Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 44037-h.htm or 44037-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/44037/pg44037-images.html)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44037/44037-h.zip)
Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive. See
https://archive.org/details/adventuresofbill00duncuoft
THE ADVENTURES OF BILLY TOPSAIL
* * * * *
_THE WORKS OF_
NORMAN DUNCAN
_Second Edition_
The Mother
A Novelette of New York Life. 12mo, cloth, $1.25, de
Luxe, $2.00 net.
"Another book quite unlike 'Dr. Luke' in environment,
but very like it in its intuitive understandings of the
natures of the lowly and obscure . . . holds the reader
spellbound."--_Nashville American._
_Twenty-fifth Thousand_
Doctor Luke of the Labrador
12mo, cloth, $1.50.
"Norman Duncan has fulfilled all that was expected
of him in this story; it established him beyond
question as one of the strong masters of the present
day."--_Brooklyn Eagle._
_Fourth Edition_
Dr. Grenfell's Parish
Illustrated. Cloth, $1.00 net.
"He tells vividly and picturesquely many of the things
done by Dr. Grenfell and his associates. They have
a distinct literary tone. It is splendid, heroic
work that Dr. Grenfell and his fellows are doing as
missionaries of humanity and civilization in a field
that is painfully near home."--_N. Y. Sun._
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
_Publishers_
* * * * *
[Illustration: HIS CLOTHES WERE FROZEN STIFF, AND HE HAD TO BEAT THEM
ON THE ICE TO SOFTEN THEM.]
THE ADVENTURES OF BILLY TOPSAIL
by
NORMAN DUNCAN
Author of "Doctor Luke of The Labrador,"
"The Mother," "Dr. Grenfell's Parish"
Illustrated
[Illustration]
New York Chicago Toronto
Fleming H. Revell Company
London and Edinburgh
Copyright, 1906, by
Fleming H. Revell Company
New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue
Toronto: 27 Richmond Street, W.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street
_J. K._
_To the editors of the "Youth's Companion" the author's
thanks are due for the permission to reprint much of
the contents of this book._
_To the Boy who Reads the Book_
YOU must not be surprised because the adventures of Billy Topsail and
a few of his friends fill this book. If _all_ the adventures of these
real boys were written the record would fill many books. This is not
hard to explain. The British Colony of Newfoundland lies to the north
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and to the east of the Canadian Labrador.
It is so situated that the inhabitants may not escape adventures.
On the map, it looks bleak and far away and inhospitable--a lonely
island, outlying in the stormy water of the Atlantic. Indeed, it is
all that. The interior is a vast wilderness--a waste place. The folk
are fishermen all. They live on the coast, in little harbours, remote,
widely scattered, not connected by roads; communication is only by way
of the sea. They are hospitable, fearless, tender, simple, willing for
toil; and, surely, little else can be said of a people. Long, long ago,
their forbears first strayed up that forbidding shore in chase of the
fish; and the succeeding generations, though such men as we are, have
there lived their lives, apart from the world's comforts and delights
as we know them. The land is barren; sustenance is from the sea, which
is moody and cold and gray: thus life in that far place has many perils
and deprivations and toilsome duties. The boys of the outports are like
English-speaking boys the world over. They are merry or not, brave or
not, kind or not, as boys go; but it may be that they are somewhat
merrier and braver and kinder than boys to whom self-reliance and
physical courage are less needful. At any rate, they have adventures,
every one of them; and that is not surprising--for the conditions of
life are such that every Newfoundland lad intimately knows hardship and
peril at an age when the boys of the cities still grasp a hand when
they cross the street.
N. D.
New York, _September, 1906_.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I 11
In which young Billy Topsail of Ruddy Cove puts out to his first
adventure with his dog in the bow of the punt.
CHAPTER II 19
Concerning the behaviour of Billy Topsail and his dog in the
water when the _Never Give Up_ went to the bottom, and
closing with an apology and a wag of the tail.
CHAPTER III 26
Describing the haunts and habits of devil-fish and informing
the reader of Billy Topsail's determination to make a
capture at all hazards.
CHAPTER IV 34
Recounting the adventure of the giant squid of Chain Tickle,
in which the punt gets in the grip of a gigantic tentacle
and Billy Topsail strikes with an axe.
CHAPTER V 44
On the face of the cliff: Wherein Billy Topsail gets lost
in a perilous place and sits down to recover his
composure.
CHAPTER VI 52
In which Billy Topsail loses his nerve. Wherein, also, the
wings of gulls seem to brush past.
CHAPTER VII 59
In which Billy Topsail hears the fur trader's story of a
jigger and a cake of ice in the wind.
