he boy watched the
mail-boat's lights round the Head and pass through the tickle into the
harbour of Ruddy Cove. Presently he heard the second blast of her
deep-toned whistle and saw her emerge and go on her way. She looked
cozy in the dusk, he thought: she was brilliant with many lights. In
the morning she would connect with the east-bound cross-country
express at Burnt Bay. And meantime he--this selfsame boastful Archie
Armstrong--would lie stranded at Ruddy Cove. At that moment St. John's
seemed infinitely far away.

CHAPTER XXXV

_In Which Many Things Happen: Old Tom Topsail Declares
Himself the Bully to Do It, Mrs. Skipper William
Bounds Down the Path With a Boiled Lobster, the Mixed
Accommodation Sways, Rattles, Roars, Puffs and Quits on a
Grade in the Wilderness, Tom Topsail Loses His Way in the
Fog and Archie Armstrong Gets Despairing Ear of a
Whistle_

At Ruddy Cove, that night, when Archie was landed from the _Wind and
Tide_, a turmoil of amazement instantly gave way to the very briskest
consultation the wits of the place had ever known.

"There's no punt can make Burnt Bay the night," Billy Topsail's father
declared.

"Nor the morrow night if the wind changes," old Jim Grimm added.

"Nor the next in a southerly gale," Job North put in.

"There's the _Wind an' Tide_," Tom Topsail suggested.

"She's a basket," said Archie; "and she's slower than a paddle
punt."

"What's the weather?"

"Fair wind for Burnt Bay an' a starlit night."

"I've lost the express," said Archie, excitedly. "I must--I _must_, I
tell you!--I must catch the mixed."

The Ruddy Cove faces grew long.

"I must," Archie repeated between his teeth.

The east-bound cross-country express would go through the little
settlement of Burnt Bay in the morning. The mixed accommodation would
crawl by at an uncertain hour of the following day. It was now the
night of the twenty-ninth of August. One day--two days. The mixed
accommodation would leave Burnt Bay for St. John's on the thirty-first
of August.

"If she doesn't forget," said Job North, dryly.

"Or get tired an' rest too often," Jim Grimm added.

Archie caught an impatient breath.

"Look you, lad!" Tom Topsail declared, jumping up. "I'm the bully that
will put you aboard!"

Archie flung open the door of Mrs. Skipper William's kitchen and made
for the Topsail wharf with old Tom puffing and lumbering at his heels.
Billy Topsail's mother w