_BILLY TOPSAIL, M.D._
_The "Billy Topsail" Books_
By NORMAN DUNCAN
Each Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.25
_The Adventures of Billy Topsail_
"There was no need to invent conditions or imagine situations. The life
of any lad of Billy Topsail's years up there is sufficiently romantic.
It is this skill in the portrayal of actual conditions that lie ready to
the hand of the intelligent observer that makes Mr. Duncan's
Newfoundland stories so noteworthy."--_Brooklyn Eagle._
_Billy Topsail and Company_
"Another rousing volume of 'The Billy Topsail Books.' Norman Duncan
has the real key to the boy heart and in Labrador he has opened up a
field magnetic in its perils and thrills and endless
excitements."--_Examiner._
_Billy Topsail, M. D._
A Tale of Adventure with "Doctor Luke of the Labrador."
The further adventures of Billy Topsail and Archie Armstrong on the ice,
in the forest and at sea. In a singular manner the boys fall in with a
doctor of the outposts and are moved to join forces with him. The doctor
is Doctor Luke of the Labrador whose prototype as every one knows is
Doctor Grenfell. Its pages are as crowded with brisk adventures as those
of the preceding books.
[Illustration: "BACK, YOU, CRACKER! BACK, YOU, SMOKE!"]
(See page 85)
_BILLY TOPSAIL, M.D._
_A Tale of Adventure With
Doctor Luke of the Labrador_
_By
NORMAN DUNCAN_
_ILLUSTRATED_
[Illustration]
_New York Chicago Toronto
Fleming H. Revell Company
London and Edinburgh_
Copyright, 1916, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street
_To the Reader_
In this tale of the seas and ice-floes of Newfoundland and Labrador,
Billy Topsail adventures with Doctor Luke of the Labrador. There are
thrilling passages in the book. The author is frank to admit the
hair-raising quality of them. Indeed, they have tickled his own scalp.
Well, it is proper that the hair of the reader should sometimes stand on
end and his eyes pop wide. The author would be a poor teller of tales if
he could not manage as much--a charlatan if he did not. Yet these
thrilling passages are not the work of a saucy imagination, delighting
in shudders, no matter what, but are all decently founded upon fact,
true to the experience of the coast, as many a Newfoundlander, boy and
man, could tell you.
Doctor Luke has often been mistaken for Doctor Wilfred Grenfell of the
Deep Sea Mission. That should not be. No incident in this book is a
transcript from Doctor Grenfell's long and heroic service. What Billy
Topsail and Doctor Luke encounter, however, is precisely what the Deep
Sea Mission workers must encounter. It should be said, too, that as the
tale is told of the spring of the year, when the ice breaks up and the
floes come drifting out of the north with great storms, Newfoundland
presents herself in her worst mood. Yet the sun shines in Newfoundland,
tender enough in summer weather--there are flowers on the hills and warm
winds on the sea; and such as learn to know the land come quickly to
love her for her beauty and for her friendliness.
N. D.
_New York, March, 1916._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I 15
In which it is hinted that Teddy Brisk would make a
nice little morsel o' dog meat, and Billy Topsail begins
an adventure that eventually causes his hair to stand
on end and is likely to make the reader's do the same.
CHAPTER II 24
In which Timothy Light's team of ten potential outlaws
is considered, and there is a significant description of
the career of a blood-guilty, ruined young dog, which
is in the way of making desperate trouble for somebody.
CHAPTER III 33
In which Timothy Light's famished dogs are committed
to the hands of Billy Topsail and a tap on the snout is
recommended in the probable case of danger.
CHAPTER IV 40
In which the komatik is foundered, the dogs draw their
own conclusions from the misfortune and prepare to
take advantage, Cracker attempts a theft and gets a
clip on the snout, and Billy Topsail and Teddy Brisk
confront a situation of peril with composure, not knowing
the ultimate disaster that impends.
CHAPTER V 50
In which the wind goes to work, the ice behaves in an
alarming way, Billy Topsail regrets, for obvious reasons,
having to do with the dogs, that he had not
brought an axe, and Teddy Brisk protests that his
mother knew precisely what she was talking about.