CHAPTER VIII 69
In the offshore gale: In which Billy Topsail goes seal
hunting and is swept to sea with the floe.
CHAPTER IX 78
In which old Tom Topsail burns his punt and Billy wanders in
the night and three lives hang on a change of wind.
CHAPTER X 86
How Billy Topsail's friend Bobby Lot joined fortunes with
Eli Zitt and whether or not he proved worthy of the
partnership.
CHAPTER XI 93
Bobby Lot learns to swim and Eli Zitt shows amazing courage
and self-possession and strength.
CHAPTER XII 104
Containing the surprising adventure of Eli Zitt's little
partner on the way back from Fortune Harbour, in which
a Newfoundland dog displays a saving intelligence.
CHAPTER XIII 116
In which Billy Topsail sets sail for the Labrador, the
_Rescue_ strikes an iceberg, and Billy is commanded to
pump for his life.
CHAPTER XIV 123
Faithfully narrating the amazing experiences of a
Newfoundland schooner and describing Billy Topsail's
conduct in a sinking boat.
CHAPTER XV 131
In which the Ruddy Cove doctor tells Billy Topsail and
a stranger how he came to learn that the longest way
'round is sometimes the shortest way home.
CHAPTER XVI 142
Describing how Billy Topsail set out for Ruddy Cove with
Her Majesty's Mail and met with catastrophe.
CHAPTER XVII 151
Billy Topsail wrings out his clothes and finds himself
cut off from shore by thirty yards of heaving ice.
CHAPTER XVIII 159
In which Billy Topsail joins the whaler _Viking_ and a
school is sighted.
CHAPTER XIX 164
In which the chase is kept up and the captain promises
himself a kill.
CHAPTER XX 172
The mate of the fin-back whale rises for the last time,
with a blood-red sunset beyond, and Billy Topsail
says, "Too bad!"
CHAPTER XXI 176
In which Billy Topsail goes fishing in earnest. Concerning,
also, Feather's Folly of the Devil's Teeth, Mary
Robinson, and the wreck of the _Fish Killer_.
CHAPTER XXII 184
The crew of the _Fish Killer_ finds refuge on an iceberg
and discovers greater safety elsewhere, after which
the cook is mistaken for a fool, but puts the crew
to shame.
CHAPTER XXIII 196
In which the clerk of the trader _Tax_ yarns of a madman
in the cabin.
CHAPTER XXIV 208
In which a pirate's cave grows interesting, and two young
members of the Ethnological and Antiquarian Club of
St. John's, undertake an adventure under the guidance
of Billy Topsail.
CHAPTER XXV 216
In which there is a landslide at Little Tickle Basin and
something of great interest and peculiar value is
discovered in the cave.
CHAPTER XXVI 223
In which Billy Topsail determines to go to the ice in the
spring of the year, and young Archibald Armstrong of
St. John's is permitted to set out upon an adventure
which promises to be perilous and profitable.
CHAPTER XXVII 231
While Billy Topsail is about his own business Archie
Armstrong stands on the bridge of the _Dictator_ and
Captain Hand orders "Full speed ahead!" on the stroke
of twelve.
CHAPTER XXVIII 238
In which Archie Armstrong falls in with Bill o' Burnt Bay
and Billy Topsail of Ruddy Cove, and makes a speech.
CHAPTER XXIX 246
Billy Topsail is shipped upon conditions, and the
_Dictator_, in a rising gale, is caught in a field of
drift ice, with a growler to leeward.
CHAPTER XXX 255
In which Archie Armstrong and Billy Topsail have an exciting
encounter with a big dog hood, and, at the sound of
alarm, leave the issue in doubt, while the ice goes
abroad and the enemy goes swimming.
CHAPTER XXXI 264
The _Dictator_ charges an ice pan and loses a main topmast.
CHAPTER XXXII 272
In which seals are sighted and Archie Armstrong has a
narrow chance in the crow's-nest.
CHAPTER XXXIII 279
The ice runs red, and, in storm and dusk, Tim Tuttle
brews a pot o' trouble for Captain Hand, while Billy
Topsail observes the operation.
CHAPTER XXXIV 287
In which Tim Tuttle's shaft flies straight for the mark.
The crews of the _Dictator_ and _Lucky Star_ declare
war, and Captain Hand is threatened with the shame of
dishonour, while young Billy Topsail, who has the
solution of the difficulty, is in the hold of the ship.
CHAPTER XXXV 296
In which the issue is determined.
CHAPTER XXXVI 302
It appears that the courage and strength of the son of a
colonial knight are to be tried. The hunters are caught
in a great storm.
