The Sea-Story Megapack

by Jack Williamson

  “I’m not denyin’,” said Skipper George, “that it could be done. I’m not denyin’ that it would be easy work. But I tells you, Tom Tulk, that I’ll have nothin’ t’ do with it. I’m an honest man, Tom Tulk, an’ I’d thank you t’ remember it.”

  “Well, well!” Tom Tulk sighed again. “There’s many a man in this harbour would jump at the chance; but there’s never another so honest that I could trust him.”

  “Many a man, if you like,” Skipper George growled; “but not me.”

  “No, no,” Tom Tulk agreed, with a covert little sneer and grin; “not you.”

  “’Tis a prison offense, man!”

  “If you’re cotched,” Tom Tulk laughed. “An’ tell me, George Rumm, is I ever been cotched?”

  “I’m not sayin’ you is.”

  “No; nor never will be.”

  It had all been talked over before, of course; and it would be talked over again before a fortnight was past and the Black Eagle had set sail for the French Shore with a valuable cargo. Tom Tulk had begun gingerly; he had proceeded with exquisite caution; he had ventured a bit more; at last he had come boldly out with the plan. Manned with care—manned as she could be and as Tom Tulk would take care to have her—the Black Eagle was the ship for the purpose; and Skipper George, with a reputation for bad seamanship, was the man for the purpose. And the thing would be easy. Tom Tulk knew it. Skipper George knew it. It could be successfully done. There was no doubt about it; and Skipper George hated to think that there was no doubt about it. The ease and safety with which he might have the money tumble into his pocket troubled him. It was not so much a temptation as an aggravation. He found himself thinking about it too often; he wanted to put it out of his mind, but could not.

  “Now, Tom Tulk,” said he, at last, flushing angrily, “let’s have no more o’ this. I’m fair tired of it. I’ll have nothin’ t’ do with it; an’ I tells you so, once an’ for all.”

  “Pass the bottle,” said Tom Tulk.

  The bottle went from hand to hand.

  “We’ll say no more about it,” said Tom Tulk; “but I tells you, Skipper George, that that little clerk o’ yours, Tommy Bull, is just the ticket. As for a crew, I got un handy.”

  “Belay, belay!”

  “Ay, ay, Skipper George,” Tom Tulk agreed; “but as for fetchin’ a cargo o’ fish into St. John’s harbour without tellin’ where it came from, if there’s any man can beat me at that, why, I’d—”

  Skipper George got up and pulled open the hatch.

  “I’ll see you again,” said Tom Tulk.

  Skipper George of the Black Eagle helped himself to another dram when Tom Tulk had withdrawn his great body and sly face. It was true, all that Tom Tulk had said. It was true about the clerk; he was ripe to go bad. It was true about the crew; with hands scarce, and able-bodied young fellows bound to the Sidney mines for better wages, Skipper George could ship whom he liked and Tom Tulk chose. It was true about fetching fish into St. John’s without accounting whence it came. Tom Tulk could do it; nobody would ask eccentric old Tom Tulk where he got his fish—everybody would laugh. It was true about the skipper himself; it was quite true that his reputation was none of the best as a sailing-master. But he had never lost a ship yet. They might say he had come near it, if they liked; but he had never lost a ship yet. No, sir; he had never lost a ship yet. Nor would he. He’d fetch the Black Eagle home, right enough, and show Sir Archibald Armstrong!

  But the thing would be easy. It was disgustingly easy in prospect. Skipper George wished that old Tom Tulk had never come near to bother him.

  “Hang Tom Tulk!” thought he.

  But how easy, after all, the thing would be!

  The first hand put his head in the hatchway to tell Skipper George that he was to report to Sir Archibald Armstrong in the office at once. Skipper George was not quite easy about the three drams he had taken; but there was nothing for it but to appear in the office without delay. As a matter of fact Sir Archibald Armstrong detected nothing out of the way. He had something to say to Skipper George about the way to sail a schooner—about timid sailing, and reckless sailing, and feeling about in fogs, and putting out to sea, and running for harbour. When he had finished—and he spoke long and earnestly, with his blue eyes flashing, his head in the air, his teeth snapping once in a while—when Sir Archibald had finished, Skipper George was standing with his cap in his hand, his face flushed, answering, “Yes, sir,” and, “No, sir,” in a way of the meekest. When he left the office he was unpleasantly aware that he was face to face with his last chance. In this new trouble he forgot all about Tom Tulk.

  “Skipper George,” he thought, taking counsel with himself, as he poured another dram, “you got t’ do better.”

  He mused a long time.

  “I will do better,” he determined. “I’ll show un that I can sail a schooner.”

