The Adventures of Billy Topsail

Concerning the behaviour of Billy Topsail and his dog in the water when the _Never Give Up_ went to the bottom, and closing with an apology and a wag of the tail.

In which Billy Topsail determines to go to the ice in the spring of the year, and young Archibald Armstrong of St. John's is permitted to set out upon an adventure which promise...

In which Archie Armstrong and Billy Topsail have an exciting encounter with a big dog hood, and, at the sound of alarm, leave the issue in doubt, while the ice goes abroad and t...

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, wh...

And last: In which wind and snow and cold have their way and death lands on the floe. Billy Topsail gives himself to a gust of wind, and Archie Armstrong finds peril and hardshi...

FROM the very beginning it was inevitable that Billy Topsail should have adventures. He was a fisherman's son, born at Ruddy Cove, which is a fishing harbour on the bleak northe...

_Concerning the Behaviour of Billy Topsail and His Dog in the Water When the Never Give Up Went to the Bottom, and Closing With an Apology and a Wag of the Tail_

WHEN the Minister of Justice for the colony of Newfoundland went away from Ruddy Cove by the bay steamer, he chanced to leave an American magazine at the home of Billy Topsail's...

ONE day late in September--it was near evening of a gray day--Billy Topsail and Bobby Lot were returning in Bobby's punt from Birds' Nest Islands, whither they had gone to hunt...

IN summer, when there chanced to be no fish, or when no bait was to be had, and the fish were not to be jigged, Billy Topsail had idle time, which he was not slow to improve for...

It did not appear that he would be unable to go down; the way up was the shorter way, that was all. Nevertheless, his feeling of security was pretty well shaken when he again be...

The stranger had been landed at Ruddy Cove from Fortune Harbour. He had been in the far north, he said; and he was now waiting for the mail-boat to take him south. Billy Topsail...

WHAT befell old Tom Topsail and his crew came in the course of the day's work. Fishermen and seal-hunters, such as the folk of Ruddy Cove, may not wait for favourable weather; w...

MEANWHILE, under the powerful strokes of old Tom Topsail and Bill Watt, the rodney had followed the open leads into the heart of the floe. From time to time Watt muttered a warn...

RUDDY COVE called Eli Zitt a "hard" man. In Newfoundland, that means "hardy"--not "bad." Eli was gruff-voiced, lowering-eyed, unkempt, big; he could swim with the dogs, outdare...

WHEN, returning over the hills, Eli Zitt came to the Knob o' Break-heart, he saw his own punt staggering through the gray waves towards the net off the point--tossing with the s...

BOBBY LOT, Eli Zitt's little partner, left his dog at home when he set out for Fortune Harbour in Eli's punt. He thought it better for the dog. He liked company, well enough, di...

IT was early in the spring--a time of changeable weather when, in the northern seas, the peril of drift-ice, bergs, snow, wind and the dark must sometimes be met with short warn...

THE deck of the _Rescue_ was now littered with wreckage and casks. Splinters of the jib-boom, all tangled with the standing rigging, lay upon the forward deck. The maintopmast h...

IT was a quiet evening--twilight: with the harbour water unruffled, and the colours of the afterglow fast fading from the sky. Billy Topsail and the doctor and a stranger sat by...

THROUGH the long, evil-tempered winter, when ice and high winds keep the coasting boats from the outports, the Newfoundland mails are carried by hand from settlement to settleme...

BILLY could swim--could swim like any Newfoundland dog bred in Green Bay. Moreover, the life he led--the rugged, venturesome calling of the shore fishermen--had inured him to su...

OF a sunny afternoon the Newfoundland coastal steamer _Clyde_ dropped Billy Topsail at Snook's Arm, the lair of the whaler _Viking_: a deep, black inlet of the sea, fouled by th...

THE number of whales was less than the captain of the _Viking_ had thought. When the vessel came up with the school, however, there were twenty or more fin-backs to pick and cho...

HALF a mile ahead the whales rose. The _Viking_ crept near without giving alarm, and waited for them to dive and rise again. The warning swish and _hon-g-k_ sounded next from of...

FEATHER'S FOLLY was one of a group of troublesome islands lying off Cape Grief on the way to the Labrador. Surveyed by a generously inaccurate apprentice it might have measured...

ROBINSON caught the child from the berth. He paused--it was an instinct born of Labrador experience--to wrap a blanket about her, though she was clothed for the day. She reminde...

THE trading-schooner _Tax_ of Ruddy Cove had come down from the Labrador. She was riding at anchor in the home harbour, with her hold full of salt fish and the goods in her cabi...

THERE landed in Ruddy Cove, that summer, two youngsters from St. John's on a vacation--city schoolboys both: not fisher lads. They were pleasant fellows, and were soon fast frie...

NOON of the next day found the three boys at Little Tickle Basin, with the punt moored to the mysterious ring. Many a vessel had floated in that snug berth before, no doubt. But...

_In Which Billy Topsail Determines to go to the Ice in the Spring of the Year and Young Archibald Armstrong of St. John's is Permitted to Set Out Upon an Adventure Which Promise...

AND so it came to pass that, at near midnight of the tenth of March, Archie Armstrong, warmly clad in furs, and fairly on fire with excitement, was aboard the staunch old sealer...

THERE is no telling what would have happened had the _Dictator_ struck the jam of ice in the narrows of Long Tom Harbour. Captain Hand was not the man to lose half a voyage beca...

The captain raised his eyebrows; then dropped them, and stared at the boy. He had been before the mast with old Tom Topsail on a South American barque in years long gone.

_In Which Archie Armstrong and Billy Topsail Have an Exciting Encounter with a Big Dog Hood, and, at the Sound of Alarm, Leave the Issue in Doubt, While the Ice Goes Abroad and...

The men scrambled to the berg and released the lines and ice-hooks. The pack was still loosening under the rising breeze. To the east, separating the sky from the ice, lay a lon...

AT peep o' dawn the _Dictator_ made the Groais Island sealing grounds. The day broke late and dull. The sky was a dead gray, hanging heavily over a dark, fretful sea; and there...

MEANTIME the ship drew near the ice. When Archie came again on deck, his nerves quite composed, she was being driven in and out through the fields to a point as near to the firs...

_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...

BILLY Topsail went to the forecastle as he was bid. With Tuttle so near, he seemed not to have the will to carry out his purpose. He passed Archie on the way forward, even respo...

THE _Lucky Star_ and the _Dictator_ parted company the next day--the former bound for the Labrador coast, the latter in a southerly direction to White Bay. For several days, the...

WHEN the last party of hunters had been landed from the _Dictator_, the ship was taken off the ice field; and there she hung, in idleness, awaiting the end of the hunt. It was t...

_And Last: In Which Wind and Snow and Cold Have Their Way and Death Lands on the Floe. Billy Topsail Gives Himself to a Gust of Wind, and Archie Armstrong Finds Peril and Hardsh...