“Don’t, Tommy,” added Grace, placing her hand upon his shoulder to deter him. The little monster actually turned upon her, and struck her a blow in the face which sent her reeling over into her seat. I could not stand that; my blood boiled up, and boiled over. I sprang upon him, and in a small fraction of an instant, Major Tommy Toppleton was lying flat on the floor of the standing-room. “O, don’t touch him, Mr. Wolf!” begged Grace. “You villain you, how dare you put your hand upon me?” gasped Tommy, springing to his feet, as savage as a young tiger. “I don’t like to see any one strike a young lady, least of all when she is his sister.” “I’ll let you know!” whined he, crying with passion, as he leaped upon me. Walton and Skotchley each grasped one of his arms, and held him so that he was powerless. He raved, tore, and swore; and it was evident enough to me, when my indignation subsided, that I had sacrificed myself, if not my father and the whole family. “I won’t say anything more, Tommy,” interposed Grace, terrified by the violence around her. “You may have your own way.” “Give me that helm, Wolf!” cried Tommy. “I will give it to you,” I replied, moving aside, influenced by the action of Grace; and I don’t know but Tommy would have beaten his head to jelly against the trunk if some concession had not been made to his wrath. He cooled off as rapidly as he had become heated, when all opposition was removed. He threw the yacht up into the wind, and Tom Walton and I trimmed the sails; but the new helmsman could not manage her, and she lay with her sails flapping idly in the wind. “Ease her off a little, Tommy, and she will go it,” I ventured to suggest. “Mind your own business, Wolf Penniman. Your time is out from this moment, and Grace shall never put her foot into this yacht again, if it is named after her,” blustered Tommy. I subsided, and seated myself on the trunk amidships to wait the issue. The new skipper, however, adopted my suggestion, though he snubbed me for making it. The Grace, accommodating as she was, would not sail into the wind’s eye, and before Tommy was ready to tack, in beating up to the chase, the boat landed her hands on the beach. I saw that he was vexed; but he “chewed up” his wrath. He soon came about, and headed for the channel between the Horse Shoe and the Shooter. I concluded that he must be anxious to join his battalion; but it would be impossible to beat the yacht up the narrow passage. It was no use for me to say anything, and I did not, for he would be sure to go in direct opposition to any suggestion of mine. He ran the Grace up to the north point of the Shooter, and came about. I thought it my duty to tell him that the water was very shoal ahead of him, as he approached the Horse Shoe on this tack. He politely insinuated that I was to hold my tongue, which I succeeded in doing for a moment longer, until the yacht grated on the gravel bottom, and stuck fast.