“I hope you won’t find fault with Mr. Forbush, after the good service he has rendered, and the cut he received in the hand in doing his duty,” I ventured to suggest. “No! No! No!” murmured the boys. “I am willing to forgive him,” replied Tommy, magnanimously. “But if he had obeyed my order, there would have been no trouble.” “What do you think the consequences would have been if he had obeyed your order?” I mildly inquired. “No matter what they were; both he and you ought to have done as I told you to do.” “The fellows in the boats would have been smashed up under the wheels of the steamer.” “No, they wouldn’t. I only meant to duck them a little. I should have stopped the wheels in a minute.” I was very glad to hear Tommy acknowledge that he did not mean to annihilate the Wimpletonians, for I had a very good opinion of him, on the whole. Though he did not mean seriously to injure the enemy, I have no doubt some of them would have been sacrificed if he could have had his own way. It is a blessed thing that boys can’t always have their own way. I walked with Tommy to the engine-room, where Forbush was binding up the wound on his hand. The little major kindly inquired about the injury, and thanked the engineer for the service he had rendered; but he could not help adding that it would have been better if the order he gave had been obeyed. He then went up to the wheel-house to see the captain; and as it did not appear that he had done anything worthy of especial commendation, Tommy wanted to know why he had not let him out of the cabin sooner. “We didn’t think it was best to open the doors till we had landed the Wimpletonians,” replied Captain Underwood, with more candor than prudence. “You didn’t, eh?” said Tommy, waxing angry. “Wolf thought you wouldn’t care to see the other boys.” “Then he advised you not to let us out--did he?” “He thought it wasn’t best; and I thought so too,” added the captain, willing to share the blame with me. “What did you mean, Wolf?” demanded the major, turning to me. “The Wimps had two companies, and you had only one,” I replied; but it was in vain that I tried to smooth the matter over. He was mad with me, because, in my capacity as a messenger of peace, I had prevented a fight; but I was satisfied. The boat ran up to the landing-place on the Horse Shoe, and the “troops” and their baggage were disembarked. “Wolf, you may go back to Middleport in the steamer; I don’t want you here,” said Tommy. But I was the ambassador of peace! CHAPTER XI. AT THE HORSE SHOE. “I should like to stay with you a few days, Major Tommy,” I ventured to say, after the young lord had given me the imperative order to depart on the steamer. “I say I don’t want you here,” replied Tommy, flatly. “We can get along without you.” “Perhaps I may be of some service to you,” I modestly suggested.