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diff --git a/29130.txt b/29130.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..512cdc2 --- /dev/null +++ b/29130.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8168 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Billy Topsail & Company, by Norman Duncan + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Billy Topsail & Company + A Story for Boys + + +Author: Norman Duncan + + + +Release Date: June 15, 2009 [eBook #29130] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BILLY TOPSAIL & COMPANY*** + + +E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 29130-h.htm or 29130-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29130/29130-h/29130-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29130/29130-h.zip) + + + + + +BILLY TOPSAIL & COMPANY + + * * * * * + +THE "BILLY TOPSAIL" BOOKS + +By NORMAN DUNCAN + +THE ADVENTURES OF BILLY TOPSAIL + +Illustrated, cloth, $1.50 + +"There was no need to invent conditions or imagine situations. The +life of _any_ lad of Billy Topsail's years up there is sufficiently +romantic. It is this skill in the portrayal of actual conditions that +lie ready to the hand of the intelligent observer that makes Mr. +Duncan's Newfoundland stories so noteworthy. 'The Adventures of Billy +Topsail' is a wonderful book."--_Brooklyn Eagle._ + +BILLY TOPSAIL AND COMPANY + +Illustrated, cloth, $1.50 + +Every boy who knows Billy Topsail will welcome this continuation of +his adventuresome life in the North. Like its predecessor, the new +volume is a stirring story for boys, true to life, among the hardy +sons of the sea, clean, pure and stimulating. + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: BILL O' BURNT BAY AND THE BOYS OF THE _SPOT CASH_ COULD +NOT FATHOM THE MYSTERY OF THE _BLACK EAGLE_.] + + +BILLY TOPSAIL & COMPANY + +A Story for Boys + +by + +NORMAN DUNCAN + +Author of "The Adventures of Billy Topsail," +"Doctor Luke of The Labrador," "The Mother," +"Dr. Grenfell's Parish" + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + +New York--Chicago--Toronto +Fleming H. Revell Company +London and Edinburgh + +Copyright, 1910, by +Fleming H. Revell Company +New York: 158 Fifth Avenue +Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue +Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. +London: 21 Paternoster Square +Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street + + + + +To Chauncey Lewis and to "Buster," good friends both, sometimes to +recall to them places and occasions at Mike Marr's: Dead Man's Point, +Rolling Ledge, the Canoe Landing, the swift and wilful waters of the +West Branch, Squaw Mountain, the trail to Dead Stream, the raft on +Horseshoe, the Big Fish, the gracious kindness of the L. L. of E. O., +(as well as her sandwiches), and the never-to-be-forgotten flapjacks +that "didn't look it" but were indeed "all there." + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. _In Which Jimmie Grimm, Not Being Able to Help It, Is + Born At Buccaneer Cove, Much to His Surprise, and Tog, + the Wolf-Dog, Feels the Lash of a Seal-hide Whip and + Conceives an Enmity_ 15 + + II. _In Which Jimmie Grimm is Warned Not to Fall Down, + and Tog, Confirmed in Bad Ways, Raids Ghost Tickle, + Commits Murder, Runs With the Wolves, Plots the Death + of Jimmie Grimm and Reaches the End of His Rope_ 24 + + III. _In Which Little Jimmie Grimm Goes Lame and His + Mother Discovers the Whereabouts of a Cure_ 33 + + IV. _In Which Jimmie Grimm Surprises a Secret, Jim Grimm + makes a Rash Promise, and a Tourist From the States + Discovers the Marks of Tog's Teeth_ 41 + + V. _In Which Jimmie Grimm Moves to Ruddy Cove and + Settles on the Slope of the Broken Nose, Where, Falling + in With Billy Topsail and Donald North, He Finds the + Latter a Coward, But Learns the Reason, and Scoffs no + Longer. In Which, Also, Donald North Leaps a Breaker to + Save a Salmon Net, and Acquires a Strut_ 49 + + VI. _In Which, Much to the Delight of Jimmie Grimm and + Billy Topsail, Donald North, Having Perilous Business + On a Pan of Ice After Night, is Cured of Fear, and Once + More Puffs Out His Chest and Struts Like a Rooster_ 61 + + VII. _In Which Bagg, Imported From the Gutters of London, + Lands At Ruddy Cove From the Mail-Boat, Makes the + Acquaintance of Jimmie Grimm and Billy Topsail, and + Tells Them 'E Wants to Go 'Ome. In Which, Also, the Way + to Catastrophe Is Pointed_ 69 + + VIII. _In Which Bagg, Unknown to Ruddy Cove, Starts for + Home, and, After Some Difficulty, Safely Gets There_ 76 + + IX. _In Which Jimmie Grimm and Billy Topsail, Being Added + Up and Called a Man, Are Shipped For St. John's, With + Bill o' Burnt Bay, Where They Fall In With Archie + Armstrong, Sir Archibald's Son, and Bill o' Burnt Bay + Declines to Insure the "First Venture"_ 88 + + X. _In Which the Cook Smells Smoke, and the "First + Venture" In a Gale of Wind Off the Chunks, Comes Into + Still Graver Peril, Which Billy Topsail Discovers_ 97 + + XI. _In Which the "First Venture" All Ablaze Forward, Is + Headed For the Rocks and Breakers of the Chunks, While + Bill o' Burnt Bay and His Crew Wait for the Explosion + of the Powder in Her Hold. In Which, Also, a Rope Is + Put to Good Use_ 102 + + XII. _In Which Old David Grey, Once of the Hudson Bay + Company, Begins the Tale of How Donald McLeod, the + Factor at Fort Refuge, Scorned a Compromise With His + Honour, Though His Arms Were Pinioned Behind Him and a + Dozen Tomahawks Were Flourished About His Head._ 112 + + XIII. _In Which There Are Too Many Knocks At the Gate, a + Stratagem Is Successful, Red Feather Draws a Tomahawk, + and an Indian Girl Appears On the Scene_ 119 + + XIV. _In Which Jimmie Grimm and Master Bagg Are Overtaken + by the Black Fog in the Open Sea and Lose the Way Home + While a Gale is Brewing_ 130 + + XV. _In Which it Appears to Jimmie Grimm and Master Bagg + That Sixty Seconds Sometimes Make More Than a + Minute_ 136 + + XVI. _In Which Archie Armstrong Joins a Piratical + Expedition and Sails Crested Seas to Cut Out the + Schooner "Heavenly Home"_ 143 + + XVII. _In Which Bill o' Burnt Bay Finds Himself in Jail and + Archie Armstrong Discovers That Reality is Not as + Diverting as Romance_ 151 + + XVIII. _In Which Archie Inspects an Opera Bouffe Dungeon + Jail, Where He Makes the Acquaintance of Dust, Dry Rot + and Deschamps. In Which, Also, Skipper Bill o' Burnt + Bay Is Advised to Howl Until His Throat Cracks_ 159 + + XIX. _In Which Archie Armstrong Goes Deeper In and Thinks + He Has Got Beyond His Depth. Bill o' Burnt Bay Takes + Deschamps By the Throat and the Issue Is Doubtful For a + Time_ 165 + + XX. _In Which David Grey's Friend, the Son of the Factor + at Fort Red Wing, Yarns of the Professor With the + Broken Leg, a Stretch of Rotten River Ice and the Tug + of a White Rushing Current_ 172 + + XXI. _In Which a Bearer of Tidings Finds Himself In Peril + of His Life On a Ledge of Ice Above a Roaring Rapid_ 179 + + XXII. _In Which Billy Topsail Gets an Idea and, to the + Amazement of Jimmie Grimm, Archie Armstrong Promptly + Goes Him One Better_ 189 + + XXIII. _In Which Sir Archibald Armstrong Is Almost Floored + By a Business Proposition, But Presently Revives, and + Seems to be About to Rise to the Occasion_ 194 + + XXIV. _In Which the Honour of Archie Armstrong Becomes + Involved, the First of September Becomes a Date of + Utmost Importance, He Collides With Tom Tulk, and a + Note is Made in the Book of the Future_ 203 + + XXV. _In Which Notorious Tom Tulk o' Twillingate and the + Skipper of the "Black Eagle" Put Their Heads Together + Over a Glass of Rum in the Cabin of a French Shore + Trader_ 212 + + XXVI. _In Which the Enterprise of Archie Armstrong Evolves + Senor Fakerino, the Greatest Magician In Captivity. In + Which, also, the Foolish are Importuned Not to be + Fooled, Candy is Promised to Kids, Bill o' Burnt Bay is + Persuaded to Tussle With "The Lost Pirate," and the + "Spot Cash" Sets Sail_ 220 + + XXVII. _In Which the Amazing Operations of the "Black Eagle" + Promise to Ruin the Firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & + Company, and Archie Armstrong Loses His Temper and + Makes a Fool of Himself_ 229 + + XXVIII. _In Which the "Spot Cash" is Caught By a Gale In the + Night and Skipper Bill Gives Her Up For Lost_ 239 + + XXVIX. _In Which Opportunity is Afforded the Skipper of the + "Black Eagle" to Practice Villainy in the Fog and He + Quiets His Scruples. In Which, also, the Pony Islands + and the Tenth of the Month Come Into Significant + Conjunction_ 247 + + XXX. _In Which the Fog Thins and the Crew of the "Spot + Cash" Fall Foul of a Dark Plot_ 256 + + XXXI. _In Which the "Spot Cash" is Picked up by + Blow-Me-Down Rock In Jolly Harbour, Wreckers Threaten + Extinction and the Honour of the Firm Passes into the + Keeping of Billy Topsail_ 266 + + XXXII. _In Which the "Grand Lake" Conducts Herself In a Most + Peculiar Fashion to the Chagrin of the Crew of the + "Spot Cash"_ 275 + + XXXIII. _In Which Billy Topsail, Besieged by Wreckers, Sleeps + on Duty and Thereafter Finds Exercise For His Wits. In + Which, also, a Lighted Candle is Suspended Over a Keg + of Powder and Precipitates a Critical Moment While + Billy Topsail Turns Pale With Anxiety_ 281 + + XXXIV. _In Which Skipper Bill, as a Desperate Expedient, + Contemplates the Use of His Teeth, and Archie + Armstrong, to Save His Honour, Sets Sail in a Basket, + But Seems to Have Come a Cropper_ 291 + + XXXV. _In Which Many Things Happen: Old Tom Topsail + Declares Himself the Bully to Do It, Mrs. Skipper + William Bounds Down the Path With a Boiled Lobster, the + Mixed Accommodation Sways, Rattles, Roars, Puffs and + Quits on a Grade in the Wilderness, Tom Topsail Loses + His Way in the Fog and Archie Armstrong Gets Despairing + Ear of a Whistle_ 301 + + XXXVI. _And Last: In Which Archie Armstrong Hangs His Head + in His Father's Office, the Pale Little Clerk Takes a + Desperate Chance, Bill o' Burnt Bay Loses His Breath, + and there is a Grand Dinner in Celebration of the Final + Issue, at Which the Amazement of the Crew of the "Spot + Cash" is Equalled by Nothing in the World Except Their + Delight_ 311 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + FACING PAGE + + Bill O' Burnt Bay and the Boys of the _Spot Cash_ Could + not Fathom the Mystery of the _Black Eagle_. _Title_ + + Tog Thawed Into Limp and Servile Amiability. 20 + + Instinctively, He Covered His Throat With His Arms when + Tog Fell Upon Him. 28 + + Plucking up His Courage, Donald Leaped for the Rock. 58 + + She Was Beating Laboriously into a Violent Head Wind. 96 + + Buffalo Horn Looked Steadily into Mcleod's Eyes. 125 + + "--We Want to Charter the _On Time_ and Trade the Ports + of the French Shore." 198 + + Senor Fakerino created Applause by Extracting Half + Dollars From Vacancy. 230 + + + + +BILLY TOPSAIL & COMPANY + +CHAPTER I + + + _In Which Jimmie Grimm, Not Being Able to Help It, Is Born + At Buccaneer Cove, Much to His Surprise, and Tog, the + Wolf-Dog, Feels the Lash of a Seal-hide Whip and Conceives + an Enmity_ + +Young Jimmie Grimm began life at Buccaneer Cove of the Labrador. It +was a poor place to begin, of course; but Jimmie had had nothing to do +with that. It was by Tog, with the eager help of two hungry gray +wolves, that he was taught to take care of the life into which, much +to his surprise, he had been ushered. Tog was a dog with a bad name; +and everybody knows that a dog with a bad name should be hanged +forthwith. It should have happened to Tog. At best he was a wolfish +beast. His father was a wolf; and in the end Tog was as lean and +savage and cunningly treacherous as any wolf of the gray forest packs. +When he had done with Jimmie Grimm--and when Jimmie Grimm's father had +done with Tog--Jimmie Grimm had learned a lesson that he never could +recall without a gasp and a quick little shudder. + +"I jus' don't like t' think o' Tog," he told Billy Topsail and Archie +Armstrong, long afterwards. + +"You weren't _afraid_ of him, were you?" Archie Armstrong demanded, a +bit scornfully. + +"_Was_ I?" Jimmie snorted. "Huh!" + +The business with Tog happened before old Jim Grimm moved south to +Ruddy Cove of the Newfoundland coast, disgusted with the fishing of +Buccaneer. It was before Jimmie Grimm had fallen in with Billy Topsail +and Donald North, before he had ever clapped eyes on Bagg, the London +gutter-snipe, or had bashfully pawed the gloved hand of Archie +Armstrong, Sir Archibald's son. It was before Donald North cured +himself of fear and the _First Venture_ had broken into a blaze in a +gale of wind off the Chunks. It was before Billy Topsail, a lad of +wits, had held a candle over the powder barrel, when the wreckers +boarded the _Spot Cash_. It was before Bill o' Burnt Bay had been +rescued from a Miquelon jail and the _Heavenly Home_ was cut out of +St. Pierre Harbour in the foggy night. + +It was also before the _Spot Cash_ had fallen foul of the plot to +scuttle the _Black Eagle_. It was before the big gale and all the +adventures of that northward trading voyage. In short, it was before +Jim Grimm moved up from the Labrador to Ruddy Cove for better +fishing. + + * * * * * + +Tog had a bad name. On the Labrador coast all dogs have bad names; +nor, if the truth must be told, does the reputation do them any +injustice. If evil communications corrupt good manners, the desperate +character of Tog's deeds, no less than the tragic manner of his end, +may be accounted for. At any rate, long before his abrupt departure +from the wilderness trails and snow-covered rock of Buccaneer Cove, he +had earned the worst reputation of all the pack. + +It began in the beginning. When Tog was eight weeks old his end was +foreseen. He was then little more than a soft, fluffy, black-and-white +ball, awkwardly perambulating on four absurdly bowed legs. Martha, Jim +Grimm's wife, one day cast the lean scraps of the midday meal to the +pack. What came to pass so amazed old Jim Grimm that he dropped his +splitting-knife and stared agape. + +"An' would you look at that little beast!" he gasped. "That one's a +wonder for badness!" + +The snarling, scrambling heap of dogs, apparently inextricably +entangled, had all at once been reduced to order. Instead of a +confusion of taut legs and teeth and bristling hair, there was a +precise half-circle of gaunt beasts, squatted at a respectful distance +from Tog's mother, hopelessly licking their chops, while, with hair on +end and fangs exposed and dripping, she kept them off. + +"It ain't Jinny," Jim remarked. "You can't blame she. It's that little +pup with the black eye." + +You couldn't blame Jenny. Last of all would it occur to Martha Grimm, +with a child of her own to rear, to call her in the wrong. With a +litter of five hearty pups to provide for, Jenny was animated by a +holy maternal instinct. But Tog, which was the one with the black eye, +was not to be justified. He was imitating his mother's tactics with +diabolical success. A half-circle of whimpering puppies, keeping a +respectful distance, watched in grieved surprise, while, with hair on +end and tiny fangs occasionally exposed, he devoured the scraps of the +midday meal. + +"A wonder for badness!" Jim Grimm repeated. + +"'Give a dog a bad name,'" quoted Martha, quick, like the woman she +was, to resent snap-judgment of the young, "'an'----'" + +"'Hang un,'" Jim concluded. "Well," he added, "I wouldn't be s'prised +if it _did_ come t' that." + +It did. + + * * * * * + +In Tog's eyes there was never the light of love and humour--no amiable +jollity. He would come fawning, industriously wagging his hinder +parts, like puppies of more favoured degree; but all the while his +black eyes were alert, hard, infinitely suspicious and avaricious. Not +once, I am sure, did affection or gratitude lend them beauty. A +beautiful pup he was, nevertheless--fat and white, awkwardly big, his +body promising splendid strength. Even when he made war on the +fleas--and he waged it unceasingly--the vigour and skill of attack, +the originality of method, gave him a certain distinction. But his +eyes were never well disposed; the pup was neither trustful nor to be +trusted. + +"If he lives t' the age o' three," said Jim Grimm, with a pessimistic +wag of the head, "'twill be more by luck than good conduct." + +"Ah, dad," said Jimmie Grimm, "you jus' leave un t' me!" + +"Well, Jimmie," drawled Jim Grimm, "it might teach you more about dogs +than you know. I don't mind if I _do_ leave un t' you--for a while." + +"Hut!" Jimmie boasted. "_I'll_ master un." + +"May _be_," said Jim Grimm. + +It was Jimmie Grimm who first put Tog in the traces. This was in the +early days of Tog's first winter--and of Jimmie's seventh. The dog was +a lusty youngster then; better nourished than the other dogs of Jim +Grimm's pack, no more because of greater strength and daring than a +marvellous versatility in thievery. In a bored sort of way, being at +the moment lazy with food stolen from Sam Butt's stage, Tog submitted. +He yawned, stretched his long legs, and gave inopportune attention to +a persistent flea near the small of his back. When, however, the butt +of Jimmie's whip fell smartly on his flank, he was surprised into an +appreciation of the fact that a serious attempt was being made to +curtail his freedom; and he was at once alive with resentful protest. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of "The Outing Magazine"_ +TOG THAWED INTO LIMP AND SERVILE AMIABILITY.] + +"Hi, Tog!" Jimmie complained. "Bide still!" + +Tog slipped from Jimmie's grasp and bounded off. He turned with a +snarl. + +"Here, Tog!" cried Jimmie. + +Tog came--stepping warily over the snow. His head was low, his +king-hairs bristling, his upper lip lifted. + +"Ha, Tog, b'y!" said Jimmie, ingratiatingly. + +Tog thawed into limp and servile amiability. The long, wiry white hair +of his neck fell flat; he wagged his bushy white tail; he pawed the +snow and playfully tossed his long, pointed nose as he crept near. But +had Jimmie Grimm been more observant, more knowing, he would have +perceived that the light in the lanky pup's eyes had not mellowed. + +"Good dog!" crooned Jimmie, stretching out an affectionate hand. + +Vanished, then, in a flash, every symptom of Tog's righteousness. His +long teeth closed on Jimmie's small hand with a snap. Jimmie struck +instantly--and struck hard. The butt of the whip caught Tog on the +nose. He dropped the hand and leaped away with a yelp. + +"Now, me b'y," thought Jimmie Grimm, staring into the quivering dog's +eyes, not daring to glance at his own dripping hand, "I'll master +_you_!" + +But it was no longer a question of mastery. The issue was life or +death. Tog was now of an age to conceive murder. Moreover, he was of a +size to justify an attempt upon Jimmie. And murder was in his heart. +He crouched, quivering, his wolfish eyes fixed upon the boy's blazing +blue ones. For a moment neither antagonist ventured attack. Both +waited. + +It was Jimmie who lost patience. He swung his long dog whip. The lash +cracked in Tog's face. With a low growl, the dog rushed, and before +the boy could evade the attack, the dog had him by the leg. Down came +the butt of the whip. Tog released his hold and leaped out of reach. +He pawed about, snarling, shaking his bruised head. + +This advantage the boy sought to pursue. He advanced--alert, cool, +ready to strike. Tog retreated. Jimmie rushed upon him. At a bound, +Tog passed, turned, and came again. Before Jimmie had well faced him, +Tog had leaped for his throat. Down went the boy, overborne by the +dog's weight, and by the impact, which he was not prepared to +withstand. But Tog was yet a puppy, unpracticed in fight; he had +missed the grip. And a heavy stick, in the hands of Jimmie's father, +falling mercilessly upon him, put him in yelping retreat. + +"I 'low, Jimmie," drawled Jim Grimm, while he helped the boy to his +feet, "that that dog _is_ teachin' you more 'n you knowed." + +"I 'low, dad," replied the breathless Jimmie, "that he teached me +nothin' more than I forgot." + +"I wouldn't forget again," said Jim. + +Jimmie did not deign to reply. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + + _In Which Jimmie Grimm is Warned Not to Fall Down, and + Tog, Confirmed in Bad Ways, Raids Ghost Tickle, Commits + Murder, Runs With the Wolves, Plots the Death of Jimmie + Grimm and Reaches the End of His Rope_ + +Jimmie Grimm's father broke Tog to the traces before the winter was +over. A wretched time the perverse beast had of it. Labrador dogs are +not pampered idlers; in winter they must work or starve--as must men, +the year round. But Tog had no will for work, acknowledged no master +save the cruel, writhing whip; and the whip was therefore forever +flecking his ears or curling about his flanks. Moreover, he was a sad +shirk. Thus he made more trouble for himself. When his team-mates +discovered the failing--and this was immediately--they pitilessly +worried his hind legs. Altogether, in his half-grown days, Tog led a +yelping, bleeding life of it; whereby he got no more than his +desserts. + +Through the summer he lived by theft when thievery was practicable; +at other times he went fishing for himself with an ill will. Meantime, +he developed strength and craft, both in extraordinary degree. There +was not a more successful criminal in the pack, nor was there a more +despicable bully. When the first snow fell, Tog was master at +Buccaneer Cove, and had already begun to raid the neighbouring +settlement at Ghost Tickle. Twice he was known to have adventured +there. After the first raid, he licked his wounds in retirement for +two weeks; after the second, which was made by night, they found a +dead dog at Ghost Tickle. + +Thereafter, Tog entered Ghost Tickle by daylight, and with his teeth +made good his right to come and go at will. It was this that left him +open to suspicion when the Ghost Tickle tragedy occurred. Whether or +not Tog was concerned in that affair, nobody knows. They say at Ghost +Tickle that he plotted the murder and led the pack; but the opinion is +based merely upon the fact that he was familiar with the paths and +lurking places of the Tickle--and, possibly, upon the fact of his +immediate and significant disappearance from the haunts of men. + +News came from Ghost Tickle that Jonathan Wall had come late from the +ice with a seal. Weary with the long tramp, he had left the carcass at +the waterside. + +"Billy," he said to his young son, forgetting the darkness and the +dogs, "go fetch that swile up." + +Billy was gone a long time. + +"I wonder what's keepin' Billy," his mother said. + +They grew uneasy, at last; and presently they set out to search for +the lad. Neither child nor seal did they ever see again; but they came +upon the shocking evidences of what had occurred. + +And they blamed Tog of Buccaneer Cove. + + * * * * * + +For a month or more Tog was lost to sight; but an epidemic had so +reduced the number of serviceable dogs that he was often in Jim +Grimm's mind. Jim very heartily declared that Tog should have a berth +with the team if starvation drove him back; not that he loved Tog, +said he, but that he needed him. But Tog seemed to be doing well +enough in the wilderness. He did not soon return. Once they saw him. +It was when Jim and Jimmie were bound home from Laughing Cove. Of a +sudden Jim halted the team. + +"Do you see that, Jimmie, b'y?" he asked, pointing with his whip to +the white crest of a near-by hill. + +"Dogs!" Jimmie ejaculated. + +"Take another squint," said Jim. + +"Dogs," Jimmie repeated. + +"Wolves," drawled Jim. "An' do you see the beast with the black eye?" + +"Why, dad," Jimmie exclaimed, "'tis Tog!" + +"I 'low," said Jim, "that Tog don't need us no more." + +But Tog did. He came back--lean and fawning. No more abject contrition +was ever shown by dog before. He was starving. They fed him at the +usual hour; and not one ounce more than the usual amount of food did +he get. Next day he took his old place in the traces and helped haul +Jim Grimm the round of the fox traps. But that night Jim Grimm lost +another dog; and in the morning Tog had again disappeared into the +wilderness. Jimmie Grimm was glad. Tog had grown beyond him. The lad +could control the others of the pack; but he was helpless against +Tog. + +"I isn't so wonderful sorry, myself," said Jim. "I 'low, Jimmie," he +added, "that Tog don't like _you_." + +"No, that he doesn't," Jimmie promptly agreed. "All day yesterday he +snooped around, with an eye on me. Looked to me as if he was waitin' +for me to fall down." + +"Jimmie!" said Jim Grimm, gravely. + +"Ay, sir?" + +"You _mustn't_ fall down. Don't matter whether Tog's about or not. If +the dogs is near, _don't you fall down!_" + +"Not if I knows it," said Jimmie. + + * * * * * + +It was a clear night in March. The moon was high. From the rear of Jim +Grimm's isolated cottage the white waste stretched far to the +wilderness. The dogs of the pack were sound asleep in the outhouse. An +hour ago the mournful howling had ceased for the night. Half-way to +the fish-stage, whither he was bound on his father's errand, Jimmie +Grimm came to a startled full stop. + +"What was that?" he mused. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of "The Outing Magazine"_ +INSTINCTIVELY, HE COVERED HIS THROAT WITH HIS ARMS WHEN +TOG FELL UPON HIM.] + +A dark object, long and lithe, had seemed to slip like a shadow into +hiding below the drying flake. Jimmie continued to muse. What had it +been? A prowling dog? Then he laughed a little at his own fears--and +continued on his way. But he kept watch on the flake; and so intent +was he upon this, so busily was he wondering whether or not his eyes +had tricked him, that he stumbled over a stray billet of wood, and +fell sprawling. + +He was not alarmed, and made no haste to rise; but had he then seen +what emerged from the shadow of the flake he would instantly have been +in screaming flight toward the kitchen door. + +The onslaught of Tog and the two wolves was made silently. + +There was not a howl, not a growl, not even an eager snarl. They came +leaping, with Tog in the lead--and they came silently. Jimmie caught +sight of them when he was half-way to his feet. He had but time to +call his father's name; and he knew that the cry would not be heard. +Instinctively, he covered his throat with his arms when Tog fell upon +him; and he was relieved to feel Tog's teeth in his shoulder. He felt +no pain--not any more, at any rate, than a sharp stab in the knee. He +was merely sensible of the fact that the vital part had not yet been +reached. + +In the savage joy of attack, Jimmie's assailants forgot discretion. +Snarls and growls escaped them while they worried the small body. In +the manner of wolves, too, they snapped at each other. The dogs in the +outhouse awoke, cocked their ears, came in a frenzy to the conflict; +not to save Jimmie Grimm, but to participate in his destruction. +Jimmie was prostrate beneath them all--still protecting his throat; +not regarding his other parts. + +And by this confusion Jim Grimm was aroused from a sleepy stupor by +the kitchen fire. + +"I wonder," said he, "what's the matter with them dogs." + +"I'm not able t' make out," his wife replied, puzzled, "but----" + +"Hark!" cried Jim. + +They listened. + +"Quick!" Jimmie's mother screamed. "They're at Jimmie!" + +With an axe in his hand, and with merciless wrath in his heart, Jim +Grimm descended upon the dogs. He stretched the uppermost dead. A +second blow broke the back of a wolf. The third sent a dog yelping to +the outhouse with a useless hind leg. The remaining dogs decamped. +Their howls expressed pain in a degree to delight Jim Grimm and to +inspire him with deadly strength and purpose. Tog and the surviving +wolf fled. + +"Jimmie!" Jim Grimm called. + +Jimmie did not answer. + +"They've killed you!" his father sobbed. "Jimmie, b'y, is you dead? +Mother," he moaned to his wife, who had now come panting up with a +broomstick, "they've gone an' killed our Jimmie!" + +Jimmie was unconscious when his father carried him into the house. It +was late in the night, and he was lying in his own little bed, and his +mother had dressed his wounds, when he revived. And Tog was then +howling under his window; and there Tog remained until dawn, listening +to the child's cries of agony. + + * * * * * + +Two days later, Jim Grimm, practicing unscrupulous deception, lured +Tog into captivity. That afternoon the folk of Buccaneer Cove +solemnly hanged him by the neck until he was dead, which is the custom +in that land. I am glad that they disposed of him. He had a noble +body--strong and beautiful, giving delight to the beholder, capable +of splendid usefulness. But he had not one redeeming trait of +character to justify his existence. + +"I wonder why Tog was so bad, dad," Jimmie mused, one day, when, as +they mistakenly thought, he was near well again. + +"I s'pose," Jim explained, "'twas because his father was a wolf." + +Little Jimmie Grimm was not the same after that. For some strange +reason he went lame, and the folk of Buccaneer Cove said that he was +"took with the rheumatiz." + +"Wisht I could be cured," the little fellow used to sigh. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + + _In Which Little Jimmie Grimm Goes Lame and His Mother + Discovers the Whereabouts of a Cure_ + +Little Jimmie Grimm was then ten years old. He had been an active, +merry lad, before the night of the assault of Tog and the two +wolves--inclined to scamper and shout, given to pranks of a kindly +sort. His affectionate, light-hearted disposition had made him the +light of his mother's eyes, and of his father's, too, for, child +though he was, lonely Jim Grimm found him a comforting companion. But +he was now taken with what the folk of Buccaneer Cove called +"rheumatiz o' the knee." There were days when he walked in comfort; +but there were also times when he fell to the ground in a sudden agony +and had to be carried home. There were weeks when he could not walk at +all. He was not now so merry as he had been. He was more affectionate; +but his eyes did not flash in the old way, nor were his cheeks so fat +and rosy. Jim Grimm and the lad's mother greatly desired to have him +cured. + +"'Twould be like old times," Jim Grimm said once, when Jimmie was put +to bed, "if Jimmie was only well." + +"I'm afeared," the mother sighed, "that he'll never be well again." + +"For fear you're right, mum," said Jim Grimm, "we must make him happy +every hour he's with us. Hush, mother! Don't cry, or I'll be cryin', +too!" + +Nobody connected Jimmie Grimm's affliction with the savage teeth of +Tog. + + * * * * * + +It was Jimmie's mother who discovered the whereabouts of a cure. +Hook's Kurepain was the thing to do it! Who could deny the virtues of +that "healing balm"? They were set forth in print, in type both large +and small, on a creased and dirty remnant of the _Montreal Weekly +Globe and Family Messenger_, which had providentially strayed into +that far port of the Labrador. Who could dispute the works of "the +invaluable discovery"? Was it not a positive cure for bruises, +sprains, chilblains, cracked hands, stiffness of the joints, +contraction of the muscles, numbness of the limbs, neuralgia, +rheumatism, pains in the chest, warts, frost bites, sore throat, +quinsy, croup, and various other ills? Was it not an excellent hair +restorer, as well? If it had cured millions (and apparently it had), +why shouldn't it cure little Jimmie Grimm? So Jimmie's mother longed +with her whole heart for a bottle of the "boon to suffering +humanity." + +"I've found something, Jim Grimm," said she, a teasing twinkle in her +eye, when, that night, Jimmie's father came in from the snowy +wilderness, where he had made the round of his fox traps. + +"Have you, now?" he asked, curiously. "What is it?" + +"'Tis something," said she, "t' make you glad." + +"Come, tell me!" he cried, his eyes shining. + +"I've heard you say," she went on, smiling softly, "that you'd be +willin' t' give anything t' find it. I've heard you say that----" + +"'Tis a silver fox!" + +"I've heard you say," she continued, shaking her head, "'Oh,' I've +heard you say, 'if I could _only_ find it I'd be happy.'" + +"Tell me!" he coaxed. "Please tell me!" + +She laid a hand on his shoulder. The remnant of the _Montreal Weekly +Globe and Family Messenger_ she held behind her. + +"'Tis a cure for Jimmie," said she. + +"No!" he cried, incredulous; but there was yet the ring of hope in his +voice. "Have you, now?" + +"Hook's Kurepain," said she, "never failed yet." + +"'Tis wonderful!" said Jim Grimm. + +She spread the newspaper on the table and placed her finger at that +point of the list where the cure of rheumatism was promised. + +"Read that," said she, "an' you'll find 'tis all true." + +Jim Grimm's eye ran up to the top of the page. His wife waited, a +smile on her lips. She was anticipating a profound impression. + +"'Beauty has wonderful charms,'" Jim Grimm read. "'Few men can +withstand the witchcraft of a lovely face. All hearts are won----'" + +"No, no!" the mother interrupted, hastily. "That's the marvellous +Oriental Beautifier. I been readin' that, too. But 'tis not that. 'Tis +lower down. Beginnin', 'At last the universal remedy of Biblical +times.' Is you got it yet?" + +"Ay, sure!" + +And thereupon Jim Grimm of Buccaneer Cove discovered that a legion of +relieved and rejuvenated rheumatics had without remuneration or +constraint sung the virtues of the Kurepain and the praises of Hook. +Poor ignorant Jim Grimm did not for a moment doubt the existence of +the Well-Known Traveller, the Family Doctor, the Minister of the +Gospel, the Champion of the World. He was ready to admit that the cure +had been found. + +"I'm willin' t' believe," said he, solemnly, the while gazing very +earnestly into his wife's eyes, "that 'twould do Jimmie a world o' +good." + +"Read on," said she. + +"'It costs money to make the Kurepain,'" Jim read, aloud. "'It is not +a sugar-and-water remedy. It is a _cure_, manufactured at _great +expense_. Good medicines come _high_. But the peerless Kurepain is +_cheap_ when compared with the worthless substitutes now on the market +and sold for just as good. Our price is five dollars a bottle; three +bottles guaranteed to cure.'" + +Jim Grimm stopped dead. He looked up. His wife steadily returned his +glance. The Labrador dweller is a poor man--a very poor man. Rarely +does a dollar of hard cash slip into his hand. And this was hard cash. +Five dollars a bottle! Five dollars for that which was neither food +nor clothing! + +"'Tis fearful!" he sighed. + +"But read on," said she. + +"'In order to introduce the Kurepain into this locality, we have set +aside _one thousand bottles_ of this _incomparable_ medicine. That +number, _and no more_, we will dispose of at four dollars a bottle. Do +not make a mistake. When the supply is exhausted, the price will +_rise_ to eight dollars a bottle, owing to a scarcity of one of the +ingredients. We honestly advise you, if you are in pain or suffering, +to take advantage of this _rare_ opportunity. A word to the wise is +sufficient. Order to-day.'" + +"'Tis a great bargain, Jim," the mother whispered. + +"Ay," Jim answered, dubiously. + +His wife patted his hand. "When Jimmie's cured," she went on, "he +could help you with the traps, an'----" + +"'Tis not for _that_ I wants un cured," Jim Grimm flashed. "I'm +willin' an' able for me labour. 'Tis not for that. I'm just thinkin' +all the time about seein' him run about like he used to. That's what +_I_ wants." + +"Doesn't you think, Jim, that we could manage it--if we tried +wonderful hard?" + +"'Tis accordin' t' what fur I traps, mum, afore the ice goes an' the +steamer comes. I'm hopin' we'll have enough left over t' buy the +cure." + +"You're a good father, Jim," the mother said, at last. "I knows you'll +do for the best. Leave us wait until the spring time comes." + +"Ay," he agreed; "an' we'll say nar a word t' little Jimmie." + +They laid hold on the hope in Hook's Kurepain. Life was brighter, +then. They looked forward to the cure. The old merry, scampering +Jimmie, with his shouts and laughter and gambols and pranks, was to +return to them. When, as the winter dragged along, Jim Grimm brought +home the fox skins from the wilderness, Jimmie fondled them, and +passed upon their quality, as to colour and size and fur. Jim Grimm +and his wife exchanged smiles. Jimmie did not know that upon the +quality and number of the skins, which he delighted to stroke and pat, +depended his cure. Let the winter pass! Let the ice move out from the +coast! Let the steamer come for the letters! Let her go and return +again! _Then_ Jimmie should know. + +"We'll be able t' have _one_ bottle, whatever," said the mother. + +"'Twill be more than that, mum," Jim Grimm answered, confidently. "We +wants our Jimmie cured." