_In Which the Honour of Archie Armstrong Becomes Involved,
the First of September Becomes a Date of Utmost
Importance, He Collides With Tom Tulk, and a Note is Made
in the Book of the Future_
Sir Archibald began again to tap the desk with his finger-tips. Archie
strayed to the broad window and looked out upon the wharves and
harbour.
"Is that the _Black Eagle_ at the wharf?" he asked.
"The _Black Eagle_, sure enough!" Sir Archibald laughed. "She's the
White Bay and French Shore trader."
"Trade enough for all," Archie returned.
"George Rumm, master," said Sir Archibald.
"Still?" Archie exclaimed.
The sailing reputation of Skipper George had been in question through
the season. He had come within six inches of losing the _Black Eagle_
in a small gale of the last voyage.
"Who's clerk?" Archie asked.
"Tommy Bull, boy."
No friend of Archie!
"Sharp enough, anyhow," the boy thought.
Sir Archibald put his hands in his pockets again and began to pace the
floor; his lips were pursed, his brows drawn. Archie waited anxiously
at the window.
"When," demanded Sir Archibald, pausing abruptly in his walk--"when do
you propose to liquidate this debt?"
"We'll sail the _Spot Cash_ into St. John's harbour, sir, on September
first, or before."
"With three hundred quintals of fish in her hold, I suppose?"
Three hundred quintals of dry fish, at four dollars, roughly, a
quintal, was twelve hundred dollars.
"More than that, sir," said Archie.
"Well, boy," said Sir Archibald, briskly, "the security I have spoken
of is all right, and----"
"Not worth much at auction sale," Archie interrupted, grinning.
"There's no better security in the world," said Sir Archibald, "than
youth, integrity and capacity."
Archie waited.
"I'll back you," said Sir Archibald, shortly.
"Father," Archie declared, his eyes shining with a little mist of
delight and affection, "I'll stand by this thing for all I'm worth!"
They shook hands upon it.
* * * * *
Sir Archibald presently wrote a check and scribbled a few lines on a
slip of paper. The check was for two hundred and fifty dollars; it was
for running expenses and emergencies that Archie needed the hard cash.
The slip of paper was an order upon the warehouses and shops for
credit in the sum of seven hundred and fifty dollars.
"Now," said Sir Archibald, "it is explicitly understood between us
that on or before the first of September you are to turn over to the
firm of Armstrong & Company a sufficient quantity of properly cured
fish to liquidate this account."
"Yes, sir," Archie replied, earnestly; "on or before the first day of
September next."
"You perfectly understand the terms?" Sir Archibald insisted. "You
know the nature of this obligation?"
"Yes, sir."
"Very well, son," said Sir Archibald; "your honour is involved."
Archie received the two slips of paper. It must be confessed that they
burned his fingers a little. It was a good deal to come into
possession of all at once--a good deal of money and an awe-inspiring
responsibility. Sir Archibald watched the boy's face narrowly. He
seemed to be pleased with what he found there--a little fear, a little
anxiety, a great deal of determination. The veteran business man
wondered if the boy would sleep as easily as usual that night. Would
he wake up fresh and smiling in the morning? These were large cares to
lie upon the shoulders of a lad.
"Shall I give you a--well--a receipt--or a note--or anything like
that?" Archie asked.
"You are upon your honour," said his father.
Archie scratched his head in doubt.
"Your honour," Sir Archibald repeated, smiling.
"The first of September," Archie laughed. "I shan't forget that
date."
In the end he had good cause to remember it.
* * * * *
Before Archie left the office Sir Archibald led him to the broad
window behind the desk. Archie was used to this. It was his father's
habit. The thing was not done in a spirit of boasting, as the boy was
very well aware. Nor was it an attempt to impress the boy with a sense
of his own importance and future wealth in the world. It was rather a
well-considered and consistent effort to give him a sense of the
reality and gravity of the obligations that would some day be his.
From the broad window Archie looked out once more upon the various
activities of his father's great business. There were schooners
fitting out for the fishing cruise to the Labrador; there were traders
taking in stores for the voyage to the Straits of Belle Isle, to the
South Coast, to the French Shore; there were fore-and-afters outbound
to the Grand Banks and waiting for a favourable wind; there were
coastwise vessels, loading flour and pork for the outport merchants;
there were barques awaiting more favourable weather in which to load
salt-cod for the West Indies and Spain.
All this never failed to oppress Archie a little as viewed from the
broad window of his father's office.
"Look!" said Sir Archibald, moving a hand to include the shipping and
storehouses.
Archie gazed into the rainy day.
"What do you see?" his father asked, in a way half bantering, half
grave.
"Your ships and wharves, sir."
"Some day," said Sir Archibald, "they will be yours."
"I wish you wouldn't say that, dad--at least, not just in that way,"
said Archie, turning away from the window. "It sort of frightens me."
Sir Archibald laughed and clapped him on the back. "You know what I
mean," said he.
"You mean that the firm has a name," said Archie. "You mean that the
name must never be disgraced. I know what you mean."
Sir Archibald nodded.
"I hope," said Archie, the suspicion of a quaver in his voice and a
tremble in his lower lip, "that I'll never disgrace it."
"Nor the name of the little firm that goes into business this day,"
said Sir Archibald.
Archie's solemn face broke into a smile of amusement and surprise.
"Why, dad," said he, "it hasn't got a name."
"Armstrong & Company, Junior?"
"Armstrong, Topsail, Grimm & Company," said Archie, promptly.
"Good luck to it!" wished Sir Archibald.
"No; that's not it at all," said Archie. "Billy Topsail schemed this
thing out. Wish luck to the firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm &
Company."
"Build the firm," said Sir Archibald, "upon hard work and fair play."
Archie hurriedly said they would--and vanished.
"Son is growing up," thought Sir Archibald, when the boy had gone.
"Son is decidedly growing up. Well, well!" he sighed; "son is growing
up and in far more trouble than he dreams of. It's a big investment,
too. However," he thought, well pleased and cheerful again, "let him
go ahead and learn his daddy's business. And I'll back him," he
declared, speaking aloud in his enthusiastic faith. "By Jove! I'll
back him to win!"
* * * * *
At the foot of the stairway Archie collided full tilt with two men who
were engaged in intimate conversation as they passed the door. The one
was George Rumm, skipper of the _Black Eagle_--a timid, weak-mouthed,
shifty-eyed man, with an obsequious drawl in his voice, a diffident
manner, and, altogether, a loose, weak way. The other was old Tom Tulk
of Twillingate. Archie leaped back with an apology to Skipper George.
The boy had no word to say to Tom Tulk of Twillingate. Tom Tulk was
notoriously a rascal whom the law was eager to catch but could never
quite satisfactorily lay hands on. It did not occur to Archie that no
wise skipper would put heads mysteriously together in a public place
with old Tom Tulk of Twillingate. The boy was too full of his own
concerns to take note of anything.
"Hello, Skipper George!" he cried, buoyantly. "I'll see you on the
French Shore."
"Goin' north?" Skipper George drawled.
"Tradin'," said Archie.
Skipper George started. Tom Tulk scowled. "Goin' aboard the _Black
Eagle_?" asked Skipper George.
"Tradin' on my own hook, Skipper George," said Archie; "and I'm bound
to cut your throat on the Shore."
Tom Tulk and Skipper George exchanged glances as Archie darted away.
There was something of relief in Skipper George's eyes--a relieved and
teasing little smile. But Tom Tulk was frankly angry.
"The little shaver!" said he, in disgust.
It was written in the book of the future that Skipper George Rumm and
Archie Armstrong should fall in with each other on the north coast
before the summer was over.