  Before he stowed away for the night, a little resentment crept into his thoughts of Sir Archibald. He had never felt this way before.

  “I got t’ stop this,” he thought.

  Tom Tulk was then dreaming over a glass of rum; and his dreams were pleasant dreams—concerning Skipper George of the Black Eagle.

  CHAPTER XXVI

  In Which the Enterprise of Archie Armstrong Evolves Señor 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 busiest business man in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He was forever damp, splashed with mud, grimy-faced, wilted as to clothes and haggard as to manner. But make haste he must; there was not a day—not an hour—to spare: for it was now appallingly near August; and the first of September would delay for no man. When, with the advice of Sir Archibald and the help of every man-jack in the warehouses (even of the rat-eyed little Tommy Bull), the credit of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company had been exhausted to the last penny, Archie sighed in a thoroughly self-satisfied way, pulled out his new check-book and plunged into work of another sort.

  “How’s that bank-account holding out?” Sir Archibald asked, that evening.

  “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 in White Bay before.”

  “Somebody is just about to,” Archie laughed.

  Sir Archibald was puzzled. “Wh-wh-what for?” he inquired. “What kind of advertising?”

  “Handbills, dad, and concerts, and flags, and circus-lemonade.”

  “Nothing more, son?” Sir Archibald mocked.

  “Señor 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, his sides began to shake, and he threw back his head and burst into a roar of laughter, in which Archie and his mother—they were all at dinner—joined him.

  “Why, dad,” Archie exclaimed, with vast enthusiasm, “the firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company is going to give the people of White Bay such a good time this summer that they’ll never deal with anybody 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’re going into business to build up a business; and when I come back from that 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 Señor Fakerino’s gorgeously spangled crimson robe and high-peaked hat that night and Archie completed a very masterpiece of white beard. Afterwards, Archie pack
ed his trunks. When he turned in at last, outward bound next day by the cross-country mixed train, he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had stowed the phonograph, the printing-press and type, the signal flags, the magical apparatus and Fakerino costume and the new accordion; and he knew—for he had taken pains to find out—that the stock of trading goods, which he had bought with most anxious discrimination, was packed and directed 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 overflowing spirits, with his boxes and bales and barrels and trunks and news. The following days were filled with intense activity. Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company chartered the On Time in due form; and with the observance of every legal requirement she was given a new name, the Spot Cash. They swept and swabbed her, fore and aft; they gave her a line or two of gay paint; they fitted her cabin with shelves and a counter and her forecastle with additional bunks; and Bill o’ Burnt Bay went over her rigging and spars. While Jimmie Grimm, Bobby North and Bagg unpacked the stock and furnished the cabin shelves and stowed the 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 the operation.

  “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 they want 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.

  “That’ll fetch ’em, all right!” Archie declared. “Now for the concert.”

  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 to double-shuffle, and Bobby North is going to shake that hornpipe out of his feet, and Jimmie Grimm is going to recite ‘Sailor Boy, Sailor Boy,’ and I’m going to do a trifling little stunt myself. I’m Señor Fakerino, Billy,” Archie laughed, “the Greatest Magician in Captivity. Just you wait and see. I think I’ll have a bill all to myself.”

  It was late in the afternoon before the last handbill was off the press; and Billy Topsail then looked more like a black-face comedian than senior member of the ambitious firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company. Archie was no better—perspiring, ink-stained, tired in head and hands. But the boys were delighted with what they had accomplished. There were two other productions: one announcing the concert and the other an honest and quiet comparison of cash and credit prices with a fair exposition of the virtue and variety of the merchandise to be had aboard the Spot Cash.

  When Bill o’ Burnt Bay, however, was shown the concert announcement and informed, much to his amazement, that it was down in the articles of agreement, as between him, master of the Spot Cash, and the firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm& Company—down in black and white in the articles of agreement which he was presumed to have signed—down and no dodging it—that he was to sing “The Lost Pirate” when required—Bill o’ Burnt Bay was indignant and flatly resigned his berth.

  “All right, skipper,” Archie drawled. “You needn’t sing, I ’low. Billy Topsail has a sweet little pipe, an’ I ’low it’ll be a good deal better 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 the neatest little pipe on the coast.”

  “I’ll have you to know,” Bill o’ Burnt Bay snorted, “that they’s many a 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 me sing, 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 flags flying and every rag of sail spread to a fair breeze. Presently the sun was out, the sky blue, the wind smartly blowing. Late in the afternoon she passed within a stone’s throw of Mother Burke and rounded Cape John into White Bay. Before dark she dropped anchor in Coachman’s Cove and prepared for business.

