Billy Topsail, M.D.: A Tale of Adventure With Doctor Luke of the Labrador

by Norman Duncan

  CHAPTER XXVIII

  _In Which Sir Archibald Armstrong's Son and Heir is Presented for the Reader's Inspection, Highly Complimented and Recommended by the Author, and the Thrilling Adventure, Which Archie and Billy are Presently to Begin, Has its Inception on the Departure of Archie From St. John's Aboard the "Rough and Tumble"_

  As everybody in St. John's knew very well (and a good many folk of theoutports, to say nothing of a large proportion of the sealing fleet),Archie Armstrong was the son of Sir Archibald Armstrong, who was used tocalling himself a fish-dealer, but was, in fact, a deal more than that.Directly or indirectly, Sir Archibald's business interests touched everyport in Newfoundland, every cove of the Labrador, the markets of Spainand Portugal, of the West Indies and the South American Republics.

  His fishing schooners went south to the Banks and north to the gray,cold seas off Cape Chidley; his whalers gave chase in the waters of theGulf and the Straits; his trading schooners ran from port to port of allthat rugged coast; his barques carried cod and salmon and oil to allthe markets of the world. And when the ice came down from the north inthe spring of the year, his sealing vessels sailed from St. John's onthe great adventure.

  Archie was Sir Archibald's son. There was no doubt about that. He was afine, hearty lad--robust, as every young Newfoundlander should be;straight, agile, alert, with head carried high; merry, quick-minded,ready-tongued, fearless in wind and high sea, as a good many adventureswith Billy Topsail had proved. His hair was tawny, his eyes as blue asBilly Topsail's, and as wide and as clear; and his face was broad andgood-humoured.

  And (every lad has his amiable weakness) Archie was something of a dandyin his dress--a tailored, speckless, polished, fashionable person, towhom the set of his trousers and the knot in his cravat were matters ofconcern. All in all, from his soles to his crown, and from his rosy skinto the innermost recesses of his good red heart, he was very much of abrave, kindly, self-respecting man.

  Billy Topsail liked him. That is putting it mildly. And Archie Armstrongliked Billy Topsail. That, too, is putting it mildly. The boys had beenthrough some hard places together, as I have elsewhere recorded; andthey had come through the good and the bad of their undertakings withmutual respect and liking. Nobody could help liking Billy Topsail--hewas a courageous, decent, jolly, friendly soul; and for the same reasonsnobody could help liking Archie Armstrong. It was a goodpartnership--this friendship between the Colonial knight's son and heirand the outport fisherman's lad. And both had profited.

  Billy had gained in manners and knowledge of the world, to describe theleast gain that he won; and Archie had gained in health and courage andthe wisdom of the coast. But that was all. Rich as Archie's prospectswere, and as great the wealth and generosity of his father, BillyTopsail had never anticipated a material advantage; and had one beenoffered him, it would not have been accepted except on terms of adescription not to wound Billy Topsail's self-respect.

  Well, what sort of an education had Archie Armstrong had? It is bestdescribed in the incident that sent him off on his first sealingvoyage, as elsewhere set down. It was twilight of a blustering Februaryday. Sir Archibald Armstrong sat alone in his office, with his chairdrawn close to the low, broad window, which overlooked the wharves andice-strewn harbour beyond; and while the fire roared and the wind drovethe snow against the panes, he lost himself in profound meditation.

  He stared absently at the swarm of busy men--now almost hidden in thedusk and storm--and at the lights of the sealing fleet, which lay therefitting out for the voyage to the drift-ice of the north; but no soundof the activity on dock or deck could disturb the quiet of the littleoffice where the fire blazed and crackled and the snow fell softlyagainst the window panes.

  By and by Archie came in.

  "Come, son," said Sir Archibald, presently, "let us watch them fittingout the fleet."

  They walked to the window, Sir Archibald with his arm over Archie'sshoulder; and in the dusk outside, the wharves and warehouses and shipstold the story of the wealth of Sir Archibald's firm.

  "It will all be yours some day," said Sir Archibald, gravely. After apause, he continued: "The firm has had an honourable career throughthree generations of our family. My father gave it to me with a spotlessreputation. More than that, with the business he gave me the faith ofevery man, woman and child of the outports. The firm has dealt with itsfishermen and sealers as man with man, not as the exploiter with theexploited. It has never wronged, or oppressed, or despised them.

