CHAPTER XXIX
_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_
Well, now, two days later, near dusk, with Archie Armstrong on thebridge, the _Rough and Tumble_ was crawling northwest through the firstice of the floe. An hour of drab light was left of the day--no more. Andit was mean ice roundabout--small pans and a naughty mess of slush.There was a hummock or two, it might be, and a clumper or two, as well;and a man might travel that ice well enough, sore pinched by need to doso. But it was foul footing for the weight of a full-grown man, andtricky for the feet of a lad; and a man must dance a crooked course, andcaper along, or perish--leap from a block that would tip and sink underhis feet to a pan that would bear him up until he had time and the witto leap again, and so come, at last, by luck and good conduct, to a panstout enough for pause.
It was mean ice, to be sure. Yet there was a fine sign of seals driftingby. Here and there was an old dog hood on a hummock; and there and herewere a harp and a whitecoat on a flat pan. But the orders of Cap'n Saulwere to "leave the swiles be"--to "keep the mouths o' the guns shut"until the _Rough and Tumble_ had run up to the herd that was coming downwith the floe.
"I'll have no swiles slaughtered in play," he declared.
A gun popped forward. It was from the midst of a crowd. And Cap'n Saulleaned over the bridge-rail.
"Who done that?" he demanded.
There was no answer.
"Mm-m?" Cap'n Saul repeated. "Who done that?"
No answer.
"A dog hood lyin' dead off the port bow!" said Cap'n Saul. "Who killedun?"
Still no answer. And Cap'n Saul didn't ask again. Forthwith he stoppedthe ship.
"Mister Knibbs, sir," said he, to the mate, "send the crew after thatdead hood."
The mate jumped.
"Cap'n Saul, sir," he replied, his eyes popping, "the ice----"
"Sir?"
"This here ice, sir----"
"_Sir?_"
"This here----"
"SIR?"
"This----"
"Mister Knibbs, sir," said Cap'n Saul, dryly, "this here ice is fitenough for any crew that I commands. An' if the crew isn't fit for theice, sir, I'll soon have un so, ecod! Put un over the side. We'll wasteno swiles on this v'y'ge."
"All hands, sir?"
"All hands over the side, sir, t' fetch that dead hood aboard."
Archie put in:
"May I go, Cap'n Saul?"
"No!"
"Cap'n Saul," Archie began to wheedle, "I'm so wanting to----"
"No, sir."
"I'm just crazy to----"
"'Tis no fit place for you."
"But----"
Cap'n Saul changed his mind all at once. He sent a call for Archie's oldand well-tried friend, Bill o' Burnt Bay.
"Stand by the lad," said he.
"Ay, sir."
Archie left the bridge with Bill o' Burnt Bay, with whom he had sailedbefore. And over the side they went. And over the side went the crew forpunishment. There were more than two hundred men. And not a man wasspared. Cap'n Saul sent the ship's doctor after malingerers, and themate and the haft of a sealing gaff after lurkers; and he kept themcapering and balancing for dear life on that dirty floe, sopping andshivering, all in a perilous way, until dusk was in the way of catchingsome of them unaware.
* * * * *
It was then that Archie and Bill o' Burnt Bay fell in with old JonathanFarr of Jolly Harbour. Bill o' Burnt Bay knew the old man well. And hewas shocked to find him cavorting over that foul, tricky ice, with thethin blood and dry old bones he had to serve his need--a gray old doglike Jonathan Farr of Jolly Harbour, past his full labour these yearsgone by, gone stiff and all unfit for the labour and chances of the ice.
Still, the old man was blithe enough, as Bill marvelled to see. His eyewas lit up with a flicker of fun, sparkling, somehow, through the rheumof age; and his words were mixed with laughter. They came to rest on apan--the four of them together; old Jonathan Farr and Bill and Archieand a little lad. And Archie marked this in a glance--that the lad,whoever he was, was out of heart with the work he was at.
A good deal was to flow from that meeting; and Billy Topsail was to havea part in it all.