Billy Topsail & Company by Norman Duncan (ebook reader screen txt) 📖

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.

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