The pale little clerk took his life in his hands, and, turning infinitely paler, gasped:
“Skipper of the Spot Cash to see you, sir.”
Judd had fled.
“Skipper––of––the––Spot––Cash!” Archie muttered stupidly.
Indeed, yes. The hearty, grinning, triumphant skipper of the Spot Cash! And more, too, following sheepishly in his wake: no less than the full complement of other members of the trading firm of Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company, even to Donald North, who was winking with surprise, and Bagg, the cook, ex-gutter-snipe from London, who could not wink at all from sheer amazement. And then––first thing of all––Archie Armstrong and his father shook hands in quite another way. Whereupon this same Archie Armstrong (while Sir Archibald fairly bellowed with delighted laughter) fell upon Bill o’ Burnt Bay, and upon the crew of the Spot Cash, right down to Bagg (who had least to lose), and beat the very breath out of their bodies in an hilarious expression of joy.
“Dickerin’,” Bill o’ Burnt Bay explained, by and by.
“Dickering?” ejaculated Archie.
“Jus’ simon-pure dickerin’,” Bill o’ Burnt Bay insisted, a bit indignantly. 317