CHAPTER VI 56
In which the sudden death of Cracker is contemplated as
a thing to be desired, Billy Topsail's whip disappears,
a mutiny is declared and the dogs howl in the
darkness.
CHAPTER VII 64
In which a blazing club plays a salutary part, Teddy
Brisk declares the ways of his mother, and Billy Topsail
looks forward to a battle that no man could win.
CHAPTER VIII 70
In which Teddy Brisk escapes from the wolfskin bag
and determines to use his crutch and Billy Topsail
comes to the conclusion that "it looks bad."
CHAPTER IX 76
In which attack is threatened and Billy Topsail strips
stark naked in the wind in pursuit of a desperate expedient
and with small chance of success.
CHAPTER X 82
In which Teddy Brisk confronts the pack alone and
Cracker leads the assault.
CHAPTER XI 87
In which Teddy Brisk gives the strains of a Tight Cove
ballad to the north wind, Billy Topsail wins the reward
of daring, Cracker finds himself in the way of the
evil-doer, and Teddy Brisk's boast makes Doctor Luke
laugh.
CHAPTER XII 92
In which Billy Topsail's agreeable qualities win a warm
welcome with Doctor Luke at Our Harbour, there is
an explosion at Ragged Run, Tommy West drops
through the ice and vanishes, and Doctor Luke is in a
way never to be warned of the desperate need of his
services.
CHAPTER XIII 100
In which Doctor Luke undertakes a feat of daring and
endurance and Billy Topsail thinks himself the luckiest
lad in the world.
CHAPTER XIV 104
In which Billy Topsail and Doctor Luke take to the ice
in the night and Doctor Luke tells Billy Topsail something
interesting about Skinflint Sam and Bad-Weather
Tom West of Ragged Run.
CHAPTER XV 112
In which Bad-Weather Tom West's curious financial
predicament is explained.
CHAPTER XVI 118
In which Doctor Luke and Billy Topsail proceed to accomplish
what a cat would never attempt and Doctor
Luke looks for a broken back whilst Billy Topsail
shouts, "Can you make it?" and hears no answer.
CHAPTER XVII 126
In which rubber ice is encountered and Billy Topsail is
asked a pointed question.
CHAPTER XVIII 134
In which discretion urges Doctor Luke to lie still in a
pool of water.
CHAPTER XIX 140
In which Doctor Luke and Billy Topsail hesitate in fear
on the brink of Tickle-my-Ribs.
CHAPTER XX 149
In which Skinflint Sam of Ragged Run finds himself in
a desperate predicament and Bad-Weather Tom West
at last has what Skinflint Sam wants.
CHAPTER XXI 158
In which a Croesus of Ragged Run drives a hard bargain
in a gale of wind.
CHAPTER XXII 167
In which Doctor Luke and Billy Topsail go north, and
at Candlestick Cove, returning, Doctor Luke finds
himself just a bit peckish.
CHAPTER XXIII 174
In which, while Doctor Luke and Billy Topsail rest unsuspecting
at Candlestick Cove, Tom Lute, the father
of the Little Fiddler of Amen Island, sharpens an axe
in the wood-shed, and the reader is left to draw his
own conclusions respecting the sinister business.
CHAPTER XXIV 184
In which Bob Likely, the mail-man, interrupts Doctor
Luke's departure, in the nick of time, with an astonishing
bit of news, and the ice of Ships' Run begins
to move to sea in a way to alarm the stout hearted.
CHAPTER XXV 190
In which a stretch of slush is to be crossed and Billy
Topsail takes the law in his own hands.
CHAPTER XXVI 196
In which it seems that an axe and Terry Lute's finger
are surely to come into injurious contact, and Terry
Lute is caught and carried bawling to the block, while
his mother holds the pot of tar.
CHAPTER XXVII 204
In which Doctor Luke's flesh creeps, Billy Topsail acts
like a bob-cat, and the Little Fiddler of Amen Island
tells a secret.
CHAPTER XXVIII 212
In which Sir Archibald Armstrong's son and heir is presented
for the reader's inspection, highly complimented
and recommended by the author, and the thrilling adventure,
which Archie and Billy are presently to begin,
has its inception on the departure of Archie from St.
John's aboard the _Rough and Tumble_.
