"'Twould go hard with a tender lad like Toby in time of trouble."
"No, no, Archie——"
"He'd never live it through, Jonathan."
"Ay," Jonathan replied; "but I'm here, Archie—me! An' that's jus' what I'm here for—t' keep un safe from harm while I teaches un t' fend for hisself."
"You!" Bill o' Burnt Bay put in, in banter.
"I'm old—true," says Jonathan. "Yet I've a shot left in the locker, Bill, against a time o' need."
Next day Cap'n Saul found the herds—a patch of harps and new-whelped young. The crew killed all that day. At dusk the men were used to the slaughter, and could bat a seal and travel the ice without fear or awkwardness. There was a pretty prospect indeed of making a quick voyage of it. And this would mean a puff and bouquet of praise for Cap'n Saul in the St. John's newspapers, and a sixty dollar share in the fat for every man and lad of the crew: "Rough and Tumble, Cap'n Saul Galt, First Arrival. In With Thirty Thousand!"—all in big, black letters to startle folks' eyes and set the tongues of the town clacking.
It would be news of a size to make the town chatter for a fortnight; it would spread to the outports; it would give Cap'n Saul all the sealing glory of that year. There would be great stir and wonder in Water Street when Cap'n Saul went by; and there would be a lively gathering for congratulations in the office of the owners when Cap'n Saul swaggered in to report what everybody knew, that Saul Galt, of the Rough and Tumble, was the first of the fleet to come in with a load.
Sir Archibald Armstrong himself would be there to clap the skipper on the back.