"Yes, sir," Billy gasped, vacantly; for he was more frightened than he had ever before been in his short life.
That was all. They ran at full speed after their party, and soon joined it. Tuttle kept at Billy's side while they were getting aboard the ship, kept at his side while supper was served in the forecastle, kept at his side through the short evening; kept at his side all the time, in a haunting, threatening way that frightened Billy as nothing else could, until the lad, tired out and utterly discouraged as to the purpose he had formed, turned in, no less to escape Tuttle, who had now grown hateful to him, than to rest.
"Oh," he thought, "if Archie had on'y come t' the fo'c's'le this night, I might 'a' told him; but now—I thinks—I'll be afeared, in the mornin'."
CHAPTER XXXIV
In Which Tim Tuttle's Shaft Flies Straight for the Mark. The Crews of the Dictator and Lucky Star Declare War, and Captain Hand is Threatened with the Shame of Dishonour, While Young Billy Topsail, Who Has the Solution of the Difficulty, is in the Hold of the Ship
TIM TUTTLE'S design against the honour of Captain Hand and of the firm of Armstrong & Son promised well. The following day broke fine; and, early in the morning, the crew of the Dictator was turned out to load the "fat" which had been left on the floe over night. About one hundred men were sent to the ice; the rest were kept on the ship to stow away the "tows" as they came aboard. Among the latter was young Billy Topsail, who was ordered to the hold the moment he appeared on deck.
The party under Bill o' Burnt Bay was first on the ground. Presently, the men from the Lucky Star arrived. For a time, pleasant words passed between the crews. Soon, however, a group of Lucky Star hunters gathered out of hearing of the Dictator's crew. Their voices, which had been low at first, rose angrily, and to such a pitch that the attention of Bill o' Burnt Bay was attracted. He observed their suspicious glances, their wrathful faces, their threatening gestures; and he promptly surmised that trouble of a familiar kind was brewing.
It was evident that there was to be a dispute over the possession of certain of the "tows." The rights of that dispute Bill was not in a position to determine. So far as he knew—and he was bound to stand squarely upon his own knowledge—there had been no wrong-doing on the part of his men; and, being a man who never failed in his duty to the firm, he resolved that not an ounce of "fat" which then lay under a flag of Armstrong & Son should be yielded to the Lucky Star until a higher authority than he gave the word. Needless to say, that is precisely what Tuttle expected of him.