d have risked the
schooner that way if 'twas a full keg?"

Skipper Bill stared; and for a long time afterwards he could not look
at Billy without staring.

CHAPTER XXXIV

_In Which Skipper Bill, as a Desperate Expedient,
Contemplates the Use of His Teeth, and Archie Armstrong,
to Save His Honour, Sets Sail in a Basket, But Seems to
Have Come a Cropper_

Billy Topsail suddenly demanded:

"Where's the _Grand Lake_?"

"The _Grand Lake_," Skipper Bill drawled, with a sigh, "is somewheres
t' the s'uth'ard footin' it for St. John's."

"You missed her!" Billy accused.

"Didn't neither," said the indignant skipper. "She steamed right past
Hook-an'-Line without a wink in that direction."

This was shocking news.

"Anyhow," said little Donald North, as though it mattered importantly,
"we seed her smoke."

Billy looked from Donald to Jimmie, from Jimmie to Bagg, from Bagg to
the skipper; and then he stared about.

"Where's Archie?" he asked.

"Archie," the skipper replied, "is footin' it for St. John's, too.
'Skipper Bill,' says Archie, 'Billy Topsail has kep' that schooner
safe. I knows he has. It was up t' Billy Topsail t' save the firm from
wreckers an' I'll lay you that Billy Topsail has saved the firm. Now,
Skipper Bill,' says Archie, 'you go back t' Jolly Harbour an' get that
schooner off. You get her off somehow. Get her off jus' as soon as you
can,' says he, 'an' fetch her to St. John's.'

"'I _can't_ get her off,' says I.

"'Yes, you can, too, Skipper Bill,' says he. 'I'll lay you can get her
off. I don't know how you'll do it,' says he; 'but _I'll lay you
can_!'

"'I'll get her off, Archie,' says I, 'if I got t' jump in the sea an'
haul her off with a line in my teeth.'

"'I knowed you would,' says he; 'an' you got the best teeth, Skipper
Bill,' says he, 't' be found on this here coast. As for me,
skipper,' says he, 'I'm goin' down t' St. John's if I got t' walk
on water. I told my father that I'd be in his office on the first
o' September--an' I'm goin' t' be there. If I can't be there with the
fish I can be there with the promise o' fish; an' I can back that
promise up with a motor boat, a sloop yacht an' a pony an' cart. I
don't know how I'm goin' t' get t' St. John's,' says he, 'an' I don't
want t' walk on a wet sea like this; but I'm goin' t' get there
somehow by the first o' September, an' I'm goin' to assoom'--yes,
sir, '_assoom_, Skipper Bill,' says Archie--'I'm go