"Think you'll share with the crew, Billy?"
"I want to," Billy said with a laugh. Then, soberly: "I want to, for I want t' get a skiff for lobster-fishin' in New Bay. They's lots o' lobsters there, an' they's no one trappin' down that way. 'Tis a great chance," with a sigh.
The captain beckoned Archie to the upper deck. "Tell me, now," he said, when the boy reached his side, "can you go aloft?"
"Yes," Archie answered, laughing scornfully. "I'm no landsman!"
"True word, if you're son of your father! Then get up with the bar'l man, an' take a trick at swatchin'. 'Tis cold work, but great sport."
"Swatching" is merely the convenient form for "seal watching." It appeared to Archie that to swatch with the barrel man must be a highly diverting occupation. He was not slow to mount the rope ladder to the masthead, and slip into the cask with the swatcher, who chanced to be Bill o' Burnt Bay and vociferously made him welcome.
"I'll show you them swiles (seals) in a minute or two," Bill replied confidently.
Archie was closely muffled in wool and fur; but the wind, which was bitter and blowing hard, searched out the unprotected places, and in five minutes he was crouching in the cask for shelter, only too glad to find an excuse in the swatcher's advice.
"H-h-h-how l-l-long you been h-h-here?" he chattered.
"Sure, b'y," said Bill, with no suspicion of a shiver in his voice, "'tis goin' on two hours, now."
Bill o' Burnt Bay did not reply. His eye was glued to the telescope, which fairly shook in his hands. Then he leaned over the rim of the cask, altogether disregarding its instability.
A cheer went up. Looking down, Archie saw the men swarming to the deck.
"Take a look at them harps, b'y," said Bill, excitedly. "No! Starboard the glass. There! See them?"
Archie made out a myriad of moving specks--black dots, small and great, shifting about over a broad white surface. They were like many insects. He saw Alexander Bryan & Company's vessel, too; and it appeared to him that the men were just landing on the ice to attack the pack.
"That's the _Lucky Star_," Bill explained. "She's a smaller ship than we, an' she've got about a hundred men, I s'pose. Never fear, lad, we'll be up in time t' get our share o' the swiles."