  "In September you are going to an English public school, and thence toan English University, when the time comes. You will meet with newideals. The warehouses and ships, the fish and fat, will not mean somuch to you. You will forget. It may be even--for you are something of adandy, you know--that you will be ashamed to acknowledge that yourfather is a dealer in fish and seal-oil; and that----"

  Archie drew breath to protest.

  "But I want you to remember," Sir Archibald went on, lifting his hand."I want you to know a man when you meet one, whatever the clothes hewears. The men upon whom the fortunes of this firm are founded are truemen. They are strong, brave and true. Their work is toilsome andperilous, and their lives are not unused to deprivation; but they arecheerful, and independent, and fearless, through it all--stout hearts,every one of them.

  "They deserve respectful and generous treatment at the hands of theiremployers. For that reason I want you to know them more intimately--toknow them as shipmates know one another--that you may be in sympathywith them. I am confident that you will respect them, because I knowthat you love all manly qualities. And so for your good, and the good ofthe men, and the good of the firm, I have decided that----"

  "That I may go sealing?" cried Archie.

  "That you may go sealing."

  Archie had gone sealing. And the adventure had made of him the man thathe was.

  * * * * *

  Archie Armstrong had gone then to an English public school, having madethe acquaintance of Billy Topsail on that first voyage, where thefriendship had been founded in peril and a narrow escape. And he hadcome back unspoiled; and he had adventured with Billy Topsail again, andhe had gone to England and returned to Newfoundland once more. In St.John's, with an English tutor, because of the illness of his mother,who had by that time recovered, he pleaded with Sir Archibald to bepermitted once more to sail with the fleet.

  There was objection. Archie was importunate. Sir Archibald relented andgave a reluctant consent. And it was determined that Archie should beshipped with Cap'n Saul Galt, commanding the _Rough and Tumble_, a stoutship, well manned, and, in the hands of Cap'n Saul, as safe a berth fora lad as any ship of the fleet could provide. That Archie was delightedgoes without saying; and that he was all aflame with interest in themovements of the ice--inquisitive and talkative--goes without sayingtoo.

  As a matter of fact, a man might hear what he liked on the water-frontabout the movements of the ice. In the gathering places it was just thesame. There were rumours of the ice all the way from the Straits ofBelle Isle and the Labrador coast to the Funks and Cape Bonavist'. Itwas even held by some old sealing dogs that the floes had gone to theeast in a spurt of westerly weather and would be found far to sea in thesoutherly drift.

  All this while old Cap'n Saul, of the _Rough and Tumble_, with Archieusually at his elbow, cocked an ear and kept his counsel, putting twoand two together, and arriving at the correct result of four, accordingto the old cock's habit.

  "The ice is inside the Funks, Archie," said he. "I'll twist the _Roughand Tumble_ t' the west an' shake off the fleet in the night. Havin'clung with profit t' my sealin' wisdom these ten sealin' seasons," hewent on, "they'll follow me an they're able, an' pester my fellows an'steal my panned fat. They're all bit mad by the notion that the icedrove t' the east with the nor'west puff an' whisper o' wind we had.I'll fiddle their wits this year--mark me!"

  "_Whisper_ of wind?" Archie exclaimed. "'Twas a whole _gale_ of wind!"


  "Pt!"

  "And the ice _did_ drive to the east."

  "Pt!" says Cap'n Saul. "You'll never make a sealin' skipper, Archie. Ismells the ice off the Horse Islands."

  It was foul weather all the way from St. John's to the floes. The fleetsailed into a saucy head-wind and a great slosh of easterly sea. It wasa fair start and no favour, all managed by the law; the fat on the floeswas for the first crews of the fleet to find and slaughter it. And therewas a mighty crowd on the water-front to wish the fleet well; and therewas a vast commotion, too--cheering and waving and the popping of guns.

  At sea it was a helter-skelter race for the ice. Cap'n Saul touched upthe _Rough and Tumble_ beyond St. John's Narrows; and the ship settledto her work, in that rough and tumble of black water, with a big whitebone in her teeth--shook her head and slapped her tail and snouted herway along to the northeast. A whisp of fog came with the night. It wasthick weather. But Cap'n Saul drove northeast, as before--slap into asmothering sea; and by this the fleet, tagging behind, was befooled andmisled.

  After dark, Cap'n Saul doused the lights and switched full steam to thewest; and when day broke the _Rough and Tumble_ was alone, come whatmight of her isolation--and come it did, in due course, being all a-brewfor Cap'n Saul and crew, even then, in the northwest.

  As for the fleet, it was off on fools' business in the bare seas to theeast.