knew who was to blame that things went amiss from
that splendid moment. Captain Jimmie said it was the fault of Major
Dobie, the leader of the band, and Major Dobie was equally certain it
was the captain's fault. The Old Boys themselves were willing to take
all the blame, and perhaps they were right, for they danced on the
deck, and crowded about the wheel so that Captain Jimmie had no idea
whither he was steering. However it was, instead of turning to
starboard, as he had been instructed, and running in to the dock where
the committee waited, Captain Jimmie swept to larboard around the buoy
that marked his turning point, and made straight for his old hitching
post at the wharf.

The Mayor and the Committee shouted and waved. Lawyer Ed stood up on
the seat of a cab and roared out a command across the water that might
have been heard at the Gates, but the band and the cheers of the Old
Boys drowned his voice. Captain Jimmie pursued his mistaken course,
never once stopping in the stream of Gaelic with which he was
entertaining his Highland guests, and even the half of the Committee on
board forgot where they were to land, in their joyous excitement.

Then Lawyer Ed fairly pitched Afternoon Tea Willie into a row-boat and
sent him spinning across the water to head-off the _Inverness_ and make
her turn to the park. But the poor boy had been working like a slave
since early morning at the Presbyterian church, and could not row fast
enough. He was only half-way across when the whistle sounded to shut
off steam. But just as the _Inverness_ stopped with a bump, some one
of the committee came to his senses, and rushed to the captain,
pointing out the frantically waving hosts on the dock.

"Cosh! Bless my soul!" cried Captain Jimmie in dismay. He gave a
wrench to the wheel, shouting orders to the Ancient Mariner to gee her
around and go back, but he was too late. Before the gang-plank had
been thrown out, or rope hitched, the Old Boys had leaped ashore.
Captain Jimmie yelled at them to come back, but they paid no more heed
than they would have done twenty-five years earlier and went swarming
joyfully up Main Street.

But meanwhile a dozen of the reception committee had come tearing down
the railroad track from the park and were shouting upon them to stop.
Then the Mayor, Archie Blair, J. P. Thornton and Lawyer Ed having
leaped into a cab, and driven furiously across the town, were now
thundering down Main Street.