Major Tommy ordered Captain Briscoe, with Company A, to embark in this ferry-boat, and to hold the Horse Shoe, at any peril, until the other company could be sent over. I was sorry to leave the exciting scene; but I had to run the trip from Middleport at nine o’clock. Satisfied that the Toppletonians would secure possession of the island before the arrival of the enemy, I turned the locomotive, and ran back to the other terminus. The fleet of boats was off the South Shoe, not more than a mile from the Horse Shoe, when the train went through Spangleport; but the ferry-boat was within half that distance of its destination. We did not yet run the new locomotive and cars on the regular trips, because the travel was light, and the dummy could be used at half the expense. We housed the engine and cars, and, firing up the dummy, we had steam enough to start her at the appointed hour. Just before we left, Major Toppleton came into the station, and asked me what had become of the students. I told him I had conveyed them to Grass Springs. “I did not know they were going so early,” added he. “They were in a hurry,” I replied, with a smile, when I saw that the great man did not comprehend the strategy of the battalion, “My orders from Major Tommy were to start at seven o’clock; and I set them down on the wharf at the Springs at half past seven.” “You look wiser than you speak, Wolf,” said the major, gazing earnestly into my face. “Is there any mischief brewing?” “I think there is,” I replied, candidly, though I could not help smiling at the puzzled look of the magnate of Middleport. “What is it? Why didn’t you tell me about it? They say the students of the Wimpleton Institute went down the lake this morning.” “Yes, sir; we passed them on the way, and the students of both Institutes are bound to the same place.” “Then there will be a quarrel!” exclaimed the major; but I think he would not have cared if he had been sure that his side of the lake would be victorious. “I am afraid there will; but the Toppletonians have the weather-gage, both on the rights of the case and in the situation.” I explained fully what had transpired at the meeting of the battalion on Saturday, and the state of the affair when I left Grass Springs, an hour before. “Why didn’t they tell me what they were doing?” demanded the major. “I did not know they were in a hurry; if I had, the steamer should have been at Grass Springs without fail. If our boys have hired the Horse Shoe, and pay for it, they have a right to use it.” The great man was unequivocally on the side of the boys, and they might just as well have taken him into their confidence. I was sorry to see him so willing to permit a collision, even while our students had the letter of the law in their favor. “Wolf, don’t you want a vacation?” said the major, suddenly turning to me, after musing on the facts I had given him. “No, sir; I don’t care about any,” I replied.