Chapter I: Front Matter

_BILLY TOPSAIL, M.D._

_The "Billy Topsail" Books_

By NORMAN DUNCAN

Each Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.25

_The Adventures of Billy Topsail_

"There was no need to invent conditions or imagine situations. The life of any lad of Billy Topsail's years up there is sufficiently romantic. It is this skill in the portrayal of actual conditions that lie ready to the hand of the intelligent observer that makes Mr. Duncan's Newfoundland stories so noteworthy."--_Brooklyn Eagle._

_Billy Topsail and Company_

"Another rousing volume of 'The Billy Topsail Books.' Norman Duncan has the real key to the boy heart and in Labrador he has opened up a field magnetic in its perils and thrills and endless excitements."--_Examiner._

_Billy Topsail, M. D._

A Tale of Adventure with "Doctor Luke of the Labrador."

The further adventures of Billy Topsail and Archie Armstrong on the ice, in the forest and at sea. In a singular manner the boys fall in with a doctor of the outposts and are moved to join forces with him. The doctor is Doctor Luke of the Labrador whose prototype as every one knows is Doctor Grenfell. Its pages are as crowded with brisk adventures as those of the preceding books.

(See page 85)

_BILLY TOPSAIL, M.D._

_A Tale of Adventure With
Doctor Luke of the Labrador_

_By
NORMAN DUNCAN_

_ILLUSTRATED_

_New York Chicago Toronto
Fleming H. Revell Company
London and Edinburgh_

Copyright, 1916, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street

_To the Reader_

In this tale of the seas and ice-floes of Newfoundland and Labrador, Billy Topsail adventures with Doctor Luke of the Labrador. There are thrilling passages in the book. The author is frank to admit the hair-raising quality of them. Indeed, they have tickled his own scalp. Well, it is proper that the hair of the reader should sometimes stand on end and his eyes pop wide. The author would be a poor teller of tales if he could not manage as much--a charlatan if he did not. Yet these thrilling passages are not the work of a saucy imagination, delighting in shudders, no matter what, but are all decently founded upon fact, true to the experience of the coast, as many a Newfoundlander, boy and man, could tell you.

Doctor Luke has often been mistaken for Doctor Wilfred Grenfell of the Deep Sea Mission. That should not be. No incident in this book is a transcript from Doctor Grenfell's long and heroic service. What Billy Topsail and Doctor Luke encounter, however, is precisely what the Deep Sea Mission workers must encounter. It should be said, too, that as the tale is told of the spring of the year, when the ice breaks up and the floes come drifting out of the north with great storms, Newfoundland presents herself in her worst mood. Yet the sun shines in Newfoundland, tender enough in summer weather--there are flowers on the hills and warm winds on the sea; and such as learn to know the land come quickly to love her for her beauty and for her friendliness.

N. D.

_New York, March, 1916._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I 15

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.

CHAPTER II 24

In which Timothy Light's team of ten potential outlaws
is considered, and there is a significant description of
the career of a blood-guilty, ruined young dog, which
is in the way of making desperate trouble for somebody.

CHAPTER III 33

In which Timothy Light's famished dogs are committed
to the hands of Billy Topsail and a tap on the snout is
recommended in the probable case of danger.

CHAPTER IV 40

In which the komatik is foundered, the dogs draw their
own conclusions from the misfortune and prepare to
take advantage, Cracker attempts a theft and gets a
clip on the snout, and Billy Topsail and Teddy Brisk
confront a situation of peril with composure, not knowing
the ultimate disaster that impends.

CHAPTER V 50

In which the wind goes to work, the ice behaves in an
alarming way, Billy Topsail regrets, for obvious reasons,
having to do with the dogs, that he had not
brought an axe, and Teddy Brisk protests that his
mother knew precisely what she was talking about.

CHAPTER VI 56

In which the sudden death of Cracker is contemplated as
a thing to be desired, Billy Topsail's whip disappears,
a mutiny is declared and the dogs howl in the
darkness.

CHAPTER VII 64

In which a blazing club plays a salutary part, Teddy
Brisk declares the ways of his mother, and Billy Topsail
looks forward to a battle that no man could win.

CHAPTER VIII 70

In which Teddy Brisk escapes from the wolfskin bag
and determines to use his crutch and Billy Topsail
comes to the conclusion that "it looks bad."

CHAPTER IX 76

In which attack is threatened and Billy Topsail strips
stark naked in the wind in pursuit of a desperate expedient
and with small chance of success.

CHAPTER X 82

In which Teddy Brisk confronts the pack alone and
Cracker leads the assault.

CHAPTER XI 87

In which Teddy Brisk gives the strains of a Tight Cove
ballad to the north wind, Billy Topsail wins the reward
of daring, Cracker finds himself in the way of the
evil-doer, and Teddy Brisk's boast makes Doctor Luke
laugh.

CHAPTER XII 92

In which Billy Topsail's agreeable qualities win a warm
welcome with Doctor Luke at Our Harbour, there is
an explosion at Ragged Run, Tommy West drops
through the ice and vanishes, and Doctor Luke is in a
way never to be warned of the desperate need of his
services.

CHAPTER XIII 100

In which Doctor Luke undertakes a feat of daring and
endurance and Billy Topsail thinks himself the luckiest
lad in the world.

CHAPTER XIV 104

In which Billy Topsail and Doctor Luke take to the ice
in the night and Doctor Luke tells Billy Topsail something
interesting about Skinflint Sam and Bad-Weather
Tom West of Ragged Run.

CHAPTER XV 112

In which Bad-Weather Tom West's curious financial
predicament is explained.

CHAPTER XVI 118

In which Doctor Luke and Billy Topsail proceed to accomplish
what a cat would never attempt and Doctor
Luke looks for a broken back whilst Billy Topsail
shouts, "Can you make it?" and hears no answer.

