Part 1 (1/2)
Billy Topsail & Company
by Norman Duncan
CHAPTER I
_In Which Ji Able to Help It, Is Born At Buccaneer Cove, Much to His Surprise, and Tog, the Wolf-Dog, Feels the Lash of a Seal-hide Whip and Conceives an Enan life at Buccaneer Cove of the Labrador It was a poor place to begin, of course; but Ji, with the eager help of two hungry gray wolves, that he was taught to take care of the life into which,with a bad na with a bad na At best he was a wolfish beast His father was a wolf; and in the end Tog was as lean and savage and cunningly treacherous as any wolf of the gray forest packs
When he had done with Ji--Jimmie Griasp and a quick little shudder
”I jus' don't like t' think o' Tog,” he told Billy Topsail and Archie Ar afterwards
”You weren't _afraid_ of hi demanded, a bit scornfully
”_Was_ I?” Ji happened before old Jim Griusted with the fishi+ng of Buccaneer It was before Jimmie Grimm had fallen in with Billy Topsail and Donald North, before he had ever clapped eyes on Bagg, the London gutter-snipe, or had bashfully pawed the gloved hand of Archie Ar, Sir Archibald's son It was before Donald North cured himself of fear and the _First Venture_ had broken into a blaze in a gale of wind off the Chunks It was before Billy Topsail, a lad of wits, had held a candle over the powder barrel, when the wreckers boarded the _Spot Cash_ It was before Bill o' Burnt Bay had been rescued from a Miquelon jail and the _Heavenly Hoht
It was also before the _Spot Cash_ had fallen foul of the plot to scuttle the _Black Eagle_ It was before the big gale and all the adventures of that northward trading voyage In short, it was before Jim Grimm moved up fro had a bad nas have bad names; nor, if the truth must be told, does the reputation do theood 's deeds, no less than the tragicbefore his abrupt departure from the wilderness trails and snow-covered rock of Buccaneer Cove, he had earned the worst reputation of all the pack
It began in the beginning When Tog was eight weeks old his end was foreseen He was then little more than a soft, fluffy, black-and-white ball, aardly peras Martha, Jim Grimm's wife, one day cast the lean scraps of the midday meal to the pack What came to pass so a-knife and stared agape
”An' would you look at that little beast!” he gasped ”That one's a wonder for badness!”
The snarling, scraled, had all at once been reduced to order Instead of a confusion of taut legs and teeth and bristling hair, there was a precise half-circle of gaunt beasts, squatted at a respectful distance fro their chops, while, with hair on end and fangs exposed and dripping, she kept them off
”It ain't Jinny,” Jim remarked ”You can't blame she It's that little pup with the black eye”
You couldn't blame Jenny Last of all would it occur to Martha Gri With a litter of five hearty pups to provide for, Jenny was ani, which was the one with the black eye, was not to be justified He was i his mother's tactics with diabolical success A half-circle of whirieved surprise, while, with hair on end and tiny fangs occasionally exposed, he devoured the scraps of the midday meal
”A wonder for badness!” Ji a bad name,'” quoted Martha, quick, like the wo, ”'an'----'”
”'Hang un,'” Jim concluded ”Well,” he added, ”I wouldn't be s'prised if it _did_ co's eyes there was never the light of love and hu, industriously wagging his hinder parts, like puppies of ree; but all the while his black eyes were alert, hard, infinitely suspicious and avaricious Not once, I aratitude lend them beauty A beautiful pup he was, nevertheless--fat and white, aardly big, his body proth Even when he our and skill of attack, the originality of ave him a certain distinction But his eyes were never well disposed; the pup was neither trustful nor to be trusted