Billy Topsail & Company: A Story for Boys

  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 theFrench harbour of St. Pierre, Billy Topsail had gone fishing withJimmie Grimm and Donald North. This was in the trim little sloop thatSir Archibald had sent north to Billy Topsail in recognition of hisservice to Archie during a great blizzard from which Bill o' Burnt Bayhad rescued them both.[5] There were now no fish in the summer watersof Ruddy Cove; but word had come down the coast that fish were runningin the north. So up went the sails of the little _Rescue_; and withBilly Topsail, Jimmie Grimm and Bobby North aboard she swept daintilybetween the tickle rocks and turned her shapely prow towards WhiteBay.

  There was good fishing with hook and line; and as the hold of thelittle 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 welands our fish we'll go tradin'. There's a deal o' money in that, I'mtold; 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 becomprehended 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 canstow un away."

  There was a long, long silence, during which the three boys began todream in an amazing way.

  "Billy," Donald North asked, at last, "what you goin' t' do with yourpart 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 withyours, 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_ veryearly that night. They were to set sail for Ruddy Cove at dawn of thenext morning.

  * * * * *

  Archie Armstrong, now returned from the Miquelon Islands and relievedof his anxiety concerning that adventure by his father's letter, washeart and soul for trading. But he scorned the little _Rescue_. It wasmerely that she was too small, he was quick to add; she was trim andfast 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'ta larger one? What Archie wanted--what he determined they shouldhave--was a thirty-ton schooner. Nothing less would do. They must havea 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 takethat 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 ladcould never get used to the airy, confident, masterful way of a richman'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 _SpotCash_."

  Billy realized that the _On Time_ might be had. Also that she might becalled the _Spot Cash_. She had lain idle in the harbour since herskipper had gone off to the mines at Sidney to make more money inwages 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 trymy level best."

  Archie Armstrong left for St. John's by the next mail-boat. He wasnot the lad to hesitate. What his errand was the Ruddy Cove boys knewwell enough; but concerning the prospect of success, they could onlysurmise. However, Archie wouldn't be long. Archie wasn't the lad to belong 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 alitter of eager and expectant little puppies. And Bill o' Burnt Baystood like a wise old dog behind. If only Archie could!

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  [5] As related in "The Adventures of Billy Topsail."