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + + _In Which Jimmie Grimm Surprises a Secret, Jim Grimm makes + a Rash Promise, and a Tourist From the States Discovers + the Marks of Tog's Teeth_ + +With spring came the great disappointment. The snow melted from the +hills; wild flowers blossomed where the white carpet had lain; the ice +was ready to break and move out to sea with the next wind from the +west. There were no more foxes to be caught. Jim Grimm bundled the +skins, strapped them on his back, and took them to the storekeeper at +Shelter Harbour, five miles up the coast; and when their value had +been determined he came home disconsolate. + +Jimmie's mother had been watching from the window. "Well?" she said, +when the man came in. + +"'Tis not enough," he groaned. "I'm sorry, mum; but 'tis not enough." + +She said nothing, but waited for him to continue; for she feared to +give him greater distress. + +"'Twas a fair price he gave me," Jim Grimm continued. "I'm not +complainin' o' that. But there's not enough t' do more than keep us in +food, with pinchin', till we sells the fish in the fall. I'm sick, +mum--I'm fair sick an' miserable along o' disappointment." + +"'Tis sad t' think," said the mother, "that Jimmie's not t' be +cured--after all." + +"For the want o' twelve dollars!" he sighed. + +They were interrupted by the clatter of Jimmie's crutches, coming in +haste from the inner room. Then entered Jimmie. + +"I heered what you said," he cried, his eyes blazing, his whole worn +little body fairly quivering with excitement. "I heered you say +'cure.' Is I t' be cured?" + +They did not answer. + +"Father! Mama! Did you say I was t' be cured?" + +"Hush, dear!" said the mother. + +"I can't hush. I wants t' know. Father, tell me. Is I t' be cured?" + +"Jim," said the mother to Jim Grimm, "tell un." + +"You is!" Jim shouted, catching Jimmie in his arms, and rocking him +like a baby. "You _is_ t' be cured. Debt or no debt, lad, I'll see +you cured!" + + * * * * * + +The matter of credit was easily managed. The old storekeeper at +Shelter Harbour did not hesitate. Credit? Of course, he would give Jim +Grimm that. "Jim," said he, "I've knowed you for a long time, an' I +knows you t' be a good man. I'll fit you out for the summer an' the +winter, if you wants me to, an' you can take your own time about +payin' the bill." And so Jim Grimm withdrew twelve dollars from the +credit of his account. + +They began to keep watch on the ice--to wish for a westerly gale, that +the white waste might be broken and dispersed. + +"Father," said Jimmie, one night, when the man was putting him to bed, +"how long will it be afore that there Kurepain comes?" + +"I 'low the steamer'll soon be here." + +"Ay?" + +"An' then she'll take the letter with the money." + +"Ay?" + +"An' she'll be gone about a month an' a fortnight, an' then she'll be +back with----" + +"The cure!" cried Jimmie, giving his father an affectionate dig in +the ribs. "She'll be back with the cure!" + +"Go t' sleep, lad." + +"I can't," Jimmie whispered. "I can't for joy o' thinkin' o' that +cure." + + * * * * * + +By and by the ice moved out, and, in good time, the steamer came. It +was at the end of a blustering day, with the night falling thick. +Passengers and crew alike--from the grimy stokers to the shivering +American tourists--were relieved to learn, when the anchor went down +with a splash and a rumble, that the "old man" was to "hang her down" +until the weather turned "civil." + +Accompanied by the old schoolmaster, who was to lend him aid in +registering the letter to the Kurepain Company, Jim Grimm went aboard +in the punt. It was then dark. + +"You knows a Yankee when you sees one," said he, when they reached the +upper deck. "Point un out, an' I'll ask un." + +"Ay, _I'm_ travelled," said the schoolmaster, importantly. "And +'twould be wise to ask about this Kurepain Company before you post the +letter." + +Thus it came about that Jim Grimm timidly approached two gentlemen who +were chatting merrily in the lee of the wheel-house. + +"Do you know the Kurepain, sir?" he asked. + +"Eh? What?" the one replied. + +"Hook's, sir." + +"Hook's? In the name of wonder, man, Hook's what?" + +"Kurepain, sir." + +"Hook's Kurepain," said the stranger. "Doctor," addressing his +companion, "do you recommend----" + +The doctor shrugged his shoulders. + +"Then you do not?" said the other. + +The doctor eyed Jim Grimm. "Why do you ask?" he inquired. + +"'Tis for me little son, sir," Jim replied. "He've a queer sort o' +rheumaticks. We're thinkin' the Kurepain will cure un. It have cured a +Minister o' the Gospel, sir, an' a Champion o' the World; an' we was +allowin' that it wouldn't have much trouble t' cure little Jimmie +Grimm. They's as much as twelve dollars, sir, in this here letter, +which I'm sendin' away. I'm wantin' t' know, sir, if they'll send the +cure if I sends the money." + +The doctor was silent for a moment. "Where do you live?" he asked, at +last. + +Jim pointed to a far-off light. "Jimmie will be at that window," he +said, "lookin' out at the steamer's lights." + +"Do you care for a run ashore?" asked the doctor, turning to his +fellow tourist. + +"If it would not overtax you." + +"No, no--I'm strong enough, now. The voyage has put me on my feet +again. Come--let us go." + +Jim Grimm took them ashore in the punt; guided them along the winding, +rocky path; led them into the room where Jimmie sat at the window. The +doctor felt of Jimmie's knee, and asked him many questions. Then he +held a whispered consultation with his companion and the schoolmaster; +and of their conversation Jimmie caught such words and phrases as +"slight operation" and "chloroform" and "that table" and "poor light, +but light enough" and "rough and ready sort of work" and "no danger." +Then Jim Grimm was dispatched to the steamer with the doctor's friend; +and when they came back the man carried a bag in his hand. The doctor +asked Jimmie a question, and Jimmie nodded his head. Whereupon, the +doctor called him a brave lad, and sent Jim Grimm out to the kitchen +to keep his wife company for a time, first requiring him to bring a +pail of water and another lamp. + +When they called Jim Grimm in again--he knew what they were about, and +it seemed a long, long time before the call came--little Jimmie was +lying on the couch, sick and pale, with his knee tightly bandaged, but +with his eyes glowing. + +"Mama! Father!" the boy whispered, exultantly. "They says I'm cured." + +"Yes," said the doctor; "he'll be all right, now. His trouble was not +rheumatism. It was caused by a fragment of the bone, broken off at the +knee-joint. At least, that's as plain as I can make it to you. He was +bitten by a dog, was he not? So he says. And he remembers that he felt +a stab of pain in his knee at the time. That or the fall probably +accounts for it. At any rate, I have removed that fragment. He'll be +all right, after a bit. I've told the schoolmaster how to take care of +him, and I'll leave some medicine, and--well--he'll soon be all +right." + +When the doctor was about to step from the punt to the steamer's +ladder, half an hour later, Jim Grimm held up a letter to him. + +"'Tis for you, sir," he said. + +"What's this?" the doctor demanded. + +"'Tis for you to keep, sir," Jim answered, with dignity. "'Tis the +money for the work you done." + +"Money!" cried the doctor. "Why, really," he stammered, "I--you see, +this is my vacation--and I----" + +"I 'low, sir," said Jim, quietly, "that you'll 'blige me." + +"Well, well!" exclaimed the doctor, being wise, "that I will!" + +Jimmie Grimm got well long before it occurred to his father that the +fishing at Buccaneer Cove was poor and that he might do better +elsewhere. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + + _In Which Jimmie Grimm Moves to Ruddy Cove and Settles on + the Slope of the Broken Nose, Where, Falling in With Billy + Topsail and Donald North, He Finds the Latter a Coward, + But Learns the Reason, and Scoffs no Longer. In Which, + Also, Donald North Leaps a Breaker to Save a Salmon Net, + and Acquires a Strut_ + +When old Jim Grimm moved to Ruddy Cove and settled his wife and son in +a little white cottage on the slope of a bare hill called Broken Nose, +Jimmie Grimm was not at all sorry. There were other boys at Ruddy +Cove--far more boys, and jollier boys, and boys with more time to +spare, than at Buccaneer. There was Billy Topsail, for one, a +tow-headed, blue-eyed, active lad of Jimmie's age; and there was +Donald North, for another. Jimmie Grimm liked them both. Billy Topsail +was the elder, and up to more agreeable tricks; but Donald was good +enough company for anybody, and would have been quite as admirable as +Billy Topsail had it not been that he was afraid of the sea. They did +not call him a coward at Ruddy Cove; they merely said that he was +afraid of the sea. + +And Donald North was. + + * * * * * + +Jimmie Grimm, himself no coward in a blow of wind, was inclined to +scoff, at first; but Billy Topsail explained, and then Jimmie Grimm +scoffed no longer, but hoped that Donald North would be cured of fear +before he was much older. As Billy Topsail made plain to the boy, in +excuse of his friend, Donald North was brave enough until he was eight +years old; but after the accident of that season he was so timid that +he shrank from the edge of the cliff when the breakers were beating +the rocks below, and trembled when his father's fishing punt heeled to +the faintest gust. + +"Billy," he had said to Billy Topsail, on the unfortunate day when he +caught the fear, being then but a little chap, "leave us go sail my +new fore-an'-after. I've rigged her out with a fine new mizzens'l." + +"Sure, b'y!" said Billy. "Where to?" + +"Uncle George's wharf-head. 'Tis a place as good as any." + +Off Uncle George's wharf-head the water was deep--deeper than Donald +could fathom at low tide--and it was cold, and covered a rocky bottom, +upon which a multitude of starfish and prickly sea-eggs lay in +clusters. It was green, smooth and clear, too; sight carried straight +down to where the purple-shelled mussels gripped the rocks. + +The tide had fallen somewhat and was still on the ebb. Donald found it +a long reach from the wharf to the water. By and by, as the water ran +out of the harbour, the most he could do was to touch the tip of the +mast of the miniature ship with his fingers. Then a little gust of +wind crept round the corner of the wharf, rippling the water as it +came near. It caught the sails of the new fore-and-after, and the +little craft fell over on another tack and shot away. + +"Here, you!" Donald cried. "Come back, will you?" + +He reached for the mast. His fingers touched it, but the boat escaped +before they closed. He laughed, hitched nearer to the edge of the +wharf, and reached again. The wind had failed; the little boat was +tossing in the ripples, below and just beyond his grasp. + +"I can't cotch her!" he called to Billy Topsail, who was back near +the net-horse, looking for squids. + +Billy looked up, and laughed to see Donald's awkward position--to see +him hanging over the water, red-faced and straining. Donald laughed, +too. At once he lost his balance and fell forward. + +This was in the days before he could swim, so he floundered about in +the water, beating it wildly, to bring himself to the surface. When he +came up, Billy Topsail was leaning over to catch him. Donald lifted +his arm. His fingers touched Billy's, that was all--just touched +them. + +Then he sank; and when he came up again, and again lifted his arm, +there was half a foot of space between his hand and Billy's. Some +measure of self-possession returned. He took a long breath, and let +himself sink. Down he went, weighted by his heavy boots. + +Those moments were full of the terror of which, later, he could not +rid himself. There seemed to be no end to the depth of the water in +that place. But when his feet touched bottom, he was still deliberate +in all that he did. + +For a moment he let them rest on the rock. Then he gave himself a +strong upward push. It needed but little to bring him within reach of +Billy Topsail's hand. He shot out of the water and caught that hand. +Soon afterwards he was safe on the wharf.[1] + +"Sure, mum, I thought I were drownded that time!" he said to his +mother, that night. "When I were goin' down the last time I thought +I'd never see you again." + +"But you wasn't drownded, b'y," said his mother, softly. + +"But I might ha' been," said he. + +There was the rub. He was haunted by what might have happened. Soon he +became a timid, shrinking lad, utterly lacking confidence in the +strength of his arms and his skill with an oar and a sail; and after +that came to pass, his life was hard. He was afraid to go out to the +fishing-grounds, where he must go every day with his father to keep +the head of the punt up to the wind, and he had a great fear of the +wind and the fog and the breakers. But he was not a coward. On the +contrary, although he was circumspect in all his dealings with the +sea, he never failed in his duty. + +In Ruddy Cove all the men put out their salmon nets when the ice +breaks up and drifts away southward, for the spring run of salmon then +begins. These nets are laid in the sea, at right angles to the rocks +and extending out from them; they are set alongshore, it may be a mile +or two, from the narrow passage to the harbour. The outer end is +buoyed and anchored, and the other is lashed to an iron stake which is +driven deep into some crevice of the rock. + +When belated icebergs hang offshore a watch must be kept on the nets, +lest they be torn away or ground to pulp by the ice. + +"The wind's haulin' round a bit, b'y," said Donald's father, one day +in spring, when the lad was twelve years old, and he was in the +company of Jimmie Grimm and Billy Topsail on the sunny slope of the +Broken Nose. "I think 'twill freshen and blow inshore afore night." + +"They's a scattered pan of ice out there, father," said Donald, "and +three small bergs." + +"Yes, b'y, I knows," said North. "'Tis that I'm afeared of. If the +wind changes a bit more, 'twill jam the ice agin the rocks. Does you +think the net is safe?" + +Jimmie Grimm glanced at Billy Topsail; and Billy Topsail glanced at +Jimmie Grimm. + +"Wh-wh-what, sir?" Donald stammered. + +It was quite evident that the net was in danger, but since Donald had +first shown sign of fearing the sea, Job North had not compelled him +to go out upon perilous undertakings. He had fallen into the habit of +leaving the boy to choose his own course, believing that in time he +would master himself. + +"I says," he repeated, quietly, "does you think that net's in +danger?" + +Billy Topsail nudged Jimmie Grimm. They walked off together. It would +never do to witness a display of Donald's cowardice. + +"He'll not go," Jimmie Grimm declared. + +"'Tis not so sure," said Billy. + +"I tell you," Jimmie repeated, confidently, "that he'll never go out +t' save that net." "But!" he added; "he'll have no heart for the +leap." + +"I think he'll go," Billy insisted. + +In the meantime Job North had stood regarding his son. + +"Well, son," he sighed, "what you think about that net?" + +"I think, sir," said Donald, steadily, between his teeth, "that the +net should come in." + +Job North patted the boy on the back. "'Twould be wise, b'y," said he, +smiling. "Come, b'y; we'll go fetch it." + +"So long, Don!" Billy Topsail shouted delightedly. + +Donald and his father put out in the punt. There was a fair, fresh +wind, and with this filling the little brown sail, they were soon +driven out from the quiet water of the harbour to the heaving sea +itself. Great swells rolled in from the open and broke furiously +against the coast rocks. The punt ran alongshore for two miles, +keeping well away from the breakers. When at last she came to that +point where Job North's net was set, Donald furled the sail and his +father took up the oars. + +"'Twill be a bit hard to land," he said. + +Therein lay the danger. There is no beach along that coast. The rocks +rise abruptly from the sea--here, sheer and towering; there, low and +broken. When there is a sea running, the swells roll in and break +against these rocks; and when the breakers catch a punt, they are +certain to smash it to splinters. + +The iron stake to which Job North's net was lashed was fixed in a low +ledge, upon which some hardy shrubs had taken root. The waves were +casting themselves against the rocks below, breaking with a great roar +and flinging spray over the ledge. + +"'Twill be a bit hard," North said again. + +But the salmon-fishers have a way of landing under such conditions. +When their nets are in danger they do not hesitate. The man at the +oars lets the boat drift with the breaker stern foremost towards the +rocks. His mate leaps from the stern seat to the ledge. Then the other +pulls the boat out of danger before the wave curls and breaks. It is +the only way. + +But sometimes the man in the stern miscalculates--leaps too soon, +stumbles, leaps short. He falls back, and is almost inevitably +drowned. Sometimes, too, the current of the wave is too strong for the +man at the oars; his punt is swept in, pull as hard as he may, and he +is overwhelmed with her. Donald knew all this. He had lived in dread +of the time when he must first make that leap. + +"The ice is comin' in, b'y," said North. "'Twill scrape these here +rocks, certain sure. Does you think you're strong enough to take the +oars an' let me go ashore?" + +"No, sir," said Donald. + +"You never leaped afore, did you?" + +"No, sir." + +"Will you try it now, b'y?" said North, quietly. + +"Yes, sir," Donald said, faintly. + +"Get ready, then," said North. + +With a stroke or two of the oars Job swung the stern of the boat to +the rocks. He kept her hanging in this position until the water fell +back and gathered in a new wave; then he lifted his oars. Donald was +crouched on the stern seat, waiting for the moment to rise and +spring. + +The boat moved in, running on the crest of the wave which would a +moment later break against the rock. Donald stood up, and fixed his +eye on the ledge. He was afraid; all the strength and courage he +possessed seemed to desert him. The punt was now almost on a level +with the ledge. The wave was about to curl and fall. It was the +precise moment when he must leap--that instant, too, when the punt +must be pulled out of the grip of the breaker, if at all. + +Billy Topsail and Jimmie Grimm were at this critical moment hanging +off Grief Island, in the lee, whence they could see all that occurred. +They had come out to watch the issue of Donald's courage. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of "The Youth's Companion"_ +PLUCKING UP HIS COURAGE, DONALD LEAPED FOR THE ROCK.] + +"He'll never leap," Jimmie exclaimed. + +"He will," said Billy. + +"He'll not," Jimmie declared. + +"Look!" cried Billy. + +Donald felt of a sudden that he _must_ do this thing. Therefore why +not do it courageously? He leaped; but this new courage had not come +in time. He made the ledge, but he fell an inch short of a firm +footing. So for a moment he tottered, between falling forward and +falling back. Then he caught the branch of an overhanging shrub, and +with this saved himself. When he turned, Job had the punt in safety; +but he was breathing hard, as if the strain had been great. + +"'Twas not so hard, was it, b'y?" said Job. + +"No, sir," said Donald. + +"I told you so," said Billy Topsail to Jimmie Grimm. + +"Good b'y!" Jimmie declared, as he hoisted the sail for the homeward +run. + +Donald cast the net line loose from its mooring, and saw that it was +all clear. His father let the punt sweep in again. It is much easier +to leap from a solid rock than from a boat, so Donald jumped in +without difficulty. Then they rowed out to the buoy and hauled the +great, dripping net over the side. + +It was well they had gone out, for before morning the ice had drifted +over the place where the net had been. More than that, Donald North +profited by his experience. He perceived that if perils must be +encountered, they are best met with a clear head and an unflinching +heart. + +"Wisht you'd been out t' see me jump the day," he said to Jimmie +Grimm, that night. + +Billy and Jimmie laughed. + +"Wisht you had," Donald repeated. + +"We was," said Jimmie. + +Donald threw back his head, puffed out his chest, dug his hands in his +pockets and strutted off. It was the first time, poor lad! he had ever +won the right to swagger in the presence of Jimmie Grimm and Billy +Topsail. To be sure, he made the most of it! + +But he was not yet cured. + +----- + + [1] Donald North himself told me this--told me, too, what he + had thought, and what he said to his mother--N. D. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + + _In Which, Much to the Delight of Jimmie Grimm and Billy + Topsail, Donald North, Having Perilous Business On a Pan + of Ice After Night, is Cured of Fear, and Once More Puffs + Out His Chest and Struts Like a Rooster_ + +Like many another snug little harbour on the northeast coast of +Newfoundland, Ruddy Cove is confronted by the sea and flanked by a +vast wilderness; so all the folk take their living from the sea, as +their forebears have done for generations. In the gales and high seas +of the summer following, and in the blinding snow-storms and bitter +cold of the winter, Donald North grew in fine readiness to face peril +at the call of duty. All that he had gained was put to the test in the +next spring, when the floating ice, which drifts out of the north in +the spring break-up, was driven by the wind against the coast. + +After that adventure, Jimmie Grimm said: + +"You're all right, Don!" + +And Billy Topsail said: + +"You're all right, Don!" + +Donald North, himself, stuck his hands in his pockets, threw out his +chest, spat like a skipper and strutted like a rooster. + +"I 'low I _is_!" said he. + +And he was. And nobody decried his little way of boasting, which +lasted only for a day; and everybody was glad that at last he was like +other boys. + + * * * * * + +Job North, with Alexander Bludd and Bill Stevens, went out on the ice +to hunt seal. The hunt led them ten miles offshore. In the afternoon +of that day the wind gave some sign of changing to the west, and at +dusk it was blowing half a gale offshore. When the wind blows offshore +it sweeps all this wandering ice out to sea, and disperses the whole +pack. + +"Go see if your father's comin', b'y," said Donald's mother. "I'm +gettin' terrible nervous about the ice." + +Donald took his gaff--a long pole of the light, tough dogwood, two +inches thick and shod with iron--and set out. It was growing dark. The +wind, rising still, was blowing in strong, cold gusts. It began to +snow while he was yet on the ice of the harbour, half a mile away +from the pans and dumpers which the wind of the day before had crowded +against the coast. + +When he came to the "standing edge"--the stationary rim of ice which +is frozen to the coast--the wind was thickly charged with snow. What +with dusk and snow, he found it hard to keep to the right way. But he +was not afraid for himself; his only fear was that the wind would +sweep the ice-pack out to sea before his father reached the standing +edge. In that event, as he knew, Job North would be doomed. + +Donald went out on the standing edge. Beyond lay a widening gap of +water. The pack had already begun to move out. + +There was no sign of Job North's party. The lad ran up and down, +hallooing as he ran; but for a time there was no answer to his call. +Then it seemed to him that he heard a despairing hail, sounding far to +the right, whence he had come. Night had almost fallen, and the snow +added to its depth; but as he ran back Donald could still see across +the gap of water to the great pan of ice, which, of all the pack, was +nearest to the standing edge. He perceived that the gap had +considerably widened since he had first observed it. + +"Is that you, father?" he called. + +"Ay, Donald," came an answering hail from directly opposite. "Is there +a small pan of ice on your side?" + +Donald searched up and down the standing edge for a detached cake +large enough for his purpose. Near at hand he came upon a small, thin +pan, not more than six feet square. + +"Haste, b'y!" cried his father. + +"They's one here," he called back, "but 'tis too small. Is there none +there?" + +"No, b'y. Fetch that over." + +Here was desperate need. If the lad were to meet it, he must act +instantly and fearlessly. He stepped out on the pan and pushed off +with his gaff. Using his gaff as a paddle--as these gaffs are +constantly used in ferrying by the Newfoundland fishermen--and helped +by the wind, he soon ferried himself to where Job North stood waiting +with his companions. + +"'Tis too small," said Stevens. "'Twill not hold two." + +North looked dubiously at the pan. Alexander Bludd shook his head in +despair. + +"Get back while you can, b'y," said North. "Quick! We're driftin' +fast! The pan's too small." + +"I thinks 'tis big enough for one man an' me," said Donald. + +"Get aboard an' try it, Alexander," said Job. "Quick, man!" + +Alexander Bludd stepped on. The pan tipped fearfully, and the water +ran over it; but when the weight of the man and the boy was properly +adjusted, it seemed capable of bearing them both across. They pushed +off, and seemed to go well enough; but when Alexander moved to put his +gaff in the water the pan tipped again. Donald came near losing his +footing. He moved nearer the edge and the pan came to a level. They +paddled with all their strength, for the wind was blowing against +them, and there was need of haste if three passages were to be made. +Meantime the gap had grown so wide that the wind had turned the +ripples into waves, which washed over the pan as high as Donald's +ankles. + +But they came safely across. Bludd stepped swiftly ashore, and Donald +pushed off. With the wind in his favour he was soon once more at the +other side. + +"Now, Bill," said North; "your turn next." + +"I can't do it, Job," said Stevens. "Get aboard yourself. The lad +can't come back again. + +"We're driftin' out too fast. He's your lad, an' you've the right +to----" + +"Ay, I can come back," said Donald. "Come on, Bill! Be quick!" + +Stevens was a lighter man than Alexander Bludd; but the passage was +wider, and still widening, for the pack had gathered speed. When +Stevens was safely landed he looked back. A vast white shadow was all +that he could see. Job North's figure had been merged with the night. + +"Donald, b'y," he said, "you got t' go back for your father, but I'm +fair feared you'll never----" + +"Give me a push, Bill," said Donald. + +Stevens caught the end of the gaff and pushed the lad out. + +"Good-bye, Donald," he called. + +When the pan touched the other side Job North stepped aboard without a +word. He was a heavy man. With his great body on the ice-cake, the +difficulty of return was enormously increased, as Donald had foreseen. +The pan was overweighted. Time and again it nearly shook itself free +of its load and rose to the surface. North was near the centre, plying +his gaff with difficulty, but Donald was on the extreme edge. +Moreover, the distance was twice as great as it had been at first, and +the waves were running high, and it was dark. + +They made way slowly. The pan often wavered beneath them; but Donald +was intent upon the thing he was doing, and he was not afraid. Then +came the time--they were but ten yards off the standing edge--when +North struck his gaff too deep into the water. He lost his balance, +struggled to regain it, failed--and fell off. Before Donald was awake +to the danger, the edge of the pan sank under him, and he, too, +toppled off. + +Donald had learned to swim now. When he came to the surface, his +father was breast-high in the water, looking for him. + +"Are you all right, Donald?" said his father. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Can you reach the ice alone?" + +"Yes, sir," said Donald, quietly. + +Alexander Bludd and Bill Stevens helped them up on the standing edge, +and they were home by the kitchen fire in half an hour. + +"'Twas bravely done, b'y," said Job. + +So Donald North learned that perils feared are much more terrible +than perils faced. He had a courage of the finest kind, in the +following days of adventure, now close upon him, had young Donald. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + + _In Which Bagg, Imported From the Gutters of London, Lands + At Ruddy Cove From the Mail-Boat, Makes the Acquaintance + of Jimmie Grimm and Billy Topsail, and Tells Them 'E Wants + to Go 'Ome. In Which, Also, the Way to Catastrophe Is + Pointed_ + +The mail-boat comes to Ruddy Cove in the night, when the shadows are +black and wet, and the wind, blowing in from the sea, is charged with +a clammy mist. The lights in the cottages are blurred by the fog. They +form a broken line of yellow splotches rounding the harbour's edge. +Beyond is deep night and a wilderness into which the wind drives. In +the morning the fog still clings to the coast. Within the cloudy wall +it is all glum and dripping wet. When a veering wind sweeps the fog +away, there lies disclosed a world of rock and forest and fuming sea, +stretching from the end of the earth to the summits of the inland +hills--a place of ruggedness and hazy distances; of silence and a +vast, forbidding loneliness. + +It was on such a morning that Bagg, the London gutter-snipe, having +been landed at Ruddy Cove from the mail-boat the night before--this +being in the fall before Donald North played ferryman between the +standing edge and the floe--it was on such a foggy morning, I say, +that Bagg made the acquaintance of Billy Topsail and Jimmie Grimm. + +"Hello!" said Billy Topsail. + +"Hello!" Jimmie Grimm echoed. + +"You blokes live 'ere?" Bagg whined. + +"Uh-huh," said Billy Topsail. + +"This yer '_ome_?" pursued Bagg. + +Billy nodded. + +"Wisht _I_ was 'ome!" sighed Bagg. "I say," he added, "which way's +'ome from 'ere?" + +"You mean Skipper 'Zekiel's cottage?" + +"I mean Lun'on," said Bagg. + +"Don't know," Billy answered. "You better ask Uncle Tommy Luff. He'll +tell you." + +Bagg had been exported for adoption. The gutters of London are never +exhausted of their product of malformed little bodies and souls; they +provide waifs for the remotest colonies of the empire. So, as it +chanced, Bagg had been exported to Newfoundland--transported from his +native alleys to this vast and lonely place. Bagg was scrawny and +sallow, with bandy legs and watery eyes and a fantastic cranium; and +he had a snub nose, which turned blue when a cold wind struck it. But +when he was landed from the mail-boat he found a warm welcome, just +the same, from Ruth Rideout, Ezekiel's wife, by whom he had been taken +for adoption. + + * * * * * + +Later in the day, old Uncle Tommy Luff, just in from the fishing +grounds off the Mull, where he had been jigging for stray cod all day +long, had moored his punt to the stage-head, and he was now coming up +the path with his sail over his shoulder, his back to the wide, +flaring sunset. Bagg sat at the turn to Squid Cove, disconsolate. The +sky was heavy with glowing clouds, and the whole earth was filled with +a glory such as he had not known before. + +"Shall I arst the ol' beggar when 'e gets 'ere?" mused Bagg. + +Uncle Tommy looked up with a smile. + +"I say, mister," piped Bagg, when the old man came abreast, "which +way's 'ome from 'ere?" + +"Eh, b'y?" said Uncle Tommy. + +"'Ome, sir. Which way is 'ome from 'ere?" + +In that one word Bagg's sickness of heart expressed itself--in the +quivering, wistful accent. + +"Is you 'Zekiel Rideout's lad?" said Uncle Tommy. + +"Don't yer make no mistake, mister," said Bagg, somewhat resentfully. +"I ain't nothink t' nobody." + +"I knowed you was that lad," Uncle Tommy drawled, "when I seed the +size o' you. Sure, b'y, you knows so well as me where 'Zekiel's place +is to. 'Tis t' the head o' Burnt Cove, there, with the white railin', +an' the tater patch aft o' the place where they spreads the fish. +Sure, you knows the way home." + +"I mean Lun'on, mister," Bagg urged. + +"Oh, home!" said Uncle Tommy. "When I was a lad like you, b'y, just +here from the West Country, me fawther told me if I steered a course +out o' the tickle an' kept me starn fair for the meetin'-house, I'd +sure get home t' last." + +"Which way, mister?" + +Uncle Tommy pointed out to sea--to that far place in the east where +the dusk was creeping up over the horizon. + +"There, b'y," said he. "Home lies there." + +Then Uncle Tommy shifted his sail to the other shoulder and trudged on +up the hill; and Bagg threw himself on the ground and wept until his +sobs convulsed his scrawny little body. + +"I want to go 'ome!" he sobbed. "I want to go 'ome!" + + * * * * * + +No wonder that Bagg, London born and bred, wanted to go home to the +crowd and roar and glitter of the streets to which he had been used. +It was fall in Ruddy Cove, when the winds are variable and gusty, when +the sea is breaking under the sweep of a freshening breeze and yet +heaving to the force of spent gales. Fogs, persistently returning with +the east wind, filled the days with gloom and dampness. Great breakers +beat against the harbour rocks; the swish and thud of them never +ceased, nor was there any escape from it. + +Bagg went to the fishing grounds with Ezekiel Rideout, where he jigged +for the fall run of cod; and there he was tossed about in the lop, and +chilled to the marrow by the nor'easters. Many a time the punt ran +heeling and plunging for the shelter of the harbour, with the spray +falling upon Bagg where he cowered amidships; and once she was nearly +undone by an offshore gale. In the end Bagg learned consideration for +the whims of a punt and acquired an unfathomable respect for a gust +and a breaking wave. + +Thus the fall passed, when the catching and splitting and drying of +fish was a distraction. Then came the winter--short, drear days, mere +breaks in the night, when there was no relief from the silence and +vasty space round about, and the dark was filled with the terrors of +snow and great winds and loneliness. At last the spring arrived, when +the ice drifted out of the north in vast floes, bearing herds of +hair-seal within reach of the gaffs of the harbour folk, and was +carried hither and thither with the wind. + +Then there came a day when the wind gathered the dumpers and pans in +one broad mass and jammed it against the coast. The sea, where it had +lain black and fretful all winter long, was now covered and hidden. +The ice stretched unbroken from the rocks of Ruddy Cove to the limit +of vision in the east. And Bagg marvelled. There seemed to be a solid +path from Ruddy Cove straight away in the direction in which Uncle +Tommy Luff had said that England lay. + +Notwithstanding the comfort and plenty of his place with Aunt Ruth +Rideout and Uncle Ezekiel, Bagg still longed to go back to the gutters +of London. + +"I want to go 'ome," he often said to Billy Topsail and Jimmie Grimm. + +"What for?" Billy once demanded. + +"Don't know," Bagg replied. "I jus' want to go 'ome." + +At last Bagg formed a plan. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + + _In Which Bagg, Unknown to Ruddy Cove, Starts for Home, + and, After Some Difficulty, Safely Gets There_ + +Uncle Tommy Luff, coming up the hill one day when the ice was jammed +against the coast and covered the sea as far as sight carried, was +stopped by Bagg at the turn to Squid Cove. + +"I say, mister," said Bagg, "which way was you tellin' me Lun'on was +from 'ere?" + +Uncle Tommy pointed straight out to the ice-covered sea. + +"That way?" asked Bagg. + +"Straight out o' the tickle with the meetin'-house astarn." + +"Think a bloke could ever get there?" Bagg inquired. + +Uncle Tommy laughed. "If he kep' on walkin' he'd strike it some time," +he answered. + +"Sure?" Bagg demanded. + +"If he kep' on walkin'," Uncle Tommy repeated, smiling. + +This much may be said of the ice: the wind which carries it inshore +inevitably sweeps it out to sea again, in an hour or a day or a week, +as it may chance. The whole pack--the wide expanse of enormous +fragments of fields and glaciers--is in the grip of the wind, which, +as all men know, bloweth where it listeth. A nor'east gale sets it +grinding against the coast, but when the wind veers to the west the +pack moves out and scatters. + +If a man is caught in that great rush and heaving, he has nothing +further to do with his own fate but wait. He escapes if he has +strength to survive until the wind blows the ice against the coast +again--not else. When the Newfoundlander starts out to the seal hunt +he makes sure, in so far as he can, that no change in the wind is +threatened. + +Uncle Ezekiel Rideout kept an eye on the weather that night. + +"Be you goin', b'y?" said Ruth, looking up from her weaving. + +Ezekiel had just come in from Lookout Head, where the watchers had +caught sight of the seals, swarming far off in the shadows. + +"They's seals out there," he said, "but I don't know as us'll go the +night. 'Tis like the wind'll haul t' the west." + +"What do Uncle Tommy Luff say?" + +"That 'twill haul t' the west an' freshen afore midnight." + +"Sure, then, you'll not be goin', b'y?" + +"I don't know as anybody'll go," said he. "Looks a bit too nasty for +'em." + +Nevertheless, Ezekiel put some pork and hard-bread in his dunny bag, +and made ready his gaff and tow-lines, lest, by chance, the weather +should promise fair at midnight. + +"Where's that young scamp?" said Ezekiel, with a smile--a smile which +expressed a fine, indulgent affection. + +"Now, I wonder where he is?" said Ruth, pausing in her work. "He've +been gone more'n an hour, sure." + +"Leave un bide where he is so long as he likes," said he. "Sure he +must be havin' a bit o' sport. 'Twill do un good." + +Ezekiel sat down by the fire and dozed. From time to time he went to +the door to watch the weather. From time to time Aunt Ruth listened +for the footfalls of Bagg coming up the path. After a long time she +put her work away. The moon was shining through a mist; so she sat at +the window, for from there she could see the boy when he rounded the +turn to the path. She wished he would come home. + +"I'll go down t' Topsail's t' see what's t' be done about the seals," +said Ezekiel. + +"Keep a lookout for the b'y," said she. + +Ezekiel was back in half an hour. "Topsail's gone t' bed," said he. +"Sure, no one's goin' out the night. The wind's hauled round t' the +west, an' 'twill blow a gale afore mornin'. The ice is movin' out slow +a'ready. Be that lad out yet?" + +"Yes, b'y," said Ruth, anxiously. "I wisht he'd come home." + +"I--I--wisht he would," said Ezekiel. + +Ruth went to the door and called Bagg by name. + +But there was no answer. + + * * * * * + +Offshore, four miles offshore, Bagg was footing it for England as fast +as his skinny little legs would carry him. The way was hard--a +winding, uneven path over the pack. It led round clumpers, over ridges +which were hard to scale, and across broad, slippery pans. The frost +had glued every fragment to its neighbour; for the moment the pack +formed one solid mass, continuous and at rest, but the connection +between its parts was of the slenderest, needing only a change of the +wind or the ground swell of the sea to break it everywhere. + +The moon was up. It was half obscured by a haze which was driving out +from the shore, to which quarter the wind had now fairly veered. The +wind was rising--coming in gusts, in which, soon, flakes of snow +appeared. But there was light enough to keep to the general direction +out from the coast, and the wind but helped Bagg along. + +"I got t' 'urry up," thought he. + +The boy looked behind. Ruddy Cove was within sight. He was surprised +that the coast was still so near. + +"Got t' 'urry up a bit more," he determined. + +He was elated--highly elated. He thought that his old home was but a +night's journey distant; at most, not more than a night and a day, and +he had more than food enough in his pockets to last through that. He +was elated; but from time to time a certain regret entered in, and it +was not easily cast out. He remembered the touch of Aunt Ruth's lips, +and her arm, which had often stolen about him in the dusk; and he +remembered that Uncle Ezekiel had beamed upon him most affectionately, +in times of mischief and good works alike. He had been well loved in +Ruddy Cove. + +"Wisht I'd told Aunt Ruth," Bagg thought. + +On he trudged--straight out to sea. + +"Got t' 'urry up," thought he. + +Again the affection of Aunt Ruth occurred to him. She had been very +kind; and as for Uncle 'Zeke--why, nobody could have been kinder. + +"Wisht I _'ad_ told Aunt Ruth," Bagg regretted. "Might o' said +good-bye anyhow." + +The ice was now drifting out; but the wind had not yet risen to that +measure of strength wherewith it tears the pack to pieces, nor had the +sea attacked it. There was a gap of two hundred yards between the +coast rocks and the edge of the ice, but that was far, far back, and +hidden from sight. The pack was drifting slowly, smoothly, still in +one compact mass. Its motion was not felt by Bagg, who pressed +steadily on toward England, eager again, but fast growing weary. + +"Got t' 'urry up," thought he. + +But presently he must rest; and while he rested the wind gathered +strength. It went singing over the pack, pressing ever with a stronger +hand upon its dumpers and ridges--pushing it, everywhere, faster and +faster out to sea. The pack was on the point of breaking in pieces +under the strain, but the wind still fell short of the power to rend +it. There was a greater volume of snow falling; it was driven past in +thin, swirling clouds. Hence the light of the moon began to fail. Far +away, at the rim of the pack, the sea was eating its way in, but the +swish and crash of its work was too far distant to be heard. + +"I ain't nothink t' nobody but Aunt Ruth," Bagg thought, as he rose to +continue the tramp. + +On he went, the wind lending him wings; but at last his legs gave out +at the knees, and he sat down again to rest. This was in the lee of a +clumper, where he was comfortably sheltered. He was still warm--in a +glow of heat, indeed--and his hope was still with him. So far he had +suffered from nothing save weariness. So he began to dream of what he +would do when he got home, just as all men do when they come near, +once again, to that old place where they were born. The wind was now +a gale, blowing furiously; the pack was groaning in its outlying +parts. + +"Nothink t' nobody," Bagg grumbled, on his way once more. + +Then he stopped dead--in terror. He had heard the breaking of an +ice-pan--a great clap and rumble, vanishing in the distance. The noise +was repeated, all roundabout--bursting from everywhere, rising to a +fearful volume: near at hand, a cracking; far off, a continuing roar. +The pack was breaking up. Each separate part was torn from another, +and the noise of the rending was great. Each part ground against its +neighbour on every side. The weaker pans were crushed like egg-shells. +Then the whole began to feel the heave of the sea. + +"It's a earthquake!" thought Bagg. "I better 'urry up." + +He looked back over the way he had come--searching the shadows for +Ruddy Cove. But the coast was lost to sight. + +"Must be near acrost, now," he thought. "I'll 'urry up." + +So he turned his back on Ruddy Cove and ran straight out to sea, for +he thought that England was nearer than the coast he had left. He was +now upon a pan, both broad and thick--stout enough to withstand the +pressure of the pack. It was a wide field of ice, which the cold of +the far North, acting through many years, it may be, had made strong. +Elsewhere the pans were breaking--were lifting themselves out of the +press and falling back in pieces--were being ground to finest +fragments. This mighty confusion of noise and wind and snow and night, +and the upheaval of the whole world roundabout, made the soul of Bagg +shiver within him. It surpassed the terrors of his dreams. + +"Guess I never _will_ get 'ome," thought he. + +Soon he came to the edge of the pan. Beyond, where the pack was in +smaller blocks, the sea was swelling beneath it. The ice was all +heaving and swaying. He dared not venture out upon this shifting +ground. So he ran up and down, seeking a path onward; but he +discovered none. Meantime, the parts of the pack had fallen into +easier positions; the noise of crunching, as the one ground against +the other, had somewhat abated. The ice continued its course outward, +under the driving force of the wind, but the pressure was relieved. +The pans fell away from one another. Lakes and lanes of water opened +up. The pan upon which Bagg chanced to find himself in the great +break-up soon floated free. There was now no escape from it. + +Bagg retreated from the edge, for the seas began to break there. + +"Wisht I was 'ome again," he sobbed. + +This time he did not look towards England, but wistfully back to Ruddy +Cove. + + * * * * * + +The gale wasted away in the night. The next day was warm and sunny on +all that coast. An ice-pack hung offshore from Fortune Harbour. In the +afternoon it began to creep in with a light wind. The first pans +struck the coast at dusk. The folk of the place were on the Head, on +the lookout for the sign of a herd of seal. Just before night fell +they spied a black speck, as far out from shore as their eyes could +see. + +"They'll be seals out there the morrow," the men were all agreed. + +So they went home and prepared to set out at dawn of the next day. In +the night, the wind swept the whole pack in, to the last lagging pan. +The ice was all jammed against the coast--a firm, vast expanse, +stretching to the horizon, and held in place by the wind, which +continued strong and steady. The men of Fortune Harbour went +confidently out to the hunt. At noon, when they were ten miles off the +shore, they perceived the approach of a small, black figure. + +The meeting came soon afterwards, for the folk of Fortune Harbour, +being both curious and quick to respond to need, made haste. + +"I say, mister," said Bagg, briskly, addressing old John Forsyth, "yer +'aven't got no 'am, 'ave yer?" + +The men of Fortune Harbour laughed. + +"Or nothink else, 'ave yer?" Bagg continued, hopefully. "I'm a bit +'ungry." + +"Sure, b'y," said Forsyth. "I've a biscuit an' a bit o' pork." + +"'Ave yer, now?" said Bagg. "Would yer mind giv----" + +But his hands were already full. A moment later his mouth was in the +same condition. + +"How'd you come out here?" said Forsyth. + +"Swep' out," said Bagg. "I say, mister," he added, between munches, +"which way would yer say my 'ome was from 'ere?" + +"Where's your home?" + +"Ruddy Cove," said Bagg. + +"'Tis fifteen mile up the coast." + +"'Ow would you get there quickest if yer 'ad to?" + +"We'll take care o' you, b'y," said Forsyth. "We'll put you t' Ruddy +Cove in a skiff, when the ice goes out. Seems t' me," he added, "you +must be the boy Ezekiel Rideout took. Isn't you Ezekiel Rideout's +boy?" + +"Bet yer life I am," said Bagg. