Billy Topsail & Company: A Story for Boys

  CHAPTER XXXII

  _In Which the "Grand Lake" Conducts Herself In a Most Peculiar Fashion to the Chagrin of the Crew of the "Spot Cash"_

  Skipper Bill and the punt of the stranded _Spot Cash_ made the harbourat Hook-and-Line in good season to intercept the _Grand Lake_. She wasdue--she would surely steam in--that very day, said the men ofHook-and-Line. And it seemed to Archie Armstrong that everything nowdepended on the _Grand Lake_. It would be hopeless--Skipper Bill hadsaid so and the boys needed no telling--it would be hopeless toattempt to get the _Spot Cash_ off Blow-Me-Down Rock in an unfriendlyharbour without the steamer's help.

  "'Tis fair hard t' believe that the Jolly Harbour folk would give usno aid," said Jimmie Grimm.

  Skipper Bill laughed. "You've no knowledge o' Jolly Harbour," saidhe.

  "'Tis a big expense these robbers are putting us to," Archie growled.

  "Robbers?" Bill drawled. "Well, they're a decent, God-fearin' folk,with their own ideas about a wreck."

  Archie sniffed.

  "I've no doubt," the skipper returned, "that they're thankin' God forthe windfall of a tradin' schooner at family worship in Jolly Harbourat this very minute."

  This view expressed small faith in the wits of Billy Topsail.

  "Oh, Billy Topsail will stand un off," Jimmie Grimm stoutly declared.

  "I'm doubtin' it," said the frank skipper.

  "Wh-wh-_what_!" Archie exclaimed in horror.

  "I'm just doubtin' it," the skipper repeated.

  This was a horrifying confession; and Archie Armstrong knew thatSkipper Bill was not only wise in the ways of the French Shore but wasneither a man to take a hopeless view nor one needlessly to exciteanxiety. When Bill o' Burnt Bay admitted his fear that Billy Topsailhad neither the strength nor the wit to save the _Spot Cash_ from theGod-fearing folk of Jolly Harbour, he meant more than he said. Theaffairs of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company seemed to be in a badway. It was now more than a mere matter of liquidating an obligationon the first of September; the problem was of liquidating it at all.

  "Wisht the _Grand Lake_ would 'urry up," said Bagg.

  "I'd like t' save some splinters o' the schooner, anyway," the skipperchuckled, in a ghastly way, "even if we _do_ lose the cargo."

  It occurred all at once to Archie Armstrong that Topsail, Armstrong,Grimm & Company were not only in obligation for the debt to Armstrong& Company but were responsible for a chartered craft which was notinsured.

  "A thousand dollars--a cold thousand dollars--_and_ the _Spot Cash_!"he exclaimed, aghast.

  "Wisht she'd 'urry up," Bagg repeated.

  Archie, pacing the wharf, his hands deep in his pockets, his facehaggard and white, recalled that his father had once told him thatmany a man had been ruined by having too large a credit. And Archiehad had credit--much credit. A mere boy with a thousand dollars ofcredit! With a thousand dollars of credit in merchandise and coin andthe unquestioned credit of chartering a schooner! He realized that ithad been much--too much. Somehow or other, as he feverishly paced thewharf at Hook-and-Line, the trading venture seemed infinitely largerand more precarious than it had in his father's office on the rainyday when the lad had so blithely proposed it. He understood, now, whyit was that other boys could not stalk confidently into the offices ofArmstrong & Company and be outfitted for a trading voyage.

  His father's faith--his father's indulgent fatherhood--had providedthe all-too-large credit for his ruin.

  "Wisht she'd 'urry up," Bagg sighed.

  "Just now," Archie declared, looking Skipper Bill in the eye, "it's upto Billy Topsail."

  "Billy's a good boy," said the skipper.

  Little Donald North--who had all along been a thoroughly serviceablebut inconspicuous member of the crew--began to shed unwilling tears.

  "Wisht she'd 'urry up," Bagg whimpered.

  "_There she is!_" Skipper Bill roared.

  It was true. There she was. Far off at sea--away beyond Grief Head atthe entrance to Hook-and-Line--the smoke of a steamer surely appeared,a black cloud in the misty, glowering day. It was the _Grand Lake_.There was no other steamer on the coast. Cap'n Hand--Archie's friend,Cap'n Hand, with whom he had sailed on the sealing voyage of thestout old _Dictator_--was in command. She would soon make harbour.Archie's load vanished; from despair he was lifted suddenly into awild hilarity which nothing would satisfy but a roaring wrestle withSkipper Bill. The _Grand Lake_ would presently be in; she wouldproceed full steam to Jolly Harbour, she would pass a line to the_Spot Cash_, she would jerk the little schooner from her rocky berthon Blow-Me-Down, and presently that selfsame wilful little craft wouldbe legging it for St. John's.

  But was it the _Grand Lake_?

  "Lads," the skipper declared, when the steamer was in view, "it sureis the _Grand Lake_."

  They watched her.

  "Queer!" Skipper Bill muttered, at last.

  "What's queer?" asked Archie.

  "She should be turnin' in," the skipper replied. "What's Cap'n Handthinkin' about?"

  "Wisht she'd 'urry up," said Bagg.

  The boys were bewildered. The steamer should by this time have had hernose turned towards Hook-and-Line. To round Grief Head she was keepingamazingly far out to sea.

  "Wonderful queer!" said the anxious skipper.

  The _Grand Lake_ steamed past Hook-and-Line and disappeared in themist. Evidently she was in haste. Presently there was not so much as atrail of smoke to be descried at sea.