n," said Sir Archibald.

"He'll be second mate o' the _Venture_," Bill declared.

"Skipper," said Sir Archibald, presently, "you'll be wanting this
craft insured, I suppose?"

"Well, no, sir," Bill drawled.

Sir Archibald frowned. "No trouble for me to take the papers out for
you," said he.

"You see, sir," Bill explained, "I was allowin' t' save that there
insurance money."

"Penny wise and pound foolish," said Sir Archibald.

"Oh," drawled Skipper Bill, "I'll manage t' get her t' Ruddy Cove well
enough. Anyhow," he added, "'twon't be wind nor sea that will wreck my
schooner."

"As you will," said Sir Archibald, shortly; "the craft's yours."

* * * * *

Archie Armstrong came aboard that afternoon--followed by two porters
and two trunks. He was Sir Archibald's son; there was no doubt about
that: a fine, hardy lad--robust, straight, agile, alert, with his head
carried high; merry, quick-minded, ready-tongued, fearless in wind and
high sea. His hair was tawny, his eyes blue and wide and clear, his
face broad and good-humoured. He was something of a small dandy, too,
as the two porters and the two trunks might have explained. The cut of
his coat, the knot in his cravat, the polish on his boots, the set of
his knickerbockers, were always matters of deep concern to him. But
this did not interfere with his friendship with Billy Topsail, the
outport boy. That friendship had been formed in times of peril and
hardship, when a boy was a boy, and clothes had had nothing to say in
the matter.

Archie bounded up the gangplank, crossed the deck in three leaps and
stuck his head into the forecastle.

"Ahoy, Billy Topsail!" he roared.

"Ahoy, yourself!" Billy shouted. "Come below, Archie, an' take a look
at Jimmie Grimm."

Jimmie Grimm was at once taken into the company of friends.

-----

[2] The story of this voyage--the tale of the time when Archie
Armstrong and Billy Topsail and Bill o' Burnt Bay were lost in
the snow on the ice-floe--with certain other happenings in which
Billy Topsail was involved--is related in "The Adventures of
Billy Topsail."

[Illustration: _Courtesy of "The Youth's Companion"_
SHE WAS BEATING LABORIOUSLY INTO A VIOLENT HEAD WIND.]

CHAPTER X

_In Which the Cook Smells Smoke, and the "First Venture"
In a Gale of Wind Off the Chunks, Comes Into Still Graver
Peril, Which Billy Topsail Discovers_