er the stern--when, in the current, he should reach the rocks just
after the wave had broken. The crew waited a long time. Many a glance
was cast forward; it seemed to them all, such headway had the fire
made, that the six kegs of powder must explode the very next instant.
No sign came from the skipper; and no sight of him could be caught.
They paid out the rope--and waited. The rope was for a long time loose
in their hands.

"He's landed!" cried Jimmie Grimm.

The rope was hauled taut. Upon the rocks, out of reach of the sea, the
figure of the skipper could be seen.

"One at a time!" Skipper Bill shouted.

And one at a time they went--decently and in order, like true
Newfoundland sailors, Tom Rook, the first hand, the last of all. When
they were all ashore, they scrambled like mad up the cliff; and they
were no more than out of danger when the _First Venture_ was blown to
atoms. There was a flash, a deafening roar--and darkness; broken only
by the spluttering splinters of the little craft.

* * * * *

That night, from Heart's Harbour, the folk observed a ship afire,
running in towards the Chunks. To the report they sent immediately to
St. John's--there happens fortunately to be a government telegraph
station at Heart's Harbour--they added, later, that she had blown up.
But from St. John's the salvage-tug _Hurricane_ was dispatched into
the stormy sea in search of the survivors; and on the second day
following she picked up Skipper Bill o' Burnt Bay and his crew.

Next day they were in St. John's.

"Wisht I'd took your advice about the insurance, sir," broken-hearted
Bill o' Burnt Bay said to Sir Archibald.

Sir Archibald laughed. "I took it for you," said he.

"What?" Skipper Bill exploded.

"I insured the _First Venture_ on my own responsibility," Sir
Archibald replied. "You shall build the _Second Venture_ at Ruddy Cove
next winter."

Archie Armstrong and Bill o' Burnt Bay, with the lads and men of the
lost _First Venture_, went back to Ruddy Cove by rail and the
mail-boat.

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 "B