Part 39 (1/2)

”I've got ot the lives o' ainsay it The _Wind and Tide_ had all the sail she could carry with unquestionable safety The boy watched the h the tickle into the harbour of Ruddy Cove Presently he heard the second blast of her deep-toned whistle and saw her eht: she was brilliant withshe would connect with the east-bound cross-country express at Burnt Bay And --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, To Gets Despairing Ear of a Whistle_

At Ruddy Cove, that night, when Archie was landed froave way to the very briskest consultation the wits of the place had ever known

”There's no punt can ht,” Billy Topsail's father declared

”Nor the es,” old Jiale,” Job North put in

”There's the _Wind an' Tide_,” Toested

”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

”I must,” Archie repeated between his teeth

The east-bound cross-country express would go through the little settle The mixed acco 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,” Jiht an impatient breath

”Look you, lad!” To up ”I' open the door of Mrs Skipper William's kitchen andat his heels

Billy Topsail's mother was hailed with the news Before To cruise up the Bay she was on the wharf with a bucket of hardtack and a kettle of water A frantic screa of Mrs Skipper Williareatcoat These tossed inboard, she roared a coht, whence she ee of tea and a boiled lobster She had no breath left to bid thereat soft arood wishes And up went the sail--and out fluttered the little jib--and the punt heeled to the harbour breeze--and Tohts of Ruddy Cove towards the open sea

The mixed accommodation, somewhere far back in the Newfoundland wilderness, carade She puffed and valiantly choo-chooed It was desperately hard work to cliht have walked beside her while she tried it But she surh immensely proud of herself, rattled doards the boulder-strewn level at an a, rattling, as though she had no intention whatever of coht her five hundred mile run to a triumphant conclusion in the station at St

John's

Even the engineer was astonished