k Eagle_ since that trim
craft had returned from the French Shore trade. But it turned out to
be the final one. The books of the _Black Eagle_ had been examined;
her stores had been appraised, her stock taken, her fish weighed. And
the result had been so amazing that Sir Archibald had not only been
mystified but enraged. It was for this reason that when Skipper
George Rumm, with Tommy Bull, the rat-eyed little clerk, left the
presence of Sir Archibald Armstrong, the prediction of the clerk had
come true: there were two able-bodied seamen looking for a berth on
the streets of St. John's. First of all, however, they set about
finding Tom Tulk o' Twillingate; but this, somehow or other, the
discreet Tom Tulk never would permit them to do.

* * * * *

By Sir Archibald's watch it was now exactly 2:47. Sir Archibald rose
from the chair that was his throne.

"I'm sorry," he sighed. "I had hoped----"

Again the pale little clerk put his head in at the door. This time he
was grinning shamelessly.

"Well?" said Sir Archibald. "What is it?"

"Master Archie, sir."

Archie shook hands with his father in a perfunctory way. Sir
Archibald's cheery greeting--and with what admiration and affection
and happiness his heart was filled at that moment!--Sir Archibald's
cheery greeting failed in his throat. Archie was prodigiously
scowling. This was no failure of affection; nor was it an evil regard
towards his creditor, who would have for him, as the boy well knew,
nothing but the warmest sympathy. It was shame and sheer despair. In
every line of the boy's drawn face--in his haggard eyes and trembling
lips--in his dejected air--even in his dishevelled appearance (as Sir
Archibald sadly thought)--failure was written. What the nature of that
failure was Sir Archibald did not know. How it had come about he could
not tell. But it _was_ failure. It was failure--and there was no doubt
about it. Sir Archibald's great fatherly heart warmed towards the boy.
He did not resent the brusque greeting; he understood. And Sir
Archibald came at that moment nearer to putting his arms about his big
son in the most sentimental fashion in the world than he had come in a
good many years.

"Father," said Archie, abruptly, "please sit down."

Sir Archibald sat down.

"I owe you a thousand dollars, sir," Archie went on, coming close to
his father's desk and looking Sir Archibald straight in the eye. "It
is due t