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + _In Which Jimmie Grimm and Billy Topsail, Being Added Up + and Called a Man, Are Shipped For St. John's, With Bill o' + Burnt Bay, Where They Fall In With Archie Armstrong, Sir + Archibald's Son, and Bill o' Burnt Bay Declines to Insure + the "First Venture"_ + +Of course, Donald North, who had been ferryman to his father, had no +foolishly romantic idea of his experience on that pan of ice; nor had +Jimmie Grimm, nor had Billy Topsail. Donald North would not have +called it an adventure, nor himself a hero; he would have said, +without any affectation of modesty, "Oh, that was jus' a little mess!" +The thing had come in the course of the day's work: that was all. +Something had depended upon him, and, greatly to his elation, he had +"made good." It was no more to him than a hard tackle to a boy of the +American towns. Any sound American boy--any boy of healthy courage and +clean heart--would doubtless have taken Job North off the drifting +floe; and Donald North, for his part, would no doubt have made the +tackle and saved the goal--though frightened to a greenish pallor--had +he ever been face to face with the necessity. Had he ever survived a +football game, he would have thought himself a hero, and perhaps have +boasted more than was pleasant; but to have taken a larger chance with +his life on a pan of ice was so small and usual a thing as presently +to be forgotten. + +Newfoundland boys are used to that. + + * * * * * + +It was still spring at Ruddy Cove--two weeks or more after Bagg came +back to his real home--when Donald North's friends, Billy Topsail and +Jimmie Grimm, fell into considerable peril in a gale of wind off the +Chunks. Even they--used to such adventures as they were--called it a +narrow escape. + +"No more o' that for _me_," said Billy Topsail, afterwards. + +"Nor me," said Jimmie Grimm. + +"You'll both o' you take all that comes your way," Bill o' Burnt Bay +put in, tartly. + +It was aboard the _First Venture_, which Bill o' Burnt Bay had as +master-builder built at Ruddy Cove for himself. She was to be his--she +_was_ his--and he loved her from stem to stern. And she was his +because Sir Archibald Armstrong, the great St. John's merchant and +ship-owner, had advanced the money to build her in recognition of +Skipper Bill's courageous rescue of Archie Armstrong, Sir Archibald's +only son, in a great blizzard, on the sealing voyage of the year +before.[2] At any rate, the _First Venture_ was Bill's; and she was +now afloat and finished, rigged to the last strand of rope. To say +that Skipper Bill was proud of her does not begin to express the way +in which he loved her. + +"Now, look you, Billy Topsail, and you, too, Jimmie Grimm!" said he, +gravely, one day, beckoning the boys near. + +The _First Venture_ was lying at anchor in the harbour, ready for her +maiden voyage to St. John's. + +"I'm in need of a man aboard this here craft," Bill o' Burnt Bay went +on; "an' as there's none t' be had in this harbour I'm thinkin' of +addin' you two boys up an' callin' the answer t' the sum a man." + +"Wisht you would, Skipper Bill," said Jimmie. + +"Two halves makes a whole," Bill mused, scratching his head in doubt. +"Leastwise, so I was teached." + +"They teach it in school," said Jimmie. + +Billy Topsail grinned delightedly. + +"Well," Bill declared, at last, "I'll take you, no matter what comes +of it, for there's nothing else I can do." + +It wasn't quite complimentary; but the boys didn't mind. + + * * * * * + +When the _First Venture_ made St. John's it was still early enough in +the spring of the year for small craft to be at sea. When she was +ready to depart on the return voyage to Ruddy Cove, the days were days +of changeable weather, of wind and snow, of fog and rain, of +unseasonable intervals of quiet sunshine. The predictions of the +wiseacres were not to be trusted; and, at any rate, every forecast was +made with a wag of the head that implied a large mental reservation. +At sea it was better to proceed with caution. To be prepared for +emergencies--to expect the worst and to be ready for it--was the part +of plain common sense. And Skipper Bill o' Burnt Bay was well aware of +this. + +The _First Venture_ lay in dock at St. John's. She was loaded for +Ruddy Cove and the ports beyond. Skipper Bill had launched himself as +a coastwise skipper--master of the stout _First Venture_, carrying +freight to the northern settlements at a fair rate for all comers. The +hold was full to the deck; and the deck itself was cumbered with casks +and cases, all lashed fast in anticipation of a rough voyage. It was a +miscellaneous cargo: flour, beef, powder and shot, molasses, kerosene, +clothing--such necessities, in short, as the various merchants to whom +the cargo was consigned could dispose of to the people of the coast, +and such simple comforts as the people could afford. + +She was a trim and stout little fore-and-aft schooner of fifty tons +burthen. The viewers had awarded the government bounty without a +quibble. Old John Hulton, the chief of them--a terror to the slipshod +master-builders--had frankly said that she was an honest little craft +from bowsprit to taffrail. The newspapers had complimented Bill o' +Burnt Bay, her builder, in black and white which could not be +disputed. They had even called Skipper Bill "one of the honest +master-builders of the outports." Nor had they forgotten to add the +hope that "in the hands of Skipper William, builder and master, the +new craft will have many and prosperous voyages." By this praise, of +course, Skipper Bill was made to glow from head to foot with happy +gratification. + +All the _First Venture_ wanted was a fair wind out. + +"She can leg it, sir," Skipper Bill said to Sir Archibald, running his +eyes over the tall, trim spars of the new craft; "an' once she gets t' +sea she's got ballast enough t' stand up to a sousing breeze. With any +sort o' civil weather she ought t' make Ruddy Cove in five days." + +"I'd not drive her too hard," said Sir Archibald, who had come down to +look at the new schooner for a purpose. + +Bill o' Burnt Bay looked up in amazement. This from the hard-sailing +Sir Archibald! + +"Not too hard," Sir Archibald repeated. + +Skipper Bill laughed. + +"I'm sure," said Sir Archibald, "that Mrs. William had rather have you +come safe than unexpected. Be modest, Skipper Bill, and reef the +_Venture_ when she howls for mercy." + +"I'll bargain t' reef her, sir," Bill replied, "when I thinks you +would yourself." + +"Oh, come, skipper!" Sir Archibald laughed. + +Bill o' Burnt Bay roared like the lusty sea-dog he was. + +"I've good reason for wishing you to go cautiously," said Sir +Archibald, gravely. + +Bill looked up with interest. + +"You've settled at Ruddy Cove, skipper?" + +"Ay, sir," Bill answered. "I moved the wife t' Ruddy Cove when I +undertook t' build the _Venture_." + +"I'm thinking of sending Archie down to spend the summer," said Sir +Archibald. + +Bill o' Burnt Bay beamed largely and delightedly. + +"Do you think," Sir Archibald went on, with a little grin, "that Mrs. +Skipper William would care to take him in?" + +"_Care?_" Skipper Bill exclaimed. "Why, sir, 'twould be as good as +takin' her a stick o' peppermint." + +"He'll come aboard this afternoon," said Sir Archibald. + +"He'll be second mate o' the _Venture_," Bill declared. + +"Skipper," said Sir Archibald, presently, "you'll be wanting this +craft insured, I suppose?" + +"Well, no, sir," Bill drawled. + +Sir Archibald frowned. "No trouble for me to take the papers out for +you," said he. + +"You see, sir," Bill explained, "I was allowin' t' save that there +insurance money." + +"Penny wise and pound foolish," said Sir Archibald. + +"Oh," drawled Skipper Bill, "I'll manage t' get her t' Ruddy Cove well +enough. Anyhow," he added, "'twon't be wind nor sea that will wreck my +schooner." + +"As you will," said Sir Archibald, shortly; "the craft's yours." + + * * * * * + +Archie Armstrong came aboard that afternoon--followed by two porters +and two trunks. He was Sir Archibald's son; there was no doubt about +that: a fine, hardy lad--robust, straight, agile, alert, with his head +carried high; merry, quick-minded, ready-tongued, fearless in wind and +high sea. His hair was tawny, his eyes blue and wide and clear, his +face broad and good-humoured. He was something of a small dandy, too, +as the two porters and the two trunks might have explained. The cut of +his coat, the knot in his cravat, the polish on his boots, the set of +his knickerbockers, were always matters of deep concern to him. But +this did not interfere with his friendship with Billy Topsail, the +outport boy. That friendship had been formed in times of peril and +hardship, when a boy was a boy, and clothes had had nothing to say in +the matter. + +Archie bounded up the gangplank, crossed the deck in three leaps and +stuck his head into the forecastle. + +"Ahoy, Billy Topsail!" he roared. + +"Ahoy, yourself!" Billy shouted. "Come below, Archie, an' take a look +at Jimmie Grimm." + +Jimmie Grimm was at once taken into the company of friends. + +----- + + [2] The story of this voyage--the tale of the time when Archie + Armstrong and Billy Topsail and Bill o' Burnt Bay were lost in + the snow on the ice-floe--with certain other happenings in which + Billy Topsail was involved--is related in "The Adventures of + Billy Topsail." + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of "The Youth's Companion"_ +SHE WAS BEATING LABORIOUSLY INTO A VIOLENT HEAD WIND.] + + + + +CHAPTER X + + + _In Which the Cook Smells Smoke, and the "First Venture" + In a Gale of Wind Off the Chunks, Comes Into Still Graver + Peril, Which Billy Topsail Discovers_ + +Skipper Bill o' Burnt Bay got the _First Venture_ under way at dawn of +the next day. It was blowing a stiff breeze. A fine, fresh wind was +romping fair to the northwest, where, far off, Ruddy Cove lay and Mrs. +Skipper William waited. + +"I 'low," Skipper Bill mused, as the schooner slipped through the +narrows, "that that there insurance wouldn't o' done much harm +anyhow." + +There was an abrupt change of weather. It came without warning; and +there was no hint of apology to the skipper of the _First Venture_. +When the schooner was still to the s'uth'ard of the dangerous Chunks, +but approaching them, she was beating laboriously into a violent and +capricious head wind. Bill o' Burnt Bay, giving heed to Sir +Archibald's injunction, kept her well off the group of barren islands. +They were mere rocks, scattered widely. Some of them showed their +forbidding heads to passing craft; others were submerged, as though +lying in wait. It would be well to sight them, he knew, that he might +better lay his course; but he was bound that no lurking rock should +"pick up" his ship. + +"Somehow or other," he thought, "I wisht I _had_ took out that there +insurance." + +At dusk it began to snow. What with this thick, blinding cloud driving +past, shrouding the face of the sea, and what with the tumultuous +waves breaking over her, and what with the roaring gale drowning her +lee rail, the _First Venture_ was having a rough time of it. Skipper +Bill, with his hands on the wheel, had the very satisfactory +impression, for which he is not to be blamed, that he was "a man." But +when, at last, the _First Venture_ began to howl for mercy in no +uncertain way, he did not hesitate to waive the wild joy of "driving" +for the satisfaction of keeping his spars in the sockets. + +"Better call the hands, Tom!" he shouted to the first hand. "We'll +reef her." + +Tom put his head into the forecastle. The fire in the little round +stove was roaring lustily; and the swinging lamp filled the narrow +place with warm light. + +"Out with you, lads!" Tom cried. "All hands on deck t' reef the +mains'l!" + +Up they tumbled; and up tumbled Archie Armstrong, and up tumbled +Jimmie Grimm, and up tumbled Billy Topsail. + +"Blowin' some," thought Archie. "Great sailin' breeze. What's he +reefin' for?" + +The great sail was obstinate. Ease the schooner as Skipper Bill would, +it was still hard for his crew of two men, three lads and a cook to +grasp and confine the canvas. Meantime, the schooner lurched along, +tossing her head, digging her nose into the frothy waves. A cask on +the after deck broke its lashings, pursued a mad and devastating +career fore and aft, and at last went spinning into the sea. Skipper +Bill devoutly hoped that nothing else would get loose above or below. +He cast an apprehensive glance into the darkening cloud of snow ahead. +There was no promise to be descried. And to leeward the first islands +of the Chunks, which had been sighted an hour ago, had disappeared in +the night. + +"Lively with that mains'l, lads!" Skipper Bill shouted, lifting his +voice above the wind. "We'll reef the fores'l!" + +The crew had been intent upon the task in hand. Not a man had yet +smelled smoke. And they continued to wrestle with the obstinate sail, +each wishing, heartily enough, to get the dirty-weather job well done, +and to return to the comfort of the forecastle. It was the cook who +first paused to sniff--to sniff again--and to fancy he smelled smoke. +But a gust of wind at that moment bellied his fold of the sail, and he +forgot the dawning suspicion in an immediate tussle to reduce the +disordered canvas. A few minutes more of desperate work and the +mainsail was securely reefed; but these were supremely momentous +intervals, during which the fate of the _First Venture_ was +determined. + +"All stowed, sir!" Archie Armstrong shouted to the skipper. + +"Get at that fores'l, then!" was the order. + +With the customary, "Ay, ay, sir!" shouted cheerily, in the manner of +good men and willing lads, the crew ran forward. + +Skipper Bill remembers that the cook tripped and went sprawling into +the lee scupper; and that he scrambled out of the water with a +laugh. + +It was the last laugh aboard the _First Venture_; for the condition of +the schooner was then instantly discovered. + +"Fire!" screamed Billy Topsail. + +The _First Venture_ was all ablaze forward. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + + _In Which the "First Venture" All Ablaze Forward, Is + Headed For the Rocks and Breakers of the Chunks, While + Bill o' Burnt Bay and His Crew Wait for the Explosion of + the Powder in Her Hold. In Which, Also, a Rope Is Put to + Good Use_ + +"Fire!" + +A cloud of smoke broke from the forecastle and was swept off by the +wind. A tongue of red flame flashed upward and expired. Skipper Bill +did not need the cries of terror and warning to inform him. The _First +Venture_ was afire! And she was not only afire; she was off the Chunks +in a gale of wind and snow. + +"Aft, here, one o' you!" + +When Billy Topsail took the wheel, the skipper plunged into the +forecastle. It was a desperate intention. He was back in a moment, +singed and gasping. But in that interval he had made out that the +forecastle stove, in some violent lurch of the schooner, had broken +loose, and had been bandied about, distributing red coals in every +part. He had made out, moreover, that the situation of the schooner +was infinitely perilous, if not, indeed, quite beyond hope. The +forecastle was all ablaze. In five minutes it would be a furnace. + +"We're lost!" Jimmie Grimm cried, staring at the frothy waves running +past. + +"Not yet," Archie grimly replied. + +They were all of heart and strength and ingenuity; and they worked +with all their might. But the buckets of water, and the great seas, +which Skipper Bill, in desperation, deliberately shipped, made little +impression. It was soon evident that the little _First Venture_ was +doomed. Meantime, the skipper had brought her before the wind, and she +was now flying towards the inhospitable Chunks. The skipper was less +concerned for his schooner than for the lives of his crew. The ship +was already lost; the crew--well, how _could_ the crew survive the +rocks and gigantic breakers of the Chunks? + +It was the only hope. No small boat could for a moment live in the sea +that was running. The schooner must be beached on the Chunks. There +was no other refuge. But how beach her? It was a dark night, with the +snow flying thick. Was it possible to sight a black, low-lying rock? +There was nothing for it but to drive with the wind in the hope of +striking. There were many islands; she might strike one. But would it +really be an island, whereon a man might crawl out of reach of the +sea? or would it be a rock swept by the breakers? Chance would +determine that. Skipper Bill was powerless. + +But would she make the Chunks before she was ablaze from stem to +stern? Again, the skipper was powerless; he could do no more than give +her all the wind that blew. + +So he ordered the reefs shaken out--and waited. + +"Tom," said the skipper, presently, to the first hand, "was it you +stowed the cargo?" + +"Yes, sir." + +There was a pause. Archie Armstrong and Jimmie Grimm, aft near the +wheel, wondered why the skipper had put the question. + +"An' where," the skipper asked, quietly, "did you put the powder?" + +"For'ard, sir." + +"How far for'ard?" + +"Fair up against the forecastle bulkhead!" + +The appalling significance of this was plain to the crew. The +bulkhead was a thin partition dividing the forecastle from the hold. + +"Archie," Skipper Bill drawled, "you better loose the stays'l sheet. +She ought t' do better than this." He paused. "Fair against the +forecastle bulkhead?" he continued. "Tom, you better get the hatch +off, an' see what you're able t' do about gettin' them six kegs o' +powder out. No--bide here!" he added. "Take the wheel again, Billy. +Get that hatch off, some o' you." + +It was the skipper himself who dropped into the hold. The cargo was +packed tight. Heavy barrels of flour, puncheons of molasses, casks of +pork and beef, lay between the skipper and the powder. He crawled +forward, wriggling in the narrow space between the freight and the +deck. No fire had as yet entered the hold; but the place was full of +stifling smoke. It was apparent that the removal of the powder would +be the labour of hours; and there were no hours left for labour. The +skipper could stand the smoke no longer. He retreated towards the +hatch. How long it would be before the fire communicated itself to the +cargo--how long it would be before the explosion of six kegs of powder +would scatter the wreck of the _First Venture_ upon the surface of +the sea--no man could tell. But the end was inevitable. + +Anxious questions greeted the skipper when again he stood upon the +wind-swept deck. + +"Close the hatch," said he. + +"No chance, sir?" Archie asked. + +"No, b'y." + +The forecastle was already closed. There was no gleam of fire anywhere +to be seen. The bitter wind savoured of smoke; nothing else betrayed +the schooner's peril. + +"Now, get you all back aft!" was the skipper's command. "Keep her head +as it points." + +When the crew had crept away to the place remotest from the danger +point, Bill o' Burnt Bay went forward to keep a lookout for the rocks +and breakers. The burning forecastle was beneath his feet; he could +hear the crackling of the fire; and the smoke, rising now more +voluminously, troubled his nostrils and throat. It was pitch dark +ahead. There was no blacker shadow of land, no white flash of water, +to give him hope. It seemed as though an unbroken expanse of sea lay +before the labouring _First Venture_. But the skipper knew to the +contrary; somewhere in the night into which he stared--somewhere +near, and, momentarily, drawing nearer--lay the Chunks. He wondered if +the _First Venture_ would strike before the explosion occurred. It +must be soon, he knew. The possibility of being off the course did not +trouble him. + +Soon the seams of the deck began to open. Smoke poured out in +thickening clouds. Points of light, fast changing to lines of flame, +warned the skipper that he must retreat. It was not, however, until +heat and smoke and the certain prospect of collapse compelled him, +that he joined the crew. He was not a spectacular hero; when common +sense dictated return, he obeyed without delay, and without maudlin +complaint. Without a word he took the wheel from Billy Topsail's +hands, and without a word he kept the schooner on her course. There +was no need of command or advice; men and boys knew their situation +and their duty. + +"It can't be long," said the cook. + +There was now a glow of red light above the forecastle. The fire was +about to break through. It was not hard to surmise that the collapse +of the bulkhead was imminent. + +"No, sir!" the fidgety cook repeated. "It can't be long, now." + +It seemed long. Minute after minute passed, each of incredible length, +while the _First Venture_ staggered forward, wildly pitching through +the seas. At last, the flames broke out of the forecastle and +illuminated the deck. + +"Not long, now!" the cook whimpered. "It _can't_ be!" + +Nor was it. The _First Venture_ struck. She was upon the rocks before +the skipper was well aware that breakers lay ahead. Her bow fell, +struck, was lifted, fell again, and fastened itself. The next wave +flung the schooner broadside. The third completed the turn. She lay +with her head pointing into the wind. Her stern, where the crew stood +waiting for the end, rose and fell on the verge of a great breaker. +Beyond was a broken cliff, rising to unwashed heights, which the snow +had begun to whiten. The bow was lifted clear of the waves; the stern +was awash. A space of white water lay between the schooner and the +shore. + +Bill o' Burnt Bay let go his grip on the wheel. There was but one +thing to do. Many a skipper had done it before; but never before had +there been such desperate need of haste. The fire still burned +lustily; and the forecastle was high out of the water. + +"If I can't do it," the skipper shouted, "it's the first hand's turn +next." + +He had fastened the end of a coil of rope about his waist. Now he +stood swaying on the taffrail. By the light of the fire--uncertain and +dull--he must act. He leaped a moment after the next wave had slipped +under the stern--when, in the current, he should reach the rocks just +after the wave had broken. The crew waited a long time. Many a glance +was cast forward; it seemed to them all, such headway had the fire +made, that the six kegs of powder must explode the very next instant. +No sign came from the skipper; and no sight of him could be caught. +They paid out the rope--and waited. The rope was for a long time loose +in their hands. + +"He's landed!" cried Jimmie Grimm. + +The rope was hauled taut. Upon the rocks, out of reach of the sea, the +figure of the skipper could be seen. + +"One at a time!" Skipper Bill shouted. + +And one at a time they went--decently and in order, like true +Newfoundland sailors, Tom Rook, the first hand, the last of all. When +they were all ashore, they scrambled like mad up the cliff; and they +were no more than out of danger when the _First Venture_ was blown to +atoms. There was a flash, a deafening roar--and darkness; broken only +by the spluttering splinters of the little craft. + + * * * * * + +That night, from Heart's Harbour, the folk observed a ship afire, +running in towards the Chunks. To the report they sent immediately to +St. John's--there happens fortunately to be a government telegraph +station at Heart's Harbour--they added, later, that she had blown up. +But from St. John's the salvage-tug _Hurricane_ was dispatched into +the stormy sea in search of the survivors; and on the second day +following she picked up Skipper Bill o' Burnt Bay and his crew. + +Next day they were in St. John's. + +"Wisht I'd took your advice about the insurance, sir," broken-hearted +Bill o' Burnt Bay said to Sir Archibald. + +Sir Archibald laughed. "I took it for you," said he. + +"What?" Skipper Bill exploded. + +"I insured the _First Venture_ on my own responsibility," Sir +Archibald replied. "You shall build the _Second Venture_ at Ruddy Cove +next winter." + +Archie Armstrong and Bill o' Burnt Bay, with the lads and men of the +lost _First Venture_, went back to Ruddy Cove by rail and the +mail-boat. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + + _In Which Old David Grey, Once of the Hudson Bay Company, + Begins the Tale of How Donald McLeod, the Factor at Fort + Refuge, Scorned a Compromise With His Honour, Though His + Arms Were Pinioned Behind Him and a Dozen Tomahawks Were + Flourished About His Head._ + +Archie Armstrong was presently established in a white little room in +the beaming Aunt "Bill's" little white cottage at Ruddy Cove. His two +trunks--two new trunks, now--were there established with him, of +course; and they contained a new outfit of caps, shoes, boots, +sweaters, coats, gloves, and what not, suited to every circumstance +and all sorts of weather. Then began for Archie, Jimmie and +Billy--with Bagg, of the London gutters, sometimes included--hearty +times ashore and afloat. It was Bagg, indeed, who proposed the cruise +to Birds' Nest Islands. + +"I said I wouldn't go t' Birds' Nest Islands," said Billy Topsail, +"an' I won't." + +"Ah, come on, Billy," Archie pleaded. + +"I said I wouldn't," Billy repeated, obstinately, "an' I won't." + +"That ain't nothink," Bagg argued. + +"Anyhow," said Billy, "I won't, for I got my reasons."[3] + +David Grey, a bent old fellow, who was now long "past his labour," as +they say in Newfoundland, sat within hearing. Boy and man he had been +in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, as hunter, clerk, trader, +explorer, factor; and here, on the coast where he had been born, he +had settled down to spend the rest of his days. He was not an ignorant +man, but, on the contrary, an intelligent one, educated by service, +wide evening study of books, and hard experience in the great +wildernesses of the Canadian Northwest, begun, long ago, when he was a +lad. + +"You make me think of Donald McLeod," said he. + +The boys drew near. + + * * * * * + +"It was long ago," David went on. "Long, long ago," the old man +repeated. "It was 'way back in the first half of the last century, for +I was little more than a boy then. McLeod was factor at Fort Refuge, a +remote post, situated three hundred miles or more to the northeast of +Lake Superior, but now abandoned. And a successful, fair-dealing +trader he was, but so stern and taciturn as to keep both his helpers +and his half-civilized customers in awe of him. It was deep in the +wilderness--not the wilderness as you boys know it, where a man might +wander night and day without fear of wild beast or savage, but a vast, +unexplored place, with dangers lurking everywhere. + +"'Grey,' he said to me when I reported for duty, fresh from +headquarters, 'if you do your duty by me, I'll do mine by you.' + +"'I'll try to,' said I. + +"'When you know me better,' said McLeod, with quiet emphasis, 'you'll +know that I stand by my word.' + +"We dealt, of course, with the Indians, who, spring and fall, brought +their furs to the fort, and never failed to remain until they had +wasted their earnings in the fashion that best pleased their fancy. + +"Even then the Indians were degenerate, given over to idleness and +debauchery; but they were not so far sunk in these habits as are the +dull, lazy fellows who sell you the baskets and beaded moccasins that +the squaws make to-day. They were superstitious, malicious, +revengeful, and they were almost in a condition of savagery, for the +only law they knew was the law our guns enforced. Some authority was +vested in the factor, and he was not slow to exert it when a flagrant +offense was committed near by. + +"'There's no band of Indians in these parts,' I was told, 'that can +scare McLeod. He'll see justice done for and against them as between +man and man.' + +"Fort Refuge was set in a wide clearing. It was built of logs and +surrounded by a high, stout stockade. Admittance to the yard was by a +great gate, which was closed promptly at sundown, and always strongly +barred. We had no garrison regularly stationed there to defend us. In +all, it may be, we could muster nine men--McLeod, two clerks, and a +number of stout fellows who helped handle the stores. Moreover, were +our gate to be closed and our fort surrounded by a hostile force, we +should be utterly cut off from communication with those quarters +whence relief might come. We had the company's wares to guard, and we +knew that once we were overcome, whatever the object of the attack, +the wares and our lives would be lost together. + +"'But we can stand a long siege,' I used to think; and indeed there +was good ground for comfort in that. + +"Our stockade was impregnable to an attack by force, no doubt; but as +it soon appeared, it was no more than a paper ribbon before the wily +strategy of the Indians. One night, when I had shut the gates and +dropped the bars, I heard a long-drawn cry--a scream, in which it was +not hard to detect the quality of terror and great stress. It came, as +I thought, from the edge of the forest. When it was repeated, near at +hand, my heart went to my mouth, for I knew that a band of Indians was +encamped beyond, and had been carousing for a week past. Then came a +knocking at the gate--a desperate pounding and kicking. + +"'Let me in! Open! Open!' I heard a man cry. + +"I had my hands on the bar to lift it and throw open the gate when +McLeod came out of his house. + +"'Stop!' he shouted. + +"I withdrew from the gate. He approached, waved me back, and put his +own hand on the bar. + +"'Who's there?' he asked. + +"'Let me in, McLeod. It's Landley. Quick! Open the gate, or I'll be +killed!' + +"McLeod's hesitation vanished. He opened the gate. A man stumbled in. +Then the gate was shut with a bang. + +"'What's this about, Landley?' McLeod said, sternly. 'What trouble +have you got yourself into now?' + +"I knew Landley for a white man who had abandoned himself to a +shiftless, vicious life with the Indians. He had sunk lower, even, +than they. He was an evil, worthless, ragged fellow, despised within +the fort and respected nowhere. But while he stood there, gasping and +terror-stricken, I pitied him; and it may be McLeod himself was +stirred by the mere kinship of colour. + +"'Speak up, man!' he commanded. 'What have you done?' + +"'I've done no wrong,' Landley whimpered. 'Buffalo Horn's young son +has died, and they put the blame on me. They say I've cast the evil +eye on him. They say I killed him with a spell. You know me, McLeod. +You know I haven't got the evil eye. Don't turn me out, man. They're +coming to kill me. Don't give me up. You know I'm not blood-guilty. +You know me. You know I haven't got the evil eye.' + +"'Tush, man!' said McLeod. 'Is that all the trouble?' + +"'That's all!' Landley cried. 'I've done no harm. Don't give me up to +them.' + +"'I won't,' McLeod said, positively. 'You're safe here until they +prove you blood-guilty. I'll not give you up.'" + +Old David Grey paused; and Jimmie demanded: + +"Did they give un up?" + +"Was they _wild_ Indians?" Bagg gasped. + +David laughed. "You just wait and see," said he. + +----- + + [3] Billy Topsail's reasons were no doubt connected with an + encounter with a gigantic devil-fish at Birds' Nest Islands, as + related in "The Adventures of Billy Topsail." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + + _In Which There Are Too Many Knocks At the Gate, a + Stratagem Is Successful, Red Feather Draws a Tomahawk, and + an Indian Girl Appears On the Scene_ + +"McLeod turned on his heel and went to the shop," David continued; +"and when he had ordered a watch to be kept on the clearing on all +sides, we devoted ourselves to the matter in hand--the preparation of +the regular quarterly statement for the officials at headquarters. But +as we laboured, hatchets, knives and the cruel, evil faces of the +savages, by whom, as I chose to think, we were threatened, mixed +themselves with the figures, to my bewilderment. + +"Soon the dusk came, and while I trimmed and lighted the candles in +the shadowy outer room there seemed to be shapes in the corners which +I had never seen there in quieter times. McLeod, however, was +unperturbed. He had forgotten all about the numerous band which he +stood ready to defy. + +"'Do you think there is danger?' said I. + +"'Danger?' said he. 'From what?' + +"'Buffalo Horn's band,' said I. + +"'Nonsense!' said he. 'What is that last total? There seems to be a +shilling and sixpence missing here.' + +"At that moment one of the helpers came in. He was visibly excited--like +a man who bears tidings. + +"'Red Feather is at the gate,' he said. + +"'Is he alone?' said McLeod. + +"'Yes, sir. We made sure of that.' + +"'Fetch him here,' said the factor, calmly. 'Take Tom and Tobias to +the gate, and don't let Red Feather hold it open.' + +"Red Feather was soon brought in. He was the chief of the band, an +old, crafty Indian, chief in name, but inferior in authority to +Buffalo Horn, who was chief in fact. McLeod continued his work. + +"'Let us talk,' said Red Feather, at last. + +"He spoke in his own tongue, which I shall interpret freely for you. +McLeod put his pen aside and faced about. + +"'What have we to talk about?' he asked. 'The trading is done. You +have your supplies. There is no business between us.' + +"'We have the white man to talk about,' said Red Feather. 'He has +killed a child of our tribe, and you have given him refuge here. He +has killed the son of Buffalo Horn with the evil eye. He must be put +to death.' + +"'I know this man,' said McLeod. 'He has not the evil eye. He has +killed no man, and he shall not be given up.' + +"'His life is forfeit to the tribe.' + +"'His life is in my keeping. I have said that he shall not lose it. Am +I the man to break my word?' + +"'You have kept your word between us,' said Red Feather. 'You are not +the man to break your word.' + +"'What business, then, lies between us? Our talk is done.' + +"The guard at the gate interrupted. 'There is a man knocking at the +gate,' he said. + +"'It is my brother,' said Red Feather. 'He comes to join the talk. Let +him in.' + +"'Open the gate,' said McLeod. + +"It was growing dark. I went with the guard to admit the brother of +Red Feather. Dusk had fallen over the clearing. The sky was overcast; +in half an hour it would be deep night, the clearing one with the +forest. But we opened the gate. A tall Indian stalked in. He was +alone, and I knew him for the brother of Red Feather. I followed him +to the shop, making sure first that the bar was in place. + +"'Let us have the white man,' he said to McLeod. 'Let the peace +between us continue.' + +"McLeod perceived the threat. He was not a rash man. He had no wish to +provoke a conflict, but he had no thought of surrendering the refugee. +As for me, my trust was in the stockade. + +"'I will talk with the white man,' he said. + +"The factor was gone for half an hour. He secreted Landley, inspected +the defenses, gathered the women and children in the blockhouse, and +returned to the council. + +"'The white man is not blood-guilty,' he said, proudly. 'I have +promised him protection and he shall have it.' + +"Again the helper came. 'There is another knock at the gate,' said +he. + +"'Who is there?' said McLeod. + +"'It's so dark I can't see,' said the helper. + +"'The man is my cousin,' said Red Feather. 