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

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,