“Well, now,” Tumm proceeded, “’twas three year later that Jim Tool an’ Archibald Shott an’ me was shipped from Twillingate aboard the _Billy_ _Boy_ t’ fish the Labrador below Mugford along o’ Skipper Alex Tuttle. Jim Tool was more slow an’ solemn an’ puzzled ’n ever I knowed un t’ be afore; an’ he was so wonderful shy o’ Archibald Shott that Arch ’lowed he’d have the superstitious shudders if it kep’ up much longer. ‘If he’d only talk,’ says Arch, ‘an’ not creep about this here schooner like a deaf an’ dumb ghost!’ But Jim said nar a word; he just’ kep’ a gray eye on Arch till Arch lost a deal more sleep ’n he got. ‘He _irks_ me!’ says Arch. ‘’Tisn’t a thing a religious man would practise; an’ I’ll _do_ something,’ says he, ‘t’ stop it!’ Howbeit, things was easy till the _Billy Boy_ slipped past Mother Burke in fair weather an’ run into a dirty gale from the north off the upper French shore. The wind jus’ seemed t’ sweep up all the ice they was on the Labrador an’ jam it again’ the coast at Black Bight. There’s where we was, sir, when things cleaned up; gripped in the ice a hundred fathom off the Black Bight cliffs. An’ there we stayed, lifted from the pack, lyin’ at fearsome list, till the wind turned westerly an’ began t’ loosen up the ice.
“’Twas after noon of a gray day when the _Billy Boy_ dropped back in the water. They was a bank o’ blue-black cloud hangin’ high beyond the cliffs; an’ I ’lowed t’ the skipper, when I seed it, that ’twould blow with snow afore the day was out.
“‘Ay,’ says the skipper; ‘an’ ’twon’t be long about it.’
“Jus’ then Slow Jim Tool knocked Archibald Shott flat on his back. Lord, what a thump! Looked t’ me as if Archibald Shott might be damaged.
“‘Ecod! Jim,’ says I, ‘what you go an’ do that for?’
“‘Why,’ says Jim, ‘he said a bad word again’ the name o’ ’Lizabeth.’
“‘Never done nothin’ o’ the kind,’ says Arch. ‘I was jus’ ’bidin’ here amidships lookin’ at the weather.’
“‘Yes, you did, Arch,’ says Jim; ‘you done it in the forecastle—las’ Wednesday. I heared you as I come down the ladder.’
“‘Don’t you knock me down again,’ says Arch. ‘That _hurt_!’
“‘Well,’ says Jim, ‘you keep your tongue off poor ’Lizabeth.’
[Illustration: “YOU KEEP YOUR TONGUE OFF POOR ’LIZABETH”]