CHAPTER XXXVII 308
In which the men are lost, the _Dictator_ is nipped and
Captain Hand sobs, "Poor Sir Archibald!"
CHAPTER XXXVIII 317
And last: In which wind and snow and cold have their way
and death lands on the floe. Billy Topsail gives
himself to a gust of wind, and Archie Armstrong finds
peril and hardship stern teachers. Concerning, also,
a new sloop, a fore-an'-after and a tailor's lay figure.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
HIS CLOTHES WERE FROZEN STIFF, AND HE HAD TO BEAT THEM ON
THE ICE TO SOFTEN THEM _Title_
BILLY RAISED HIS HAND AS IF TO STRIKE HIM 20
THEN LIKE A FLASH IT SHOT TOWARDS THE BOAT 38
"JUMPED LIKE A STAG FOR THE SECOND PAN" 62
BILLY STAGGERED INTO THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT 82
"SHE'S LOST," HE THOUGHT. "LOST WITH ALL HANDS" 126
"MY LITTLE LAD'S WONDERFUL SICK. COME QUICK!" 132
"IT IS A DEAD W'ALE!" 174
HE WAS NEAR THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH VERSE 245
THEN HE ADVANCED UPON THE BOY 261
"LASH YOUR TOWS, B'YS," SAID BILL. "LEAVE THE REST GO" 305
"WE'RE SAVED!" SAID BILL 326
The publishers acknowledge the courtesy of _The
Youth's Companion_ and _Outing_ for the use of various
illustrations appearing originally in these periodicals.
THE ADVENTURES OF BILLY TOPSAIL
CHAPTER I
_In Which Young Billy Topsail of Ruddy Cove Puts Out to
His First Adventure with His Dog in the Bow of the
Punt_
FROM the very beginning it was inevitable that Billy Topsail should
have adventures. He was a fisherman's son, born at Ruddy Cove, which
is a fishing harbour on the bleak northeast coast of Newfoundland; and
there was nothing else for it. All Newfoundland boys have adventures;
but not all Newfoundland boys survive them. And there came, in the
course of the day's work and play, to Billy Topsail, many adventures.
The first--the first real adventure in which Billy Topsail was
abandoned to his own wit and strength--came by reason of a gust of wind
and his own dog. It was not strange that a gust of wind should overturn
Billy Topsail's punt; but that old Skipper should turn troublesome in
the thick of the mess was an event the most unexpected. . . .
* * * * *
Skipper was a Newfoundland dog, born of reputable parents at Back Arm
and decently bred in Ruddy Cove. He had black hair, short, straight and
wiry--the curly-haired breed has failed on the Island--and broad, ample
shoulders, which his forbears had transmitted to him from generations
of hauling wood.
He was heavy, awkward and ugly, resembling somewhat a great
draft-horse. But he pulled with a will, fended for himself, and within
the knowledge of men had never stolen a fish; so he had a high place
in the hearts of all the people of the Cove, and a safe one in their
estimation.
"Skipper! Skipper! Here, b'y!"
The ringing call, in the voice of Billy Topsail, never failed to bring
the dog from the kitchen with an eager rush, when the snow lay deep on
the rocks, and all the paths of the wilderness were ready for the sled.
He stood stock-still for the harness, and at the first "Hi, b'y! Gee up
there!" he bounded away with a wagging tail and a glad bark. It was as
if nothing pleased him so much on a frosty morning as the prospect of a
hard day's work.
If the call came in summer-time when Skipper was dozing in the cool
shadow of a flake--a platform of boughs for drying fish--he scrambled
to his feet, took his clog[1] in his mouth and ran, all a-quiver for
what might come, to where young Billy waited. If the clog were taken
off, as it was almost sure to be, it meant sport in the water. Then
Skipper would paw the ground and whine until the stick was flung out
for him. But best of all he loved to dive for stones.
At the peep of many a day, too, he went out in the punt to the
fishing-grounds with Billy Topsail, and there kept the lad good company
all the day long. It was because he sat on the little cuddy in the bow,
as if keeping a lookout ahead, that he was called Skipper.
"Sure, 'tis a clever dog, that!" was Billy's boast. "He would save
life--that dog would!"
This was proved beyond doubt when little Isaiah Tommy Goodman toddled
over the wharf-head, where he had been playing with a squid. Isaiah
Tommy was four years old, and would surely have been drowned had not
Skipper strolled down the wharf just at that moment.
Skipper was obedient to the instinct of all Newfoundland dogs to
drag the sons of men from the water. He plunged in and caught Isaiah
Tommy by the collar of his pinafore. Still following his instinct, he
kept the child's head above water with powerful strokes of his fore
paws while he towed him to shore. Then the outcry which Isaiah Tommy
immediately set up brought his mother to complete the rescue.
