Billy Topsail & Company Part 30

Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company, Aboard "Spot Cash,"

Tilt Cove.

Still three thirty-five. No rise probable.

Armstrong & Company.

Archie Armstrong was hurt. He could hardly conceive that his father had planned the ruin of his undertaking and the loss of his honour.

But what was left to think? Would the skipper and clerk of the _Black Eagle_ deliberately court discharge? And discharge it would be--discharge in disgrace. There was no possible excuse for this amazing change in prices. No; there was no explanation but that they were proceeding upon Sir Archibald's orders. It was inconceivable that they should be doing anything else. Archie would ask no quarter of his father; but he would at least let Sir Archibald know that he was aware of the difference between fair and unfair compet.i.tion.

Before he boarded the _Spot Cash_ he dispatched this message:

Tilt Cove, August 6.

Armstrong & Company, St. John's.

Tilt Cove.

"Black Eagle" paying three eighty-five. Underselling flour, pork, tea, sugar. Why don't you play fair?

Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company.

If Archie Armstrong could have been in the little office which overlooked the wharves to observe the effect of that message upon Sir Archibald he would not only have been amazed but would have come to his senses in a good deal less time than he actually did. The first item astounded and bewildered Sir Archibald; the second--the brief expression of distrust--hurt him sorely. But he had no time to be sentimental. Three eighty-five for fish? What was the meaning of that?

Cut prices on flour, pork, sugar and tea? What was the meaning of _that_? Sir Archibald saw in a flash what it meant to Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company. But what did it mean to Armstrong & Company? Sir Archibald flushed and perspired with wrath. He pushed b.u.t.tons--he roared orders--he scribbled telegrams. In ten minutes, so vociferous was his rage, so intense his purpose, it was known from one end of the establishment to the other that the _Black Eagle_ must be communicated with at once.

But Armstrong & Company could not manage to communicate with the _Black Eagle_ direct, it seemed. Armstrong & Company might, however, communicate with the _Spot Cash_, now at Tilt Cove and possibly bound north. Doubtless by favour of the clerk of the _Spot Cash_ Armstrong & Company would be able to speak orders in the ear of Skipper George Rumm.

"Judd!" Sir Archibald roared.

The pale little clerk appeared on the bound.

"Rush this," said Sir Archibald.

The message read:

St. John's, August 6.

Archibald Armstrong II, On board "Spot Cash,"

Tilt Cove.

Please oblige order "Black Eagle" St. John's forthwith.

This your authority.

Armstrong & Company.

CHAPTER XXVIII

_In Which the "Spot Cash" is Caught By a Gale In the Night and Skipper Bill Gives Her Up For Lost_

It was blowing up when Archie returned to the _Spot Cash_. There was a fine rain in the wind, too; and a mist--hardly yet a fog--was growing denser on the face of a whitening sea. Nothing to bother about yet, of course: only a smart breeze and a little tumble, with thick weather to make a skipper keep his eyes open. But there was the threat of heavy wind and a big sea in gray sky overhead and far out upon the water.

Tilt Cove was no place for the _Spot Cash_ to lie very long; she must look for shelter in Sop's Arm before night.

"Archie, b'y," said Bill o' Burnt Bay, in the cozy forecastle with the boys, "there's something queer about this here _Black Eagle_."

"I should say so!" Archie sneered. "It's the first time I ever knew my father not to play fair."

"Bos.h.!.+" Skipper Bill e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.

Archie started up in a rage.

"'Ear the wind!" said Bagg, with a little s.h.i.+ver.

It had begun to blow in earnest. The wind, falling over the cliff, played mournfully in the rigging. A gust of rain lashed the skylight.

Swells from the open rocked the schooner.

"Blowin' up," said Billy Topsail.

"How long have you knowed Sir Archibald?" the skipper asked.

Archie laughed.

"Off an' on for about sixteen years, I 'low?" said the skipper.

Archie nodded shortly.

"'Ark t' the wind!" Bagg whispered.

"'Twill be all in a tumble off the cape," said Jimmie Grimm.

"Know Sir Archibald _well_?" the skipper pursued.

Archie sat down in disgust.

"Pretty intimate, eh?" asked the skipper.

The boy laughed again; and then all at once--all in a flash--his ill-humour and suspicion vanished. His father not play fair? How preposterous the fancy had been! Of _course_, he was playing fair!

But somebody wasn't. And _who_ wasn't?

"It is queer," said he. "What do you make of it, Bill?"

"I been thinkin'," the skipper replied heavily.

"Have you fathomed it?"

"Well," the skipper drawled, "I've thunk along far enough t' want t'

look into it farder. I'd say," he added, "t' put back t' Conch."

"It's going to blow, Skipper Bill."