'He has come to talk with +us. Let him in, for he is a wise man and may help us.' + +"'Open the gate,' said McLeod. + +"We sat silent, waiting for the cousin of Red Feather, the wise man +who might help us. I heard the rattle of the bar as the helper lifted +it, then the creak of the gate. Then a furious outcry, a confusion of +howls and screams, a war-whoop and a rush of feet. The Indians were +within the stockade. A moment later they burst into the shop and +advanced upon us, uttering blood-curdling whoops and brandishing their +hatchets and knives. McLeod reached for the musket above the desk, but +before his fingers touched it Red Feather caught him by the arms, and +with the help of the brother made him prisoner. At the same instant I +was secured. + +"'Let us strike! Let us strike!' the Indians kept shouting, all the +while dancing about us, flourishing their weapons. + +"The danger was real and terrible. We were at the mercy of the band, +and at that moment I did not doubt that they were bent on murder and +pillage. There had been a cruel massacre at Fort Pine but a few months +before. The story was fresh in my mind. That crime had gone +unpunished; nor was it likely that a sufficient force would be sent +west to give the band their due. There was nothing now to deter Red +Feather's men from committing a similar outrage. We were remote from +our kind, on the edge of a wilderness into which escape was a simple +matter. Our guns, as I have said, had been our law and defense, and we +were now utterly in the power of our enemies. + +"'Let us strike! Let us strike!' was the cry. + +"Buffalo Horn had come in with the band. It was soon evident that to +the restraining influence of his presence was due our respite. He +waved his braves back. They withdrew and became quiet. + +"'Will you give the murderer of my child to our tribe?' the chief said +to McLeod. + +"'He is no longer mine to give,' said the factor. + +"'Will you give him to us in peace and forget that he has gone with +us?' + +"McLeod was still in the grasp of Red Feather and his brother. Buffalo +Horn was facing him. Behind the chief, awaiting his signal, was the +band, with knives and hatchets in hand. + +"'No,' said McLeod. + +"The tumult was renewed. The Indians advanced, threatening the factor +with their weapons and crying out for his death. But McLeod was not to +be terrified. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of "The Youth's Companion"_ +BUFFALO HORN LOOKED STEADILY INTO McLEOD'S EYES.] + +"'Let us take the white man,' said Buffalo Horn, lifting his hand for +silence. 'We have no quarrel with you. Let all be as it was.' + +"'No,' said McLeod. 'I will never consent to his murder.' + +"'Let us take him.' + +"'I said I wouldn't,' said McLeod, 'and I won't.' + +"It seemed to me that the end had come. Buffalo Horn looked steadily +into McLeod's eyes. McLeod gave him glance for glance. He was ready to +die for the word he had passed. The Indian hesitated. It may be that +he did not want to precipitate the slaughter. Then he turned, as if to +give the signal. Before his hand was raised, however, the daughter of +the Indian interpreter of the post pushed her way through the band of +braves and stood before their chief. + +"'Listen,' said she. 'Have you come to rob the great company of its +goods?' + +"'No,' said Buffalo Horn. 'We have no quarrel with the great +company.' + +"She was a slip of a girl, to whom, in sickness and in health, McLeod +had been unfailingly kind. She knew no fear, and in intelligence she +was superior to all the other women of her race I have known. + +"'Have you come to take the life of this man?' she went on, moving +closer to Buffalo Horn, and looking deep into his eyes. + +"'No,' said the chief, 'we have no quarrel with this man. He is a good +man, but he will not deliver the murderer of my child.' + +"'Will you take his life because of that?' + +"'No; we will take his life because he will betray our part in the +death of the white man whom he has tried to shelter.' + +"'There are others who might betray you.' + +"'And their lives, also,' said Buffalo Horn, composedly. + +"All that had been implied was now expressed. He was to massacre us +all to shield his tribe from the punishment that might follow the +discovery of his revenge. + +"'You will lay waste the fort,' said the interpreter's daughter, 'but +will the ruins not accuse you to the great company which this man +serves?' + +"'We will be far away.' + +"'And will you never care to return to the grounds you have hunted +from childhood?' + +"To this Buffalo Horn made no reply. He looked at the floor, his arms +folded, and he was silent for a long time. + +"'This man,' said the girl, touching McLeod on the shoulder, 'has +dealt fairly by you. He has kept his faith with you. He said that he +would provide you with food through the hard seasons. Has he not done +so?' + +"'He has kept faith with us,' said the chief. 'Therefore he is a good +man.' + +"'He is a good man because he has kept faith with you,' the girl said, +eagerly. 'Would you, then, have him break faith with some other? He +has said to the white man, "I will not give you up." Would you have +him break the word he has passed? For if he breaks it once, will he +not break it again? If he should yield up the white man, what security +would you have that he would provide for you through the next hard +season?' + +"'He keeps his word,' said Buffalo Horn. 'He is a good man.' + +"He made a sign to Red Feather to release McLeod. Then he gathered +his braves about him, and stalking solemnly at their head, led them +out of the shop, over the courtyard and through the gate. We were left +alone. + +"'Leave the gate open, Tobias,' said McLeod. 'Come, boy,' to me, 'let +us get to work on the quarterly statement again. This interruption +came at an awkward time. We'll have to make up for it.'" + +That was the end of David's story. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + + _In Which Jimmie Grimm and Master Bagg Are Overtaken by + the Black Fog in the Open Sea and Lose the Way Home While + a Gale is Brewing_ + +Jimmie Grimm and Bagg, returning from Birds' Nest Islands, were caught +by the black fog in the open sea. It had been lowering all day. Dull +clouds had hung in the sky since early morning and had kept the waters +of the sea sombre. There was no wind--not the faintest breath or sigh. +The harbour water was still; and the open--beyond the tickle +rocks--was without a ripple or hint of ground swell. A thick, gray +mist crept out from the hills, late in the afternoon, and presently +obscured the shore. Jimmie and Bagg were then off Mad Mull. Two miles +of flat sea and windless space lay between the punt and the harbour. + +"Goin' t' be thick as mud," Jimmie grumbled. + +"Wisht we was more inshore," said Bagg, anxiously. + +At dusk the fog was so thick that every landmark had been blotted from +sight. + +"Is _you_ able t' see Mad Mull?" Jimmie demanded. + +"I is _not_," said Bagg. + +Mad Mull was lost in the fog. It was the last landmark. The tickle +rocks, through which a passage leads to the harbour, had long ago +vanished. + +"Wisht we was home," said Bagg. + +"Don't you go an' get scared, Bagg," Jimmie laughed. "Never you fear. +_I'll_ take _you_ home." + +It was hot, dark and damp--a breathless evening. There was a menace in +the still air and heat. A roll of thunder sounded from the northeast. + +"I 'low 'twill blow afore long," said Jimmie. + +"'Urry up," said Bagg. + +Jimmie put a little more strength into the rowing. The punt moved +faster, but not fast enough to please Bagg, who was terrified by the +fog, the thunder and the still, black water. + +"Never you fear," Jimmie grumbled; "you'll get home afore the wind +comes." + +Bagg wasn't so sure of that. + +"An' it _will_ come," Jimmie reflected. "I can fair feel it on the +way." + +Jimmie pulled doggedly. Occasionally a rumble of thunder came out +of the northeast to enliven his strokes. There was no wind, however, +as yet, except, perhaps, an adverse stirring of the air--the first +hint of a gale. On and on crept the punt. There was no lessening of +the heat. Jimmie and Bagg fairly gasped. They fancied it had never +been so hot before. But Jimmie did not weaken at the oars; he was +stout-hearted and used to labour, and the punt did not lag. On they +went through the mist without a mark to guide them. Roundabout was a +wall of darkening fog. It hid the whole world. + +"Must be gettin' close inshore," said Jimmie, at last, while he rested +on his oars, quite bewildered. + +"What you stoppin' for?" Bagg demanded. + +"Seems t' me," said Jimmie, scratching his head in a puzzled way, +"that we ought t' be in the tickle by this time." + +It was evident, however, that they were not in the tickle.[4] There +was no sign of the rocks on either hand. Jimmie gazed about him in +every direction for a moment. He saw nothing except a circle of black +water about the boat. Beyond was the black wall of fog. + +"Wonderful queer," thought he, as he dipped his oars in the water +again; "but I 'low we ought t' be in the harbour." + +There was a louder clap of thunder. + +"We'll have that wind afore long," mused Jimmie. + +"You 'aven't gone an' lost your way, 'ave you?" Bagg inquired in a +frightened voice. + +"Wonderful queer," Jimmie replied. "We _ought_ t' be in the harbour by +this time. I 'low maybe I been pullin' too far t' the nor'east." + +"No, you 'aven't," said Bagg; "you been pullin' too far t' the +sou'east." + +"I 'low not," mused Jimmie. + +"'Ave, too," Bagg sniffed. + +Jimmie was not quite sure, after all. He wavered. Something seemed to +be wrong. It didn't _feel_ right. Some homing instinct told him that +the tickle rocks did not lie in the direction in which the bow of the +punt pointed. In fact, the whole thing was queer--very queer! But he +had not pulled too far to the southeast; he was sure of that. Perhaps, +too far to the northeast. He determined to change his course. + +"Now, Bagg," said he, confidently, "I'll take you into harbour." + +A clap of thunder--sounding near at hand--urged the boy on. + +"Wisht you would," Bagg whimpered. + +Jimmie turned the boat's head. He wondered if he had turned far +enough. Then he fancied he had turned too far. Why, of course, thought +he, he had turned too far! He swerved again towards the original +direction. This, however, did not feel just right. Again he changed +the course of the boat. He wondered if the harbour lay ahead. Or was +it the open sea? Was he pulling straight out from shore? Would the big +wind catch the little punt out of harbour? + +"How's she headin' now?" he asked Bagg. + +"You turned too far," said Bagg. + +"Not far enough," said Jimmie. + +Jimmie rowed doggedly on the course of his choosing for half an hour +or more without developing anything to give him a clue to their +whereabouts. Night added to the obscurity. They might have been on a +shoreless waste of water for all that they were able to see. The mist +made the night impenetrable. Jimmie could but dimly distinguish Bagg's +form, although he sat not more than five feet from him; soon he could +not see him at all. At last he lifted his oars and looked over the +bow. + +"I don't know where we is," he said. + +"No more do I," Bagg sobbed. + +"I 'low we're lost," Jimmie admitted. + +Just then the first gust of wind rippled the water around the boat and +went whistling into the mist. + +----- + + [4] A "tickle" is a narrow passage of water between two + islands. It is also (as here used) a narrow passage leading into + harbour. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + + _In Which it Appears to Jimmie Grimm and Master Bagg That + Sixty Seconds Sometimes Make More Than a Minute_ + +Ruddy Cove is deep--vastly deep--except in one part. That is in Burnt +Cove within the harbour. There at low tide it is shallow. Rocks +protrude from the water--dripping and covered with a slimy seaweed. +And Burnt Cove lies near the tickle to the sea. You pass between the +tickle rocks, bear sharply to the right and are presently in the cove. +It is a big expanse, snugly sheltered; and it shallows so slowly that +there are many acres of quiet water in which the little fellows of +Ruddy Cove learn to swim. + +Ezekiel Rideout's cottage was by Burnt Cove; and Bagg wished most +heartily that he were there. + + * * * * * + +But Bagg was at sea. And the punt was a small one. It was not Jimmie +Grimm's fishing punt; it was a shallow little rodney, which Jimmie's +father used for going about in when the ice and seals were off the +coast. It was so small and light that it could be carried over the +pans of ice from one lane of open water to another. And being small +and light it was cranky. It was no rough weather boat; nor was it a +boat to move very much about in, as both boys were quite well aware. + +Bagg heard Jimmie's oars rattle in the row-locks and the blades strike +the water. The boat moved forward. Jimmie began to row with all his +strength--almost angrily. It was plain that he was losing his temper. +And not only did he lose his temper; he had grown tired before he +regained it. + +"Here, Bagg," said he; "you have a go at it." + +"I'll 'ave a try," Bagg agreed. + +Jimmie let the oars swing to the side and Bagg made ready to steady +the little boat. Bagg heard him rise. The boat rocked a little. + +"Steady!" Bagg gasped. + +"Steady, yourself!" Jimmie retorted. "Think I don't know how t' get +around in a rodney?" + +It was now so dark, what with night and fog, that Bagg could not see +Jimmie. But presently he understood that Jimmie was on his feet +waiting for him to rise in his turn. They were to exchange places. +Bagg got to his feet, and, with all the caution he could command, +advanced a step, stretching out his hands as he did so. But Bagg had +not been born on the coast and was not yet master of himself in a +boat. He swayed to the left--fairly lurched. + +"Have a care!" Jimmie scolded. + +Have you never, in deep darkness, suddenly felt a loss of power to +keep your equilibrium? You open your eyes to their widest. Nothing is +to be seen. You have no longer a sense of perpendicularity. You sway +this way and that, groping for something to keep you from falling. And +that is just what happened to Bagg. He was at best shaky on his legs +in a boat; and now, in darkness and fear, his whole mind was fixed on +finding something to grasp with his hands. + +"Is you ready?" asked Jimmie. + +"Uh-huh!" Bagg gasped. + +"Come on," said Jimmie; "but mind what you're about." + +Bagg made a step forward. Again the boat rocked; again the darkness +confused him, and he had to stop to regain his balance. In the pause +it struck him with unpleasant force that he could not swim. He was +sure, moreover, that the boat would sink if she filled. He wished he +had not thought of that. A third half-crawling advance brought him +within reach of Jimmie. He caught Jimmie's outstretched hand and drew +himself forward until they were very close. + +"Look out!" he cried. + +He had crept too far to the right. The boat listed alarmingly. They +caught each other about the middle, and crouched down, waiting, rigid, +until she had come to an even keel. + +Presently they were ready to pass each other. + +"Now," said Jimmie. + +Bagg made the attempt to pass him. The foothold was uncertain; the +darkness was confusing. He moved to the side, but so great was his +agitation that he miscalculated, and the boat tipped suddenly under +his weight. The water swept over the gunwale. Bagg would have fallen +bodily from the punt had it not been for Jimmie's clutch on his arm. +In the light they might have steadied themselves; in the dark they +could not. + +Jimmie drew Bagg back--but too hurriedly, too strongly, too far. The +side of the boat over which he had almost fallen leaped high in the +air and the opposite gunwale was submerged. Jimmie released him, and +Bagg collapsed into a sitting posture in the bottom. Instinctively he +grasped the gunwales and frantically tried to right the boat. He felt +the water slowly curling over. + +"She's goin' down," said Jimmie. + +"Sinkin'!" Bagg sobbed. + +The boat sank very slowly, gently swaying from side to side. Bagg and +Jimmie could see nothing, and all they could hear was the gurgle and +hissing of the water as it curled over the gunwales and eddied in the +bottom of the boat. Bagg felt the water rise over his legs--creep to +his waist--rise to his chest--and still ascend. Through those seconds +he was incapable of action. He did not think; he just waited. + +Jimmie wondered where the shore was. A yard or a mile away? In which +direction would it be best to strike out? How could he help Bagg? He +must not leave Bagg to drown. But how could he help him? What was the +use of trying, anyhow? If he could not row ashore, how could he manage +to swim ashore? And if he could not get ashore himself, how could he +help Bagg ashore? + +Nothing was said. Neither boy breathed. Both waited. And it seemed to +both that the water was slow in coming aboard. But the water came. It +came slowly, perhaps--but surely. It rose to Bagg's shoulders--to his +chin--it seemed to be about to cover his mouth and nostrils. Bagg +already had a stifled sensation--a frantic fear of smothering; a wish +to breathe deep. But he did not stir; he could not rise. + +The boys felt a slight shock. The water rose no more. There was a +moment of deep silence. + +"I--I--I 'low we've grounded!" Jimmie Grimm stuttered. + +The silence continued. + +"We sure is!" Jimmie cried. + +"Wh-wh-where 'ave we got to?" Bagg gasped, his teeth chattering with +the fright that was not yet passed. + +Silence again. + +"Ahoy, there!" came a voice from near at hand in the foggy night. +"What you boys doin' out there?" + +"We're in Burnt Cove," said Jimmie, in amazement, to Bagg. "'Tis +Uncle Zeke's voice--an', ay, look!--there's the cottage light on the +hill." + +"We're comin' ashore, Uncle Zeke," Bagg shouted. + +The boat had grounded in less than three feet of water. Jimmie had +brought her through the tickle without knowing it. The boys emptied +her and dragged her ashore just as the rain and wind came rushing from +the open sea. + +That's why Jimmie used to say with a laugh: + +"Sixty seconds sometimes makes more than a minute." + +"Bet yer life!" Bagg would add. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + + _In Which Archie Armstrong Joins a Piratical Expedition + and Sails Crested Seas to Cut Out the Schooner "Heavenly + Home"_ + +It was quite true that Archie Armstrong could speak French; it was +just as true, as Bill o' Burnt Bay observed, that he could jabber it +like a native. There was no detecting a false accent. There was no +hint of an awkward Anglo-Saxon tongue in his speech. There was no +telling that he was not French born and Paris bred. Archie's French +nurse and cosmopolitan-English tutor had taken care of that. The boy +had pattered French with the former since he had first begun to +prattle at all. + +And this was why Bill o' Burnt Bay proposed a piratical expedition to +the French islands of Miquelon which lie off the south coast of +Newfoundland. + +"Won't ye go, b'y?" he pleaded. + +Archie laughed until his sides ached. + +"Come, now!" Bill urged; "there's like t' be a bit of a shindy that +Sir Archibald hisself would be glad t' have a hand in." + +"'Tis sheer piracy!" Archie chuckled. + +"'Tis nothin' of the sort!" the indignant Skipper William protested. +"'Tis but a poor man takin' his own from thieves an' robbers." + +"Have you ever been to Saint Pierre?" Archie asked. + +"That I has!" Skipper Bill ejaculated; "an' much t' the grief o' Saint +Pierre." + +"They've a jail there, I'm told." + +"Sure 'tis like home t' me," said Skipper Bill. "I've been in it; an' +I'm told they've an eye open t' clap me in once more." + +Archie laughed again. + +"Jus' t' help a poor man take back his own without troublin' the +judges," Bill urged. + +The lad hesitated. + +"Sure, I've sore need o' your limber French tongue," said Bill. "Sure, +b'y, you'll go along with me, will you not?" + +"Why don't you go to law for your own?" Archie asked, with a little +grin. + +"Law!" Bill o' Burnt Bay burst out. "'Tis a poor show I'd have in a +court at Saint Pierre. Hut!" he snorted. "Law!--for a Newfoundlander +in Saint Pierre!" + +"My father----" Archie began. + +"I'll have the help o' no man's money nor brains nor influence in a +business so simple," Bill protested. + +The situation was this: Bill o' Burnt Bay had chartered a schooner--his +antique schooner--the schooner that was forever on the point of +sinking with all hands--Bill had chartered the schooner _Heavenly +Home_ to Luke Foremast of Boney Arm to run a cargo from Saint Pierre. +But no sooner had the schooner appeared in French waters than she was +impounded for a debt that Luke Foremast unhappily owed Garnot & Cie, +of Saint Pierre. It was a high-handed proceeding, of course; and it +was perhaps undertaken without scruple because of the unpopularity of +all Newfoundlanders. + +Luke Foremast protested in an Anglo-Saxon roar; but roar and bellow +and bark and growl as he would, it made no difference: the _Heavenly +Home_ was seized, condemned and offered for sale, as Bill o' Burnt Bay +had but now learned. + +"'Tis a hard thing to do," Archie objected. + +"Hut!" Bill exclaimed. "'Tis nothin' but goin' aboard in the dark an' +puttin' quietly out t' sea." + +"Anyhow," Archie laughed, "I'll go." + +Sir Archibald Armstrong liked to have his son stand upon his own feet. +He did not wish to be unduly troubled with requests for permission; he +fancied it a babyish habit for a well-grown boy to fall into. The boy +should decide for himself, said he, where decision was reasonably +possible for him; and if he made mistakes he would surely pay for them +and learn caution and wisdom. For this reason Archie had no hesitation +in coming to his own decision and immediately setting out with Bill o' +Burnt Bay upon an expedition which promised a good deal of highly +diverting and wholly unusual experience. + +Billy Topsail and Jimmie Grimm wished the expedition luck when it +boarded the mail-boat that night. + + * * * * * + +Archie Armstrong did not know until they were well started that Bill +o' Burnt Bay was a marked man in Saint Pierre. There was no price on +his head, to be sure, but he was answerable for several offenses which +would pass current in St. John's for assault and battery, if not for +assault with intent to maim or kill (which Bill had never tried to +do)--all committed in those old days when he was young and wild and +loved a ruction better than a prayer-meeting. + +They determined to make a landing by stealth--a wise precaution, as it +appeared to Archie. So in three days they were at La Maline, a small +fishing harbour on the south coast of Newfoundland, and a port of call +for the Placentia Bay mail-boat. The Iles Saint Pierre et Miquelon, +the remnant of the western empire of the French, lay some twenty miles +to the southwest, across a channel which at best is of uncertain mood, +and on this day was as forbidding a waste of waves and gray clouds as +it had been Archie's lot to venture out upon. + +Bill o' Burnt Bay had picked up his ideal of a craft for the +passage--a skiff so cheap and rotten that "'twould be small loss, sir, +if she sank under us." And the skipper was in a roaring good humour as +with all sail set he drove the old hulk through that wilderness of +crested seas; and big Josiah Cove, who had been taken along to help +sail the _Heavenly Home_, as he swung the bail bucket, was not a whit +behind in glowing expectation--in particular, that expectation which +concerned an encounter with a gendarme with whom he had had the +misfortune to exchange nothing but words upon a former occasion. + +As for Archie, at times he felt like a smuggler, and capped himself in +fancy with a red turban, at times like a pirate. + + * * * * * + +They made Saint Pierre at dusk--dusk of a thick night, with the wind +blowing half a gale from the east. They had no mind to subject +themselves to those formalities which might precipitate embarrassing +disclosures; so they ran up the harbour as inconspicuously as might +be, all the while keeping a covert lookout for the skinny old craft +which they had come to cut out. The fog, drifting in as they +proceeded, added its shelter to that of the night; and they dared to +make a search. + +They found her at last, lying at anchor in the isolation of government +waters--a most advantageous circumstance. + +"Take the skiff 'longside, skipper," said Josiah. + +"'Tis a bit risky, Josiah, b'y," said Skipper Bill. "But 'twould be +good--now, really, 'twould--'twould be good t' tread her old deck for +a spell." + +"An' lay a hand to her wheel," said Josiah, with a side wink so broad +that the darkening mist could not hide it. + +"An' lay a hand to her wheel," repeated the skipper. "An' lay a hand +to her wheel!" + +They ran in--full into the lee of her--and rounded to under the stern. +The sails of the skiff flapped noisily and the water slapped her +sides. They rested breathless--waiting an event which might warn them +to be off into hiding in the fog. But no disquieting sound came from +the schooner--no startled exclamation, no hail, no footfall: nothing +but the creaking of the anchor chain and the rattle of the blocks +aloft. A schooner loomed up and shot past like a shadow; then +silence. + +Archie gave a low hail in French. There was no response from the +_Heavenly Home_; nor did a second hail, in a raised voice, bring forth +an answering sound. It was all silent and dark aboard. So Skipper Bill +reached out with the gaff and drew the boat up the lee side. He +chuckled a bit and shook himself. It seemed to Archie that he freed +his arms and loosened his great muscles as for a fight. With a second +chuckle he caught the rail, leaped from the skiff like a cat and +rolled over on the deck of his own schooner. + +They heard the thud of his fall--a muttered word or two, mixed up with +laughter--then the soft fall of his feet departing aft. For a long +time nothing occurred to inform them of what the skipper was about. +They strained their ears. In the end they heard a muffled cry, which +seemed to come out of the shoreward cloud of fog--a thud, as though +coming from a great distance--and nothing more. + +"What's that?" Archie whispered. + +"'Tis a row aboard a Frenchman t' win'ard, sir," said Josiah. "'Tis a +skipper beatin' a 'prentice. They does it a wonderful lot." + +Five minutes passed without a sign of the skipper. Then he came forward +on a run. His feet rang on the deck. There was no concealment. + +"I've trussed up the watchman!" he chortled. + +Archie and Josiah clambered aboard. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + + _In Which Bill o' Burnt Bay Finds Himself in Jail and + Archie Armstrong Discovers That Reality is Not as + Diverting as Romance_ + +To be sure, Bill o' Burnt Bay had overcome the watchman! He had +blundered upon him in the cabin. Being observed before he could +withdraw, he had leaped upon this functionary with resistless +impetuosity--had overpowered him, gagged him, trussed him like a +turkey cock and rolled him into his bunk. The waters roundabout gave +no sign of having been apprised of the capture. No cry of surprise +rang out--no call for help--no hullabaloo of pursuit. The lights of +the old town twinkled in the foggy night in undisturbed serenity. + +The night was thick, and the wind swept furiously up from the sea. It +would be a dead beat to windward to make the open--a sharp beat +through a rock-strewn channel in a rising gale. + +"Now we got her," Skipper Bill laughed, "what'll we do with her?" + +Archie and Josiah laughed, too: a hearty explosion. + +"We can never beat out in this wind," said Bill; "an' we couldn't +handle her if we did--not in a gale o' wind like this. All along," he +chuckled, "I been 'lowin' for a fair wind an' good weather." + +They heard the rattle and creak of oars approaching; to which, in a +few minutes, the voices of two men added a poignant interest. The +rowers rested on their oars, as though looking about; then the oars +splashed the water again, and the dory shot towards the _Heavenly +Home_. Bill o' Burnt Bay and his fellow pirates lay flat on the deck. +The boat hung off the stern of the schooner. + +"Jean!" + +The hail was in French. It was not answered, you may be sure, from the +_Heavenly Home_. + +"Jean!" + +"He's not aboard," spoke up the other man. + +"He must be aboard. His dory's tied to the rail. Jean! Jean Morot!" + +"Come--let's be off to the _Voyageur_. He's asleep." A pair of oars +fell in the water. + +"Come--take your oars. It's too rough to lie here. And it's late +enough." + +"But----" + +"Take your oars!" with an oath. + +The Newfoundlanders breathed easier when they heard the splash and +creak and rattle receding; but they did not rise until the sounds were +out of hearing, presumably in the direction of the _Voyageur_. + + * * * * * + +Bill o' Burnt Bay began to laugh again. Archie joined him. But Josiah +Cove pointed out the necessity of doing something--anything--and doing +it quickly. It was all very well to laugh, said he; and although it +might seem a comical thing to be standing on the deck of a captured +schooner, the comedy would be the Frenchman's if they were caught in +the act. But Archie still chuckled away; the situation was quite too +ridiculous to be taken seriously. Archie had never been a pirate +before; he didn't feel like one now--but he rather liked the feeling +he had. + +"We can't stay aboard," said he, presently. + +"Blest if I want t' go ashore," said Bill. + +"We _got_ t' go ashore," Josiah put in. + +Before they left the deck of the _Heavenly Home_ (the watchman having +then been made more comfortable), it was agreed that the schooner +could not make the open sea in the teeth of the wind. That was +obvious; and it was just as obvious that the Newfoundlander could not +stay aboard. The discovery of the watchman in the cabin must be +chanced until such a time as a fair wind came in the night. On their +way to the obscure wharf at which they landed it was determined that +Josiah should board the schooner at nine o'clock, noon, and six +o'clock of the next day to feed the captured watchman and to set the +galley fire going for half an hour to allay suspicion. + +"An' Skipper Bill," said Josiah, seriously, "you lie low. If you don't +you're liable to be took up." + +"Take your advice t' yourself," the skipper retorted. "Your +reputation's none o' the best in this harbour." + +"We'll sail to-morrow night," said Archie. + +"Given a dark night an' a fair wind," the skipper qualified. + +Skipper Bill made his way to a quiet cafe of his acquaintance; and +Josiah vanished in the fog to lie hidden with a shipmate of other +days. Archie--depending upon his youth and air and accent and +well-tailored dress to avert suspicion--went boldly to the Hotel +Joinville and sat down to dinner. The dinner was good; he enjoyed it, +and was presently delighting in the romance in which he had a part. It +all seemed too good to be true. How glad he was he had come! To be +here--in the French Islands of Miquelon--to have captured a +schooner--to have a prisoner in the cabin--to be about to run off with +the _Heavenly Home_. For the life of him, Archie could not take the +thing seriously. He chuckled--and chuckled--and chuckled again. + +Presently he walked abroad; and in the quaint streets and old customs +of the little town, here remote from all the things of the present and +of the new world as we know it in this day, he found that which soon +lifted him into a dream of times long past and of doughty deeds for +honour and a lady. Soft voices in the streets, forms flitting from +shadow to shadow, priest and strutting gendarme and veiled lady, +gabled roofs, barred windows, low doorways, the clatter of sabots, the +pendant street lights, the rumble of the ten o'clock drums. These +things, seen in a mist, were all of the days when bold ventures were +made--of those days when a brave man would recover his own, come what +might, if it had been wrongfully wrested from him. It was a rare +dream--and not broken until he turned into the Quai de la Ronciere. + +As he rounded the corner he was almost knocked from his feet by a +burly fellow in a Basque cap who was breathless with haste. + +"Monsieur--if he will pardon--it was not----" this fellow stammered, +apologetically. + +Men were hurrying past toward the Cafe d'Espoir, appearing everywhere +from the mist and running with the speed of deep excitement. There was +a clamorous crowd about the door--pushing, scuffling, shouting. + +"What has happened?" Archie asked in French. + +"An American has killed a gendarme, monsieur. A ter-rible fellow! Oh, +fear-r-rful!" + +"And why--what----" + +"He was a ter-rible fellow, monsieur. The gendarmes have been on the +lookout for him for three years. And when they laid hands on him he +fought, monsieur--fought with the strength of a savage. It took five +gendarmes to bind him--five, monsieur. Poor Louis Arnot! He is +dead--killed, monsieur, by a pig of an American with his fist. They +are to take the murderer to the jail. I am just now running to warn +Deschamps to make ready the dungeon cell. If monsieur will but excuse +me, I will----" + +He was off; so Archie joined the crowd at the door of the cafe, which +was that place to which Skipper Bill had repaired to hide. He hung on +the outskirts of the crowd, unable to push his way further. The wrath +of these folk was so noisy that he could catch no word of what went on +within. He devoutly hoped that Skipper Bill had kept to his +hiding-place despite the suspicious sounds in the cafe. Then he wormed +his way to the door and entered. A moment later he had climbed on a +barrel and was overlooking the squirming crowd and eagerly listening +to the clamour. Above every sound--above the cries and clatter and +gabble--rang the fighting English of Bill o' Burnt Bay. + +It was no American; it was Skipper Bill whom the gendarmes had taken, +and he was now so seriously involved, apparently, that his worst +enemies could wish him no deeper in the mesh. They had him bound hand +and foot and guarded with drawn swords, fearing, probably, that +somewhere he had a crew of wild fellows at his back to make a rescue. +To attempt a rescue was not to be thought of. It did not enter the +boy's head. He was overcome by grief and terror. He withdrew into a +shadow until they had carried Skipper Bill out with a crowd yelping at +his heels. Then, white and shaking, he went to a group in the corner +where Louis Arnot, the gendarme, was stretched out on the floor. + +Archie touched the surgeon on the shoulder. "Is he dead?" the boy +asked, in French, his voice trembling. + +"No, monsieur; he is alive." + +"Will he live?" + +"To be sure, monsieur!" + +"Is there any doubt about it?" asked Archie. + +"Doubt?" exclaimed the surgeon. "With _my_ skill, monsieur? It is +impossible--he _cannot_ die! He will be restored in three days. +I--_I_--I will accomplish it!" + +"Thank God for that!" thought Archie. + +The boy went gravely home to bed; and as he lay down the adventure +seemed less romantic than it had. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + + _In Which Archie Inspects an Opera Bouffe Dungeon Jail, + Where He Makes the Acquaintance of Dust, Dry Rot and + Deschamps. In Which, Also, Skipper Bill o' Burnt Bay Is + Advised to Howl Until His Throat Cracks_ + +In the morning Archie went as a tourist to the jail where Bill o' +Burnt Bay was confined. The wind was blowing fresh from the west and +promised to hold true for the day. It was a fair, strong wind for the +outward bound craft; but Archie Armstrong had no longer any interest +in the wind or in the _Heavenly Home_. He was interested in captives +and cells. To his astonishment he found that the Saint Pierre jail had +been designed chiefly with the idea of impressing the beholder, and +was builded long, long ago. + +It was a low-walled structure situate in a quiet quarter of the town. +The outer walls were exceeding thick. One might work with a pick and +shovel for a week and never tunnel them. + +"But," thought Archie, "why tunnel them when it is possible to leap +over them?" + +They were jagged on top and strewn with bits of broken bottle imbedded +in the mortar. + +"But," thought Archie, "why cut one's hands when it is so easy to +throw a jacket over the glass and save the pain?" + +The walls apparently served no good purpose except to frighten the +populace with their frowns. + + * * * * * + +As big Deschamps, the jailer, led Archie through the musty corridors +and cells the boy perceived that the old building had long ago gone to +wrack. It was a place of rust and dust and dry rot, of crumbling +masonry, of rotted casements, of rust-eaten bars, of creaking hinges +and broken locks. He had the impression that a strong man could break +in the doors with his fist and tumble the walls about his ears with a +push. + +"This way, monsieur," said Deschamps, at last. "Come! I will show you +the pig of a Newfoundlander who half killed a gendarme. He is a +terrible fellow." + +He had Skipper Bill safe enough--thrown into a foul-aired, windowless +cell with an iron-bound door, from which there was no escape. To +release him was impossible, whatever the condition of the jail in +other parts. Archie had hoped to find a way; but when he saw the cell +in which Skipper Bill was confined he gave up all idea of a rescue. +And at that moment the skipper came to the narrow grating in the door. +He scowled at the jailer and looked the boy over blankly. + +"Pah!" exclaimed Deschamps, screwing his face into a look of disgust. + +"You wait 'til I cotches _you!