CHAPTER XXIX 221
In which the crew of the _Rough and Tumble_ is harshly
punished, and Archie Armstrong, having pulled the
wool over the eyes of Cap'n Saul, goes over the side
to the floe, where he falls in with a timid lad, in whose
company, with Billy Topsail along, he is some day to
encounter his most perilous adventure.
CHAPTER XXX 226
In which a little song-maker of Jolly Harbour enlists the
affection of the reader.
CHAPTER XXXI 232
In which a gale of wind almost lays hands on the crew
of the _Rough and Tumble_, Toby Farr is confronted
with the suggestion of dead men, piled forward like
cord-wood, and Archie Armstrong joins Bill o' Burnt
Bay and old Jonathan in a roar of laughter.
CHAPTER XXXII 240
In which Archie Armstrong and Billy Topsail say good-bye
to Toby Farr for the present, and, bound down to
Our Harbour with Doctor Luke, enter into an arrangement,
from which issues the discovery of a mysterious
letter and sixty seconds of cold thrill.
CHAPTER XXXIII 251
In which the letter is opened, Billy and Archie are confronted
by a cryptogram, and, having exercised their
wits, conclude that somebody is in desperate trouble.
CHAPTER XXXIV 257
In which Archie and Billy resolve upon a deed of their
own doing, and are challenged by Ha-ha Shallow of
Rattle Water.
CHAPTER XXXV 265
In which Billy Topsail takes his life in his hands and
Ha-ha Shallow lays hold of it with the object of snatching
it away.
CHAPTER XXXVI 271
In which Ha-ha Shallow is foiled, Archie Armstrong
displays swift cunning, of which he is well aware, and
Billy Topsail, much to his surprise, and not greatly to
his distaste, is kissed by a lady of Poor Luck Barrens.
CHAPTER XXXVII 279
In which Archie Armstrong rejoins the _Rough and
Tumble_, with Billy Topsail for shipmate, and they
seem likely to be left on the floe, while Toby Farr,
with the gale blowing cold as death and dark falling,
promises to make a song about the ghosts of dead men,
but is entreated not to do so.
CHAPTER XXXVIII 287
In which the wind blows a tempest, our heroes are lost
on the floe, Jonathan Farr is encased in snow and
frozen spindrift, Toby strangely disappears, and an
heroic fight for life is begun, wrapped in bitter dark.
CHAPTER XXXIX 293
In which one hundred and seventy-three men of the
_Rough and Tumble_ are plunged in the gravest peril of
the coast, wandering like lost beasts, and some drop
dead, and some are drowned, and some kill themselves
to be done with the torture they can bear no longer.
CHAPTER XL 298
In which Toby Farr falls in the water, and, being
soaked to the skin, will freeze solid in half an hour, in
the frosty dusk of the approaching night, unless a shift
of dry clothes is found, a necessity which sends Jonathan
Farr and Billy Topsail hunting for dead men.
CHAPTER XLI 305
In which a dead man is made to order for little Toby
Farr.
CHAPTER XLII 311
In which the tale comes to a good end: Archie and
Billy make ready for dinner, Toby Farr is taken for
good and all by Sir Archibald, and Billy Topsail, having
been declared wrong by Archie's father, takes the
path that leads to a new shingle, after which the author
asks a small favour of the reader.
_To
Elspeth's
Canadian Cousins
Russ and Dode, Tom and Kenn,
Rich and Logan, Mort and
Fos, Georgie,
and
all the girls of the connection
who will deign
to read the tale, Mar
and Buff, Frankie,
Bettie and Jean
when the time
comes,
with a wink and a challenge
to
Kathie Sweet._
CHAPTER I
_In Which It Is Hinted that Teddy Brisk Would Make a Nice Little
Morsel o' Dog Meat, and Billy Topsail Begins an Adventure that
Eventually Causes His Hair to Stand on End and Is Likely to Make the
Reader's Do the Same_
One dark night in the fall of the year, the trading-schooner _Black
Bat_, of Ruddy Cove, slipped ashore on the rocks of Tight Cove, of the
Labrador. She was frozen fast before she could be floated. And that was
the end of her flitting about. It was the end, too, of Billy Topsail's
rosy expectation of an hilarious return to his home at Ruddy Cove.
