“Is it she?” asked the skipper.
“Ay,” Archie exclaimed; “and she’s just leaving Fortune Harbour. She’ll be at Ruddy Cove within the hour.”
“I’m doubtin’ that we will,” said the skipper.
“Will you not run up a topsail?” the boy pleaded.
“Not for the queen o’ England,” the skipper replied, moving forward. “I’ve got my load––an’ I’ve got the lives o’ my crew––t’ care for.”
Archie could not gainsay it. The Wind and Tide had all the sail she could carry with unquestionable 300 safety. The boy watched the mail-boat’s lights round the Head and pass through the tickle into the harbour of Ruddy Cove. Presently he heard the second blast of her deep-toned whistle and saw her emerge and go on her way. She looked cozy in the dusk, he thought: she was brilliant with many lights. In the morning she would connect with the east-bound cross-country express at Burnt Bay. And meantime he––this selfsame boastful Archie Armstrong––would lie stranded at Ruddy Cove. At that moment St. John’s seemed infinitely far away.
CHAPTER XXXV
In Which Many Things Happen: Old Tom Topsail Declares Himself the Bully to Do It, Mrs. Skipper William Bounds Down the Path With a Boiled Lobster, the Mixed Accommodation Sways, Rattles, Roars, Puffs and Quits on a Grade in the Wilderness, Tom Topsail Loses His Way in the Fog and Archie Armstrong Gets Despairing Ear of a Whistle