For this deed Skipper was petted for a day and a half, and fed with
fried caplin and salt pork, to his evident gratification. No doubt he
was persuaded that he had acted worthily. However that be, he continued
in merry moods, in affectionate behaviour, in honesty--although the
fish were even then drying on the flakes, all exposed--and he carried
his clog like a hero.
"Skipper," Billy Topsail would ejaculate, "you _do_ be a clever dog!"
* * * * *
One day in the spring of the year, when high winds spring suddenly
from the land, Billy Topsail was fishing from the punt, the _Never
Give Up_, over the shallows off Molly's Head. It was "fish weather,"
as the Ruddy Cove men say--gray, cold and misty. The harbour entrance
lay two miles to the southwest. The bluffs which marked it were hardly
discernible, for the mist hung thick off the shore. Four punts and a
skiff were bobbing half a mile farther out to sea, their crews fishing
with hook and line over the side. Thicker weather threatened and the
day was near spent.
"'Tis time to be off home, b'y," said Billy to the dog. "'Tis getting
thick in the sou'west."
Skipper stretched himself and wagged his tail. He had no word to say,
but Billy, who, like all fishermen in remote places, had formed the
habit of talking to himself, supplied the answer.
"'Tis that, Billy, b'y," said he. "The punt's as much as one hand can
manage in a fair wind. An' 'tis a dead beat to the harbour now."
Then Billy said a word for himself. "We'll put in for ballast. The
punt's too light for a gale."
He sculled the punt to the little cove by the Head, and there loaded
her with rocks. Her sails, mainsail and tiny jib, were spread, and she
was pointed for Grassy Island, on the first leg of her beat into the
wind. By this time two other punts were under way, and the sails of
the skiff were fluttering as her crew prepared to beat home for the
night. The _Never Give Up_ was ahead of the fleet, and held her lead in
such fine fashion as made Billy Topsail's heart swell with pride.
The wind had gained in force. It was sweeping down from the hills in
gusts. Now it fell to a breeze, and again it came swiftly with angry
strength. Nor could its advance be perceived, for the sea was choppy
and the bluffs shielded the inshore waters.
"We'll fetch the harbour on the next tack," Billy muttered to Skipper,
who was whining in the bow.
He put the steering oar hard alee to bring the punt about. A gust
caught the sails. The boat heeled before it, and her gunwale was under
water before Billy could make a move to save her. The wind forced her
down, pressing heavily upon the canvas.
"Easy!" screamed Billy.
But the ballast of the _Never Give Up_ shifted, and she toppled over.
Boy and dog were thrown into the sea--the one aft, the other forward.
Billy dived deep to escape entanglement with the rigging of the boat.
He had long ago learned the lesson that presence of mind wins half the
fight in perilous emergencies. The coward miserably perishes where the
brave man survives. With his courage leaping to meet his predicament,
he struck out for windward and rose to the surface.
He looked about for the punt. She had been heavily weighted with
ballast, and he feared for her. What was he to do if she had been too
heavily weighted? Even as he looked she sank. She had righted under
water; the tip of the mast was the last he saw of her.
The sea--cold, fretful, vast--lay all about him. The coast was half
a mile to windward; the punts, out to sea, were laboriously beating
towards him, and could make no greater speed. He had to choose between
the punts and the rocks.
A whine--with a strange note in it--attracted his attention. The big
dog had caught sight of him, and was beating the water in a frantic
effort to approach quickly. But the dog had never whined like that
before.
"Hi, Skipper!" Billy called. "Steady, b'y! Steady!"
Billy took off his boots as fast as he could. The dog was coming
nearer, still whining strangely, and madly pawing the water. Billy was
mystified. What possessed the dog? It was as if he had been seized
with a fit of terror. Was he afraid of drowning? His eyes were fairly
flaring. Such a light had never been in them before.
In the instant he had for speculation the boy lifted himself high in
the water and looked intently into the dog's eyes. It was terror he
saw in them; there could be no doubt about that, he thought. The dog
was afraid for his life. At once Billy was filled with dread. He could
not crush the feeling down. Afraid of Skipper--the old, affectionate
Skipper--his own dog, which he had reared from a puppy! It was absurd.
But he _was_ afraid, nevertheless--and he was desperately afraid.
"Back, b'y!" he cried. "Get back, sir!"
FOOTNOTE:
[1] In Newfoundland the law requires that all dogs shall be clogged as
a precaution against their killing sheep and goats which run wild. The
clog is in the form of a billet of wood, weighing at least seven and a
half pounds, and tied to the dog's neck.