Winter fell down next day. A great wind blew with snow and frost; and
when the gale was blown out--the sun out and the sky blue again--it was
out of the question to rip the _Black Bat_ out of her icy berth in Tight
Cove Harbour and put her on the tumbled way to Ruddy.
And that is how it came about that Billy Topsail passed the winter at
Tight Cove, with Teddy Brisk, and in the spring of the year, when the
ice was breaking up, fell in with Doctor Luke of the Labrador in a way
that did not lack the aspects of an adventure of heroic proportions. It
was no great hardship to pass the winter at Tight Cove: there was
something to do all the while--trapping in the back country; and there
was no uneasiness at home in Ruddy Cove--a wireless message from the
station at Red Rock had informed Ruddy Cove of the fate of the _Black
Bat_ and the health and comfort of her crew.
And now for the astonishing tale of how Doctor Luke and Billy Topsail
fell in together----
* * * * *
When Doctor Luke made Tight Cove, of the Labrador, in the course of his
return to his little hospital at Our Harbour, it was dusk. His dogs were
famished; he was himself worn lean with near five hundred miles of
winter travel, which measured his northern round, and his komatik (sled)
was occupied by an old dame of Run-by-Guess Harbour and a young man of
Anxious Bight. The destitute old dame of Run-by-Guess Harbour was to
die of her malady in a cleanly peace; the young man of Anxious Bight was
to be relieved of those remnants of a shoulder and good right arm that
an accidental gunshot wound had left to endanger his life.
It was not fit weather for any man to be abroad--a biting wind, a frost
as cold as death, and a black threat of snow; but Doctor Luke, on this
desperate business of healing, was in haste, and the patients on the
komatik were in need too urgent for any dawdling for rest by the way.
Schooner Bay ice was to cross; he would put up for the night--that was
all; he must be off at dawn, said he in his quick, high way.
From this news little Teddy Brisk's mother returned to the lamp-lit
cottage by Jack-in-the-Box. It was with Teddy Brisk's mother that Billy
Topsail was housed for the winter.
"Is I t' go, mum?" said Teddy.
Teddy Brisk's mother trimmed the lamp.
"He've a ol' woman, dear," she replied, "from Run-by-Guess."
Teddy Brisk's inference was decided.
"Then he've room for _me_," he declared; "an' I'm not sorry t' learn
it."
"Ah, well, dear, he've also a poor young feller from Anxious Bight."
Teddy Brisk nodded.
"That's all about _that_," said he positively. "He've _no_ room for me!"
Obviously there was no room for little Teddy Brisk on Doctor Luke's
komatik. Little Teddy Brisk, small as he was, and however ingenious an
arrangement might be devised, and whatever degree of compression might
be attempted, and no matter what generous measure of patience might be
exercised by everybody concerned, including the dogs--little Teddy Brisk
of Tight Cove could not be stowed away with the old dame from
Run-by-Guess Harbour and the young man of Anxious Bight.
There were twenty miles of bay ice ahead; the dogs were footsore and
lean; the komatik was overflowing--it was out of the question. Nor could
Teddy Brisk, going afoot, keep pace with the Doctor's hearty strides and
the speed of the Doctor's team--not though he had the soundest little
legs on the Labrador, and the longest on the Labrador, of his years, and
the sturdiest, anywhere, of his growth.
As a matter of fact, one of Teddy Brisk's legs was as stout and willing
as any ten-year-old leg ever you saw; but the other had gone bad--not so
recently, however, that the keen Doctor Luke was deceived in respect to
the trouble, or so long ago that he was helpless to correct it.
Late that night, in the lamp-lit cottage by Jack-in-the-Box, the Doctor
looked over the bad leg with a severely critical eye; and he popped more
questions at Teddy Brisk, as Teddy Brisk maintained, than had ever
before been exploded on anybody in the same length of time.
"Huh!" said he at last. "I can fix it."
"You can patch un up, sir?" cried Skipper Tom.
This was Thomas Brisk. The father of Teddy Brisk had been cast away,
with the _Brotherly Love_, on the reef by Fly Away Head, in the Year of
the Big Shore Catch. This old Thomas was his grandfather.
"No, no, no!" the Doctor complained. "I tell you I can _fix_ it!"
"Will he be as good as new, sir?" said Teddy.
