The Adventures of Billy Topsail

  CHAPTER XXVII

  _While Billy Topsail is About His Own Business Archie Armstrong Stands on the Bridge of the Dictator and Captain Hand Orders "Full Speed Ahead!" on the Stroke of Twelve._

  AND so it came to pass that, at near midnight of the tenth of March,Archie Armstrong, warmly clad in furs, and fairly on fire withexcitement, was aboard the staunch old sealer, at Long Tom, half wayup the east coast. It was blowing half a gale from the open sea,which lay, hidden by the night, just beyond the harbour rocks. Thewind was stinging cold, as though it had swept over immense areas ofice, dragging the sluggish fields after it. It howled aloft, rattledover the decks, and flung the smoke from the funnel into the darknessinland. Archie breasted it with the captain and the mate on the bridge;and he was impatient as they to be off from the sheltered water, fairlystarted in the race for the north, though a great gale was to beweathered.

  "Good-bye, Skipper John," he had said to John Roth, with whom he hadspent the three days of waiting in this small outport. "I'll send youtwo white-coats (young seals) for Aunt Mary's sitting room, when I getback."

  "I be past me labour, b'y," replied John, who was, indeed, now beyondall part in the great spring harvest, "but I'll give you the toast o'the old days. 'Red decks, an' many o' them!'"

  "Red decks," cried Archie, quoting the old proverb, "make happy homes."

  "'Tis that," said old John, striking the ground with his staff. "An' Iwish I was goin' along with you, b'y. There's no sealin' skipper likeCap'n Hand."

  The ship was now hanging off shore, with steam up and the anchor snuglystowed. Not before the stroke of twelve of that night was it permittedby the law to clear from Long Tom. Fair play was thus assured to all,and the young seals were protected from an untimely attack. It was arace from all the outports to the ice, with the promise of cargoes offat to stiffen courage and put a will for work in the hearts of men:for a good catch, in its deeper meaning, is like a bounteous harvest;and what it brings to the wives and little folk in all the cottages ofthat cruel coast is worth the hardship and peril.

  "What's the time, Mr. Ackell?" said the captain to the mate,impatiently.

  "Lacks forty-three minutes o' the hour, sir," was the reply.

  "Huh!" growled the captain. "'Tis wonderful long in passin'."

  "The whole harbour must be down to see the start," Archie observedlooking to the shore.

  "More nor that, b'y," said the captain. "I've got a Green Bay crew.Most two hundred men o' them, an' every last one o' them a mighty man.They's folk here from all the harbours o' the bay t' see us off. Harkt' the guns they're firin'!"

  All the folk left in Long Tom--the women and children and old men--wereat the water-side; with additions from Morton's Harbour, Burnt Bay,Exploits and Fortune Harbour. Sailing day for the sealers! It was thegreat event of the year. Torches flared on the flakes and at the stagesall around the harbour. The cottages were all illuminated with tallowcandles. Guns were discharged in salute. "God speed!" was shouted fromshore to ship; and you may be sure that the crew was not slow to returnthe good wishes. Archie marked one man in particular--a tall, leanfellow, who was clinging to the main shrouds, and shouting boisterously.

  "Well, we can't lose Tuttle," said the mate, with a grin, indicatingthe man in the shrouds.

  The captain frowned; and Archie wondered why. But he thought no moreof the matter at the moment--nor, indeed, until he met Tuttle face toface--for the wind was now blowing high; and that was enough to thinkof.

  "Let it blow," said bluff Captain Hand. "'Tis not the _wind_ I caresabout, b'y. 'Tis the ice. I reckon there's a field o' drift iceoffshore. This nor'east gale will jam the harbour in an hour, an' Idon't want t' be trapped here What's the time, now, Mr. Ackell?"

  "Twenty-seven minutes yet, sir."

  "Take her up off Skull Head. That's within the law."

  The drift ice was coming in fast. There was a small field forming aboutthe steamer, and growing continuously. Out to sea, the night-light nowrevealed a floe advancing with the wind, threatening to seal tight thenarrow harbour entrance.

  "If we have t' cut our way out," muttered the captain, "we'll cut aslittle as we can. Mr. Girth!" he roared to the second mate, "get thebombs out. An' pick a crew that knows how t' use 'em."

  The _Dictator_ moved forward through the gathering ice towards SkullHead; and the three other steamers, whose owners had chosen to make thestart from Long Tom, followed slyly on her heels, evidently hoping toget to sea in her wake, for she was larger than they. When her engineswere stopped off the Head, it lacked twelve minutes of sailing time.An unbroken field of ice lay beyond the harbour entrance, momentarilyjammed there. Would the ship be locked in?

  "Can't we run for it, sir?" asked the mate. "'Tis but seven minutes toosoon."

  "No," said the captain. "We'll lie here t' midnight t' the second. Thenwe'll ram that floe, if we have t'. Hear me?" he burst out, such wasthe tension upon patience. "We'll ram it! We'll ram it!"

  It appeared that they _would_ have to. Archie could hear the icecrunching as the floe pressed in upon the jam. Pans were lifted out ofthe water, and, under the mighty force of the mass behind, were heapedup between the rocks on either side of the narrows. The barrier seemedeven now to be impassable; and it had yet seven minutes to gatherstrength. If it should prove too great to be broken, the fleet mightbe locked in for a week; and with every hour of delay the size of theprospective catch would dwindle. The captains of the nearer vesselswere madly shouting to the old skipper of the _Dictator_ to strikebefore it was too late; but he gave them no heed whatever. He stoodwith his watch in his hand, waiting for the moment of midnight.

  "We're caught!" cried the mate.

  The captain said nothing. He was watching the jam--hoping that it wouldbreak of its own weight.

  "Three minutes, sir," said the mate.

  The captain glanced at the watch in his hand. "Two an' a half," hemuttered, a moment later.

  A pause.

  "Midnight, sir!" cried the mate.

  "Go ahead!"

  Archie heard the tinkle of the bell in the engineer's room below: thenthe answering signal on the bridge. The crew raised a cheer; the matepulled the whistle rope; there was a muffled hurrah from the shore.

  "Half speed! Port a little!"

  The steamer gathered headway. She was now making for the harbourentrance on a straight course.

  "Full speed!"

  Then the _Dictator_ charged the barrier.