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

by Norman Duncan

  CHAPTER XXXV

  _In Which Billy Topsail Takes His Life in His Hands and Ha-Ha Shallow Lays Hold of It With the Object of Snatching It Away_

  "Well," said Archie, "I'll try it."

  "You won't!" said Billy.

  "I will!"

  "You won't!"

  Archie looked Billy in the eye.

  "Why not?" he inquired.

  "I'm goin' t' try it myself."

  "You're not!"

  "I am!"

  Both boys burst into a laugh. It was an amiable thing to do. And therecould have been no better preparation for the work in hand.

  "Look here, Billy----" Archie began.

  "No," Billy insisted; "it won't do. You haves your way always, Archie.An' now I'm goin' t' have my turn at it. I'll try it first. An' if Igets across you can follow."

  "You might stumble."

  "I know that."

  "Look here, Billy----"

  "No, no, b'y! I'm goin' first. I won't make a fool o' myself. We got t'get across this stream if we can. An' we've got t' get on t' Poor LuckBarrens. But I won't make a fool o' myself, Archie. I promise you that.I'll go jus' as far as I can. I'll go with care--jus' as far as I can.An' if 'tis no use tryin' any more, I'll come back. That's a promise.I'll come back. An' then----"

  "Ay, Billy?"

  "I'll try somewhere else."

  "Billy," said Archie, "I--I--I _likes_ you!"

  "Stop your jawin'!" said Billy.

  Then Archie said:

  "If you fall in the current I'll pull you out, Billy. You trust _me_."

  Billy spoke gravely:

  "You'll do no such thing."

  "What!" cried Archie. "Not try to save----"

  "No."

  "Why, Billy," Archie protested, "you're just plain foolish to ask me notto----"

  "No," said Billy, again; "it isn't foolish. I won't have it."

  Archie said nothing.

  "Now," said Billy, "I'll try my hand at it."

  The gravity and untoward chances of the attempt were not ignored. Bothboys were aware of them. A simple thing to splash into the first shallowinches of Rattle Water and there deliberate an advance--true enough; butBilly Topsail was in earnest about crossing. He would venture far andperilously before he turned back--venture to the brink of safety, andtentatively, definitely into the dragging grip of the deeper currentbeyond. A boy who proposes to go as far as he can is in the way ofoverreaching himself. Beyond his utmost, whatever his undertaking, liesa mocking, entreating temptation to his courage--an inch or two more.

  "Billy!" said Archie.

  "Ay?"

  "Do you think that if you fall in the current I'll stand by and----"

  "I hopes you will, Archie, If I loses my feet, I goes down-stream.That's plain. No man could catch his feet in that water. An' if I goesall the way down-stream, I goes clean under Black Pool ice. An' if Igoes under Black Pool ice, I can't get out, because the current willhold me there. That's plain, too. You couldn't pull me out o' thestream. If you could do that, I could get out alone. You'd jus' go downwith me. So you leave me go."

  "Billy, I----"

  "Oh, I isn't goin' t' fall anyhow, Archie. An' if I does, I'll make afight. If I can grab anything on the way down; an' if I can hang in thestream, we'll talk it over again."

  "Billy----"

  "That's all, Archie."

  With that Billy Topsail, the pack of food on his back (since if he wonthe other bank he must have sustenance for the chances of his journey toPoor Luck Barrens), waded into the water.

  * * * * *

  Presently Billy Topsail was ankle deep in the stream. The water foamedto his calves. Suspense aggravated him. He splashed on--impatient tocome to the crisis that challenged him. It was a stony bed--loose,round, slippery stones; and a stone turned--and Billy Topsail totteredin the deeper suck of the current. It was nothing to regain his balancein that shallow. And he pushed on. But by and by--time being relative tosuspense, it seemed a long, long time to Archie Armstrong, waiting onthe snowy bank--by and by Billy Topsail was knee deep and anxiouslyengaged; and mid-stream, where the ripple was dancing down inwhite-capped, choppy waves, was still proportionately far distant.

  Billy paused, then, to settle his feet. The footing was treacherous; thewater was white to his thighs--the swift, dizzy, noisy passage wasconfusing. For a new advance he halted to make good his grip of thebottom and to brace and balance himself against the insistent push ofthe current.

  Archie shouted:

  "You're doing fine, Billy!"

  In the bawling rush of the stream it was hard to hear Archie. Still,Billy heard. And he nodded--but did not dare to turn.

  "Go slow," Archie called, "and you'll make it!"

  Billy thought so too. He was doing well--it seemed a reasonableexpectation. And he ventured his right foot forward and established it.It was slow, cautious work, thrusting through that advance, feeling overthe bottom and finding a fixed foundation; and dragging the left footforward, in resistance to the current, was as slow and as difficult. Asecond step, accomplished with effort; a third, achieved at greaterrisk; a fourth, with the hazard still more delicate--and Billy Topsailpaused again.

  It was deeper. The broken waves washed his thighs; the heavy body of thewater was above his knees; he was wet to the waist with spray; and inthe deeper water, by the law of displacement, he had lost weight. Thewater tended to lift him: the impulse was up to the surface--thepressure down-stream. In this respect the current was like a wrestlerwho lifts his opponent off his feet before he flings him down.

  And in the meantime the current tightened its hold.