Tommy, swelling with importance.

"I'm glad to see you, Wolf. They say you have a taste for machinery."