Billy Topsail, M.D.: A Tale of Adventure With Doctor Luke of the Labrador
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CHAPTER XXXI
_In Which a Gale of Wind Almost Lays Hands on the Crew of the "Rough and Tumble," Toby Farr is Confronted With the Suggestion of Dead Men, Piled Forward Like Cord-Wood, and Archie Armstrong Joins Bill o' Burnt Bay and Old Jonathan in a Roar of Laughter_
Archie Armstrong and Toby Farr made friends that night. The elder boywas established as the patron of the younger. Toby was aware of Archie'sstation--son and heir of the great Sir Archibald Armstrong; but beingoutport born and bred, Toby was not overawed. Before it was time to turnin he was chatting on equal terms with Archie, just as Billy Topsail hadchatted, in somewhat similar circumstances, on Archie's first sealingvoyage.
Toby sang songs that night, too--songs for the crew, of his own making;and he yarned for them--tales of his own invention. It occurred toArchie more than once that Toby possessed a talent that should not belost--that something ought to be done about it, that something _must_be done about it; and Archie determined that something should be doneabout it--Archie was old enough to understand the power of hisprospective wealth and his own responsibility with relation to it.
* * * * *
And that night, below, when Toby Farr was curled up asleep, Archielearned more of this queer matter of Jonathan and the lad. He learnedthat it was in the mind of old Jonathan Farr that he would not last longin the world--that he was wistful to have the lad hardened before thetime of his departure fell. Proper enough: for of all that Jonathan hadto leave the lad, which was much, when you come to think it over, hecould leave him no better fortune than a store of courage and the willand skill to fend for himself.
But the ice was no fit place for Jonathan Farr--a lean, weary old doglike Jonathan Farr. Ah, well, said he, what matter? For his time was onthe way, and the lad was heartened and taught in his company; and as forthe frost that might bite his old flesh, and as for the winds that mightchill the marrow of his old bones, it was nothing at all to suffer thatmuch, said he, in the cause of his own son's son, who was timid, as hisfather had been, in youth, and his father's father before him.
"Ay," said Archie; "but the lad's too young for the ice."
"True, Archie--he's tender," said Jonathan; "but I've no certainty o'years. An' I done well with his father, Archie, at his age."
"'Twould go hard with a tender lad like Toby in time of trouble."
"No, no, Archie----"
"He'd never live it through, Jonathan."
"Ay," Jonathan replied; "but I'm here, Archie--me! An' that's jus' whatI'm here for--t' keep un safe from harm while I teaches un t' fend forhisself."
"You!" Bill o' Burnt Bay put in, in banter.
"I'm old--true," says Jonathan. "Yet I've a shot left in the locker,Bill, against a time o' need."
* * * * *
Next day Cap'n Saul found the herds--a patch of harps and new-whelpedyoung. The crew killed all that day. At dusk the men were used to theslaughter, and could bat a seal and travel the ice without fear orawkwardness. There was a pretty prospect indeed of making a quickvoyage of it. And this would mean a puff and bouquet of praise for Cap'nSaul in the St. John's newspapers, and a sixty dollar share in the fatfor every man and lad of the crew: "_Rough and Tumble_, Cap'n Saul Galt,First Arrival. In With Thirty Thousand!"--all in big, black letters tostartle folks' eyes and set the tongues of the town clacking.
It would be news of a size to make the town chatter for a fortnight; itwould spread to the outports; it would give Cap'n Saul all the sealingglory of that year. There would be great stir and wonder in Water Streetwhen Cap'n Saul went by; and there would be a lively gathering forcongratulations in the office of the owners when Cap'n Saul swaggered into report what everybody knew, that Saul Galt, of the _Rough andTumble_, was the first of the fleet to come in with a load.
Sir Archibald Armstrong himself would be there to clap the skipper onthe back.
"I congratulate you, Cap'n Saul!" he would say. "I'm proud o' ye, sir!"
