his mother--they were all at
dinner--joined him.

"Why, dad," Archie exclaimed, with vast enthusiasm, "the firm of
Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company is going to give the people of
White Bay such a good time this summer that they'll never deal with
anybody else. And we're going to give them the worth of their money,
too--every penny's worth. On a cash basis we can afford to. We're
going into business to build up a business; and when I come back from
that English school next summer it's going to go right ahead."

Sir Archibald admitted the good prospect.

"Pity the poor _Black Eagle_!" said Archie, grinning.

Lady Armstrong finished Senor Fakerino's gorgeously spangled crimson
robe and high-peaked hat that night and Archie completed a very
masterpiece of white beard. Afterwards, Archie packed his trunks. When
he turned in at last, outward bound next day by the cross-country
mixed train, he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had stowed the
phonograph, the printing-press and type, the signal flags, the magical
apparatus and Fakerino costume and the new accordion; and he knew--for
he had taken pains to find out--that the stock of trading goods, which
he had bought with most anxious discrimination, was packed and
directed and waiting at the station, consigned to Topsail, Armstrong,
Grimm & Company, General Merchants, Ruddy Cove, Newfoundland.

Archie slept well.

When the mail-boat made Ruddy Cove, Archie was landed, in overflowing
spirits, with his boxes and bales and barrels and trunks and news. The
following days were filled with intense activity. Topsail, Armstrong,
Grimm & Company chartered the _On Time_ in due form; and with the
observance of every legal requirement she was given a new name, the
_Spot Cash_. They swept and swabbed her, fore and aft; they gave her a
line or two of gay paint; they fitted her cabin with shelves and a
counter and her forecastle with additional bunks; and Bill o' Burnt
Bay went over her rigging and spars. While Jimmie Grimm, Bobby North
and Bagg unpacked the stock and furnished the cabin shelves and stowed
the hold, Billy Topsail and Archie turned to on the advertising.

The printing-press was set up in Mrs. Skipper William's fish-stage.
Billy Topsail--who had never seen the like--stared open-mouthed at the
operation.

"We got to _make_ 'em buy," Archie declared.

"H-h-how?" Billy stammered.

"We got to make _'em want_ to," said Archie. "They'll trade if they
want to."