Billy Topsail, M.D.: A Tale of Adventure With Doctor Luke of the Labrador

by Norman Duncan

  CHAPTER I

  _In Which It Is Hinted that Teddy Brisk Would Make a Nice Little Morsel o' Dog Meat, and Billy Topsail Begins an Adventure that Eventually Causes His Hair to Stand on End and Is Likely to Make the Reader's Do the Same_

  One dark night in the fall of the year, the trading-schooner _BlackBat_, of Ruddy Cove, slipped ashore on the rocks of Tight Cove, of theLabrador. She was frozen fast before she could be floated. And that wasthe end of her flitting about. It was the end, too, of Billy Topsail'srosy expectation of an hilarious return to his home at Ruddy Cove.Winter fell down next day. A great wind blew with snow and frost; andwhen the gale was blown out--the sun out and the sky blue again--it wasout of the question to rip the _Black Bat_ out of her icy berth in TightCove Harbour and put her on the tumbled way to Ruddy.

  And that is how it came about that Billy Topsail passed the winter atTight Cove, with Teddy Brisk, and in the spring of the year, when theice was breaking up, fell in with Doctor Luke of the Labrador in a waythat did not lack the aspects of an adventure of heroic proportions. Itwas no great hardship to pass the winter at Tight Cove: there wassomething to do all the while--trapping in the back country; and therewas no uneasiness at home in Ruddy Cove--a wireless message from thestation at Red Rock had informed Ruddy Cove of the fate of the _BlackBat_ and the health and comfort of her crew.

  And now for the astonishing tale of how Doctor Luke and Billy Topsailfell in together----

  * * * * *

  When Doctor Luke made Tight Cove, of the Labrador, in the course of hisreturn to his little hospital at Our Harbour, it was dusk. His dogs werefamished; he was himself worn lean with near five hundred miles ofwinter travel, which measured his northern round, and his komatik (sled)was occupied by an old dame of Run-by-Guess Harbour and a young man ofAnxious Bight. The destitute old dame of Run-by-Guess Harbour was todie of her malady in a cleanly peace; the young man of Anxious Bight wasto be relieved of those remnants of a shoulder and good right arm thatan accidental gunshot wound had left to endanger his life.

  It was not fit weather for any man to be abroad--a biting wind, a frostas cold as death, and a black threat of snow; but Doctor Luke, on thisdesperate business of healing, was in haste, and the patients on thekomatik were in need too urgent for any dawdling for rest by the way.Schooner Bay ice was to cross; he would put up for the night--that wasall; he must be off at dawn, said he in his quick, high way.

  From this news little Teddy Brisk's mother returned to the lamp-litcottage by Jack-in-the-Box. It was with Teddy Brisk's mother that BillyTopsail was housed for the winter.

  "Is I t' go, mum?" said Teddy.

  Teddy Brisk's mother trimmed the lamp.

  "He've a ol' woman, dear," she replied, "from Run-by-Guess."

  Teddy Brisk's inference was decided.

  "Then he've room for _me_," he declared; "an' I'm not sorry t' learnit."

  "Ah, well, dear, he've also a poor young feller from Anxious Bight."

  Teddy Brisk nodded.

  "That's all about _that_," said he positively. "He've _no_ room for me!"

  Obviously there was no room for little Teddy Brisk on Doctor Luke'skomatik. Little Teddy Brisk, small as he was, and however ingenious anarrangement might be devised, and whatever degree of compression mightbe attempted, and no matter what generous measure of patience might beexercised by everybody concerned, including the dogs--little Teddy Briskof Tight Cove could not be stowed away with the old dame fromRun-by-Guess Harbour and the young man of Anxious Bight.

  There were twenty miles of bay ice ahead; the dogs were footsore andlean; the komatik was overflowing--it was out of the question. Nor couldTeddy Brisk, going afoot, keep pace with the Doctor's hearty strides andthe speed of the Doctor's team--not though he had the soundest littlelegs on the Labrador, and the longest on the Labrador, of his years, andthe sturdiest, anywhere, of his growth.

  As a matter of fact, one of Teddy Brisk's legs was as stout and willingas any ten-year-old leg ever you saw; but the other had gone bad--not sorecently, however, that the keen Doctor Luke was deceived in respect tothe trouble, or so long ago that he was helpless to correct it.

  Late that night, in the lamp-lit cottage by Jack-in-the-Box, the Doctorlooked over the bad leg with a severely critical eye; and he popped morequestions at Teddy Brisk, as Teddy Brisk maintained, than had everbefore been exploded on anybody in the same length of time.

  "Huh!" said he at last. "I can fix it."