_" the skipper growled. + +"What does the pig say, monsieur?" Deschamps asked. + +"He has not yet repented," Archie replied, evasively. + +"Pah!" said Deschamps again. "Come, monsieur; we shall continue the +inspection." + +Archie was taken to the furthermost cell of the corridor. It was +isolated from that part of the building where the jailer had his +living quarters, and it was a light, roomy place on the ground floor. +The window bars were rusted thin and the masonry in which they were +sunk was falling away. It seemed to Archie that he himself could +wrench the bars away with his hands; but he found that he could not +when he tried them. He looked out; and what he saw made him regret +that Skipper Bill had not been confined in that particular cell. + +"This cell, monsieur," said Deschamps, importantly, "is where I +confine the drunken Newfoundland sailors when----" + +Archie looked up with interest. + +"When they make a great noise, monsieur," Deschamps concluded. "I have +the headache," he explained. "So bad and so often I have the headache, +monsieur. I cannot bear the great noise they make. It is fearful. So I +put them here, and I go to sleep, and they do not trouble me at all." + +"Is monsieur in earnest?" Archie asked. + +Deschamps was flattered by this form of address from a young +gentleman. "It is true," he replied. "Compelled. That is the word. I +am compelled to confine them here." + +"Let us return to the Newfoundlander," said Archie. + +"He is a pig," Deschamps agreed, "and well worth looking at." + +When they came to the door of Skipper Bill's cell, Archie was +endeavouring to evolve a plan for having a word with him without +exciting Deschamps' suspicion. The jailer saved him the trouble. + +"Monsieur is an American," said Deschamps. "Will he not tell the pig +of a Newfoundlander that he shall have no breakfast?" + +"Skipper Bill," said Archie, in English, "when I leave here you howl +until your throat cracks." + +Bill o' Burnt Bay nodded. "How's the wind?" he asked. + +"What does the pig of a Newfoundlander say?" Deschamps inquired. + +"It is of no importance," Archie replied. + +When Archie had inspected the guillotine in the garret, which +Deschamps exhibited to every visitor with great pride, the jailer led +him to the open air. + +"Do the prisoners never escape?" Archie asked. + +"Escape!" Deschamps cried, with reproach and indignation. "Monsieur, +how could you suggest it? Escape! From me--from _me_, monsieur!" He +struck his breast and extended his arms. "Ah, no--they could not! My +bravery, monsieur--my strength--all the world knows of them. I am +famous, monsieur. Deschamps, the wrestler! Escape! From _me_! Ah, +no--it is _impossible_!" + +When Archie had more closely observed his gigantic form, his broad, +muscular chest, his mighty arms and thick neck, his large, lowering +face--when he had observed all this he fancied that a man might as +well wrestle with a grizzly as oppose him, for it would come to the +same thing in the end. + +"You are a strong man," Archie admitted. + +"Thanks--thanks--monsieur!" the delighted Deschamps responded. + +At that moment, a long, dismal howl broke the quiet. It was repeated +even more excruciatingly. + +"The pig of a Newfoundlander!" groaned Deschamps. "My head! It is +fearful. He will give me the headache." + +Archie departed. He was angry with Deschamps for having called +Newfoundlanders pigs. After all, he determined, angrily, the jailer +was deserving of small sympathy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + + _In Which Archie Armstrong Goes Deeper In and Thinks He + Has Got Beyond His Depth. Bill o' Burnt Bay Takes + Deschamps By the Throat and the Issue Is Doubtful For a + Time_ + +That afternoon, after a short conversation with Josiah Cove, who had +thus far managed to keep out of trouble, Archie Armstrong spent a +brief time on the _Heavenly Home_ to attend to the health and comfort +of the watchman, who was in no bad way. Perhaps, after all, Archie +thought--if Deschamps' headache would only cause the removal of Bill +o' Burnt Bay to the dilapidated cell on the ground floor--the +_Heavenly Home_ might yet be sailed in triumph to Ruddy Cove. He +strutted the deck, when necessary, with as much of the insolence of a +civic official as he could command, and no man came near to question +his right. When the watchman's friends came from the _Voyageur_ he +drove them away in excellent French. They went meekly and with +apologies for having disturbed him. + +"So far, well enough," thought Archie, as he rowed ashore, glad to be +off the schooner. + +It was after dark when, by appointment, the lad met Josiah. Josiah had +provided himself with a crowbar and a short length of line, which he +said would be sure to come useful, for he had always found it so. Then +the two set off for the jail together, and there arrived some time +after the drums had warned all good people to be within doors. + +"What's that?" said Josiah of a sudden. + +It was a hoarse, melancholy croak proceeding from the other side of +the wall. The skipper's cell had been changed, as Archie had hoped, +and the skipper himself was doing his duty to the bitter end. The +street was deserted. They acted quickly. Josiah gave Archie a leg. He +threw his jacket over the broken glass and mounted the wall. Josiah +made off at once; it was his duty to have the skiff in readiness. +Archie dropped into the garden. + +"Is that you, b'y?" whispered Skipper Bill. + +Again Archie once more found it impossible to take the adventure +seriously. He began to laugh. It was far too much like the romances +he had read to be real. It was play, it seemed--just like a game of +smugglers and pirates, played on a summer's afternoon. + +"Is it you, Archie?" the skipper whispered again. + +Archie chuckled aloud. + +"Is the wind in the west?" the skipper asked. + +"Ay," Archie replied; "and blowing a smart sailing breeze." + +"Haste, then, lad!" said the skipper. "'Tis time t' be off for Ruddy +Cove." + +The window was low. With his crowbar Archie wrenched a bar from its +socket. It came with a great clatter. It made the boy's blood run cold +to hear the noise. He pried the second and it yielded. Down fell a +block of stone with a crash. While he was feeling for a purchase on +the third bar Skipper Bill caught his wrist. + +"Hist, lad!" + +It was a footfall in the corridor. Skipper Bill slipped into the +darkness by the door--vanished like a shadow. Archie dropped to the +ground. By what unhappy chance had Deschamps come upon this +visitation? Could it have been the silence of Skipper Bill? Archie +heard the cover of the grating drawn away from the peep-hole in the +door. + +"He's gone!" + +That was Deschamps' voice. Doubtless he had observed that two bars +were missing from the window. Archie heard the key slipped into the +lock and the door creak on its hinges. All the time he knew that +Skipper Bill was crouched in the shadow--poised for the spring. The +boy no longer thought of the predicament as a game. Nor was he +inclined to laugh again. This was the ugly reality once more come to +face him. There would be a fight in the cell. This he knew. And he +waited in terror of the issue. + +There was a quick step--a crash--a quick-drawn breath--the noise of a +shock--a cry--a groan. Skipper Bill had kicked the door to and leaped +upon the jailer. Archie pried the third bar out and broke the fourth +with a blow. Then he squirmed through the window. Even in that dim +light--half the night light without--he could see that the struggle +was over. Skipper Bill had Deschamps by the throat with his great +right hand. He had the jailer's waist in his left arm as in a vise, +and was forcing his head back--back--back--until Archie thought the +Frenchman's spine would crack. + +"Don't kill him!" Archie cried. + +Skipper Bill had no intention of doing so; nor had Deschamps, the +wrestler, any idea of allowing his back to be broken. + +"Don't kill him!" Archie begged again. + +Deschamps was tugging at that right arm of iron--weakly, vainly +tugging to wrench it away from his throat. His eyes were starting +from their sockets, and his tongue protruded. Back went the +head--back--back! The arm was pitiless. Back--back! He was fordone. In +a moment his strength departed and he collapsed. He had not had time +to call for help, so quick had been Bill's hand. They bound his limp +body with the length of line Josiah had brought, and they had no +sooner bound him than he revived. + +"You are a great man, monsieur," he mumbled. "You have vanquished +me--Deschamps! You will be famous--famous, monsieur. I shall send my +resignation to His Excellency the Governor to-morrow. Deschamps--he is +vanquished!" + +"What's he talkin' about?" the skipper panted. + +"You have beaten him." + +"Let's be off, b'y," the skipper gasped. + +They locked the door on the inside, clambered through the window and +scaled the wall. They sped through the deserted streets with all +haste. They came to the landing-place and found the skiff tugging at +her painter with her sails all unfurled. Presently they were under way +for the _Heavenly Home_, and, having come safely aboard, hauled up the +mainsail, set the jib and were about to slip the anchor. Then they +heard the clang, clang, clang of a bell--a warning clang, clang, +clang, which could mean but one thing: discovery. + +"Fetch up that Frenchman," the skipper roared. + +The watchman was loosed and brought on deck. + +"Put un in his dory and cast off," the skipper ordered. + +This done the anchor was slipped and the sheets hauled taut. The rest +of the canvas was shaken out and the _Heavenly Home_ gathered way and +fairly flew for the open sea. + + * * * * * + +If there was pursuit it did not come within sight. The old schooner +came safely to Ruddy Cove, where Bill o' Burnt Bay, Josiah Cove and +Archie Armstrong lived for a time in sickening fear of discovery and +arrest. But nothing was ever heard from Saint Pierre. The _Heavenly +Home_ had been unlawfully seized by the French; perhaps that is why +the Ruddy Cove pirates heard no more of the Miquelon escapade. There +was hardly good ground in the circumstances for complaint to the +Newfoundland government. At any rate, Archie wrote a full and true +statement of the adventure to his father in St. John's; and his father +replied that his letter had been received and "contents noted." + +There was no chiding; and Archie breathed easier after he had read the +letter. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + + _In Which David Grey's Friend, the Son of the Factor at + Fort Red Wing, Yarns of the Professor With the Broken Leg, + a Stretch of Rotten River Ice and the Tug of a White + Rushing Current_ + +One quiet evening, after sunset, in the early summer, when the folk of +Ruddy Cove were passing time in gossip on the wharf, while they +awaited the coming of the mail-boat, old David Grey, who had told the +tale of McLeod and the tomahawks, called to Billy Topsail and his +friends. A bronzed, pleasant-appearing man, David's friend, shook +hands with the boys with the grip of a woodsman. Presently he drifted +into a tale of his own boyhood at Fort Red Wing in the wilderness far +back of Quebec. "You see," said he, "my father had never fallen into +the habit of coddling me. So when the lost Hudson Bay Geological +Expedition made Fort Red Wing in the spring--every man exhausted, +except the young professor, who had broken a leg a month back, and had +set it with his own hands--it was the most natural thing in the world +that my father should command me to take the news to Little Lake, +whence it might be carried, from post to post, all the way to the +department at Ottawa. + +"'And send the company doctor up,' said he. 'The little professor's +leg is in a bad way, if I know anything about doctoring. So you'll +make what haste you can.' + +"'Yes, sir,' said I. + +"'Keep to the river until you come to the Great Bend. You can take the +trail through the bush from there to Swift Rapids. If the ice is +broken at the rapids, you'll have to go round the mountain. That'll +take a good half day longer. But don't be rash at the rapids, and keep +an eye on the ice all along. The sun will be rotting it by day now. It +looks like a break-up already.' + +"'Shall I go alone, sir?' said I. + +"'No,' said my father, no doubt perceiving the wish in the question. +'I'll have John go with you for company.' + +"John was an Indian lad of my own age, or thereabouts, who had been +brought up at the fort--my companion and friend. I doubt if I shall +ever find a stancher one. + +"With him at my heels and a little packet of letters in my breast +pocket, I set out early the next day. It was late in March, and the +sun, as the day advanced, grew uncomfortably hot. + +"'Here's easy going!' I cried, when we came to the river. + +"'Bad ice!' John grunted. + +"And it proved to be so--ice which the suns of clear weather had +rotted and the frosts of night and cold days had not repaired. Rotten +patches alternated with spaces of open water and of thin ice, which +the heavy frost of the night before had formed. + +"When we came near to Great Bend, where we were to take to the woods, +it was late in the afternoon, and the day was beginning to turn cold. + +"We sped on even more cautiously, for in that place the current is +swift, and we knew that the water was running like mad below us. I was +ahead of John, picking the way; and I found, to my cost, that the way +was unsafe. In a venture offshore I risked too much. Of a sudden the +ice let me through. + +"It was like a fall, feet foremost, and when I came again to the +possession of my faculties, with the passing of the shock, I found +that my arms were beating the edge of ice, which crumbled before them, +and that the current was tugging mightily at my legs. + +"'Look out!' I gasped. + +"The warning was neither heard nor needed. John was flat on his +stomach, worming his way towards me--wriggling slowly out, his eyes +glistening. + +"Meanwhile I had rested my arms on the edge, which then crumbled no +more; but I was helpless to save myself, for the current had sucked my +legs under the ice, and now held them securely there, sweeping them +from side to side, all the while tugging as if to wrench me from my +hold. The most I could do was to resist the pull, to grit my teeth and +cling to the advantage I had. It was for John to make the rescue. + +"There was an ominous crack from John's direction. When I turned my +eyes to look he was lying still. Then I saw him wriggle out of danger, +backing away like a crab. + +"'John!' I screamed. + +"The appeal seemed not to move him. He continued to wriggle from me. +When he came to solid ice he took to his heels. I caught sight of him +as he climbed the bank, and kept my eyes upon him until he disappeared +over the crest. He had left me without a word. + +"The water was cold and swift, and the strength of my arms and back +was wearing out. The current kept tugging, and I realized, loath as I +was to admit it, that half an hour would find me slipping under the +ice. It was a grave mistake to admit it; for at once fancy began to +paint ugly pictures for me, and the probabilities, as it presented +them, soon flustered me almost beyond recovery. + +"'I was chest-high out of the water,' I told myself. 'Chest-high! Now +my chin is within four inches of the ice. I've lost three inches. I'm +lost!' + +"With that I tried to release my feet from the clutch of the current, +to kick myself back to an upright position, to lift myself out. It was +all worse than vain. The water was running so swiftly that it dangled +my legs as it willed, and the rotten ice momentarily threatened to let +me through. + +"I lost a full inch of position. So I settled myself to wait for what +might come, determined to yield nothing through terror or despair. My +eyes were fixed stupidly upon the bend in the river, far down, where a +spruce-clothed bluff was melting with the dusk. + +"What with the cold and the drain upon my physical strength, it may be +that my mind was a blank when relief came. At any rate, it seemed to +have been an infinitely long time in coming; and it was with a shock +that John's words restored me to a vivid consciousness of my +situation. + +"'Catch hold!' said he. + +"He had crawled near me, although I had not known of his approach, and +he was thrusting towards me the end of a long pole, which he had cut +in the bush. It was long, but not long enough. I reached for it, but +my hand came three feet short of grasping it. + +"John grunted and crept nearer. Still it was beyond me, and he dared +venture no farther. He withdrew the pole; then he crept back and +unfastened his belt. Working deliberately but swiftly, he bound the +belt to the end of the pole, and came out again. He cast the belt +within reach, as a fisherman casts a line. I caught it, clutched it, +and was hauled from my predicament by main strength. + +"'John,' I said, as we drew near to the half-way cabin, 'I know your +blood, and it's all very well to be careful not to say too much; but +there's such a thing as saying too little. Why didn't you tell me +where you were going when you started for that pole?' + +"'Huh!' said John, as if his faithfulness to me in every fortune were +quite beyond suspicion. + +"'Yes, I know,' I insisted, 'but a word or two would have saved me a +deal of uneasiness.' + +"'Huh!' said he." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + + _In Which a Bearer of Tidings Finds Himself In Peril of + His Life On a Ledge of Ice Above a Roaring Rapid_ + +"We passed that night at the cabin, where a roaring fire warmed me and +dried my clothes," David's friend continued. "My packet of letters was +safe and dry, so I slept in peace, and we were both as chirpy as +sparrows when we set out the next morning. It was a clear, still day, +with the sun falling warmly upon us. + +"Our way now led through the bush for mile after mile--little hills +and stony ground and swamp-land. By noon we were wet to the knees; but +this circumstance was then too insignificant for remark, although +later it gave me the narrowest chance for life that ever came within +my experience. + +"We made Swift Rapids late in the afternoon, when the sun was low and +a frosty wind was freezing the pools by the way. The post at Little +Lake lay not more than three miles beyond the foot of the rapids, and +when the swish and roar of water first fell upon our ears we hallooed +most joyfully, for it seemed to us that we had come within reaching +distance of our destination. + +"'No,' said John, when we stood on the shore of the river. + +"'I think we can,' said I. + +"'No,' he repeated. + +"The rapids were clear of ice, which had broken from the quiet water +above the verge of the descent, and now lay heaped up from shore to +shore, where the current subsided at the foot. The water was most +turbulent--swirling, shooting, foaming over great boulders. It went +rushing between two high cliffs, foaming to the very feet of them, +where not an inch of bank was showing. At first glance it was no +thoroughfare; but the only alternative was to go round the mountain, +as my father had said, and I had no fancy to lengthen my journey by +four hours, so I searched the shore carefully for a passage. + +"The face of the cliff was such that we could make our way one hundred +yards down-stream. It was just beyond that point that the difficulty +lay. The rock jutted into the river, and rose sheer from it; neither +foothold nor handhold was offered. But beyond, as I knew, it would be +easy enough to clamber along the cliff, which was shelving and broken, +and so, at last, come to the trail again. + +"'There's the trouble, John,' said I, pointing to the jutting rock. +'If we can get round that, we can go the rest of the way without any +difficulty.' + +"'No go,' said John. 'Come.' + +"He jerked his head towards the bush, but I was not to be easily +persuaded. + +"'We'll go down and look at that place,' I replied. 'There may be a +way.' + +"There was a way, a clear, easy way, requiring no more than a bit of +nerve to pass over it, and I congratulated myself upon persisting to +its discovery. The path was by a stout ledge of ice, adhering to the +cliff and projecting out from it for about eighteen inches. The river +had fallen. This ledge had been formed when it was at its highest, and +when the water had subsided the ice had been left sticking to the +rock. The ledge was like the rim of ice that adheres to a tub when a +bucketful of freezing water has been taken out. + +"I clambered down to it, sounded it, and found it solid. Moreover, it +seemed to lead all the way round, broadening and narrowing as it went, +but wide enough in every part. I was sure-footed and unafraid, so at +once I determined to essay the passage. 'I am going to try it!' I +called to John, who was clinging to the cliff some yards behind and +above me. 'Don't follow until I call you.' + +"'Look out!' said he. + +"'Oh, it's all right,' I said, confidently. + +"I turned my back to the rock and moved out, stepping sidewise. It +was not difficult until I came to a point where the cliff is +overhanging--it may be a space of twelve feet or less; then I had to +stoop, and the awkward position made my situation precarious in the +extreme, for the rock seemed all the while bent on thrusting me off. + +"The river was roaring past. Below me the water was breaking over a +great rock, whence it shot, swift and strong, against a boulder which +rose above it. I could hear the hiss and swish and thunder of it; and +had I been less confident in my foothold, I might then and there have +been hopelessly unnerved. There was no mercy in those seething +rapids. + +"'A fall would be the end of me,' I thought; 'but I will not fall.' + +"Fall I did, however, and that suddenly, just after I had rounded the +point and was hidden from John's sight. The cold of the late afternoon +had frozen my boots stiff; they had been soaked in the swamp-lands, +and the water was now all turned to ice. + +"My soles were slippery and my feet were awkwardly managed. I +slipped. + +"My feet shot from under me. A flash of terror went through me. Then I +found myself lying on my hip, on the edge of the shelf with my legs +dangling over the rapids, my shoulder pressing the cliff, my hands +flat on the ice, and my arms sustaining nearly the whole weight of my +body. + +"At that instant I heard a thud and a splash, as of something striking +the water, and turning my eyes, I perceived that a section of the snow +ledge had fallen from the cliff. It was not large, but it was between +John and me, and the space effectually shut him off from my +assistance. + +"My problem was to get to my feet again. But how? The first effort +persuaded me that it was impossible. My shoulder was against the +cliff. When I attempted to raise myself to a seat on the ledge I +succeeded only in pressing my shoulder more firmly against the rock. +Wriggle as I would, the wall behind kept me where I was. I could not +gain an inch. I needed no more, for that would have relieved my arms +by throwing more of my weight upon my hips. + +"I was in the position of a boy trying to draw himself to a seat on a +window-sill, with the difference that my heels were of no help to me, +for they were dangling in space. My arms were fast tiring out. The +inch I needed for relief was past gaining, and it seemed to me then +that in a moment my arms would fail me, and I should slip off into the +river. + +"'Better go now,' I thought, 'before my arms are worn out altogether. +I'll need them for swimming.' + +"But a glance down the river assured me that my chance in the rapids +would be of the smallest. Not only was the water swift and turbulent, +but it ran against the barrier of ice at the foot of the rapids, and +it was evident that it would suck me under, once it got me there. + +"Nor was there any hope in John's presence. I had told him to stay +where he was until I called; and, to be sure, in that spot would he +stay. I might call now. But to what purpose? He could do nothing to +help me. He would come to the gap in the ledge, and from there peep +sympathetically at me. Indeed, he might reach a pole to me, as he had +done on the day before, but my hands were fully occupied, and I could +not grasp it. So I put John out of my mind,--for even in the +experience of the previous day I had not yet learned my lesson,--and +determined to follow the only course which lay open to me, desperate +though it was. + +"'I'll turn on my stomach,' I thought, 'and try to get to my knees on +the ledge.' + +"I accomplished the turn, but in the act I so nearly lost my hold that +I lost my head, and there was a gasping lapse of time before I +recovered my calm. + +"In this change I gained nothing. When I tried to get to my knees I +butted my head against the overhanging rock, nor could I lift my foot +to the ice and roll over on my side, for the ledge was far too narrow +for that. I had altered my position, but I had accomplished no change +in my situation. It was impossible for me to rest more of my weight +upon my breast than my hips had borne. My weakening arms still had to +sustain it, and the river was going its swirling way below me, just as +it had gone in the beginning. I had not helped myself at all. + +"There was nothing for it, I thought, but to commit myself to the +river and make as gallant a fight for life as I could. So at last I +called John, that he might carry our tidings to their destination and +return to Fort Red Wing with news of a sadly different kind. + +"'Ho!' said John. + +"He was staring round the point of rock; and there he stood, unable to +get nearer. + +"'Ice under,' said he, indicating a point below me. 'More ice. Let +down.' + +"'What?' I cried. 'Where?' + +"'More ice. Down there,' said he. 'Like this. Let down.' + +"Then I understood him. Another ledge, such as that upon which I hung, +had been formed in the same way, and was adhering to the rock beneath. +No doubt there was a pool on the lower side of the point, and just +below me, and the current would be no obstacle to the formation of +ice. I had looked down from above, and the upper ledge had hidden the +lower from me; but John, standing by the gap in the upper, could see +it plainly. + +"So I had but to let myself down until my feet rested on the new +ledge, and this I did, with extreme caution and the expenditure of the +last ounce of strength in my arms. Then a glance assured me that the +way was clear to the shelving cliff beyond. + +"'You go,' said John. 'I go round.' + +"'All right,' said I. 'And, say! I wish I'd called you before.' + +"'Ho!' said he, as he vanished. + +"When John reached the Little Lake post late that night, the tidings +of the safe return of the Hudson Bay Geological Expedition were on the +way south by another messenger, and the company's physician was moving +over the trail towards Fort Red Wing, making haste to the aid of the +young professor, whom, indeed, he soon brought back to health. The +passage by the ledge of ice had resulted in a gain of three hours, but +whether or not it saved the professor's life I do not know. I do not +think it did. It nearly cost me mine, but I had no thought of that +when I essayed it, so my experience reflects no credit upon me +whatever. I take fewer rash and reckless chances now on land and +water, and I am not so overreliant upon my own resources. + +"I have learned that a friend's help is of value." + +At that moment the Ruddy Cove mail-boat entered the Tickle. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + + _In Which Billy Topsail Gets an Idea and, to the Amazement + of Jimmie Grimm, Archie Armstrong Promptly Goes Him One + Better_ + +While Archie Armstrong was pursuing his piratical adventure in the +French harbour of St. Pierre, Billy Topsail had gone fishing with +Jimmie Grimm and Donald North. This was in the trim little sloop that +Sir Archibald had sent north to Billy Topsail in recognition of his +service to Archie during a great blizzard from which Bill o' Burnt Bay +had rescued them both.[5] There were now no fish in the summer waters +of Ruddy Cove; but word had come down the coast that fish were running +in the north. So up went the sails of the little _Rescue_; and with +Billy Topsail, Jimmie Grimm and Bobby North aboard she swept daintily +between the tickle rocks and turned her shapely prow towards White +Bay. + +There was good fishing with hook and line; and as the hold of the +little sloop was small she was soon loaded with green cod. + +"I 'low I got an idea," said Billy Topsail. + +Jimmie Grimm looked up. + +"We'll sail for Ruddy Cove the morrow," Billy went on; "an' when we +lands our fish we'll go tradin'. There's a deal o' money in that, I'm +told; an' with what we gets for our fish we'll stock the cabin o' the +_Rescue_ and come north again t' trade in White Bay." + +Donald and Jimmie were silent; the undertaking was too vast to be +comprehended in a moment. + +"Let's have Archie," said Jimmie, at last. + +"An' poor ol' Bagg," said Donald. + +"We'll have Archie if he'll come," Billy agreed, "an' Bagg if we can +stow un away." + +There was a long, long silence, during which the three boys began to +dream in an amazing way. + +"Billy," Donald North asked, at last, "what you goin' t' do with your +part o' the money we'll make at tradin'?" + +It was a quiet evening on the coast; and from the deck of the sloop, +where she lay in harbour, the boys looked away to a glowing sunset, +above the inland hills and wilderness. + +"I don't know," Billy replied. "What you goin' t' do with your share, +Jimmie?" + +"Don't know," said Jimmie, seriously. "What you goin' t' do with +yours, Donald?" + +"I isn't quite made up my mind," said Donald, with an anxious frown. +"I 'low I'll wait an' see what Archie does with his." + +The three boys stowed away in the little cabin of the _Rescue_ very +early that night. They were to set sail for Ruddy Cove at dawn of the +next morning. + + * * * * * + +Archie Armstrong, now returned from the Miquelon Islands and relieved +of his anxiety concerning that adventure by his father's letter, was +heart and soul for trading. But he scorned the little _Rescue_. It was +merely that she was too small, he was quick to add; she was trim and +fast and stout, she possessed every virtue a little craft could have, +but as for trading, on any scale that half-grown boys could tolerate, +she was far too small. If a small venture could succeed, why shouldn't +a larger one? What Archie wanted--what he determined they should +have--was a thirty-ton schooner. Nothing less would do. They must have +a thirty-ton fore-an'-after with Bill o' Burnt Bay to skipper her. +The _Heavenly Home_? Not at all! At any rate, Josiah Cove was to take +that old basket to the Labrador for the last cruise of the season. + +Jimmie Grimm laughed at Archie. + +"What you laughing at?" Archie demanded, with a grin. + +Jimmie couldn't quite tell; but the truth was that the fisherman's lad +could never get used to the airy, confident, masterful way of a rich +man's son and a city-bred boy. + +"Look you, Archie!" said Billy Topsail, "where in time is you goin' t' +get that schooner?" + +"The _On Time_," was the prompt reply. "We'll call her the _Spot +Cash_." + +Billy realized that the _On Time_ might be had. Also that she might be +called the _Spot Cash_. She had lain idle in the harbour since her +skipper had gone off to the mines at Sidney to make more money in +wages than he could take from the sea. But how charter her? + +"Where you goin' t' get the stock?" Jimmie Grimm inquired. + +"Don't know whether I can or not," said Archie; "but I'm going to try +my level best." + +Archie Armstrong left for St. John's by the next mail-boat. He was +not the lad to hesitate. What his errand was the Ruddy Cove boys knew +well enough; but concerning the prospect of success, they could only +surmise. However, Archie wouldn't be long. Archie wasn't the lad to be +long about anything. What he undertook to do he went right _at_! + +"If he can only do it," Billy Topsail said. + +Jimmie Grimm and Donald North and Bagg stared at Billy Topsail like a +litter of eager and expectant little puppies. And Bill o' Burnt Bay +stood like a wise old dog behind. If only Archie could! + +----- + + [5] As related in "The Adventures of Billy Topsail." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + + _In Which Sir Archibald Armstrong Is Almost Floored By a + Business Proposition, But Presently Revives, and Seems to + be About to Rise to the Occasion_ + +Sir Archibald Armstrong was a colonial knight. His decoration--one of +Her late Majesty's birthday honours--had come to him for beneficent +political services to the colony in time of trouble and ruin. He was a +Newfoundlander born and bred (though educated in the English schools); +and he was fond of saying in a pleasantly boastful way and with a +little twinkle of amusement in his sympathetic blue eyes: "I'm a +fish-merchant, sir--a Newfoundland fish-merchant!" This was quite +true, of course; but it was only half the truth. Directly or +indirectly, Sir Archibald's business interests touched every port in +Newfoundland, every harbour of the Labrador, the markets of Spain and +Portugal, of the West Indies and the South American Republics. + +Sir Archibald was alone in his cozy office. The day was raw and wet. +There was a blazing fire in the grate--an agreeable bit of warmth and +brightness to contrast with the rain beating on the window-panes. + +A pale little clerk put his head in at the door. "Beg pardon, sir," he +jerked. "Master Archie, sir." + +"Master Archie!" Sir Archibald exclaimed. + +Archie entered. + +"What's this?" said Sir Archibald, in amazement. "Back from Ruddy +Cove?" + +"On business," Archie replied. + +Sir Archibald laughed pleasantly. + +"Don't make fun of me, father," said Archie. "I'm in dead earnest." + +"How much is it, son?" This was an ancient joke between the two. Both +laughed. + +"You'd be surprised if you knew," the boy returned. "But look here, +father! please don't take it in that way. I'm really in earnest." + +"It's money, son," Sir Archibald insisted. "I know it is." + +"Yes," said Archie, with a grave frown; "it _is_ money. It's a good +deal of money. It's so much money, dad, that you'll sit up when you +hear about it." + +Sir Archibald looked sharply into his son's grave eyes. "Ahem!" he +coughed. "Money," he mused, "and a good deal of it. What's the +trouble, son?" + +"No trouble, father," said Archie; "just a ripping good chance for fun +and profit." + +Sir Archibald moved to the chair behind a broad flat-top desk by the +window. This was the queer little throne from which all business +problems were viewed. It was from the shabby old chair--with a broad +window behind--that all business judgments were delivered. Did an +outport merchant want credit in any large way, it was from the +opposite chair--with the light falling full in his face through the +broad window--that he put the case to Sir Archibald. Archie sat down +in that chair and leaned over the desk. Sir Archibald stretched his +legs, put his hands deep in his pockets, let his chin fall on his +breast and stared searchingly into his son's face. The rain was driven +noisily against the windows; the fire crackled and glowed. As between +the two at the desk there was a momentary silence. + +"Well?" said Sir Archibald, shortly. + +"I want to go trading," Archie replied. + +Sir Archibald lifted his eyebrows--then pursed his lips. The matter +of credit was evidently to be proposed to him. It was to be put, +too, it seemed, in a business way. Very well: Sir Archibald would +deal with the question in a business way. He felt a little thrill +of pleasure--he was quite conscious of it. It was delightful to have +his only son in a business discussion, at the familiar old desk, +with the fire glowing, the wind rattling the windows and the rain +lashing the panes. Sir Archibald was a business man; and now he +realized for the first time that Archie was grown to a companionable +age. This, after all, he reflected, was what he had been working for: +To engage in business with his own son. + +"Then you want credit?" said he. + +"Look here, dad!" Archie burst out; "of course, I want credit. I'll +tell you all about it," he rattled anxiously. "We want--we means Billy +Topsail, Jimmie Grimm, Donald North and me--they're all Ruddy Cove +fellows, you know--we want to charter the _On Time_ at Ruddy Cove, +call her the _Spot Cash_, stock her cabin and hold--she's only a +twenty-tonner--and ship Bill o' Burnt Bay for skipper and trade the +ports of White Bay and the French Shore. All the boys----" + +[Illustration: "--WE WANT TO CHARTER THE _ON TIME_ AND TRADE THE PORTS OF +THE FRENCH SHORE."] + +"My traders," Sir Archibald interrupted, quietly, "are trading White +Bay and the French Shore." + +"I know it, dad," Archie began eagerly, "but----" + +"Will you compete with them?" Sir Archibald asked, his eyes wide open. +"The _Black Eagle_ sails north on a trading voyage in a fortnight. +She's loading now." + +"That's all right," said Archie, blithely. "We're going to----" + +"Encounter harsh competition," Sir Archibald put in, dryly. "How will +you go about it?" + +Archie had been fidgeting in his chair--hardly able to command his +politeness. + +"A cash trader!" he burst out. + +"Ah!" Sir Archibald drawled, enlightened. "I see. I see-ee!" + +"We'll be the only cash trader on the coast, dad," Archie continued; +"and we'll advertise--and carry a phonograph--and sell under the +credit prices--and----" + +Sir Archibald whistled in chagrin. + +"And we'll make good," Archie concluded. + +"You little pirate!" Sir Archibald ejaculated. + +Father and son laughed together. Then Sir Archibald began to drum on +the desk with his finger-tips. Presently he got up and began to pace +the floor, his hands thrust deep in his pockets, his lips pursed, his +brows drawn in a scowl of reflection. This was a characteristic thing. +Sir Archibald invariably paced, and pursed his lips, and scowled, when +a problem of more than ordinary interest engaged him. He knew that +Archie's plan was not unreasonable. There _might_--there _ought_ to +be--good profit in a cash-trading voyage in a small schooner to the +harbours of White Bay and the French Shore. There are no shops in most +of these little settlements. Shops go to the people in the form of +trading-schooners from St. John's and the larger ports of the more +southerly coast. It is in this way that the fisher-folk procure their +flour and tea, their medicines and clothing, their tackle, their +molasses, pins and needles, their trinkets, everything, in fact, both +the luxuries and necessities of life. It is chiefly a credit business, +the prices based on credit; the folk are outfitted in the spring and +pay in salt-cod in the late summer and fall. Why shouldn't a +cash-trader, underselling the credit plan, do well on the coast in a +small way? + +By and by, his face clearing, Sir Archibald sat down at the desk +again. + +"How much do you want?" he asked, directly. + +Archie took a grip on the arms of his chair and clenched his teeth. It +took a good deal of resolution to utter the amount. + +"Well, well?" Sir Archibald impatiently demanded. + +"A thousand dollars," said Archie, grimly. + +Sir Archibald started. + +"Two hundred and fifty dollars in cash," Archie added, "and seven +hundred and fifty in credit at the warehouse." + +"What's the security?" Sir Archibald blandly inquired. + +"Security!" Archie gasped. + +"It is a customary consideration in business," said Sir Archibald. + +Archie's house of cards seemed to be tumbling about his ears. +Security? He had not thought of that. He began to drum on the desk +with his finger-tips. Presently he got up and began to pace the floor, +his hands thrust deep in his pockets, his lips pursed, his brow drawn +in a scowl of reflection. Sir Archibald, recognizing his own habit in +his son's perturbation, smiled in a fatherly-fond way. The boy was +very dear to him; no doubt about it. But Sir Archibald was not +sentimental in the affection. + +"Well, sir," said Archie, by and by, his face clearing as he sat down, +"I could offer you security, and good enough security, but it doesn't +seem quite fair." + +Sir Archibald asked the nature of the bond. + +"I have a pony and cart, a motor boat and a sloop yacht," Archie +replied, grinning. "I 'low," he drawled, with a sly drooping of his +eyelids, "that they're worth more than a thousand dollars. Eh, father? +What do _you_ think?" + +Sir Archibald guffawed. + +"The trouble is," Archie went on, seriously, "that you gave them to +me; and it doesn't seem fair to you to offer them as security. But I +tell you, dad," he declared, "if we don't make good in this trading +cruise I'll sell those things and do without 'em. It isn't fair, I +know--it seems pretty mean to you--it looks as if I didn't care for +what you've given me. But I do care; and you know I care. The trouble +is that I want awfully to go trading." + +"It is the only security you have?" + +"Except mother," said Archie. "But," he added, hastily, "I wouldn't--I +_won't_--drag a lady into this." + +Sir Archibald threw back his head and roared. + +"What you laughing at, dad?" Archie asked, a little offended, if a +quick flush meant anything. + +"I'm sure," his father replied, "that the lady wouldn't mind." + +"No," said Archie, grave with his little problem of honour; "but I +wouldn't let a lady in for a thing like that." + +"Son," said Sir Archibald, now all at once turning very serious, "you +have better security than your pony and sloop." + +Archie looked up in bewilderment. + +"It is your integrity," Sir Archibald explained, gently, "and your +efficiency." + +Archie flushed with pleasure. + +"These are great things to possess," said Sir Archibald. + +"Thank you, sir," said Archie, rising in acknowledgment of this hearty +compliment. + +The lad was genuinely moved. