_In Which the Enterprise of Archie Armstrong Evolves Senor
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.
"Senor 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 Senor Fakerino's gorgeously spangled crimson
robe and high-peaked hat that night and Archie completed a very
masterpiece of white beard. Afterwards, Archie packed 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:
kANDY FOR KIdS
X
Boys Gi_r_ls and Ba_b_ies co_m_e Ab_o_ard
the
"sPOT CAsH"
Yo_u_ Get Perfectly P_u_re Pepper_m_int
if yo_u_ bring yo_u_r
:o: P_A_REnTS :o:
_W_E LOVE K_I_Ds KIdDIES A_N_D
KiDLE_T_S
_Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Co._
"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 Senor
Fakerino, Billy," Archie laughed, "the Greatest Magician in Captivity.
_Just_ you wait and see. I think I'll have a bill all to myself."
Archie scowled and scribbled again with a result that presently made
him chuckle. It appeared in the handbill (after some desperately hard
work) in this guise:
tO-NIGHT! tO-NIGHT!
O_n_ Boa_r_d t_h_e
"SPOT CASH"
----SENOR FAKE-erino----
Will Fully F_oo_l the F_oo_lish
:o: DOn'T :o:
Be F_oo_lish _a_nd Fully F_oo_led by
Credit Tr_a_ding
TRADE FOR CASH ***
ABOARD _the_
*** "SPOT CASH"
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.