"Will he?" the Doctor replied. "Aha!" he laughed. "You leave that to the
carpenter."
"As good as Billy Topsail's off shank?"
"I'll scrape that bad bone in there," said the Doctor, rubbing his hands
in a flush of professional expectation; "and if it isn't as good as new
when the job's finished I'll--I'll--why, I'll blush, my son: I'll blush
all red and crimson and scarlet."
Teddy Brisk's mother was uneasy.
"Will you be usin' the knife, sir?"
"The knife? Certainly!"
"I'm not knowin'," said the mother, "what little Teddy will say t'
that."
"What say, son?" the Doctor inquired.
"Will it be you that's t' use the knife?" asked Teddy.
"Mm-m!" said the Doctor. He grinned and twinkled. "I'm the butcher,
sir."
Teddy Brisk laughed. "That suits _me_!" said he.
"That's hearty!" the Doctor exclaimed. He was delighted. The trust was
recompense. God knows it was welcome! "I'll fix you, Teddy boy," said
he, rising. And to Skipper Thomas: "Send the lad over to the hospital as
soon as you can, Skipper Thomas. When the ice goes out we'll be crowded
to the roof at Our Harbour. It's the same way every spring. Egad!
they'll sweep in like the flakes of the first fall of snow! Now's the
time. Make haste! We must have this done while I've a cot to spare."
"I will, sir."
"We're due for a break-up soon, I suppose--any day now; but this wind
and frost will hold the ice in the bay for a while. You can slip the lad
across any day. It must be pretty fair going out there. You can't bring
him yourself, Skipper Thomas. Who can? Somebody here? Timothy Light? Old
Sam's brother, isn't he? I know him. It's all arranged, then. I'll be
looking for the lad in a day or two. You've plenty of dogs in Tight
Cove, haven't you?"
"Oh, aye, sir," Skipper Thomas replied; "we've _dogs_, sir--never you
mind about that!"
"Whose dogs?"
"Timothy Light's dogs."
The Doctor grinned again.
"That pack!" said he.
"A saucy pack o' dogs!" said Teddy's mother. "It's mostly new this
season. I don't like un! I'm fair afraid o' them, sir. That big Cracker,
sir, that Timothy haves for bully an' leader--he've fair spoiled Timothy
Light's whole team. I'm none too fond o' that great dog, sir; an' I'll
have my say about it."
Skipper Thomas laughed--as a man will at a woman's fears.
"No sheep's manners t' that pack," he drawled. "The team's all dawg."
"What isn't wolf!" the woman retorted.
"She've been afraid o' that Cracker," Skipper Thomas explained, "ever
since he fetched a brace o' wolves out o' the timber. 'Twas as queer a
sight, now, as ever you seed, sir. They hung round the harbour for a day
an' a night. You might think, sir, that Cracker was showin' off his new
quarters t' some friends from the back country. They two wolves seemed
t' have knowed Cracker all their lives. I 'low that they _had_
knowed----"
"He's half wolf hisself."
"I 'low he's _all_ wolf," Skipper Thomas admitted. This was not true.
Cracker was not all wolf. "I never heard o' nobody that knowed where
Cracker was born. That dog come in from the timber."
"A wicked crew--the pack o' them!"
"We've had a lean winter at Tight Cove, sir," said Skipper Thomas. "The
dogs have gone marvellous hungry this past month, sir. They're just a
wee bit savage."
"Spare your dog meat if you lack it," the Doctor advised. "I'll feed
that team at Our Harbour."
Teddy Brisk put in:
"Timothy Light haves command o' that pack."
"I'm not so sure that he've command," Teddy Brisk's mother protested.
"I'm not so sure that any man could command a shockin' pack like that.
In case o' accident, now----"
Skipper Thomas chucked his ample, glowing daughter-in-law under the
chin.
"You loves that lad o' yourn!" he bantered.
"I does!"
"You're thinkin' he'd make a nice little morsel o' dog meat?"
"As for me," she laughed, "_I_ could eat him!"
She caught little Teddy Brisk in her arms and kissed him all over his
eager little face. And then Doctor Luke, with a laugh and a boyish "So
long, Teddy Brisk! See you soon, old soldier!" vanished to his lodgings
for the night.