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 busiestbusiness man in St. John's, Newfoundland. He was forever damp,splashed with mud, grimy-faced, wilted as to clothes and haggard as tomanner. But make haste he must; there was not a day--not an hour--tospare: for it was now appallingly near August; and the first ofSeptember would delay for no man. When, with the advice of SirArchibald and the help of every man-jack in the warehouses (even ofthe rat-eyed little Tommy Bull), the credit of Topsail, Armstrong,Grimm & Company had been exhausted to the last penny, Archie sighed ina thoroughly self-satisfied way, pulled out his new check-book andplunged into work of another sort.
"How's that bank-account holding out?" Sir Archibald asked, thatevening.
"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 inWhite Bay before."
"Somebody is just about to," Archie laughed.
Sir Archibald was puzzled. "Wh-wh-what _for_?" he inquired. "What kindof 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, hissides began to shake, and he threw back his head and burst into a roarof laughter, in which Archie and his mother--they were all atdinner--joined him.
"Why, dad," Archie exclaimed, with vast enthusiasm, "the firm ofTopsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company is going to give the people ofWhite Bay such a good time this summer that they'll never deal withanybody 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'regoing into business to build up a business; and when I come back fromthat 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 crimsonrobe and high-peaked hat that night and Archie completed a verymasterpiece of white beard. Afterwards, Archie packed his trunks. Whenhe turned in at last, outward bound next day by the cross-countrymixed train, he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had stowed thephonograph, the printing-press and type, the signal flags, the magicalapparatus and Fakerino costume and the new accordion; and he knew--forhe had taken pains to find out--that the stock of trading goods, whichhe had bought with most anxious discrimination, was packed anddirected 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 overflowingspirits, with his boxes and bales and barrels and trunks and news. Thefollowing days were filled with intense activity. Topsail, Armstrong,Grimm & Company chartered the _On Time_ in due form; and with theobservance of every legal requirement she was given a new name, the_Spot Cash_. They swept and swabbed her, fore and aft; they gave her aline or two of gay paint; they fitted her cabin with shelves and acounter and her forecastle with additional bunks; and Bill o' BurntBay went over her rigging and spars. While Jimmie Grimm, Bobby Northand Bagg unpacked the stock and furnished the cabin shelves and stowedthe 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 theoperation.
"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 theywant 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 theconcert."
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 todouble-shuffle, and Bobby North is going to shake that hornpipe out ofhis feet, and Jimmie Grimm is going to recite 'Sailor Boy, SailorBoy,' and I'm going to do a trifling little stunt myself. I'm SenorFakerino, 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 madehim chuckle. It appeared in the handbill (after some desperately hardwork) 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 thepress; and Billy Topsail then looked more like a black-face comedianthan senior member of the ambitious firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm& Company. Archie was no better--perspiring, ink-stained, tired inhead and hands. But the boys were delighted with what they hadaccomplished. There were two other productions: one announcing theconcert and the other an honest and quiet comparison of cash andcredit prices with a fair exposition of the virtue and variety of themerchandise to be had aboard the _Spot Cash_.
When Bill o' Burnt Bay, however, was shown the concert announcementand informed, much to his amazement, that it was down in the articlesof agreement, as between him, master of the _Spot Cash_, and thefirm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company--down in black andwhite in the articles of agreement which he was presumed to havesigned--down and no dodging it--that he was to sing "The Lost Pirate"when required--Bill o' Burnt Bay was indignant and flatly resignedhis berth.
"All right, skipper," Archie drawled. "You needn't sing, I 'low. BillyTopsail has a sweet little pipe, an' I 'low it'll be a good dealbetter 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 theneatest little pipe on the coast."
"I'll have you to know," Bill o' Burnt Bay snorted, "that they's manya 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 mesing, 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 flagsflying and every rag of sail spread to a fair breeze. Presently thesun was out, the sky blue, the wind smartly blowing. Late in theafternoon she passed within a stone's throw of Mother Burke androunded Cape John into White Bay. Before dark she dropped anchor inCoachman's Cove and prepared for business.
"Come on, lads!" Archie shouted, when the anchor was down and all sailstowed. "Let's put these dodgers where they'll do most good."
The handbills were faithfully distributed before the punts ofCoachman's came in from the fishing grounds; and that night, to anaudience that floated in punts in the quiet water, just beyond theschooner's stern, and by the light of four torches, Topsail,Armstrong, Grimm & Company presented their first entertainment inpursuit of business, the performers operating upon a small squarestage which Bill o' Burnt Bay had rigged on the house of the cabin.
It was a famous evening.