CHAPTER XII
In Which Old David Grey, Once of the Hudson Bay Company, Begins the Tale of How Donald McLeod, the Factor at Fort Refuge, Scorned a Compromise With His Honour, Though His Arms Were Pinioned Behind Him and a Dozen Tomahawks Were Flourished About His Head.
Archie Armstrong was presently established in a white little room in the beaming Aunt “Bill’s” little white cottage at Ruddy Cove. His two trunks––two new trunks, now––were there established with him, of course; and they contained a new outfit of caps, shoes, boots, sweaters, coats, gloves, and what not, suited to every circumstance and all sorts of weather. Then began for Archie, Jimmie and Billy––with Bagg, of the London gutters, sometimes included––hearty times ashore and afloat. It was Bagg, indeed, who proposed the cruise to Birds’ Nest Islands.
“I said I wouldn’t go t’ Birds’ Nest Islands,” said Billy Topsail, “an’ I won’t.”
“Ah, come on, Billy,” Archie pleaded. 113
“I said I wouldn’t,” Billy repeated, obstinately, “an’ I won’t.”
“That ain’t nothink,” Bagg argued.
“Anyhow,” said Billy, “I won’t, for I got my reasons.”[3]
David Grey, a bent old fellow, who was now long “past his labour,” as they say in Newfoundland, sat within hearing. Boy and man he had been in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, as hunter, clerk, trader, explorer, factor; and here, on the coast where he had been born, he had settled down to spend the rest of his days. He was not an ignorant man, but, on the contrary, an intelligent one, educated by service, wide evening study of books, and hard experience in the great wildernesses of the Canadian Northwest, begun, long ago, when he was a lad.
“You make me think of Donald McLeod,” said he.