  "You can patch un up, sir?" cried Skipper Tom.

  This was Thomas Brisk. The father of Teddy Brisk had been cast away,with the _Brotherly Love_, on the reef by Fly Away Head, in the Year ofthe Big Shore Catch. This old Thomas was his grandfather.

  "No, no, no!" the Doctor complained. "I tell you I can _fix_ it!"

  "Will he be as good as new, sir?" said Teddy.

  "Will he?" the Doctor replied. "Aha!" he laughed. "You leave that to thecarpenter."

  "As good as Billy Topsail's off shank?"

  "I'll scrape that bad bone in there," said the Doctor, rubbing his handsin a flush of professional expectation; "and if it isn't as good as newwhen the job's finished I'll--I'll--why, I'll blush, my son: I'll blushall red and crimson and scarlet."

  Teddy Brisk's mother was uneasy.

  "Will you be usin' the knife, sir?"

  "The knife? Certainly!"

  "I'm not knowin'," said the mother, "what little Teddy will say t'that."

  "What say, son?" the Doctor inquired.

  "Will it be you that's t' use the knife?" asked Teddy.

  "Mm-m!" said the Doctor. He grinned and twinkled. "I'm the butcher,sir."

  Teddy Brisk laughed. "That suits _me_!" said he.

  "That's hearty!" the Doctor exclaimed. He was delighted. The trust wasrecompense. God knows it was welcome! "I'll fix you, Teddy boy," saidhe, rising. And to Skipper Thomas: "Send the lad over to the hospital assoon as you can, Skipper Thomas. When the ice goes out we'll be crowdedto the roof at Our Harbour. It's the same way every spring. Egad!they'll sweep in like the flakes of the first fall of snow! Now's thetime. Make haste! We must have this done while I've a cot to spare."

  "I will, sir."

  "We're due for a break-up soon, I suppose--any day now; but this windand frost will hold the ice in the bay for a while. You can slip the ladacross any day. It must be pretty fair going out there. You can't bringhim yourself, Skipper Thomas. Who can? Somebody here? Timothy Light? OldSam's brother, isn't he? I know him. It's all arranged, then. I'll belooking for the lad in a day or two. You've plenty of dogs in TightCove, haven't you?"

  "Oh, aye, sir," Skipper Thomas replied; "we've _dogs_, sir--never youmind about that!"

  "Whose dogs?"

  "Timothy Light's dogs."

  The Doctor grinned again.

  "That pack!" said he.

  "A saucy pack o' dogs!" said Teddy's mother. "It's mostly new thisseason. I don't like un! I'm fair afraid o' them, sir. That big Cracker,sir, that Timothy haves for bully an' leader--he've fair spoiled TimothyLight's whole team. I'm none too fond o' that great dog, sir; an' I'llhave my say about it."

  Skipper Thomas laughed--as a man will at a woman's fears.

  "No sheep's manners t' that pack," he drawled. "The team's all dawg."

  "What isn't wolf!" the woman retorted.

  "She've been afraid o' that Cracker," Skipper Thomas explained, "eversince he fetched a brace o' wolves out o' the timber. 'Twas as queer asight, now, as ever you seed, sir. They hung round the harbour for a dayan' a night. You might think, sir, that Cracker was showin' off his newquarters t' some friends from the back country. They two wolves seemedt' have knowed Cracker all their lives. I 'low that they _had_knowed----"

  "He's half wolf hisself."

  "I 'low he's _all_ wolf," Skipper Thomas admitted. This was not true.Cracker was not all wolf. "I never heard o' nobody that knowed whereCracker was born. That dog come in from the timber."

  "A wicked crew--the pack o'
them!"

  "We've had a lean winter at Tight Cove, sir," said Skipper Thomas. "Thedogs have gone marvellous hungry this past month, sir. They're just awee bit savage."

  "Spare your dog meat if you lack it," the Doctor advised. "I'll feedthat team at Our Harbour."

  Teddy Brisk put in:

  "Timothy Light haves command o' that pack."

  "I'm not so sure that he've command," Teddy Brisk's mother protested."I'm not so sure that any man could command a shockin' pack like that.In case o' accident, now----"

  Skipper Thomas chucked his ample, glowing daughter-in-law under thechin.

  "You loves that lad o' yourn!" he bantered.

  "I does!"

  "You're thinkin' he'd make a nice little morsel o' dog meat?"

  "As for me," she laughed, "_I_ could eat him!"

  She caught little Teddy Brisk in her arms and kissed him all over hiseager little face. And then Doctor Luke, with a laugh and a boyish "Solong, Teddy Brisk! See you soon, old soldier!" vanished to his lodgingsfor the night.