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

by Norman Duncan

  CHAPTER XXXIII

  _In Which the Letter is Opened, Billy and Archie are Confronted by a Cryptogram, and, Having Exercised Their Wits, Conclude that Somebody is in Desperate Trouble_

  It was a woman's doing. The signs of a woman were like print--littletracks in the snow--a woman's little foot; and the snow was brushed by askirt. What woman? A girl? It was a romantic suggestion. Billy Topsailwas old enough to respond to the appeal of chivalry. A perception ofromance overwhelmed him. He was thrilled. He blushed. Reflecting, thus,his thought tinged with the fancies of romance, his chivalry was fullyawakened. No; he would not open the letter. It was a woman's letter. Animpulse of delicacy forbade him to intrude. Wrong? Perhaps. Yet it was afine impulse. He indulged it. He stowed the letter away. And at dawn,still in a chivalrous glow, he set out for Bread-and-Butter Tickle,resolved to deliver the letter that night; and he was caught by dusk onthe ridge of Spear Head, with a flurry of wet snow in the wind and thenight threatening thick.

  Having come to the edge of the moving ice, Billy Topsail looked acrossto the lights of Bread-and-Butter.

  "Might 's well," he decided.

  Between Spear Head and Bread-and-Butter Tickle, that night, BillyTopsail had a nip-and-tuck time of it. It was dark. Snow intermittentlyobscured his objective. The ice was fragmentary--driving and revolvingin a slow wind. It was past midnight when he hauled down the heads ofBread-and-Butter and knocked Archie Armstrong out of bed.

  "Archie," said he, "I found a queer thing."

  Archie's sleepiness vanished.

  "Queer?" he demanded, eagerly. "Something queer? What is it?"

  "'Tis a letter."

  "A letter! Where is it?"

  Billy related the circumstances of the discovery of the letter. Then hesaid:

  "'Tis a sealed letter. I wants t' show it t' Doctor Luke."

  "He's not back."

  "Not back? That's queer!"

  "Oh, no," said Archie, easily; "the case has turned out to be moreserious than he thought and has detained him. Where's the letter?"

  Billy gave the letter to Archie.

  "Bread-and-Butter," Archie read. "No other address. That _is_ queer.What shall we do about it?"

  "I don't know," Billy replied. "What do _you_ say?"

  "I say open it," said Archie, promptly.

  "Would you?"

  "There's nothing else to do. Open it, of course! It is addressed toBread-and-Butter. Well, we're in Bread-and-Butter. Doctor Luke isn'there. If he were, he'd open it. There is something in this letter thatsomebody ought to know at once. I'm going to open it."

  "All right," Billy agreed.

  Archie opened the letter and stared and frowned and pursed his lips.

  "What does it say?" said Billy.

  "I can't make it out. Have a try yourself. Here--read it if you can."

  Billy was confronted by a cryptogram:

  _Dokr com quk pops goncras im ferd_

  "What do you make of it?" said Archie.

  "I'm not much of a hand at readin'," Billy replied; "but I knows thatfirst word there or I misses my guess."

  "What is it?"

  "D-O-K-R. That means what it sounds like. It means _Doctor_."

  Archie exclaimed.

  "That's it!" said he. "And the second word's plain. C-O-M--that's_Come_."

  "'_Doctor, come_,'" said Billy.

  "Right. Somebody's in trouble. Deep trouble, too. The third word is_Quick_. '_Doctor, come quick._' We're right so far. P-O-P-S. What'sthat?"

  "It means _Father_."

  "Right. '_Doctor, come quick. Pop's----_' What now? 'G-O-N-C-R-A-S.'What in the world is that? It must be a kind of sickness. Can't youguess it, Billy?"

  Billy puzzled.

  "G-O-N-C-R-A-S. I don't know what it means."

  "Anyhow," Archie put in, "the next word must be _I'm_. Don't you thinkso, Billy? No? Looks like that. Hum-m! Look here, Billy--what's F-E-R-D?What does it sound like?"

  "Sounds like _feared_."

  "Of course it does! That's right! '_I'm afeared._' Billy, this is apretty serious matter. Why should the writer of this be afraid? Eh? Youthink a woman wrote the letter? Well, she's afraid of something. Andthat something must be the sort of sickness her father has. Shake yournut, Billy. What sort of sickness could she be afraid of?"

  "G-O-N-C-R-A-S. Gon-cras."

  "Gon-cras. Gon-cras. Gon-cras."

  "_Gone_," Billy suggested.

  "_Crazy!_" cried Archie.

  "Right!" said Billy.

  "We've got it!" Archie exulted. "'_Doctor, come quick. Pop's gone crazy.I'm afeared._' That's the message. What shall we do?"

  "We can't do anything now."

  "How's the ice on the Arm, Billy?"

  "Movin' out. A man couldn't cross now. I barely made it."

  "Will the Arm be free in the morning?"

  "No; it will not. The Arm will be fit for neither foot nor punt in themorning. T' get t' Poor Luck Barrens a man would have t' skirt the Armt' Rattle Water an' cross the stream."

  "We'll have to do something, Billy. We can't leave that poor girl alonewith a madman."

  "We'll tell Doctor Luke----"

  "Yes; but what if Doctor Luke isn't back in the morning?"

  "We'll go ourselves."

  Archie started.

  "Go?" he inquired, blankly. "Go _where_? We don't know where this lettercame from. It isn't signed."

  "Ah, well," said Billy, "somebody in Bread-and-Butter will know. Let'sturn in, Archie. If we're t' take the trail the morrow, we must haverest."

  And they turned in.