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + + _In Which the Honour of Archie Armstrong Becomes Involved, + the First of September Becomes a Date of Utmost + Importance, He Collides With Tom Tulk, and a Note is Made + in the Book of the Future_ + +Sir Archibald began again to tap the desk with his finger-tips. Archie +strayed to the broad window and looked out upon the wharves and +harbour. + +"Is that the _Black Eagle_ at the wharf?" he asked. + +"The _Black Eagle_, sure enough!" Sir Archibald laughed. "She's the +White Bay and French Shore trader." + +"Trade enough for all," Archie returned. + +"George Rumm, master," said Sir Archibald. + +"Still?" Archie exclaimed. + +The sailing reputation of Skipper George had been in question through +the season. He had come within six inches of losing the _Black Eagle_ +in a small gale of the last voyage. + +"Who's clerk?" Archie asked. + +"Tommy Bull, boy." + +No friend of Archie! + +"Sharp enough, anyhow," the boy thought. + +Sir Archibald put his hands in his pockets again and began to pace the +floor; his lips were pursed, his brows drawn. Archie waited anxiously +at the window. + +"When," demanded Sir Archibald, pausing abruptly in his walk--"when do +you propose to liquidate this debt?" + +"We'll sail the _Spot Cash_ into St. John's harbour, sir, on September +first, or before." + +"With three hundred quintals of fish in her hold, I suppose?" + +Three hundred quintals of dry fish, at four dollars, roughly, a +quintal, was twelve hundred dollars. + +"More than that, sir," said Archie. + +"Well, boy," said Sir Archibald, briskly, "the security I have spoken +of is all right, and----" + +"Not worth much at auction sale," Archie interrupted, grinning. + +"There's no better security in the world," said Sir Archibald, "than +youth, integrity and capacity." + +Archie waited. + +"I'll back you," said Sir Archibald, shortly. + +"Father," Archie declared, his eyes shining with a little mist of +delight and affection, "I'll stand by this thing for all I'm worth!" + +They shook hands upon it. + + * * * * * + +Sir Archibald presently wrote a check and scribbled a few lines on a +slip of paper. The check was for two hundred and fifty dollars; it was +for running expenses and emergencies that Archie needed the hard cash. +The slip of paper was an order upon the warehouses and shops for +credit in the sum of seven hundred and fifty dollars. + +"Now," said Sir Archibald, "it is explicitly understood between us +that on or before the first of September you are to turn over to the +firm of Armstrong & Company a sufficient quantity of properly cured +fish to liquidate this account." + +"Yes, sir," Archie replied, earnestly; "on or before the first day of +September next." + +"You perfectly understand the terms?" Sir Archibald insisted. "You +know the nature of this obligation?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Very well, son," said Sir Archibald; "your honour is involved." + +Archie received the two slips of paper. It must be confessed that they +burned his fingers a little. It was a good deal to come into +possession of all at once--a good deal of money and an awe-inspiring +responsibility. Sir Archibald watched the boy's face narrowly. He +seemed to be pleased with what he found there--a little fear, a little +anxiety, a great deal of determination. The veteran business man +wondered if the boy would sleep as easily as usual that night. Would +he wake up fresh and smiling in the morning? These were large cares to +lie upon the shoulders of a lad. + +"Shall I give you a--well--a receipt--or a note--or anything like +that?" Archie asked. + +"You are upon your honour," said his father. + +Archie scratched his head in doubt. + +"Your honour," Sir Archibald repeated, smiling. + +"The first of September," Archie laughed. "I shan't forget that +date." + +In the end he had good cause to remember it. + + * * * * * + +Before Archie left the office Sir Archibald led him to the broad +window behind the desk. Archie was used to this. It was his father's +habit. The thing was not done in a spirit of boasting, as the boy was +very well aware. Nor was it an attempt to impress the boy with a sense +of his own importance and future wealth in the world. It was rather a +well-considered and consistent effort to give him a sense of the +reality and gravity of the obligations that would some day be his. +From the broad window Archie looked out once more upon the various +activities of his father's great business. There were schooners +fitting out for the fishing cruise to the Labrador; there were traders +taking in stores for the voyage to the Straits of Belle Isle, to the +South Coast, to the French Shore; there were fore-and-afters outbound +to the Grand Banks and waiting for a favourable wind; there were +coastwise vessels, loading flour and pork for the outport merchants; +there were barques awaiting more favourable weather in which to load +salt-cod for the West Indies and Spain. + +All this never failed to oppress Archie a little as viewed from the +broad window of his father's office. + +"Look!" said Sir Archibald, moving a hand to include the shipping and +storehouses. + +Archie gazed into the rainy day. + +"What do you see?" his father asked, in a way half bantering, half +grave. + +"Your ships and wharves, sir." + +"Some day," said Sir Archibald, "they will be yours." + +"I wish you wouldn't say that, dad--at least, not just in that way," +said Archie, turning away from the window. "It sort of frightens me." + +Sir Archibald laughed and clapped him on the back. "You know what I +mean," said he. + +"You mean that the firm has a name," said Archie. "You mean that the +name must never be disgraced. I know what you mean." + +Sir Archibald nodded. + +"I hope," said Archie, the suspicion of a quaver in his voice and a +tremble in his lower lip, "that I'll never disgrace it." + +"Nor the name of the little firm that goes into business this day," +said Sir Archibald. + +Archie's solemn face broke into a smile of amusement and surprise. +"Why, dad," said he, "it hasn't got a name." + +"Armstrong & Company, Junior?" + +"Armstrong, Topsail, Grimm & Company," said Archie, promptly. + +"Good luck to it!" wished Sir Archibald. + +"No; that's not it at all," said Archie. "Billy Topsail schemed this +thing out. Wish luck to the firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & +Company." + +"Build the firm," said Sir Archibald, "upon hard work and fair play." + +Archie hurriedly said they would--and vanished. + +"Son is growing up," thought Sir Archibald, when the boy had gone. +"Son is decidedly growing up. Well, well!" he sighed; "son is growing +up and in far more trouble than he dreams of. It's a big investment, +too. However," he thought, well pleased and cheerful again, "let him +go ahead and learn his daddy's business. And I'll back him," he +declared, speaking aloud in his enthusiastic faith. "By Jove! I'll +back him to win!" + + * * * * * + +At the foot of the stairway Archie collided full tilt with two men who +were engaged in intimate conversation as they passed the door. The one +was George Rumm, skipper of the _Black Eagle_--a timid, weak-mouthed, +shifty-eyed man, with an obsequious drawl in his voice, a diffident +manner, and, altogether, a loose, weak way. The other was old Tom Tulk +of Twillingate. Archie leaped back with an apology to Skipper George. +The boy had no word to say to Tom Tulk of Twillingate. Tom Tulk was +notoriously a rascal whom the law was eager to catch but could never +quite satisfactorily lay hands on. It did not occur to Archie that no +wise skipper would put heads mysteriously together in a public place +with old Tom Tulk of Twillingate. The boy was too full of his own +concerns to take note of anything. + +"Hello, Skipper George!" he cried, buoyantly. "I'll see you on the +French Shore." + +"Goin' north?" Skipper George drawled. + +"Tradin'," said Archie. + +Skipper George started. Tom Tulk scowled. "Goin' aboard the _Black +Eagle_?" asked Skipper George. + +"Tradin' on my own hook, Skipper George," said Archie; "and I'm bound +to cut your throat on the Shore." + +Tom Tulk and Skipper George exchanged glances as Archie darted away. +There was something of relief in Skipper George's eyes--a relieved and +teasing little smile. But Tom Tulk was frankly angry. + +"The little shaver!" said he, in disgust. + +It was written in the book of the future that Skipper George Rumm and +Archie Armstrong should fall in with each other on the north coast +before the summer was over. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + + _In Which Notorious Tom Tulk o' Twillingate and the + Skipper of the "Black Eagle" Put Their Heads Together Over + a Glass of Rum in the Cabin of a French Shore Trader_ + +There was never a more notorious rascal in Newfoundland than old Tom +Tulk of Twillingate. There was never a cleverer rascal--never a man +who could devise new villainies as fast and execute them as neatly. +The law had never laid hands on him. At any rate not for a crime of +importance. He had been clapped in jail once, but merely for debt; and +he had carried this off with flying colours by pushing past the +startled usher in church and squatting his great flabby bulk in the +governor's pew of the next Sunday morning. He was a thief, a chronic +bankrupt, a counterfeiter, an illicit liquor seller. It was all +perfectly well known; but not once had a constable brought an offense +home to him. He had once been arrested for theft, it is true, and +taken to St. John's by the constables; but on the way he had stolen a +watch from one and put it in the pocket of the other, thereby +involving both in far more trouble than they could subsequently +involve him. + +Add to these evil propensities a deformed body and a crimson +countenance and you have the shadow of an idea of old Tom Tulk. + + * * * * * + +George Rumm and Tom Tulk boarded the _Black Eagle_ in the rain and +sought the shelter of her little cabin. The cook had made a fire for +the skipper; the cabin was warm and quiet. Tom Tulk closed the door +with caution and glanced up to see that the skylights were tight. +Skipper George produced the bottle and glasses. + +"Now, Skipper George," said Tom Tulk, as he tipped the bottle, "'tis a +mint o' money an' fair easy t' make." + +"I'm not likin' the job," the skipper complained. "I'm not likin' the +job at all." + +"'Tis an easy one," Tom Tulk maintained, "an' 'tis well paid when 'tis +done." + +Skipper George scowled in objection. + +"Ye've a soft heart for man's work," said Tom, with a bit of a +sneer. + +Skipper George laughed. "Is you thinkin' t' drive me by makin' fun o' +me?" he asked. + +"I'm thinkin' nothin'," Tom Tulk replied, "but t' show you how it can +be done. Will you listen t' me?" + +"Not me!" George Rumm declared. + +Tom Tulk observed, however, that the skipper's ears were wide open. + +"Not me!" Skipper George repeated, with a loud thump on the table. +"No, sir! I'll have nothin' t' do with it!" + +Tom Tulk fancied that the skipper's ears were a little bit wider than +before; he was not at all deceived by this show of righteousness on +the part of a weak man. + +"Well, well!" he sighed. "Say no more about it." + +"I'm not denyin'," said Skipper George, "that it _could_ be done. I'm +not denyin' that it would be easy work. But I tells you, Tom Tulk, +that I'll have nothin' t' do with it. I'm an honest man, Tom Tulk, an' +I'd thank you t' remember it." + +"Well, well!" Tom Tulk sighed again. "There's many a man in this +harbour would jump at the chance; but there's never another so honest +that I could trust him." + +"Many a man, if you like," Skipper George growled; "but not me." + +"No, no," Tom Tulk agreed, with a covert little sneer and grin; "not +you." + +"'Tis a prison offense, man!" + +"If you're cotched," Tom Tulk laughed. "An' tell me, George Rumm, is +_I_ ever been cotched?" + +"I'm not sayin' you is." + +"No; nor never will be." + +It had all been talked over before, of course; and it would be talked +over again before a fortnight was past and the _Black Eagle_ had set +sail for the French Shore with a valuable cargo. Tom Tulk had begun +gingerly; he had proceeded with exquisite caution; he had ventured a +bit more; at last he had come boldly out with the plan. Manned with +care--manned as she could be and as Tom Tulk would take care to have +her--the _Black Eagle_ was the ship for the purpose; and Skipper +George, with a reputation for bad seamanship, was the man for the +purpose. And the thing _would_ be easy. Tom Tulk knew it. Skipper +George knew it. It could be successfully done. There was no doubt +about it; and Skipper George hated to think that there was no doubt +about it. The ease and safety with which he might have the money +tumble into his pocket troubled him. It was not so much a temptation +as an aggravation. He found himself thinking about it too often; he +wanted to put it out of his mind, but could not. + +"Now, Tom Tulk," said he, at last, flushing angrily, "let's have no +more o' this. I'm fair tired of it. I'll have nothin' t' do with it; +an' I tells you so, once an' for all." + +"Pass the bottle," said Tom Tulk. + +The bottle went from hand to hand. + +"We'll say no more about it," said Tom Tulk; "but I tells you, Skipper +George, that that little clerk o' yours, Tommy Bull, is just the +ticket. As for a crew, I got un handy." + +"Belay, belay!" + +"Ay, ay, Skipper George," Tom Tulk agreed; "but as for fetchin' a +cargo o' fish into St. John's harbour without tellin' where it came +from, if there's any man can beat me at that, why, I'd----" + +Skipper George got up and pulled open the hatch. + +"I'll see you again," said Tom Tulk. + +Skipper George of the _Black Eagle_ helped himself to another dram +when Tom Tulk had withdrawn his great body and sly face. It was true, +all that Tom Tulk had said. It was true about the clerk; he was ripe +to go bad. It was true about the crew; with hands scarce, and +able-bodied young fellows bound to the Sidney mines for better wages, +Skipper George could ship whom he liked and Tom Tulk chose. It was +true about fetching fish into St. John's without accounting whence it +came. Tom Tulk could do it; nobody would ask eccentric old Tom Tulk +where he got his fish--everybody would laugh. It was true about the +skipper himself; it was quite true that his reputation was none of the +best as a sailing-master. But he had never lost a ship yet. They might +say he had come near it, if they liked; but he had never lost a ship +yet. No, sir; he had never lost a ship yet. Nor would he. He'd fetch +the _Black Eagle_ home, right enough, and _show_ Sir Archibald +Armstrong! + +But the thing would be easy. It was disgustingly easy in prospect. +Skipper George wished that old Tom Tulk had never come near to bother +him. + +"Hang Tom Tulk!" thought he. + +But how easy, after all, the thing would be! + + * * * * * + +The first hand put his head in the hatchway to tell Skipper George +that he was to report to Sir Archibald Armstrong in the office at +once. Skipper George was not quite easy about the three drams he had +taken; but there was nothing for it but to appear in the office +without delay. As a matter of fact Sir Archibald Armstrong detected +nothing out of the way. He had something to say to Skipper George +about the way to sail a schooner--about timid sailing, and reckless +sailing, and feeling about in fogs, and putting out to sea, and +running for harbour. When he had finished--and he spoke long and +earnestly, with his blue eyes flashing, his head in the air, his teeth +snapping once in a while--when Sir Archibald had finished, Skipper +George was standing with his cap in his hand, his face flushed, +answering, "Yes, sir," and, "No, sir," in a way of the meekest. When +he left the office he was unpleasantly aware that he was face to face +with his last chance. In this new trouble he forgot all about Tom +Tulk. + +"Skipper George," he thought, taking counsel with himself, as he +poured another dram, "you got t' do better." + +He mused a long time. + +"I _will_ do better," he determined. "I'll show un that I can sail a +schooner." + +Before he stowed away for the night, a little resentment crept into +his thoughts of Sir Archibald. He had never felt this way before. + +"I got t' stop this," he thought. + +Tom Tulk was then dreaming over a glass of rum; and his dreams were +pleasant dreams--concerning Skipper George of the _Black Eagle_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + + _In Which the Enterprise of Archie Armstrong Evolves Senor + Fakerino, the Greatest Magician In Captivity. In Which, + also, the Foolish are Importuned Not to be Fooled, Candy + is Promised to Kids, Bill o' Burnt Bay is Persuaded to + Tussle With "The Lost Pirate," and the "Spot Cash" Sets + Sail_ + +For three dismal, foggy days, Archie Armstrong was the busiest +business man in St. John's, Newfoundland. He was forever damp, +splashed with mud, grimy-faced, wilted as to clothes and haggard as to +manner. But make haste he must; there was not a day--not an hour--to +spare: for it was now appallingly near August; and the first of +September would delay for no man. When, with the advice of Sir +Archibald and the help of every man-jack in the warehouses (even of +the rat-eyed little Tommy Bull), the credit of Topsail, Armstrong, +Grimm & Company had been exhausted to the last penny, Archie sighed in +a thoroughly self-satisfied way, pulled out his new check-book and +plunged into work of another sort. + +"How's that bank-account holding out?" Sir Archibald asked, that +evening. + +"I'm a little bit bent, dad," Archie replied, "but not yet broke." + +Sir Archibald looked concerned. + +"Advertising," Archie briefly explained. + +"But," said Sir Archibald, in protest, "nobody has ever advertised in +White Bay before." + +"Somebody is just about to," Archie laughed. + +Sir Archibald was puzzled. "Wh-wh-what _for_?" he inquired. "What kind +of advertising?" + +"Handbills, dad, and concerts, and flags, and circus-lemonade." + +"Nothing more, son?" Sir Archibald mocked. + +"Senor Fakerino," Archie replied, with a smack of self-satisfaction, +"the World's Greatest Magician." + +"The same being?" + +"Yours respectfully, A. Armstrong." + +Sir Archibald shrugged his shoulders. Then his eyes twinkled, his +sides began to shake, and he threw back his head and burst into a roar +of laughter, in which Archie and his mother--they were all at +dinner--joined him. + +"Why, dad," Archie exclaimed, with vast enthusiasm, "the firm of +Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company is going to give the people of +White Bay such a good time this summer that they'll never deal with +anybody else. And we're going to give them the worth of their money, +too--every penny's worth. On a cash basis we can afford to. We're +going into business to build up a business; and when I come back from +that English school next summer it's going to go right ahead." + +Sir Archibald admitted the good prospect. + +"Pity the poor _Black Eagle_!" said Archie, grinning. + +Lady Armstrong finished Senor Fakerino's gorgeously spangled crimson +robe and high-peaked hat that night and Archie completed a very +masterpiece of white beard. Afterwards, Archie packed his trunks. When +he turned in at last, outward bound next day by the cross-country +mixed train, he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had stowed the +phonograph, the printing-press and type, the signal flags, the magical +apparatus and Fakerino costume and the new accordion; and he knew--for +he had taken pains to find out--that the stock of trading goods, which +he had bought with most anxious discrimination, was packed and +directed and waiting at the station, consigned to Topsail, Armstrong, +Grimm & Company, General Merchants, Ruddy Cove, Newfoundland. + +Archie slept well. + +When the mail-boat made Ruddy Cove, Archie was landed, in overflowing +spirits, with his boxes and bales and barrels and trunks and news. The +following days were filled with intense activity. Topsail, Armstrong, +Grimm & Company chartered the _On Time_ in due form; and with the +observance of every legal requirement she was given a new name, the +_Spot Cash_. They swept and swabbed her, fore and aft; they gave her a +line or two of gay paint; they fitted her cabin with shelves and a +counter and her forecastle with additional bunks; and Bill o' Burnt +Bay went over her rigging and spars. While Jimmie Grimm, Bobby North +and Bagg unpacked the stock and furnished the cabin shelves and stowed +the hold, Billy Topsail and Archie turned to on the advertising. + +The printing-press was set up in Mrs. Skipper William's fish-stage. +Billy Topsail--who had never seen the like--stared open-mouthed at the +operation. + +"We got to _make_ 'em buy," Archie declared. + +"H-h-how?" Billy stammered. + +"We got to make _'em want_ to," said Archie. "They'll trade if they +want to." + +In return Billy watched Archie scribble. + +"How's this?" Archie asked, at last. + +Billy listened to the reading. + +"Will that fetch 'em aboard?" Archie demanded, anxiously. + +"It would _my_ mother," said the astonished Billy. "_I'd_ fetch her, +bet yer life!" + +They laboriously set up the handbill and triumphantly struck it off: + + kANDY FOR KIdS + + X + + Boys Gi_r_ls and Ba_b_ies co_m_e Ab_o_ard + the + + "sPOT CAsH" + Yo_u_ Get Perfectly P_u_re Pepper_m_int + if yo_u_ bring yo_u_r + + :o: P_A_REnTS :o: + _W_E LOVE K_I_Ds KIdDIES A_N_D + KiDLE_T_S + + _Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Co._ + +"That'll fetch 'em, all right!" Archie declared. "Now for the +concert." + +Billy had another shock of surprise. "Th-th _what_?" he ejaculated. + +"Concert," Archie replied. "You're going to sing, Billy." + +"Me!" poor Billy exclaimed in large alarm. + +"And Skipper Bill is, too," Archie went on; "and Bagg's going to +double-shuffle, and Bobby North is going to shake that hornpipe out of +his feet, and Jimmie Grimm is going to recite 'Sailor Boy, Sailor +Boy,' and I'm going to do a trifling little stunt myself. I'm Senor +Fakerino, Billy," Archie laughed, "the Greatest Magician in Captivity. +_Just_ you wait and see. I think I'll have a bill all to myself." + +Archie scowled and scribbled again with a result that presently made +him chuckle. It appeared in the handbill (after some desperately hard +work) in this guise: + + tO-NIGHT! tO-NIGHT! + O_n_ Boa_r_d t_h_e + "SPOT CASH" + + ----SENOR FAKE-erino---- + + Will Fully F_oo_l the F_oo_lish + :o: DOn'T :o: + Be F_oo_lish _a_nd Fully F_oo_led by + Credit Tr_a_ding + + TRADE FOR CASH *** + + ABOARD _the_ + *** "SPOT CASH" + +It was late in the afternoon before the last handbill was off the +press; and Billy Topsail then looked more like a black-face comedian +than senior member of the ambitious firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm +& Company. Archie was no better--perspiring, ink-stained, tired in +head and hands. But the boys were delighted with what they had +accomplished. There were two other productions: one announcing the +concert and the other an honest and quiet comparison of cash and +credit prices with a fair exposition of the virtue and variety of the +merchandise to be had aboard the _Spot Cash_. + +When Bill o' Burnt Bay, however, was shown the concert announcement +and informed, much to his amazement, that it was down in the articles +of agreement, as between him, master of the _Spot Cash_, and the +firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company--down in black and +white in the articles of agreement which he was presumed to have +signed--down and no dodging it--that he was to sing "The Lost Pirate" +when required--Bill o' Burnt Bay was indignant and flatly resigned +his berth. + +"All right, skipper," Archie drawled. "You needn't sing, I 'low. Billy +Topsail has a sweet little pipe, an' I 'low it'll be a good deal +better to have him sing twice." + +"Eh?" Bill gasped, chagrined. "What's that?" + +"Better to have Billy sing twice," Archie repeated indifferently. + +Bill o' Burnt Bay glared at Billy Topsail. + +"Billy Topsail," said Archie, in a way the most careless, "has the +neatest little pipe on the coast." + +"I'll have you to know," Bill o' Burnt Bay snorted, "that they's many +a White Bay liveyere would pay a _dime_ t' hear me have a tussle with +'The Lost Pirate.'" + +Archie whistled. + +"Look you, Archie!" Skipper Bill demanded; "is you goin' t' let me +sing, or isn't you?" + +"I is," Archie laughed. + +That was the end of the mutiny. + + * * * * * + +At peep of dawn the _Spot Cash_ set sail from Ruddy Cove with flags +flying and every rag of sail spread to a fair breeze. Presently the +sun was out, the sky blue, the wind smartly blowing. Late in the +afternoon she passed within a stone's throw of Mother Burke and +rounded Cape John into White Bay. Before dark she dropped anchor in +Coachman's Cove and prepared for business. + +"Come on, lads!" Archie shouted, when the anchor was down and all sail +stowed. "Let's put these dodgers where they'll do most good." + +The handbills were faithfully distributed before the punts of +Coachman's came in from the fishing grounds; and that night, to an +audience that floated in punts in the quiet water, just beyond the +schooner's stern, and by the light of four torches, Topsail, +Armstrong, Grimm & Company presented their first entertainment in +pursuit of business, the performers operating upon a small square +stage which Bill o' Burnt Bay had rigged on the house of the cabin. + +It was a famous evening. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + + _In Which the Amazing Operations of the "Black Eagle" + Promise to Ruin the Firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & + Company, and Archie Armstrong Loses His Temper and Makes a + Fool of Himself_ + +Trade was brisk next day--and continued brisk for a fortnight. From +Coachman's Cove to Seal Cove, from Seal Cove to Black Arm, from Black +Arm to Harbour Round and Little Harbour Deep went the _Spot Cash_. She +entered with gay signal flags and a multitude of little Union Jacks +flying; and no sooner was the anchor down than the phonograph began +its musical invitation to draw near and look and buy. And there was +presently candy for the children; and there were undeniable bargains +for the mothers. In the evening--under a quiet starlit sky--Skipper +Bill "tussled" gloriously with "The Lost Pirate," and Bobby North +shook the hornpipe out of his very toes, and Bill Topsail wistfully +piped the well-loved old ballads of the coast in a tender treble; and +after that Senor Fakerino created no end of mystification and applause +by extracting half-dollars from the vacant air, and discovering three +small chicks in an empty top-hat, and producing eggs at will from +Bagg's capacious mouth, and with a mere wave of his wand changing the +blackest of ink into the very most delicious of lemonade. The folk of +that remote coast were delighted. They had never been amused before; +and they craved amusement--like little children. + +[Illustration: SENOR FAKERINO CREATED APPLAUSE BY EXTRACTING HALF DOLLARS +FROM VACANCY.] + +Trade followed as a matter of course. + + * * * * * + +Trade was brisk as any heart could wish up the White Bay coast to the +first harbours of the northern reaches of the French Shore; and there +it came to an appalling full stop. The concerts were patronized as +before; but no fish came aboard for exchange. + +"I can't bear to look the calendar in the face," Archie complained. + +The _Spot Cash_ then lay at anchor in Englee. + +"'Tis the fifth o' August," said Billy Topsail. + +"Whew!" Archie whistled. "Sixteen days to the first of September!" + +"What's the matter, anyhow?" Skipper Bill inquired. + +"The _Black Eagle's_ the matter," said Archie, angrily. "She's swept +these harbours clean. She cleaned out Englee yesterday." + +"Stand by, all hands!" roared the skipper. + +"What's up, skipper?" asked Archie. + +"Nothin'," replied the skipper; "that's the trouble. But the mains'l +_will_ be up afore very long if there's a rope's end handy," he added. +"We'll chase the _Black Eagle_." + +They caught the _Black Eagle_ at anchor in Conch that evening. She was +deep in the water. Apparently her hold was full; there were the first +signs of a deck-load of fish to be observed. In a run ashore Archie +very soon discovered the reason of her extraordinary success. He +returned to the deck of the _Spot Cash_ in a towering rage. The clerk +of the _Black Eagle_ had put up the price of fish and cut the price of +every pound and yard of merchandise aboard his vessel. No wonder she +had loaded. No wonder the folk of the French Shore had emptied their +stages of the summer's catch. And what was the _Spot Cash_ to do? +Where was she to get _her_ fish? By selling at less than cost and +buying at more than the market price? Nothing of the sort! Topsail, +Armstrong, Grimm & Company were not going to be ruined by that sort of +folly. Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company couldn't _have_ any fish. +The powerful firm of Armstrong & Company of St. John's was going to +put the poor little firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company out of +business--going to snuff 'em out--_had_ snuffed 'em out. The best +thing Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company could do was to get to cover +and call cash trading as big a failure as had ever been made in +Newfoundland business. + +"Isn't fair!" Archie complained, aboard the _Spot Cash_. "It's dirty +business, I tell you." + +"Let's fire away, anyhow," said Jimmie Grimm. + +"It isn't fair of dad," Archie repeated, coming as near to the point +of tears as a boy of his age well could. "It's a low trick to cut a +small trader's throat like this. They can outsail us and keep ahead of +us; and they'll undersell and overbuy us wherever we go. When they've +put us out of business, they'll go back to the old prices. It isn't +fair of dad," he burst out. "I tell you, it isn't fair!" + +"Lend a hand here," said Bill. "We'll see what they do." + +A pretense of hauling up the mainsail was made aboard the _Spot +Cash_. There was an immediate stir on the deck of the _Black Eagle_; +the hands were called from the forecastle. + +"Look at that!" said Archie, in disgust. + +Both crews laughed and gave it up. + +"It isn't _like_ your dad," said Bill o' Burnt Bay. "I'll lay you +alongside the _Black Eagle_, Archie," he added, "an' you can have a +little yarn with Skipper George." + + * * * * * + +Skipper George Rumm was glad to see Archie--glad in a too bland way, +in which, however, Archie did not detect a very obvious nervousness. +Three eighty-five for fish? Yes; the skipper _did_ believe that Tommy +Bull was paying three eighty-five. No; he didn't know the market price +in St. John's. Flour and pork and sugar and tea? No; the skipper +didn't know just what Tommy Bull was selling flour and pork and sugar +and tea at. You see, Tommy Bull was clerk of the _Black Eagle_; and +that was the clerk's business. Tommy Bull was ashore just then; the +skipper didn't just quite know when he'd come aboard. Were these +prices Sir Archibald's orders? Really, Skipper George didn't know. +Tommy Bull knew all about that; and Tommy Bull had clerked in these +waters long enough to keep the firm's business to himself. Tommy Bull +was closemouthed; he wouldn't be likely to blab Sir Archibald's orders +in every harbour of the coast or whisper them in the ear of a rival +trading clerk. + +This last thrust was too much for Archie's dignity. He leaped from the +deck of the _Black Eagle_ into his own punt in a greater rage than +ever. + +"There's t' be a spell o' rough weather," were Skipper George's last +words. + +The punt moved away. + +"Skipper Bill," said Archie, "the nearest telegraph station is at Tilt +Cove. Can we make it in a night?" + +"If the wind holds," the skipper answered. + +"Then we'll try," said Archie. + +The predicament was explained to Donald North and Jimmie Grimm and +Billy Topsail. The _Spot Cash_ could have no more fish as long as the +_Black Eagle_ paid three eighty-five with the St. John's market at +three thirty-five. But _was_ the market at three thirty-five? Hadn't +the _Black Eagle_ later information? That must be found out; and from +Tilt Cove it could be discovered in two hours. So up went the sails of +the _Spot Cash_, and, with the _Black Eagle_ following, she jockeyed +out of the harbour. Presently, when she had laid a course for Cape +John and Tilt Cove, the _Black Eagle_ came about and beat back to +Conch. + + * * * * * + +Next morning--and dirty weather was promised for the day--the _Spot +Cash_ dropped anchor in the shelter of the cliff at Tilt Cove and +Billy Topsail pulled Archie ashore. It was in Archie's heart to accuse +his father's firm of harsh dealing with a small competitor; but he +resolved to do no more than ask the price of fish. The answer would be +significant of all that the lad wished to know; and if the great firm +of Armstrong & Company had determined to put obstacles in the way of +Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company, even to the point of ruin, there +was no help for Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company. Archie would ask +no quarter. + +"Make haste!" Skipper Bill called from the deck of the _Spot Cash_. +"I've no love for this harbour in a gale o' wind." + +It was poor shelter at best. + +"Much as I can," Archie shouted back. + +The boy sent this telegram: + + Tilt Cove, August 6. + + Armstrong & Company, + St. John's. + Price of fish. + + Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company. + +There was now nothing to do but wait. Sir Archibald would be in his +little office overlooking his wharves and shipping. It would not be +long. And the reply presently came: + + St. John's, August 6. + + Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company, + Aboard "Spot Cash," + Tilt Cove. + Still three thirty-five. No rise probable. + + Armstrong & Company. + +Archie Armstrong was hurt. He could hardly conceive that his father +had planned the ruin of his undertaking and the loss of his honour. +But what was left to think? Would the skipper and clerk of the _Black +Eagle_ deliberately court discharge? And discharge it would +be--discharge in disgrace. There was no possible excuse for this +amazing change in prices. No; there was no explanation but that they +were proceeding upon Sir Archibald's orders. It was inconceivable +that they should be doing anything else. Archie would ask no quarter +of his father; but he would at least let Sir Archibald know that he +was aware of the difference between fair and unfair competition. +Before he boarded the _Spot Cash_ he dispatched this message: + + Tilt Cove, August 6. + + Armstrong & Company, + St. John's. + Tilt Cove. + + "Black Eagle" paying three eighty-five. Underselling + flour, pork, tea, sugar. Why don't you play fair? + + Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company. + +If Archie Armstrong could have been in the little office which +overlooked the wharves to observe the effect of that message upon Sir +Archibald he would not only have been amazed but would have come to +his senses in a good deal less time than he actually did. The first +item astounded and bewildered Sir Archibald; the second--the brief +expression of distrust--hurt him sorely. But he had no time to be +sentimental. Three eighty-five for fish? What was the meaning of that? +Cut prices on flour, pork, sugar and tea? What was the meaning of +_that_? Sir Archibald saw in a flash what it meant to Topsail, +Armstrong, Grimm & Company. But what did it mean to Armstrong & +Company? Sir Archibald flushed and perspired with wrath. He pushed +buttons--he roared orders--he scribbled telegrams. In ten minutes, so +vociferous was his rage, so intense his purpose, it was known from one +end of the establishment to the other that the _Black Eagle_ must be +communicated with at once. + +But Armstrong & Company could not manage to communicate with the +_Black Eagle_ direct, it seemed. Armstrong & Company might, however, +communicate with the _Spot Cash_, now at Tilt Cove and possibly bound +north. Doubtless by favour of the clerk of the _Spot Cash_ Armstrong & +Company would be able to speak orders in the ear of Skipper George +Rumm. + +"Judd!" Sir Archibald roared. + +The pale little clerk appeared on the bound. + +"Rush this," said Sir Archibald. + +The message read: + + St. John's, August 6. + + Archibald Armstrong II, + On board "Spot Cash," + Tilt Cove. + + Please oblige order "Black Eagle" St. John's forthwith. + This your authority. + + Armstrong & Company. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + + _In Which the "Spot Cash" is Caught By a Gale In the Night + and Skipper Bill Gives Her Up For Lost_ + +It was blowing up when Archie returned to the _Spot Cash_. There was a +fine rain in the wind, too; and a mist--hardly yet a fog--was growing +denser on the face of a whitening sea. Nothing to bother about yet, of +course: only a smart breeze and a little tumble, with thick weather to +make a skipper keep his eyes open. But there was the threat of heavy +wind and a big sea in gray sky overhead and far out upon the water. +Tilt Cove was no place for the _Spot Cash_ to lie very long; she must +look for shelter in Sop's Arm before night. + +"Archie, b'y," said Bill o' Burnt Bay, in the cozy forecastle with the +boys, "there's something queer about this here _Black Eagle_." + +"I should say so!" Archie sneered. "It's the first time I ever knew my +father not to play fair." + +"Bosh!" Skipper Bill ejaculated. + +Archie started up in a rage. + +"'Ear the wind!" said Bagg, with a little shiver. + +It had begun to blow in earnest. The wind, falling over the cliff, +played mournfully in the rigging. A gust of rain lashed the skylight. +Swells from the open rocked the schooner. + +"Blowin' up," said Billy Topsail. + +"How long have you knowed Sir Archibald?" the skipper asked. + +Archie laughed. + +"Off an' on for about sixteen years, I 'low?" said the skipper. + +Archie nodded shortly. + +"'Ark t' the wind!" Bagg whispered. + +"'Twill be all in a tumble off the cape," said Jimmie Grimm. + +"Know Sir Archibald _well_?" the skipper pursued. + +Archie sat down in disgust. + +"Pretty intimate, eh?" asked the skipper. + +The boy laughed again; and then all at once--all in a flash--his +ill-humour and suspicion vanished. His father not play fair? How +preposterous the fancy had been! Of _course_, he was playing fair! +But somebody wasn't. And _who_ wasn't? + +"It is queer," said he. "What do you make of it, Bill?" + +"I been thinkin'," the skipper replied heavily. + +"Have you fathomed it?" + +"Well," the skipper drawled, "I've thunk along far enough t' want t' +look into it farder. I'd say," he added, "t' put back t' Conch." + +"It's going to blow, Skipper Bill." + +It had already begun to blow. The wind was moaning aloft. The +long-drawn melancholy penetrated to the cozy cabin. In the shelter of +the cliff though she was, the schooner tossed in the spent seas that +came swishing in from the open. + +"Well," the skipper drawled, "I guess the wind won't take the hair off +a body; an' I 'low we can make Conch afore the worst of it." + +"I'm with the skipper," said Billy Topsail. + +"Me, too," said Jimmie Grimm. + +Bagg had nothing to say; he seldom had, poor fellow! in a gale of +wind. + +"I've a telegram to send," said Archie. + +It was a message of apology. Archie went ashore with a lighter heart +to file it. What an unkindly suspicious fool he had been! he +reflected, heartily ashamed of himself. + +"Something for you, sir," said the agent. + +Sir Archibald's telegram was put in the boy's hand; and when this had +been read aboard the _Spot Cash_--and when the schooner had rounded +Cape John and was taking full advantage of a sudden change of wind to +the southwest--Archie and the skipper and the crew felt very well +indeed, thank you! + + * * * * * + +It blew hard in the afternoon--harder than Bill o' Burnt Bay had +surmised. The wind had a slap to it that troubled the little _Spot +Cash_. Crested seas broke over her bows and swept her deck. She was +smothered in white water half the time. The wind was rising, too. It +was to be a big gale from the southeast. It was already half a gale. +There was wind enough for the _Spot Cash_. Much more would shake and +drown her like a chip. Bill o' Burnt Bay, at the wheel, and the crew, +forward and amidships, kept watch for the coast and the friendly +landmarks of harbour. But what with wind and fog and rain it was a +disheartening business. + +When night gathered, the coast was not in sight. The _Spot Cash_ was +tossing somewhere offshore in a rising gale and dared not venture in. +The wind continued in the southeast. The coast was a lee shore--all +rocks and islands and cliffs. The _Spot Cash_ must beat out again to +sea and wait for the morning. Any attempt to make a harbour of that +harsh shore in the dark would spell destruction. But the sea was +hardly more hospitable. The _Spot Cash_, reefed down almost to bare +poles, and standing out as best she could, tossed and plunged in the +big black seas, with good heart, to be sure, but, presently, with +small hope. It seemed to Bill o' Burnt Bay that the little craft would +be broken and swamped. + +The boys came aft from forward and amidships. All at once Archie, who +had been staring into the night ahead, started, turned and uttered an +ejaculation of dismay, which a gust of wind drove into the skipper's +ear. + +"What is it, b'y?" Skipper Bill roared. + +"I forgot to insure her," shouted Archie. + +Skipper Bill grinned. + +"It's ruin if we wreck, Bill," Archie shouted again. + +It looked to Bill o' Burnt Bay like wreck and death. If so, the ruin +might take care of itself. It pleased him to know that Archie was +still unconcerned about his life. He reflected that if the _Spot Cash_ +should by any chance survive he would tell Sir Archibald that story. +But a great sea and a smothering blast of wind distracted him. The sea +came clear over the bow and broke amidships; the wind fairly drove the +breath back into the skipper's throat. There would be two more seas he +knew: there were always three seas. The second would break in a +moment; the third would swamp the schooner. He roared a warning to the +boys and turned the wheel to meet the sea bow on. The big wave fell +with a crash amidships; the schooner stopped and shivered while a +torrent of water drove clear over the stern. Bill o' Burnt Bay saw the +crest of the third sea grow white and tower in the night. + +"Hang to her!" screamed Archie. + +Skipper Bill smiled grimly as the sea came aboard. It broke and swept +past. He expected no more; but more came--more and still more. The +schooner was now tossing in a boiling pot from which the spray +rose like steam. Bill caught the deep boom of breakers. The _Spot +Cash_ was somewhere inshore. The water was shallowing. She was +fairly on the rocks. Again Bill shouted a warning to the boys to +save themselves when she struck. He caught sight of a low cliff--a +black shadow above a mass of moving, ghostly white. The schooner was +lifted by a great sea and carried forward. Skipper Bill waited for +the shock and thud of her striking. He glanced up at the spars--again +screamed a warning--and stood rigid. On swept the schooner. She was +a long time in the grip of that great wave. + +Then she slipped softly out of the rough water into some placid place +where the wind fluttered gently down from above. + + * * * * * + +There was a moment of silence and uttermost amazement. The wind had +vanished; the roar of the sea was muffled. The schooner advanced +gently into the dark. + +"The anchor!" the skipper gasped. + +He sprang forward, stumbling; but it was too late: the bowsprit +crumpled against a rock, there was a soft thud, a little shock, a +scraping, and the _Spot Cash_ stopped dead. + +"We're aground," said Bill. + +"I wonders where?" said Jimmie Grimm. + +"In harbour, anyhow," said Billy Topsail. + +"And no insurance!" Archie added. + +There was no levity in this. The boys were overawed. They had been +afraid, every one of them; and the mystery of their escape and +whereabouts oppressed them. But they got the anchor over the bow; and +presently they had the cabin stove going and were drying off. Nobody +turned in; they waited anxiously for the first light of day to +disclose their surroundings. