stood by his engine.
Then the bell rang to stop the starboard engine, and August obeyed it.
The pilot of a Western steamboat depends much upon his engines for
steerage in making a landing, and the larboard engine was kept running a
while longer in order to bring the deeply-loaded boat round to her
landing at the primitive wharf-boat of that day. There is something fine
in the faith with which an engineer obeys the bell of the pilot, not
knowing what may be ahead, not inquiring what may be the effect of the
order, but only doing exactly what he is bid when he is bid. August had
stopped his engine, and stood trying to keep his mind off Parkins and
the events of the night, that he might be ready to obey the next signal
for his engine. But the bell rang next to stop the other engine, at
which the second engineer stood, and August was so free from
responsibility in regard to that that he hardly noticed the sound of the
bell, until it rang a second time more violently. Then he observed that
the larboard engine still ran. Was Munson dead or asleep? Clearly it was
August's duty to stand by his own engine. But then he was startled to
think what damage to property or life might take place from the failure
of the second engineer to stop his engine. While he hesitated, and all
these considerations flashed through his mind, the pilot's bell rang
again long and loud, and August then, obeying an impulse rather than a
conviction, ran over to the other engine, stopped it, and then,
considering that it had run so long against orders, he reversed it and
set it to backing without waiting instructions. Then he seized Munson
and woke him, and hurried back to his post. But the larboard engine had
not made three revolutions backward before the boat, hopelessly thrown
from her course by the previous neglect, struck the old wharf-boat and
sunk it. But for the promptness and presence of mind with which Wehle
acted, the steamboat itself would have suffered severely. The mate and
then the captain came rushing into the engine-room. Munson was
discharged at once, and the striker was promised engineer's wages.

Gus went off watch at this moment, and the mud-clerk said to him, in his
characteristically indifferent voice, "Such luck, I declare! I was sure
you would be dismissed for meddling with Parkins, and here you are
promoted, I declare!"

The mishap occasioned much delay to the boat, as it was very
inconvenient to deliver freight at that day and