* * * * *
Driving this way and that, and squirming along, nosing and ramming andblasting a course through the floes, the _Rough and Tumble_ loadedfifteen thousand seals in a week. It was still gray weather--no wind tomatter; and the sea was flat in the lakes and lanes, and the ice wasabroad, and no great frost fell to scorch the crew. Bill o' Burnt Baywas master of the Third Watch--the watch of Jonathan Farr and Toby. Atdawn the First Watch filed over the side, every man with a gaff and atow-rope and a biscuit or two; and all day long they killed and sculpedand towed and panned the fat--all smothered in blood.
Meanwhile the _Rough and Tumble_ ran away out of sight to land theSecond Watch on another field, and beyond that, then, to land the ThirdWatch; and then she made back through the ice to stand by and pick upthe First Watch. And when she had picked up the First Watch, and stowedaway the seals, and had gathered the Second Watch, it was dusk and afterevery night, and sometimes long after, when she got back to pick up Billo' Burnt Bay's watch, which was the last to leave the floe.
Thus it was labour all day and sweat most of the night--torches on thepans where the sculped seal lay; and torches on deck--the decks all redand slippery with blood and fat and ice. And it looked well for them,every one--a load of fat and the first to port with it.
Toby Farr killed and sculped and towed and panned a lad's full share ofthe fat.
"Well, sir," said Archie, one day, "how you getting along?"
"I thrives, sir," Toby replied.
"A cock so soon!" said Bill.
"My gran'pa," says Toby, "is teachin' me."
Archie laughed.
"Is you apt?" Bill inquired.
"I've learned courage," Toby replied, "an' 'tis a hard lesson t' learn."
"God knows!" Bill agreed.
"I'll be jus' 's fit an' able 's anybody, mark me," Toby boasted, "aforethis v'y'ge is out!"
"I believe you!" said Archie.
Foul weather fell with the crews on the floe--a brief northeast gale ofcold wind. The floe went crunching to the southwest--jumping along withthe wind like a drove of scared white rabbits. And the pans packed; andthe lakes began to close--the lanes to close. Bill o' Burnt Bay gatheredhis watch in haste. Seals? Drop the seals! It was time forcaution--quick work for crews and ship. Cap'n Saul snatched the otherwatches from the ice and footed it back for Bill's watch before thepress nipped the _Rough and Tumble_ and caught her fast; and Bill'swatch was aboard before dusk, leaving the kill to drift where the windhad the will to drive it.
Cap'n Saul was proud of the smart work--smelling out a swift gale ofnortheasterly wind with that old foul-weather nose of his, and pickinghis crew from the ice with the loss of not a man. It was a narrow shave,though--narrow enough to keep a man's heart in his mouth until he got amug of hot tea in his stomach. And that night there was talk of itbelow--yarns of the ice: the loss of the _Greenland's_ men in ablizzard--poor, doomed men, cut off from the ship and freezing tomadness and death; and of how the _Greenland_ steamed into St. John'sHarbour with her flag at half-mast and dead men piled forward likecord-wood.
Tales of frosty wind and sudden death--all told in whispers to saucereyes and open mouths.
"A sad fate, Toby!" said Jonathan, to test the lad's courage. "Mm-m?"
Toby shrugged his shoulders.
"Yep," said he.
"All them poor dead men in a heap!"
"Sad enough, sir."
"Cast away in the cold an' all froze stiff!"
"Yep."
"Hard as stone!"
"Yep."
"An' piled for'ard like cord-wood!"
"Sad sight, sir. Yep."
"Oh, dear me!" said Jonathan.
Toby put a hand on the old man's shoulder. It was to hearten hisgrandfather's courage. And Toby smiled.
"Cheer up, gran'pa!" said he. "You isn't afeared, is you?"
"Hear that, Bill!" cried Jonathan.
Toby whistled a tune.
"Whistlin'!" said
Bill. "Yet afore this v'y'ge is out ye may lie a bluecorpse yourself on the ice!"
And Toby yawned.
"Yep," said he.
It was a cure. Archie and Bill and Jonathan burst into a roar oflaughter. Toby was timid no longer. He could not be frightened by talesand gruesome suggestions to his imagination.