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIX + + + _In Which Opportunity is Afforded the Skipper of the + "Black Eagle" to Practice Villainy in the Fog and He + Quiets His Scruples. In Which, also, the Pony Islands and + the Tenth of the Month Come Into Significant Conjunction_ + +Aboard the _Black Eagle_, Skipper George Rumm and Tommy Bull, with the +cook and three hands, all of Tom Tulk's careful selection, were +engaged, frankly among themselves, in a conspiracy to wreck the +schooner for their own profit. It was a simple plan; and with fortune +to favour rascality, it could not go awry. Old Tom Tulk of Twillingate +had conceived and directed it. The _Black Eagle_ was to be loaded with +salt-cod from the French Shore stages in haste and at any cost. She +was then to be quietly taken off one of the out-of-the-way rocky +little islands of the remote northern coast. Her fish and the +remainder of her cargo were to be taken ashore and stowed under +tarpaulin: whereupon--with thick weather to corroborate a tale of +wreck--the schooner was to be scuttled in deep water. + +"'Tis but a matter o' clever management," Tom Tulk had said. "Choose +your weather--that's all." + +Presently the castaways were to appear in Conch in the schooner's +quarter boat with a circumstantial account of the disaster. The _Black +Eagle_ was gone, they would say; she had struck in a fog, ripped out +her keel (it seemed), driven over the rock, filled and sunk. At Conch, +by this time, the mail-boat would be due on the southward trip. +Skipper George and the clerk would proceed in grief and humiliation to +St. John's to report the sad news to Armstrong & Company; but the cook +and the three hands would join Tom Tulk at Twillingate, whence with +the old reprobate's schooner they would rescue fish and cargo from +beneath the tarpaulins on the out-of-the-way rocky little island in +the north. To exchange crews at Twillingate and run the cargo to St. +John's for quick sale was a small matter. + +"Barrin' accident," Tom Tulk had said, "it can't fail." + +There, indeed, was a cold, logical plan. "Barrin' accident," as Tom +Tulk was aware, and as he by and by persuaded Skipper George, it +could not fail. Let the weather be well chosen, the story consistent: +that was all. Was not Skipper George forever in danger of losing his +schooner? Had not Sir Archibald already given him his last warning? +They would say in St. John's merely that Skipper George had "done it +at last." Nobody would be surprised; everybody would say, "I told you +so." And when old Tom Tulk came into harbour with a mysterious load of +fish who would suspect him? Was not Tom Tulk known to be an eccentric? +Was there any accounting for what Tom Tulk would do? Tom Tulk would +say, "Mind your business!" and that would make an end of the +questioning. + +"Choose your weather, Skipper George," said Tom Tulk. "Let it be windy +and thick." + +With fog to hide the deed--with a gale to bear out the story and keep +prying craft away--there would be small danger of detection. And what +if folk did suspect? Let 'em prove it! _That's_ what the law demanded. +Let 'em _prove_ it! + + * * * * * + +When the _Black Eagle_ put back to Conch from following the little +_Spot Cash_, it was evident that the opportunity had come. The +weather was thick; there was a promise of wind in the air. Moreover, +with Archie Armstrong on the coast in a temper, it was the part of +wisdom to beware. Skipper George went gloomily to the cabin when the +schooner rode once more at anchor. It was time, now; he knew it, the +clerk knew it, the crew knew it. But Skipper George had no liking for +the job; nor had the clerk, to tell the truth, nor had the cook, nor +had the crew. Rascals are not made in a day; and it takes a long time +to innure them against fear and self-reproach. But skipper and crew of +the _Black Eagle_ were already committed. Their dealing for fish on +the coast had been unpardonable. The skipper could not explain it in +St. John's; nor could the clerk excuse it. + +"We got t' go through with this, Tommy," said the gloomy skipper. + +"Have a dram," the clerk replied. "I'm in sore need o' one meself." + +It seemed the skipper was, too. + +"With that little shaver on the coast," said the clerk, "'tis best +done quickly." + +"I've no heart for it," the skipper growled. + +The clerk's thin face was white and drawn. His hand trembled, now, as +he lifted his glass. Nor had _he_ any heart for it. It had been all +very well, at first; it had seemed something like a lark--just a wild +lark. The crew, too, had taken it in the spirit of larking--at first. +But now that the time was come both forecastle and cabin had turned +uneasy and timid. + +In the forecastle, the cook said to the first hand: + +"Wisht I was out o' this." + +"Wisht I'd never come in it," the first hand sighed. + +Their words were in whispers. + +"I 'low," said the second hand, with a scared glance about, "that the +ol' man will--will _do_ it--the morrow." + +The three averted their eyes--each from the other's. + +"I 'low," the cook gasped. + +Meantime, in the cabin, the clerk, rum now giving him a saucy outlook, +said: "'Twill blow half a gale the morrow." + +"Ay," said the skipper, uneasily; "an' there's like t' be more than +half a gale by the glass." + +"There'll be few craft out o' harbour." + +"Few craft, Tommy," said the skipper, drawing a timid hand over his +bristling red beard. "I'm not likin' t' take the _Black Eagle_ t' +sea." + +"'Tis like there'll be fog," the clerk continued. + +"Ay; 'tis like there'll be a bit o' fog." + +Skipper and clerk helped themselves to another dram of rum. Why was it +that Tom Tulk had made them a parting gift? Perhaps Tom Tulk +understood the hearts of new-made rascals. At any rate, skipper and +clerk, both simple fellows, after all, were presently heartened. + +Tommy Bull laughed. + +"Skipper," said he, "do you go ashore an' say you'll take the _Black +Eagle_ t' sea the morrow, blow high or blow low, fair wind or foul." + +The skipper looked up in bewilderment. + +"Orders," the clerk explained, grinning. "Tell 'em you've been wigged +lively enough by Sir Archibald for lyin' in harbour." + +Skipper George laughed in his turn. + +"For'ard, there!" the clerk roared, putting his head out of the cabin. +"One o' you t' take the skipper ashore!" + +Three fishing-schooners, bound down from the Labrador, had put in +for safe berth through a threatening night. And with the skippers +of these craft, and with the idle folk ashore, Skipper George +foregathered. Dirty weather? (the skipper declared); sure, 'twas dirty +weather. But there was no wind on that coast could keep the _Black +Eagle_ in harbour. No, sir: no wind that blowed. Skipper George was +sick an' tired o' bein' wigged by Sir Archibald Armstrong for lyin' in +harbour. No more wiggin' for _him_. No, sir! He'd take the _Black +Eagle_ t' sea in the mornin'? Let it blow high or blow low, fair +wind or foul, 'twould be up anchor an' t' sea for the _Black Eagle_ +at dawn. Wreck her? Well, let her _go_ t' wreck. Orders was orders. If +the _Black Eagle_ happened t' be picked up by a rock in the fog +'twould be Sir Archibald Armstrong's business to explain it. As +for Skipper George, no man would be able t' tell _him_ again that +he was afraid t' take his schooner t' sea. An' orders was orders, +sir. Yes, sir; orders was orders. + +"I'm not likin' the job o' takin' my schooner t' sea in wind an' fog," +Skipper George concluded, with a great assumption of indignant +courage; "but when I'm told t' drive her, _I'll drive_, an' let the +owner take the consequences." + +This impressed the Labrador skippers. + +"Small blame t' you, Skipper George," one declared, "if you do lose +her." + +Well satisfied with the evidence he had manufactured to sustain the +story of wreck, Skipper George returned to the schooner. + +"Well," he drawled to the clerk, "I got my witnesses. They isn't a man +ashore would put t' sea the morrow if the weather comes as it +promises." + +The clerk sighed and anxiously frowned. Skipper George, infected by +this melancholy and regret--for the skipper loved the trim, +fleet-footed, well-found _Black Eagle_--Skipper George sighed, too. + +"Time t' turn in, Tommy," said he. + +The skipper had done a good stroke of business ashore. Sir Archibald +had indeed ordered him to "drive" the _Black Eagle_. + + * * * * * + +And in the rising wind of the next day while the _Spot Cash_ lay at +anchor in Tilt Cove and Archie's messages were fleeting over the wire +to St. John's--the _Black Eagle_ was taken to sea. Ashore they advised +her skipper to stick to shelter; but the skipper would have none of +their warnings. Out went the _Black Eagle_ under shortened sail. The +wind rose; a misty rain gathered; fog came in from the far, wide open. +But the _Black Eagle_ sped straight out to sea. Beyond the Pony +Islands--a barren, out-of-the-way little group of rocks--she beat +aimlessly to and fro: now darting away, now approaching. But there was +no eye to observe her peculiar behaviour. Before night fell--driven by +the gale--she found poor shelter in a seaward cove. Here she hung +grimly to her anchorage through the night. Skipper and crew, as +morning approached, felt the wind fall and the sea subside. + +Dawn came in a thick fog. + +"What do you make of it, Tommy?" the skipper asked. + +The clerk stared into the mist. "Pony Islands, skipper, sure enough," +said he. + +"Little Pony or Big?" + +In a rift of the mist a stretch of rocky coast lay exposed. + +"Little Pony," said the clerk. + +"Ay," the skipper agreed: "an' 'twas Little Pony, easterly shore," he +added, his voice dwindling away, "that Tom Tulk advised." + +"An' about the tenth o' the month," Tommy Bull added. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + + _In Which the Fog Thins and the Crew of the "Spot Cash" + Fall Foul of a Dark Plot_ + +Morning came to the _Spot Cash_, too--morning with a thick mist: +morning with a slow-heaving sea and a vanished wind. Bill o' Burnt Bay +looked about--stared in every direction from the listed little +schooner--but could find no familiar landmark. They were in some snug +harbour, however, of a desolate and uninhabited coast. There were no +cottages on the hills; there were no fish-flakes and stages by the +waterside. Beyond the tickle--that wide passage through which the +schooner had driven in the dark--the sea was heaving darkly under the +gray mist. Barren, rugged rock fell to the harbour water; and rocky +hills, stripped of verdure by the winds of a thousand years, hid their +bald heads in the fog. + +"I don't know what it _is_," said Bill o' Burnt Bay to the boys; "but +I know well enough what it _ought_ t' be." + +"'Tis never the Shore," Billy Topsail declared. + +"I'm 'lowin'," said Skipper Bill, but yet doubtfully, "that 'tis one +o' the Pony Islands. They lies hereabouts," he continued, scratching +his head, "long about thirty mile off the mainland. We're on a +westerly shore, and that means Islands, for we've never come t' the +westerly coast o' Newfoundland. If I could get a peep at the Bald-head +I could tell for certain." + +The grim landmark called the Bald-head, however,--if this were indeed +one of the Pony Islands--was in the mist. + +"I'll lay 'tis the Pony Islands," Billy Topsail declared again. + +"It may be," said the skipper. + +"An' Little Pony, too," Billy went on. "I mind me now that we +sheltered in this harbour in the _Fish Killer_ afore she was lost on +Feather's Folly."[6] + +"I 'low _'tis_," Skipper Bill agreed. + +Whether the Pony Islands or not--and whether Big Pony or Little +Pony--clearing weather would disclose. Meantime, as Archie Armstrong +somewhat tartly pointed out, the _Spot Cash_ was to be looked to. She +had gone aground at low tide, it seemed; and she was now floating at +anchor, free of the bottom. The butt of her bowsprit had been driven +into the forecastle; and the bowsprit itself had gone permanently out +of commission. Otherwise she was tight and ready. The practical-minded +Archie Armstrong determined, with a laugh, that notwithstanding the +loss of a bowsprit the firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company +would not have to go out of business for lack of insurance. And after +an amazingly hearty and hilarious breakfast, which Bagg, the +cook--Bagg _was_ the cook--presently announced, the folk of the _Spot +Cash_ went ashore to take observations. + +"We'll rig a bowsprit o' some sort," Bill o' Burnt Bay remarked, +"afore the fog lifts." + +The fog was already thinning. + + * * * * * + +Meantime, on the easterly coast of the Little Pony, the _Black Eagle_ +was being warped in towards shore and moored with lines to a low, +sheer rock, which served admirably as a landing wharf. The gangplank +was run out, the hatches were lifted, the barrows were fetched from +below; and all these significant operations were directed in a +half-whisper by the rat-eyed little Tommy Bull. Ashore went the +fish--ashore by the barrow-load--and into a convenient little gully +where the tarpaulins would keep it snug against the weather. Fortune +favoured the plan: fog hid the island from the sight of all men. But +the faces of the crew grew longer as the work advanced; and the voice +of the rat-eyed little clerk fell lower, and his manner turned still +more furtive, and his hand began to shake. + +In the cabin the skipper sat, with an inspiring dram, engaged in +melancholy and apprehensive brooding. Armstrong & Company had not +served him ill, after all (thought he); but, pshaw! the _Black Eagle_ +was insured to the hilt and would be small loss to the firm. Well, +well! she was a tight little schooner and had many a time taken the +evil fall weather with a stout heart. 'Twas a pity to scuttle her. +Scuttle her? The skipper had much rather scuttle Tom Tulk! But pshaw! +after all 'twould but make more work for Newfoundland ship-builders. +Would it never be known? Would the murder never out? Could Tommy Bull +and the crew be trusted? The skipper had already begun to fear Tommy +Bull and the crew. He had caught himself deferring to the cook. + +To the cook! + +"Pah!" thought the skipper, as he tipped his bottle, "George Rumm +knucklin' down to a cook! A pretty pass t' come to!" + +Tommy Bull came down the ladder. "Skipper, sir," said he, "you'd best +be on deck." + +Skipper George went above with the clerk. + +"She's gettin' light," said Tommy Bull. + +At that moment the skipper started. With a hoarse ejaculation leaping +from his throat he stared with bulging eyes towards the hills upon +which a shaft of sunlight had fallen. Then he gripped Tommy Bull by +the arm. + +"Who's that?" he whispered. + +"What?" the terrified clerk exclaimed. "Who's what, man? Where--where? +What you talkin' about?" + +The skipper pointed to the patch of sunlight on the hills. "That!" he +gasped. + +"'Tis a man!" said the clerk. + +"We're cotched!" the skipper groaned. + +The rat-like little clerk bared his teeth. + + * * * * * + +Bill o' Burnt Bay and the boys of the _Spot Cash_ had seen what the +lifting fog disclosed--the _Black Eagle_ moored to the rocks of the +Little Pony and unloading. But they had not fathomed the mystery. A +mystery it was, however, and a deep one. To solve it they came down +the hill towards the schooner in a body and were presently face to +face with skipper and clerk on the deck. The crew went on with the +unloading; there was never a hint of hesitation or embarrassment. And +the skipper of the _Spot Cash_ was serenely made welcome. Whatever +rat-like impulse to bite may have been in the heart of the little +clerk, when Bill o' Burnt Bay came over the crest of the hill, it had +now vanished in discreet politeness. There was no occasion for biting. +Had there been--had the crew of the _Black Eagle_ been caught in the +very act of scuttling the ship--Tommy Bull would no doubt have driven +his teeth in deep. Even amateur scoundrels at bay may be highly +dangerous antagonists. These were amateur scoundrels, to be sure, and +good-hearted in the main; but they were not yet by any means at bay. + +"Jus' a little leak, Skipper Bill," Skipper George explained, when +Bill o' Burnt Bay had accounted for his presence in Little Pony. +"Sprung it in the gale." + +"Did you, now?" said Skipper Bill, suspiciously; "'tis lucky we +happened along. I'm a bit of a carpenter, meself, an' I'd----" + +"Not at all!" Skipper George protested, with a large wave of the hand. +"_Not_ at all!" + +"'Twould be no trouble----" + +"Not at all!" Skipper George repeated. "Here's Tommy just found the +spot, an' we'll plug it in short order." + +Skipper Bill could ill conceal his suspicion. + +"You're in trouble yourself with the _Spot Cash_, says you," said +Skipper George. "We'll lend you a spar an' a couple o' hands t' set +it." + +"We'll buy the spar," Archie put in. + +Skipper George laughed heartily. "Well, well," said he. "Have it your +own way. You make your repairs, an' I'll make mine; an' then we'll see +who's back t' the Shore ports first." + +Archie bethought himself. + +"I'll lay you," Skipper George went on, clapping Archie on the back, +"that you'll not find a fish in the harbours where the _Black Eagle_ +goes." + +"You're ordered home, Skipper George," said Archie. "I've this message +from Tilt Cove." + +Skipper George glanced at the telegram. "Well, well!" said he, +blandly; "we're nigh loaded, anyhow." + +Archie wondered afterwards why Skipper George had caught his breath +and lost some of his colour. + + * * * * * + +Presently the crew of the _Spot Cash_, with two stout hands from the +_Black Eagle_, went over the hills with the spare spar. Skipper George +and Tommy Bull made haste to the cabin. + +"Ordered home," said the skipper, slapping the message on the +counter. + +"Forthwith," Tommy Bull added. + +"There's more here than appears," the anxious skipper went on. +"Tommy," said he, gravely, "there's something back o' this." + +The clerk beat a devil's tattoo in perturbation. + +"There's more suspected than these words tell," the skipper declared. + +"'Tis by sheer good luck, Skipper George," said the clerk, "that we've +a vessel t' take home. I tell you, b'y," said he, flushing with +suspicion and rage, "I don't trust Tom Tulk. He'd sell his mother for +a slave for a thousand dollars." + +"Tom Tulk!" Skipper George exclaimed. "By thunder!" he roared, "Tom +Tulk has blowed!" + +For the second time that day the rat-like little clerk of the _Black +Eagle_ bared his teeth--now with a little snarl. + +"They've no proof," said the skipper. + +"True," the clerk agreed; "but they's as many as two lost jobs aboard +this vessel. They'll be two able-bodied seamen lookin' for a berth +when the _Black Eagle_ makes St. John's." + +"Well, Tommy Bull," said the skipper, with a shrug, "'tis the clerk +that makes prices aboard a tradin' schooner; and 'twill be the clerk +that will explain in this particular case." + +"Huh!" Tommy Bull sneered. + +Next day the _Black Eagle_, with her fish again aboard, put to sea and +sped off on a straight course for St. John's. Notwithstanding the +difficulties in store, clerk and skipper were in good humour with all +the world (except Tom Tulk); and the crew was never so light-hearted +since the voyage began. But as the day drew along--and as day by day +passed--and as the home port and Sir Archibald's level eyes came ever +nearer--the skipper grew troubled. Why should the _Black Eagle_ have +been ordered home? Why had Sir Archibald used that mysterious and +unusual word "forthwith" with such emphasis? What lay behind the +brusque order? Had Tom Tulk played false? Would there be a constable +on the wharf? With what would Sir Archibald charge the skipper? +Altogether, the skipper of the _Black Eagle_ had never sailed a more +disquieting voyage. And when the _Black Eagle_ slipped through the +narrows to St. John's harbour he was like a dog come home for a +thrashing. + +----- + + [6] As related in "The Adventures of Billy Topsail." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + + _In Which the "Spot Cash" is Picked up by Blow-Me-Down + Rock In Jolly Harbour, Wreckers Threaten Extinction and + the Honour of the Firm Passes into the Keeping of Billy + Topsail_ + +The _Spot Cash_ made for the French Shore with all the speed her heels +could command. The seventh of August! How near it was to the first of +September! The firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company, with the +skipper and cook, shivered to think of it. Ten more trading days! Not +another hour could they afford if the _Spot Cash_ would surely make +St. John's harbour on the specified day. And she would--she +must--Archie declared. His honour was involved--the honour of them +all--of the firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company. Had not Sir +Archibald said so? + +So in the harbours of the Shore Bill o' Burnt Bay once more tussled +valiantly with "The Lost Pirate," and the flags flew, and the +phonograph ground out inviting music, and Bobby North shook the +hornpipe out of his active toes, and Bagg double-shuffled, and the +torches flared, and "Kandy for Kids" and "Don't be Foolish and Fully +Fooled" persuaded the populace, and Signor Fakerino created +mystification, and Billy Topsail employed his sweet little pipe most +wistfully in the old ballad of the coast: + + "Sure, the chain 'e parted, + An' the schooner drove ashore, + An' the wives of the 'ands + Never saw un any more, + No more! + Never saw un any mo-o-o-re!" + + +It was all to good purpose. Trade was even brisker than in White Bay. +Out went the merchandise and in came the fish. Nor did the _Spot Cash_ +once leave harbour without a hearty, even wistful, invitation to +return. Within seven days, so fast did the fish come aboard, the hold +had an appearance of plethora. Jimmie Grimm and Bagg protested that +not another quintal of fish could be stowed away. It was fairly time +to think of a deck-load. There was still something in the cabin: +something to be disposed of--something to turn into fish. And it was +Archie who proposed the scheme of riddance. + +"A bargain sale," said he. "The very thing." + +"An' Jolly Harbour's the place," said the skipper. + +"Then homeward bound!" shouted Archie. + +They ran into Jolly Harbour on the wings of a brisk southerly +wind--and unfortunately in the dusk brought up hard and fast on +Blow-Me-Down Rock. + + * * * * * + +Aground! They were hard and fast aground on Blow-Me-Down Rock in Jolly +Harbour at high tide. A malignant sea made a certainty of it. It +lifted the _Spot Cash_--drove her on--and gently deposited her with a +horrifying list to starboard. Archie Armstrong wrung his hands and +stamped the deck. Where was the first of September now? How was the +firm to--to--what was it Sir Archibald had said?--yes; how was the +firm to "liquidate its obligations" on the appointed day and preserve +its honour? + +"By gettin' the _Spot Cash_ afloat," said Skipper Bill, tersely. + +"And a pretty time we'll have," groaned Archie. + +"I 'low," Bill drawled, "that we may be in for a prettier time +still." + +"Sure, it couldn't be worse," Billy Topsail declared. + +"This here," Bill explained, "is Jolly Harbour; an' the folk o' Jolly +Harbour isn't got no reputations t' speak of." + +This was hardly enlightening. + +"What I means," Skipper Bill went on, "is that the Jolly Harbour folk +is called wreckers. They's been a good deal o' talk about wreckers on +this coast; an' they's more lies than truth in it. But Jolly Harbour," +he added, "is Jolly Harbour; an' the folk will sure come swarmin' in +punts and skiffs an' rodneys when they hear they's a vessel gone +ashore." + +"Sure, they'll give us help," said Billy Topsail. + +"Help!" Skipper Bill scornfully exclaimed. "'Tis little help _they'll_ +give us. Why, b'y, when they've got her cargo, they'll chop off her +standing rigging and draw the nails from her deck planks." + +"'Tis a mean, sinful thing to do!" cried Billy. + +"They live up to their lights, b'y," the skipper said. "They're an +honest, good-hearted, God-fearin' folk on this coast in the main; but +they believe that what the sea casts up belongs to men who can get it, +and neither judge nor preacher can teach them any better. Here lies +the _Spot Cash_, stranded, with a wonderful list t' starboard. They'll +think it no sin to wreck her. I know them well. 'Twill be hard to keep +them off once they see that she's high and dry." + +Archie began to stamp the deck again. + + * * * * * + +When the dawn broke it disclosed the situation of the schooner. She +was aground on a submerged rock, some distance offshore, in a wide +harbour. It was a wild, isolated spot, with spruce-clad hills, which +here and there showed their rocky ribs rising from the edge of the +water. There was a cluster of cottages in a ravine at the head of the +harbour; but there was no other sign of habitation. + +Evidently the schooner's deep list betrayed her distress; for when the +day had fully broken, a boat was pushed off from the landing-place and +rowed rapidly towards her. + +"Here's the first!" muttered Skipper Bill. "I'll warn him well." + +He hailed the occupant, a fisherman with a simple, good-humoured face, +who hung on his oars and surveyed the ship. + +"Keep off, there!" shouted the skipper. "We need no man's help. I +warn you an' your mates fair not to come aboard. You've no right here +under the law so long as there's a man o' the crew left on the ship, +and I'll use force to keep you off." + +"You're not able to get her off, sir," said the fisherman, rowing on, +as if bent on boarding. "She's a wreck." + +"Billy," the skipper ordered, "get forward with a gaff and keep him +off." + +With that the fisherman turned his punt about and made off for the +shore. + +"Aye, aye, Billy!" he called, good-naturedly. "I'll give you no call +to strike me." + +"He'll come back with others," the skipper remarked, gloomily. "'Tis a +bad lookout." + +"We'll try to haul her off with the punt," suggested Archie. + +"With the punt!" the skipper laughed. "'Twould be as easy to haul +Blow-Me-Down out by the roots. But if we can keep the wreckers off, by +trick or by force, we'll not lose her. The _Grand Lake_ passed up the +coast on Monday. She'll be steamin' into Hook-and-Line again on +Thursday. As she doesn't call at Jolly Harbour we'll have t' go fetch +her. We can run over in the punt an' fetch her. 'Tis a matter o' +gettin' there and back before the schooner's torn t' pieces." + +At dawn of the next day Skipper Bill determined to set out for +Hook-and-Line to intercept the steamer. In the meantime there had been +no sign of life ashore. Doubtless, the crew of the _Spot Cash_ +thought, the news of the wreck was on its way to neighbouring +settlements. The wind had blown itself out; but the sea was still +running high, and five hands (three of them boys) were needed to row +the heavy schooner's punt through the lop and distance. Muscle was +needed for the punt; nothing but wit could save the schooner. Who +should stay behind? + +"Let Archie stay behind," said Billy Topsail. + +"No," Skipper Bill replied; "he'll be needed t' bargain with the +captain o' the _Grand Lake_." + +There was a moment of silence. + +"Billy," said the skipper, "you'll stay." + +Billy nodded shortly. + +"Now, Billy Topsail," Skipper Bill went on, "I fear you've never read +the chapter on' Wreck an' Salvage' in the 'Consolidated Statutes o' +Newfoundland.' So I'm going t' tell you some things you don't know. +Now, listen careful! By law, b'y," tapping the boy on the breast with +a thick, tarry finger, "if they's nobody aboard a stranded vessel--if +she's abandoned, as they say in court--the men who find her can have +her and all that's in her. That's pretty near the law o' the +land--near enough for you, anyway. Contrary, by law, b'y," with +another impressive tap, "if they is one o' the crew aboard, he's a +right to shoot down any man who comes over the side against his will. +That's _exactly_ the law. Do you follow?" + +"But I've no mind for shootin' at so good-natured a man," said Billy, +recalling the fisherman's broad grin. + +"An' I hope you won't have to," said the skipper. "But they's no harm +in aiming an empty gun anywhere you've a mind to. So far as I know, +they's no harm in firin' away a blast or two o' powder if you forget +t' put in the shot." + +Billy laughed. + +"Billy, boy," said Archie, tremulously, "it's up to you to save the +firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company." + +"All right, Archie," said Billy. + +"I _know_ it's all right," Archie declared. + +"They's just two things to remember," said the skipper, from the bow +of the punt, before casting off. "The first is to stay aboard; the +second is to let nobody else come aboard if you can help it. 'Tis all +very simple." + +"All right, skipper," said Billy. + +"Topsail--Armstrong--Grimm--_and_--Company," were the last words Billy +Topsail heard; and they came from Archie Armstrong. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + + _In Which the "Grand Lake" Conducts Herself In a Most + Peculiar Fashion to the Chagrin of the Crew of the "Spot + Cash"_ + +Skipper Bill and the punt of the stranded _Spot Cash_ made the harbour +at Hook-and-Line in good season to intercept the _Grand Lake_. She was +due--she would surely steam in--that very day, said the men of +Hook-and-Line. And it seemed to Archie Armstrong that everything now +depended on the _Grand Lake_. It would be hopeless--Skipper Bill had +said so and the boys needed no telling--it would be hopeless to +attempt to get the _Spot Cash_ off Blow-Me-Down Rock in an unfriendly +harbour without the steamer's help. + +"'Tis fair hard t' believe that the Jolly Harbour folk would give us +no aid," said Jimmie Grimm. + +Skipper Bill laughed. "You've no knowledge o' Jolly Harbour," said +he. + +"'Tis a big expense these robbers are putting us to," Archie growled. + +"Robbers?" Bill drawled. "Well, they're a decent, God-fearin' folk, +with their own ideas about a wreck." + +Archie sniffed. + +"I've no doubt," the skipper returned, "that they're thankin' God for +the windfall of a tradin' schooner at family worship in Jolly Harbour +at this very minute." + +This view expressed small faith in the wits of Billy Topsail. + +"Oh, Billy Topsail will stand un off," Jimmie Grimm stoutly declared. + +"I'm doubtin' it," said the frank skipper. + +"Wh-wh-_what_!" Archie exclaimed in horror. + +"I'm just doubtin' it," the skipper repeated. + +This was a horrifying confession; and Archie Armstrong knew that +Skipper Bill was not only wise in the ways of the French Shore but was +neither a man to take a hopeless view nor one needlessly to excite +anxiety. When Bill o' Burnt Bay admitted his fear that Billy Topsail +had neither the strength nor the wit to save the _Spot Cash_ from the +God-fearing folk of Jolly Harbour, he meant more than he said. The +affairs of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company seemed to be in a bad +way. It was now more than a mere matter of liquidating an obligation +on the first of September; the problem was of liquidating it at all. + +"Wisht the _Grand Lake_ would 'urry up," said Bagg. + +"I'd like t' save some splinters o' the schooner, anyway," the skipper +chuckled, in a ghastly way, "even if we _do_ lose the cargo." + +It occurred all at once to Archie Armstrong that Topsail, Armstrong, +Grimm & Company were not only in obligation for the debt to Armstrong +& Company but were responsible for a chartered craft which was not +insured. + +"A thousand dollars--a cold thousand dollars--_and_ the _Spot Cash_!" +he exclaimed, aghast. + +"Wisht she'd 'urry up," Bagg repeated. + +Archie, pacing the wharf, his hands deep in his pockets, his face +haggard and white, recalled that his father had once told him that +many a man had been ruined by having too large a credit. And Archie +had had credit--much credit. A mere boy with a thousand dollars of +credit! With a thousand dollars of credit in merchandise and coin and +the unquestioned credit of chartering a schooner! He realized that it +had been much--too much. Somehow or other, as he feverishly paced the +wharf at Hook-and-Line, the trading venture seemed infinitely larger +and more precarious than it had in his father's office on the rainy +day when the lad had so blithely proposed it. He understood, now, why +it was that other boys could not stalk confidently into the offices of +Armstrong & Company and be outfitted for a trading voyage. + +His father's faith--his father's indulgent fatherhood--had provided +the all-too-large credit for his ruin. + +"Wisht she'd 'urry up," Bagg sighed. + +"Just now," Archie declared, looking Skipper Bill in the eye, "it's up +to Billy Topsail." + +"Billy's a good boy," said the skipper. + +Little Donald North--who had all along been a thoroughly serviceable +but inconspicuous member of the crew--began to shed unwilling tears. + +"Wisht she'd 'urry up," Bagg whimpered. + +"_There she is!