  “Come on, lads!” Archie shouted, when the anchor was down and all sail stowed. “Let’s put these dodgers where they’ll do most good.”

  The handbills were faithfully distributed before the punts of Coachman’s came in from the fishing grounds; and that night, to an audience that floated in punts in the quiet water, just beyond the schooner’s stern, and by the light of four torches, Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company presented their first entertainment in pursuit of business, the performers operating upon a small square stage which Bill o’ Burnt Bay had rigged on the house of the cabin.

  It was a famous evening.

  CHAPTER XXVII

  In Which the Amazing Operations of the “Black Eagle” Promise to Ruin the Firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company, and Archie Armstrong Loses His Temper and Makes a Fool of Himself

  Trade was brisk next day—and continued brisk for a fortnight. From Coachman’s Cove to Seal Cove, from Seal Cove to Black Arm, from Black Arm to Harbour Round and Little Harbour Deep went the Spot Cash. She entered with gay signal flags and a multitude of little Union Jacks flying; and no sooner was the anchor down than the phonograph began its musical invitation to draw near and look and buy. And there was presently candy for the children; and there were undeniable bargains for the mothers. In the evening—under a quiet starlit sky—Skipper Bill “tussled” gloriously with “The Lost Pirate,” and Bobby North shook the hornpipe out of his very toes, and Bill Topsail wistfully piped the well-loved old ballads of the coast in a tender treble; and after that Señor Fakerino created no end of mystification and applause by extracting half-dollars from the vacant air, and discovering three small chicks in an empty top-hat, and producing eggs at will from Bagg’s capacious mouth, and with a mere wave of his wand changing the blackest of ink into the very most delicious of lemonade. The folk of that remote coast were delighted. They had never been amused before; and they craved amusement—like little children.

  Trade followed as a matter of course.

  Trade was brisk as any heart could wish up the White Bay coast to the first harbours of the northern reaches of the French Shore; and there it came to an appalling full stop. The concerts were patronized as before; but no fish came aboard for exchange.

  “I can’t bear to look the calendar in the face,” Archie complained.

  The Spot Cash then lay at anchor in Englee.

  “’Tis the fifth o’ August,” said Billy Topsail.

  “Whew!” Archie whistled. “Sixteen days to the first of September!”

  “What’s the matter, anyhow?” Skipper Bill inquired.

  “The Black Eagle’s the matter,” said Archie, angrily. “She’s swept these harbours clean. She cleaned out Englee yesterday.”

  “Stand by, all hands!” roared the skipper.

  “What’s up, skipper?” asked Archie.

  “Nothin’,” replied the skipper; “that’s the trouble. But the mains’l will be up afore very long if there’s a rope’s end handy,” he added. “We’ll chase the Black Eagle.”

  They caught the Black Eagle at a
nchor in Conch that evening. She was deep in the water. Apparently her hold was full; there were the first signs of a deck-load of fish to be observed. In a run ashore Archie very soon discovered the reason of her extraordinary success. He returned to the deck of the Spot Cash in a towering rage. The clerk of the Black Eagle had put up the price of fish and cut the price of every pound and yard of merchandise aboard his vessel. No wonder she had loaded. No wonder the folk of the French Shore had emptied their stages of the summer’s catch. And what was the Spot Cash to do? Where was she to get her fish? By selling at less than cost and buying at more than the market price? Nothing of the sort! Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company were not going to be ruined by that sort of folly. Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company couldn’t have any fish. The powerful firm of Armstrong & Company of St. John’s was going to put the poor little firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company out of business—going to snuff ’em out—had snuffed ’em out. The best thing Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company could do was to get to cover and call cash trading as big a failure as had ever been made in Newfoundland business.

  “Isn’t fair!” Archie complained, aboard the Spot Cash. “It’s dirty business, I tell you.”

  “Let’s fire away, anyhow,” said Jimmie Grimm.

  “It isn’t fair of dad,” Archie repeated, coming as near to the point of tears as a boy of his age well could. “It’s a low trick to cut a small trader’s throat like this. They can outsail us and keep ahead of us; and they’ll undersell and overbuy us wherever we go. When they’ve put us out of business, they’ll go back to the old prices. It isn’t fair of dad,” he burst out. “I tell you, it isn’t fair!”

  “Lend a hand here,” said Bill. “We’ll see what they do.”

  A pretense of hauling up the mainsail was made aboard the Spot Cash. There was an immediate stir on the deck of the Black Eagle; the hands were called from the forecastle.

  “Look at that!” said Archie, in disgust.

  Both crews laughed and gave it up.