CHAPTER XVII 126

In which rubber ice is encountered and Billy Topsail is
asked a pointed question.

CHAPTER XVIII 134

In which discretion urges Doctor Luke to lie still in a
pool of water.

CHAPTER XIX 140

In which Doctor Luke and Billy Topsail hesitate in fear
on the brink of Tickle-my-Ribs.

CHAPTER XX 149

In which Skinflint Sam of Ragged Run finds himself in
a desperate predicament and Bad-Weather Tom West
at last has what Skinflint Sam wants.

CHAPTER XXI 158

In which a Croesus of Ragged Run drives a hard bargain
in a gale of wind.

CHAPTER XXII 167

In which Doctor Luke and Billy Topsail go north, and
at Candlestick Cove, returning, Doctor Luke finds
himself just a bit peckish.

CHAPTER XXIII 174

In which, while Doctor Luke and Billy Topsail rest unsuspecting
at Candlestick Cove, Tom Lute, the father
of the Little Fiddler of Amen Island, sharpens an axe
in the wood-shed, and the reader is left to draw his
own conclusions respecting the sinister business.

CHAPTER XXIV 184

In which Bob Likely, the mail-man, interrupts Doctor
Luke's departure, in the nick of time, with an astonishing
bit of news, and the ice of Ships' Run begins
to move to sea in a way to alarm the stout hearted.

CHAPTER XXV 190

In which a stretch of slush is to be crossed and Billy
Topsail takes the law in his own hands.

CHAPTER XXVI 196

In which it seems that an axe and Terry Lute's finger
are surely to come into injurious contact, and Terry
Lute is caught and carried bawling to the block, while
his mother holds the pot of tar.

CHAPTER XXVII 204

In which Doctor Luke's flesh creeps, Billy Topsail acts
like a bob-cat, and the Little Fiddler of Amen Island
tells a secret.

CHAPTER XXVIII 212

In which Sir Archibald Armstrong's son and heir is presented
for the reader's inspection, highly complimented
and recommended by the author, and the thrilling adventure,
which Archie and Billy are presently to begin,
has its inception on the departure of Archie from St.
John's aboard the _Rough and Tumble_.

CHAPTER XXIX 221

In which the crew of the _Rough and Tumble_ is harshly
punished, and Archie Armstrong, having pulled the
wool over the eyes of Cap'n Saul, goes over the side
to the floe, where he falls in with a timid lad, in whose
company, with Billy Topsail along, he is some day to
encounter his most perilous adventure.

CHAPTER XXX 226

In which a little song-maker of Jolly Harbour enlists the
affection of the reader.

CHAPTER XXXI 232

In which a gale of wind almost lays hands on the crew
of the _Rough and Tumble_, Toby Farr is confronted
with the suggestion of dead men, piled forward like
cord-wood, and Archie Armstrong joins Bill o' Burnt
Bay and old Jonathan in a roar of laughter.

CHAPTER XXXII 240

In which Archie Armstrong and Billy Topsail say good-bye
to Toby Farr for the present, and, bound down to
Our Harbour with Doctor Luke, enter into an arrangement,
from which issues the discovery of a mysterious
letter and sixty seconds of cold thrill.

CHAPTER XXXIII 251

In which the letter is opened, Billy and Archie are confronted
by a cryptogram, and, having exercised their
wits, conclude that somebody is in desperate trouble.

CHAPTER XXXIV 257

In which Archie and Billy resolve upon a deed of their
own doing, and are challenged by Ha-ha Shallow of
Rattle Water.

CHAPTER XXXV 265

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.

CHAPTER XXXVI 271

In which Ha-ha Shallow is foiled, Archie Armstrong
displays swift cunning, of which he is well aware, and
Billy Topsail, much to his surprise, and not greatly to
his distaste, is kissed by a lady of Poor Luck Barrens.

CHAPTER XXXVII 279

In which Archie Armstrong rejoins the _Rough and
Tumble_, with Billy Topsail for shipmate, and they
seem likely to be left on the floe, while Toby Farr,
with the gale blowing cold as death and dark falling,
promises to make a song about the ghosts of dead men,
but is entreated not to do so.

CHAPTER XXXVIII 287

In which the wind blows a tempest, our heroes are lost
on the floe, Jonathan Farr is encased in snow and
frozen spindrift, Toby strangely disappears, and an
heroic fight for life is begun, wrapped in bitter dark.

CHAPTER XXXIX 293

In which one hundred and seventy-three men of the
_Rough and Tumble_ are plunged in the gravest peril of
the coast, wandering like lost beasts, and some drop
dead, and some are drowned, and some kill themselves
to be done with the torture they can bear no longer.

CHAPTER XL 298

In which Toby Farr falls in the water, and, being
soaked to the skin, will freeze solid in half an hour, in
the frosty dusk of the approaching night, unless a shift
of dry clothes is found, a necessity which sends Jonathan
Farr and Billy Topsail hunting for dead men.

CHAPTER XLI 305

In which a dead man is made to order for little Toby
Farr.

CHAPTER XLII 311

In which the tale comes to a good end: Archie and
Billy make ready for dinner, Toby Farr is taken for
good and all by Sir Archibald, and Billy Topsail, having
been declared wrong by Archie's father, takes the
path that leads to a new shingle, after which the author
asks a small favour of the reader.

_To
Elspeth's
Canadian Cousins
Russ and Dode, Tom and Kenn,
Rich and Logan, Mort and
Fos, Georgie,
and
all the girls of the connection
who will deign
to read the tale, Mar
and Buff, Frankie,
Bettie and Jean
when the time
comes,
with a wink and a challenge
to
Kathie Sweet._