_" Skipper Bill roared. + +It was true. There she was. Far off at sea--away beyond Grief Head at +the entrance to Hook-and-Line--the smoke of a steamer surely appeared, +a black cloud in the misty, glowering day. It was the _Grand Lake_. +There was no other steamer on the coast. Cap'n Hand--Archie's friend, +Cap'n Hand, with whom he had sailed on the sealing voyage of the +stout old _Dictator_--was in command. She would soon make harbour. +Archie's load vanished; from despair he was lifted suddenly into a +wild hilarity which nothing would satisfy but a roaring wrestle with +Skipper Bill. The _Grand Lake_ would presently be in; she would +proceed full steam to Jolly Harbour, she would pass a line to the +_Spot Cash_, she would jerk the little schooner from her rocky berth +on Blow-Me-Down, and presently that selfsame wilful little craft would +be legging it for St. John's. + +But was it the _Grand Lake_? + +"Lads," the skipper declared, when the steamer was in view, "it sure +is the _Grand Lake_." + +They watched her. + +"Queer!" Skipper Bill muttered, at last. + +"What's queer?" asked Archie. + +"She should be turnin' in," the skipper replied. "What's Cap'n Hand +thinkin' about?" + +"Wisht she'd 'urry up," said Bagg. + +The boys were bewildered. The steamer should by this time have had her +nose turned towards Hook-and-Line. To round Grief Head she was keeping +amazingly far out to sea. + +"Wonderful queer!" said the anxious skipper. + +The _Grand Lake_ steamed past Hook-and-Line and disappeared in the +mist. Evidently she was in haste. Presently there was not so much as a +trail of smoke to be descried at sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + + _In Which Billy Topsail, Besieged by Wreckers, Sleeps on + Duty and Thereafter Finds Exercise For His Wits. In Which, + also, a Lighted Candle is Suspended Over a Keg of Powder + and Precipitates a Critical Moment While Billy Topsail + Turns Pale With Anxiety_ + +At Jolly Harbour, meantime, where Billy Topsail kept watch, except +for the flutter of an apron or skirt when the women went to the well +for water, there was no sign of life at the cottages the livelong day. +No boats ran out to the fishing-grounds; no men were on the flakes; +the salmon nets and lobster-traps were not hauled. Billy prepared a +spirited defense with the guns, which he charged heavily with powder, +omitting the bullets. This done, he awaited the attack, meaning to +let his wits or his arms deal with the situation, according to +developments. + +The responsibility was heavy, the duty anxious; and Billy could not +forget what Archie had said about the firm of Topsail, Armstrong, +Grimm & Company. + +"I 'low there was nothing for it but t' leave me in charge," he +thought, as he paced the deck that night. "But 'twill be a job now to +save her if they come." + +Billy fancied, from time to time, that he heard the splash of oars; +but the night was dark, and although he peered long and listened +intently, he could discover no boat in the shadows. And when the day +came, with the comparative security of light, he was inclined to think +that his fancy had been tricking him. + +"But it might have been the punts slippin' in from the harbours above +and below," he thought, suddenly. "I wonder if 'twas." + +He spent most of that day lying on a coil of rope on the deck of the +cabin--dozing and delighting himself with long day-dreams. When the +night fell, it fell dark and foggy. An easterly wind overcast the sky +and blew a thick mist from the open sea. Lights twinkled in the +cottages ashore, somewhat blurred by the mist; but elsewhere it was +dark; the nearer rocks were outlined by their deeper black. + +"'Twill be now," Billy thought, "or 'twill be never. Skipper Bill will +sure be back with the _Grand Lake_ to-morrow." + +Some time after midnight, while Billy was pacing the deck to keep +himself warm and awake, he was hailed from the shore. + +"'Tis from the point at the narrows," he thought. "Sure, 'tis Skipper +Bill come back." + +Again he heard the hail--his own name, coming from that point at the +narrows. + +"Billy, b'y! Billy!" + +"Aye, sir! Who are you?" + +"Skipper Bill, b'y!" came the answer. "Fetch the quarter-boat. We're +aground and leakin'." + +"Aye, aye, sir!" + +"Quick, lad! I wants t' get aboard." + +Billy leaped from the rail to the quarter-boat. He was ready to cast +off when he heard a splash in the darkness behind him. That splash +gave him pause. Were the wreckers trying to decoy him from the ship? +They had a legal right to salve an abandoned vessel. He clambered +aboard, determined, until he had better assurance of the safety of his +charge, to let Skipper Bill and his crew, if it were indeed they, make +a shift for comfort on the rocks until morning. "Skipper Bill, sir!" +he called. "Can you swim?" + +"Aye, b'y! But make haste." + +"I'll show a light for you, sir, if you want t' swim out, but I'll not +leave the schooner." + +At that there was a laugh--an unmistakable chuckle--sounding whence +the boy had heard the splash of an oar. It was echoed to right and +left. Then a splash or two, a creak or two and a whisper. After that +all was still again. + +"'Tis lucky, now, I didn't go," Billy thought. "'Twas a trick, for +sure. But how did they know my name?" + +That was simple enough, when he came to think about it. When the +skipper had warned the first fisherman off, he had ordered Billy +forward by name. Wreckers they were, then--simple, good-hearted folk, +believing in their right to what the sea cast up--and now bent on +"salving" what they could, but evidently seeking to avoid a violent +seizure of the cargo. + +Billy appreciated this feeling. He had himself no wish to meet an +assault in force, whether in the persons of such good-natured fellows +as the man who had grinned at him on the morning of the wreck, or in +those of a more villainous cast. He hoped it was to be a game of wits; +and now the lad smiled. + +"'Tis likely," he thought, "that I'll keep it safe." + +For an hour or more there was no return of the alarm. The harbour +water rippled under the winds; the rigging softly rattled and sang +aloft; the swish of breakers drifted in from the narrows. + +Billy sat full in the light of the deck lamps, with a gun in his +hands, that all the eyes, which he felt sure were peering at him from +the darkness roundabout, might see that he was alive to duty. + +As his weariness increased, he began to think that the wreckers had +drawn off, discouraged. Once he nodded; again he nodded, and awoke +with a start; but he was all alone on the deck, as he had been. + +Then, to occupy himself, he went below to light the cabin candle. For +a moment, before making ready to go on deck again, he sat on the +counter, lost in thought. He did not hear the prow of a punt strike +the _Spot Cash_ amidships, did not hear the whispers and soft laughter +of men coming over the side by stealth, did not hear the tramp of feet +coming aft. What startled him was a rough voice and a burst of +laughter. + +"Come aboard, skipper, sir!" + +The companionway framed six weather-beaten, bearded faces. There was a +grin on each, from the first, which was clear to its smallest wrinkle +in the candle-light, to those which were vanishing and reappearing in +the shadows behind. Billy seemed to be incapable of word or action. + +"Come to report, sir," said the nearest wrecker. "We seed you was +aground, young skipper, and we thought we'd help you ashore with the +cargo." + +Billy rested his left hand on the head of a powder keg, which +stood on end on the counter beside him. His right stole towards the +candlestick. There was a light in his blue eyes--a glitter or a +twinkle--which might have warned the wreckers, had they known him +better. + +"I order you ashore!" he said, slowly. "I order you _all_ ashore. +You've no right aboard this ship. If I had my gun----" + +"Sure, you left it on deck." + +"If I had my gun," Billy pursued, "I'd have the right t' shoot you +down." + +The manner of the speech--the fierce intensity of it--impressed the +wreckers. They perceived that the boy's face had turned pale, that his +eyes were flashing strangely. They were unused to such a depth of +passion. It may be that they were reminded of a bear at bay. + +"I believe he'd do it," said one. + +An uneasy quiet followed; and in that silence Billy heard the prow of +another punt strike the ship. More footfalls came shuffling aft--other +faces peered down the companionway. One man pushed his way through the +group and made as if to come down the ladder. + +"Stand back!" Billy cried. + +The threat in that shrill cry brought the man to a stop. He turned; +and that which he saw caused him to fall back upon his fellows. There +was an outcry and a general falling away from the cabin door. Some men +ran forward to the punts. + +"The lad's gone mad!" said one. "Leave us get ashore!" + +Billy had whipped the stopper out of the hole in the head of the +powder keg, had snatched the candle from the socket, carefully +guarding its flame, and now sat, triumphantly gazing up, with the butt +of the candle through the hole in the keg and the flame flickering +above its depths. + +"Men," said he, when they had gathered again at the door, "if I let +that candle slip through my fingers, you know what'll happen." He +paused; then he went on, speaking in a quivering voice: "My friends +left me in charge o' this here schooner, and I've been caught nappin'. +If I'd been on deck, you wouldn't have got aboard. But now you are +aboard, and 'tis all because I didn't do my duty. Do you think I care +what becomes o' me now? Do you think I don't care whether I do my duty +or not? I tell you fair that if you don't go ashore I'll drop the +candle in the keg. If one o' you dares come down that ladder, I'll +drop it. If I hear you lift the hatches off the hold, I'll drop it. If +I hear you strike a blow at the ship, I'll drop it. Hear me?" he +cried. "If you don't go, I'll drop it!" + +The candle trembled between Billy's fingers. It slipped, fell an inch +or more, but his fingers gripped it again before he lost it. The +wreckers recoiled, now convinced that the lad meant no less than he +said. + +"I guess you'd do it, b'y," said the man who had attempted to descend. +"Sure," he repeated, with a glance of admiration for the boy's pluck, +"I guess you would." + +"'Tis not comfortable here," said another. "Sure, he might drop it by +accident. Make haste, b'ys! Let's get ashore." + +"Good-night, skipper, sir!" said the first. + +"Good-night, sir!" said Billy, grimly. + +With that they went over the side. Billy heard them leap into the +punts, push off, and row away. Then silence fell--broken only by the +ripple of the water, the noise of the wind in the rigging, the swish +of breakers drifting in. The boy waited a long time, not daring to +venture on deck, lest they should be lying in wait for him at the head +of the ladder. He listened for a footfall, a noise in the hold, the +shifting of the deck cargo; but he heard nothing. + +When the candle had burned low, he lighted another, put the butt +through the hole, and jammed it. At last he fell asleep, with his head +resting on a pile of dress-goods; and the candle was burning +unattended. He was awakened by a hail from the deck. + +"Billy, b'y, where is you?" + +It was Skipper Bill's hearty voice; and before Billy could tumble up +the ladder, the skipper's bulky body closed the exit. + +"She's all safe, sir!" said the boy. + +Skipper Bill at that moment caught sight of the lighted candle. He +snatched it from its place, dropped it on the floor and stamped on it. +He was a-tremble from head to foot. + +"What's this foolery?" he demanded, angrily. + +Billy explained. + +"It was plucky, b'y," said the skipper, "but 'twas wonderful risky." + +"Sure, there was no call to be afraid." + +"No call to be afraid!" cried the skipper. + +"No, sir--no," said Billy. "There's not a grain of powder in the +keg." + +"Empty--an empty keg?" the skipper roared. + +"Do you think," said Billy, indignantly, "that I'd have risked the +schooner that way if 'twas a full keg?" + +Skipper Bill stared; and for a long time afterwards he could not look +at Billy without staring. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + + _In Which Skipper Bill, as a Desperate Expedient, + Contemplates the Use of His Teeth, and Archie Armstrong, + to Save His Honour, Sets Sail in a Basket, But Seems to + Have Come a Cropper_ + +Billy Topsail suddenly demanded: + +"Where's the _Grand Lake_?" + +"The _Grand Lake_," Skipper Bill drawled, with a sigh, "is somewheres +t' the s'uth'ard footin' it for St. John's." + +"You missed her!" Billy accused. + +"Didn't neither," said the indignant skipper. "She steamed right past +Hook-an'-Line without a wink in that direction." + +This was shocking news. + +"Anyhow," said little Donald North, as though it mattered importantly, +"we seed her smoke." + +Billy looked from Donald to Jimmie, from Jimmie to Bagg, from Bagg to +the skipper; and then he stared about. + +"Where's Archie?" he asked. + +"Archie," the skipper replied, "is footin' it for St. John's, too. +'Skipper Bill,' says Archie, 'Billy Topsail has kep' that schooner +safe. I knows he has. It was up t' Billy Topsail t' save the firm from +wreckers an' I'll lay you that Billy Topsail has saved the firm. Now, +Skipper Bill,' says Archie, 'you go back t' Jolly Harbour an' get that +schooner off. You get her off somehow. Get her off jus' as soon as you +can,' says he, 'an' fetch her to St. John's.' + +"'I _can't_ get her off,' says I. + +"'Yes, you can, too, Skipper Bill,' says he. 'I'll lay you can get her +off. I don't know how you'll do it,' says he; 'but _I'll lay you +can_!' + +"'I'll get her off, Archie,' says I, 'if I got t' jump in the sea an' +haul her off with a line in my teeth.' + +"'I knowed you would,' says he; 'an' you got the best teeth, Skipper +Bill,' says he, 't' be found on this here coast. As for me, +skipper,' says he, 'I'm goin' down t' St. John's if I got t' walk +on water. I told my father that I'd be in his office on the first +o' September--an' I'm goin' t' be there. If I can't be there with the +fish I can be there with the promise o' fish; an' I can back that +promise up with a motor boat, a sloop yacht an' a pony an' cart. I +don't know how I'm goin' t' get t' St. John's,' says he, 'an' I don't +want t' walk on a wet sea like this; but I'm goin' t' get there +somehow by the first o' September, an' I'm goin' to assoom'--yes, +sir, '_assoom_, Skipper Bill,' says Archie--'I'm goin' to assoom +that you'll fetch down the _Spot Cash_ an' the tail an' fins of every +last tom-cod aboard that there craft.' + +"An' I'm goin' t' _do_ it!" Skipper Bill roared in conclusion, with a +slap of the counter with his hairy fist that made the depleted stock +rattle on the shelves. + +"Does you t-t-think you c-c-_can_ haul her off with your teeth?" +Donald North asked with staring eyes. + +Bill o' Burnt Bay burst into a shout of laughter. + +"We'll have no help from the Jolly Harbour folk," said Billy Topsail, +gravely. "They're good-humoured men," he added, "but they means t' +have this here schooner if they can." + +"Never mind," said Skipper Bill, with an assumption of far more hope +than was in his honest, willing heart. "We'll get her off afore they +comes again." + +"Wisht you'd 'urry up," said Bagg. + +With the _Spot Cash_ high and dry--with a small crew aboard--with a +numerous folk, clever and unfriendly (however good-humoured they +were), bent on possessing that which they were fully persuaded it was +their right to have--with no help near at hand and small prospect of +the appearance of aid--the task which Archie Armstrong had set Bill o' +Burnt Bay was the most difficult one the old sea-dog had ever +encountered in a long career of hard work, self-dependence and tight +places. The Jolly Harbour folk might laugh and joke, they might even +offer sympathy, they might be the most hospitable, tender-hearted, +God-fearing folk in the world; but tradition had taught them that what +the sea cast up belonged righteously to the men who could take it, and +they would with good consciences and the best humour in the world +stand upon that doctrine. And Bill o' Burnt Bay would do no murder to +prevent them: it was not the custom of the coast to do murder in such +cases; and Archie Armstrong's last injunction had been to take no +lives. + +Bill o' Burnt Bay declared in growing wrath to the boys that he would +come next door to murder. + +"I'll pink 'em, anyhow," said he, as he loaded his long gun. "_I'll_ +makes holes for earrings, ecod!" + +Yes, sir; the skipper would show the Jolly Harbour folk how near a +venturesome man could come to letting daylight into a Jolly Harbour +hull without making a hopeless leak. Jus' t' keep 'em busy calking, +ecod! How much of this was mere loud and saucy words--with how much +real meaning the skipper spoke--even the skipper himself did not know. +But, yes, sir; he'd show 'em in the morning. It was night, now, +however--though near morning. Nobody would put out from shore before +daybreak. They had been frightened off once. Skipper Bill's wrath +could simmer to the boiling point. But a watch must be kept. No +chances must be taken with the _Spot Cash_, and-- + +"Ahoy, Billy!" a pleasant voice called from the water. + +The crew of the _Spot Cash_ rushed on deck. + +"Oh, ho!" another voice laughed. "Skipper's back, too, eh?" + +"_With_ a long--perfeckly trustworthy--loaded--gun," Skipper Bill +solemnly replied. + +The men in the punts laughed heartily. + +"Sheer off!" Skipper Bill roared. + +But in the protecting shadows of the night the punts came closer. And +there was another laugh. + + * * * * * + +It chanced at Hook-and-Line Harbour before night--Skipper Bill had +then for hours been gone towards Jolly Harbour--that a Labrador +fishing craft put in for water. She was loaded deep; her decks were +fairly awash with her load of fish, and at best she was squat and old +and rotten--a basket to put to sea in. Here was no fleet craft; but +she was south-bound, at any rate, and Archie Armstrong determined to +board her. To get to St. John's--to open the door of his father's +office on the first of September as he had promised--to explain and to +reassure and even to present in hard cash the value of a sloop yacht +and a pony and a motor boat--was the boy's feverish determination. He +could not forget his father's grave words: "Your honour is involved." +Perhaps he exaggerated the importance of them. His honour? The boy had +no wish to be excused--had no liking for fatherly indulgence. He was +wholly intent upon justifying his father's faith and satisfying his +own sense of honourable obligation. It must be fish or cash--fish or +cash--and as it seemed it could not be fish it must therefore be +cash. + +It must be hard cash--cash down--paid on the first of September over +his father's desk in the little office overlooking the wharves. + +"Green Bay bound," the skipper of the Labrador craft replied to +Archie's question. + +That signified a landing at Ruddy Cove. + +"I'll go along," said Archie. + +"Ye'll not," the skipper snapped. "Ye'll not go along until ye mend +your manners." + +Archie started in amazement. + +"_You'll_ go along, will ye?" the skipper continued. "Is you the owner +o' this here craft? Ye may _ask_ t' go along; but whether ye go or not +is for me--for _me_, ye cub!--t' say." + +Archie straightened in his father's way. "My name," said he, shortly, +"is Archibald Armstrong." + +The skipper instantly touched his cap. + +"I'm sorry, skipper," Archie went on, with a dignity of which his +manner of life had long ago made him unconsciously master, "for having +taken too much for granted. I want passage with you to Ruddy Cove, +skipper, for which I'll pay." + +"You're welcome, sir," said the skipper. + +The _Wind and Tide_ lay at Hook-and-Line that night in fear of the sea +that was running. She rode so deep in the water, and her planks and +rigging and sticks were at best so untrustworthy, that her skipper +would not take her to sea. Next morning, however--and Archie +subsequently recalled it--next morning the wind blew fair for the +southern ports. Out put the old craft into a rising breeze and was +presently wallowing her way towards Green Bay and Ruddy Cove. But +there was no reckless sailing. Nothing that Archie could say with any +appearance of propriety moved the skipper to urge her on. She was +deep, she was old; she must be humoured along. Again, when night fell, +she was taken into harbour for shelter. The wind still blew fair in +the morning; she made a better day of it, but was once more safely +berthed for the night. Day after day she crept down the coast, +lurching along in the light, with unearthly shrieks of pain and +complaint, and lying silent in harbour in the dark. + +"'Wisht she'd 'urry up,'" thought Archie, with a dubious laugh, +remembering Bagg. + +It was the twenty-ninth of August and coming on dark when the boy +first caught sight of the cottages of Ruddy Cove. + +"Mail-boat day," he thought, jubilantly. "The _Wind and Tide_ will +make it. I'll be in St. John's the day after to-morrow." + +"Journey's end," said the skipper, coming up at that moment. + +"I'm wanting to make the mail-boat," said Archie. "She's due at Ruddy +Cove soon after dark." + +"She'll be on time," said the skipper. "Hark!" + +Archie heard the faint blast of a steamer's whistle. + +"Is it she?" asked the skipper. + +"Ay," Archie exclaimed; "and she's just leaving Fortune Harbour. +She'll be at Ruddy Cove within the hour." + +"I'm doubtin' that _we_ will," said the skipper. + +"Will you not run up a topsail?" the boy pleaded. + +"Not for the queen o' England," the skipper replied, moving forward. +"I've got my load--an' I've got the lives o' my crew--t' care for." + +Archie could not gainsay it. The _Wind and Tide_ had all the sail she +could carry with unquestionable safety. The boy watched the +mail-boat's lights round the Head and pass through the tickle into the +harbour of Ruddy Cove. Presently he heard the second blast of her +deep-toned whistle and saw her emerge and go on her way. She looked +cozy in the dusk, he thought: she was brilliant with many lights. In +the morning she would connect with the east-bound cross-country +express at Burnt Bay. And meantime he--this selfsame boastful Archie +Armstrong--would lie stranded at Ruddy Cove. At that moment St. John's +seemed infinitely far away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + + + _In Which Many Things Happen: Old Tom Topsail Declares + Himself the Bully to Do It, Mrs. Skipper William + Bounds Down the Path With a Boiled Lobster, the Mixed + Accommodation Sways, Rattles, Roars, Puffs and Quits on a + Grade in the Wilderness, Tom Topsail Loses His Way in the + Fog and Archie Armstrong Gets Despairing Ear of a + Whistle_ + +At Ruddy Cove, that night, when Archie was landed from the _Wind and +Tide_, a turmoil of amazement instantly gave way to the very briskest +consultation the wits of the place had ever known. + +"There's no punt can make Burnt Bay the night," Billy Topsail's father +declared. + +"Nor the morrow night if the wind changes," old Jim Grimm added. + +"Nor the next in a southerly gale," Job North put in. + +"There's the _Wind an' Tide_," Tom Topsail suggested. + +"She's a basket," said Archie; "and she's slower than a paddle +punt." + +"What's the weather?" + +"Fair wind for Burnt Bay an' a starlit night." + +"I've lost the express," said Archie, excitedly. "I must--I _must_, I +tell you!--I must catch the mixed." + +The Ruddy Cove faces grew long. + +"I must," Archie repeated between his teeth. + +The east-bound cross-country express would go through the little +settlement of Burnt Bay in the morning. The mixed accommodation would +crawl by at an uncertain hour of the following day. It was now the +night of the twenty-ninth of August. One day--two days. The mixed +accommodation would leave Burnt Bay for St. John's on the thirty-first +of August. + +"If she doesn't forget," said Job North, dryly. + +"Or get tired an' rest too often," Jim Grimm added. + +Archie caught an impatient breath. + +"Look you, lad!" Tom Topsail declared, jumping up. "I'm the bully that +will put you aboard!" + +Archie flung open the door of Mrs. Skipper William's kitchen and made +for the Topsail wharf with old Tom puffing and lumbering at his heels. +Billy Topsail's mother was hailed with the news. Before Tom had well +made the punt shipshape for a driving cruise up the Bay she was on the +wharf with a bucket of hardtack and a kettle of water. A frantic +scream--perhaps, a shout--announced the coming of Mrs. Skipper William +with a ham-bone and a greatcoat. These tossed inboard, she roared a +command to delay, gathered up her skirts and fled into the night, +whence she emerged, bounding, with a package of tea and a boiled +lobster. She had no breath left to bid them Godspeed when Tom Topsail +cast off; but she waved her great soft arms, and her portly person +shook with the violence of her good wishes. And up went the sail--and +out fluttered the little jib--and the punt heeled to the harbour +breeze--and Tom Topsail and Archie Armstrong darted away from the +lights of Ruddy Cove towards the open sea. + + * * * * * + +The mixed accommodation, somewhere far back in the Newfoundland +wilderness, came to the foot of a long grade. She puffed and valiantly +choo-chooed. It was desperately hard work to climb that hill. A man +might have walked beside her while she tried it. But she surmounted +the crest, at last, and, as though immensely proud of herself, rattled +down towards the boulder-strewn level at an amazing rate of speed. On +she went, swaying, puffing, roaring, rattling, as though she had no +intention whatever of coming to a stop before she had brought her five +hundred mile run to a triumphant conclusion in the station at St. +John's. + +Even the engineer was astonished. + +"Doin' fine," thought the fireman, proud of his head of steam. + +"She'll make up them three hours afore mornin'," the engineer hoped. + +On the next grade the mixed accommodation lagged. It was a steep +grade. She seemed to lose enthusiasm with every yard of puffing +progress. She began to pant--to groan--to gasp with horrible fatigue. +Evidently she fancied it a cruel task to be put to. And the grade was +long--and it was outrageously steep--and they had overloaded the +little engine with freight cars--and she wasn't yet half-way up. It +would take the heart out of any engine. But she buckled to, once more, +and trembled and panted and gained a yard or two. It was hard work; it +was killing work. It was a ghastly outrage to demand such effort of +_any_ engine, most of all of a rat-trap attached to a mixed +accommodation on an ill-graded road. The Rat-Trap snorted her +indignation. She howled with agony and despair. + +And then she quit. + +"What's the matter now?" a passenger asked the conductor, in a coach +far in the rear. + +"Looks to me as if we'd have to uncouple and run on to the next siding +with half the train," the conductor replied. "But it _may_ be the +fire-box." + +"What's the matter with the fire-box?" + +"She has a habit of droppin' out," said the conductor. + +"We'll be a day late in St. John's," the passenger grumbled. + +The conductor laughed. "You will," said he, "if the trouble is with +the fire-box." + + * * * * * + +While the mixed accommodation was panting on the long grade, Tom +Topsail's punt, Burnt Bay bound, was splashing through a choppy sea, +humoured along by a clever hand and a heart that understood her whims. +It was blowing smartly; but the wind was none too much for the tiny +craft, and she was making the best of it. At this rate--with neither +change nor failure of the wind--Tom Topsail would land Archie +Armstrong in Burnt Bay long before the accommodation had begun to +think of achieving that point in her journey across the island. There +was no failure of the wind as the night spent itself; it blew true and +fair until the rosy dawn came softly out of the east. The boy awoke +from a long doze to find the punt overhauling the first barren islands +of the long estuary at the head of which the Burnt Bay settlement is +situated. + +With the most favourable weather there was a day's sailing and more +yet to be done. + +"How's the weather?" was Archie's first question. + +"Broodin'," Tom Topsail drawled. + +Archie could find no menace in the dawn. + +"Jus' broodin'," Topsail repeated. + +Towards night it seemed that a change and a gale of wind might be +hatched by the brooding day. The wind fluttered to the east and blew +up a thickening fog. + +"We've time an' t' spare," said Topsail, in the soggy dusk. "Leave us +go ashore an' rest." + +They landed, presently, on a promising island, and made a roaring +fire. The hot tea and the lobster and the hard-bread--and the tales +of Topsail--and the glow and warmth of the fire--were grateful to +Archie. He fell sound asleep, at last, with his greatcoat over him; +and Tom Topsail was soon snoring, too. In the meantime the mixed +accommodation, back in the wilderness, had surmounted the grade, had +dropped three heavy cars at a way station, and was rattling on her way +towards Burnt Bay with an energy and determination that surprised her +weary passengers and could only mean that she was bound to make up at +least some lost time or explode in the attempt. + + * * * * * + +Morning came--it seemed to Archie Armstrong that it never would +come--morning came in a thick fog to Tom Topsail and the lad. In a +general way Tom Topsail had his bearings, but he was somewhat doubtful +about trusting to them. The fog thickened with an easterly wind. It +blew wet and rough and cold. The water, in so far as it could be seen +from the island, was breaking in white-capped waves; and an easterly +wind was none of the best on the Burnt Bay course. But Tom Topsail and +Archie put confidently out. The mixed accommodation was not due at +Burnt Bay until 12:33. She would doubtless be late; she was always +late. There was time enough; perhaps there would be time and to spare. +The wind switched a bit to the south of east, however, and became +nearly adverse; and down came the fog, thick and blinding. A hundred +islands, and the narrowing main-shore to port and starboard, were +wiped out of sight. There were no longer landmarks. + +"Man," Tom Topsail declared, at last, "I don't know where I is!" + +"Drive on, Tom," said Archie. + +The punt went forward in a smother of water. + +"Half after eleven," Archie remarked. + +Tom Topsail hauled the sheet taut to pick up another puff of wind. An +hour passed. Archie had lost the accommodation if she were on time. + +"They's an island dead ahead," said Tom. "I feels it. Hark!" he added. +"Does you hear the breakers?" + +Archie could hear the wash of the sea. + +"Could it be Right-In-the-Way?" Tom Topsail wondered. "Or is it +Mind-Your-Eye Point?" + +There was no help in Archie. + +"If 'tis Right-In-the-Way," said Tom, "I'd have me bearin's. 'Tis a +marvellous thick fog, this," he complained. + +Mind-Your-Eye is a point of the mainland. + +"I'm goin' ashore t' find out," Tom determined. + +Landed, however, he could make nothing of it. Whether Right-In-the-Way, +an island near by Burnt Bay, or Mind-Your-Eye, a long projection of +the main-shore, there was no telling. The fog hid all outlines. If +it were Right-In-the-Way, Tom Topsail could land Archie in Burnt Bay +within half an hour; if it were Mind-Your-Eye point--well, maybe. + +"Hark!" Tom exclaimed. + +Archie could hear nothing. + +"Did you not hear it?" said Tom. + +"What, man? Hear _what_?" + +"_That!_" Tom ejaculated. + +Archie heard the distant whistle of a train. + +"I knows this place," Tom burst out, in vast excitement. "'Tis +Mind-Your-Eye. They's a cut road from here t' the railway. 'Tis but +half a mile, lad." + +Followed by Archie, Tom Topsail plunged into the bush. They did not +need to be told that the mixed accommodation was labouring on a steep +grade from Red Brook Bridge. They did not need to be told that a +little fire, builded by the track before she ran past, a flaring +signal in the fog, would stop her. With them it was merely a problem +of getting to the track in time to start that fire. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + + + _And Last: In Which Archie Armstrong Hangs His Head in His + Father's Office, the Pale Little Clerk Takes a Desperate + Chance, Bill o' Burnt Bay Loses His Breath, and there is a + Grand Dinner in Celebration of the Final Issue, at Which + the Amazement of the Crew of the "Spot Cash" is Equalled + by Nothing in the World Except Their Delight_ + +It was the first of September. A rainy day, this, in St. John's: the +wind in the east, thick fog blowing in from the open. Sir Archibald's +grate was crackling in its accustomed cheerful way. Rain lashed the +office windows at intervals; a melancholy mist curtained the harbour +from view. Sir Archibald was anxious. He drummed on the desk with his +finger-tips; he paced the office floor, he scowled, he pursed his +lips, he dug his restless hands deep in his pockets. The expected had +not happened. It was now two o'clock. Sir Archibald was used to going +home at three. And it was now two o'clock--no, by Jove! it was eight +after. Sir Archibald walked impatiently to the window. It was evident +that the fog was the cause of his impatience. He scowled at it. No, +no (thought he); no schooner could make St. John's harbour in a fog +like that. And the winds of the week had been fair winds from the +French Shore. Still the expected had not happened. _Why_ had the +expected not happened? + +A pale little clerk put his head in at the door in a very doubtful +way. + +"Skipper of the _Black Eagle_, sir," said he. "Clerk, too," he added. + +"Show 'em in," Sir Archibald growled. + +What happened need not be described. It was both melancholy and stormy +without; there was a roaring tempest within. Sir Archibald was not +used to giving way to aggravation; but he was now presently embarked +on a rough sea of it, from which, indeed, he had difficulty in +reaching quiet harbour again. It was not the first interview he had +had with the skipper and clerk of the _Black Eagle_ since that trim +craft had returned from the French Shore trade. But it turned out to +be the final one. The books of the _Black Eagle_ had been examined; +her stores had been appraised, her stock taken, her fish weighed. And +the result had been so amazing that Sir Archibald had not only been +mystified but enraged. It was for this reason that when Skipper +George Rumm, with Tommy Bull, the rat-eyed little clerk, left the +presence of Sir Archibald Armstrong, the prediction of the clerk had +come true: there were two able-bodied seamen looking for a berth on +the streets of St. John's. First of all, however, they set about +finding Tom Tulk o' Twillingate; but this, somehow or other, the +discreet Tom Tulk never would permit them to do. + + * * * * * + +By Sir Archibald's watch it was now exactly 2:47. Sir Archibald rose +from the chair that was his throne. + +"I'm sorry," he sighed. "I had hoped----" + +Again the pale little clerk put his head in at the door. This time he +was grinning shamelessly. + +"Well?" said Sir Archibald. "What is it?" + +"Master Archie, sir." + +Archie shook hands with his father in a perfunctory way. Sir +Archibald's cheery greeting--and with what admiration and affection +and happiness his heart was filled at that moment!--Sir Archibald's +cheery greeting failed in his throat. Archie was prodigiously +scowling. This was no failure of affection; nor was it an evil regard +towards his creditor, who would have for him, as the boy well knew, +nothing but the warmest sympathy. It was shame and sheer despair. In +every line of the boy's drawn face--in his haggard eyes and trembling +lips--in his dejected air--even in his dishevelled appearance (as Sir +Archibald sadly thought)--failure was written. What the nature of that +failure was Sir Archibald did not know. How it had come about he could +not tell. But it _was_ failure. It was failure--and there was no doubt +about it. Sir Archibald's great fatherly heart warmed towards the boy. +He did not resent the brusque greeting; he understood. And Sir +Archibald came at that moment nearer to putting his arms about his big +son in the most sentimental fashion in the world than he had come in a +good many years. + +"Father," said Archie, abruptly, "please sit down." + +Sir Archibald sat down. + +"I owe you a thousand dollars, sir," Archie went on, coming close to +his father's desk and looking Sir Archibald straight in the eye. "It +is due to-day, and I can't pay it--now." + +Sir Archibald would not further humiliate the boy by remitting the +debt. There was no help for Archie in this crisis. Nobody knew it +better than Sir Archibald. + +"I have no excuse, sir," said Archie, with his head half-defiantly +thrown back, "but I should like to explain." + +Sir Archibald nodded. + +"I meant to be back in time to realize on--well--on those things you +have given me--on the yacht and the boat and the pony," Archie went +on, finding a little difficulty with a lump of shame in his throat; +"but I missed the mail-boat at Ruddy Cove, and I----" + +The pale little clerk once more put his sharp little face in at the +door. + +"Judd," said Sir Archibald, sternly, "be good enough not to interrupt +me." + +"But, sir----" + +"Judd," Sir Archibald roared, "shut that door!" + +The pale little clerk took his life in his hands, and, turning +infinitely paler, gasped: + +"Skipper of the _Spot Cash_ to see you, sir." + +"WHAT!" shouted Archie. + +Judd had fled. + +"Skipper--of--the--_Spot--Cash_!" Archie muttered stupidly. + +Indeed, yes. The hearty, grinning, triumphant skipper of the _Spot +Cash_! And more, too, following sheepishly in his wake: no less than +the full complement of other members of the trading firm of Topsail, +Armstrong, Grimm & Company, even to Donald North, who was winking with +surprise, and Bagg, the cook, ex-gutter-snipe from London, who could +not wink at all from sheer amazement. And then--first thing of +all--Archie Armstrong and his father shook hands in quite another way. +Whereupon this same Archie Armstrong (while Sir Archibald fairly +bellowed with delighted laughter) fell upon Bill o' Burnt Bay, and +upon the crew of the _Spot Cash_, right down to Bagg (who had least to +lose), and beat the very breath out of their bodies in an hilarious +expression of joy. + + * * * * * + +"Dickerin'," Bill o' Burnt Bay explained, by and by. + +"Dickering?" ejaculated Archie. + +"Jus' simon-pure dickerin'," Bill o' Burnt Bay insisted, a bit +indignantly. + +And then it all came out--how that the Jolly Harbour wreckers had come +aboard to reason; how that Bill o' Burnt Bay, with a gun in one hand, +was disposed to reason, and _did_ reason, and continued to reason, +until the Jolly Harbour folk began to laugh, and were in the end +persuaded to take a reasonable amount of merchandise from the depleted +shelves (the whole of it) in return for their help in floating the +schooner. It came out, too, how Billy Topsail had held the candle over +the powder-keg. It came out, moreover, how the crew of the _Spot Cash_ +had set sail from Jolly Harbour with a fair wind, how the wind had +providentially continued to blow fair and strong, how the _Spot Cash_ +had made the land-fall of St. John's before night of the day before, +and how the crew had with their own arms towed her into harbour and +had not fifteen minutes ago moored her at Sir Archibald's wharf. And +loaded, sir--loaded, sir, with as fine a lot o' salt-cod as ever came +out o' White Bay an' off the French Shore! To all of which both Sir +Archibald and Archie listened with wide open eyes--the eyes of the boy +(it may be whispered in strictest confidence) glistening with tears of +proud delight in his friends. + +There was a celebration. Of _course_, there was a celebration! To +be sure! This occurred when the load of the _Spot Cash_ had been +weighed out, and a discharge of obligation duly handed to the firm +of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company, and the balance paid over +in hard cash. Skipper Bill was promptly made a member of the firm to +his own great profit; and he was amazed and delighted beyond +everything but a wild gasp--and so was Billy Topsail--and so was +Jimmie Grimm--and so was Donald North--and so was Bagg--so were they +all amazed, every one, when they were told that fish had gone to +three-eighty, and each found himself the possessor, in his own +right, free of all incumbrance, of one hundred and thirty-seven +dollars and sixty-three cents. But this amazement was hardly equal to +that which overcame them when they sat down to dinner with Archie and +Sir Archibald and Lady Armstrong in the evening. Perhaps it was the +shining plate--perhaps it was Lady Armstrong's sweet beauty--perhaps +it was Sir Archibald's jokes--perhaps it was Archie Armstrong's +Eton jacket and perfectly immaculate appearance--perhaps it was the +presence of his jolly tutor--perhaps it was the glitter and snowy +whiteness and glorious bounty of the table spread before them--but +there was nothing in the whole wide world to equal the astonishment of +the crew of the _Spot Cash_--nothing to approach it, indeed--except +their fine delight. + +THE END + + + + * * * * * + + + +The Works of + +NORMAN DUNCAN + +THE SUITABLE CHILD + +Illustrations by Elizabeth Shippen Green. _Popular Edition._ Half +Boards, Illustrated. Net .60. Decorated Edition, net $1.00. + +THE ADVENTURES OF BILLY TOPSAIL + +_15th thousand._ 12mo, Illustrated, 1.50. + +It's a boy's book, but it's "a book to be chummy with"--that includes +everybody. "A marvelously vivid and realistic narrative. There was no +need to invent conditions or imagine situations. It is this skill in +portraying actual conditions in Newfoundland that makes Mr. Duncan's +work so wonderful."--_Brooklyn Eagle._ + +DOCTOR LUKE OF THE LABRADOR + +_30th thousand._ 12mo, Cloth, 1.50. + +"Norman Duncan has fulfilled all that was expected of him in this +story; it established him beyond question as one of the strong masters +of the present day."--_Brooklyn Eagle._ + +DR. GRENFELL'S PARISH + +_Fifth Edition_. Illustrated, Cloth, net 1.00. + +"He tells vividly and picturesquely many of the things done by Dr. +Grenfell and his associates."--_N. Y. Sun._ + +THE MOTHER + +A Novelette of New York Life. _Second Edition._ 12mo, Cloth, 1.25. de +Luxe, net 2.00. + + + + +DILLON WALLACE + +UNGAVA BOB + +A Tale of the Fur Trappers. + +_12th Thousand._ Illustrated, $1.50. + +This tale of Bob, the young fur trapper in the far frozen North has all +the excitement and thrilling adventure that any boy could wish. Bob's +experiences on the trail, in the Indian's camp, on the abandoned ship +which he sailed into port, make fascinating reading. Moreover there is a +strict adherence to fact which proves the author to have been thoroughly +familiar with the events of which he writes. The story is heart stirring +for young or old from beginning to end. + +[Illustration] + +"The story is told with the greatest simplicity and naturalness, and the +author has put into it his own warm feeling toward the people of the +frozen northland, whites, Indians and Eskimos alike."--_Pittsburg +Post._ + +"Should bring the sparkle to many a lad's eye and make him wish in his +day-dreams that he, too, might battle with dangers of cold and forest +depth and heaving ice field."--_Chicago Post._ + +"A thrilling story full of exciting incidents and holding the interest of +reader at highest pitch to its very close. Adventures and dangers and +hairbreadth escapes."--_Westminster._ + +"A strong, virile book. The mystery of this most obscure corner of the +frozen north pervades the pages."--_Plain Dealer._ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BILLY TOPSAIL & COMPANY*** + + +******* This file should be named 29130.txt or 29130.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/1/3/29130 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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