The Happy Mariners Page 15

  ‘Halt!’ cried Rex. ‘I’m going to get the map out.’ He scrutinized the map by the light of the moon. ‘Now that’s Look-out Hill just ahead of us, isn’t it, Guy?’

  Guy said it was. ‘And the treasure lies a little to the east of it,’ said he. ‘I say,’ he blurted out presently, ‘I’m awfully sorry if I’ve made a muck of it. I left a spade there, you know, for every one to see. What an ass I was!’

  ‘So you were!’ agreed Rex.

  But when he saw that Guy was taking it to heart he grinned at him cheerfully, and Elizabeth remarked: ‘We can’t do better than follow my green footprints. They run right past the place and turn round about a yard to the right of it.’

  Rex nodded sagely. ‘All right, then. Quick march again. … I say!’ he said excitedly, a few moments later. ‘I believe we’re almost there.’

  ‘Yes, we are,’ said Guy. He sounded rather grim about it. ‘And someone’s there before us. Look out!’

  The party was halted once more, the whisper being passed down the ranks of the black men that an enemy had been sighted. The Robinsons, peering through a gap in the trees, saw that they stood on the brink of a little declivity, in the middle of which, squatting in a circle, were thirteen expectant pirates, their eyes fixed wistfully on an enormous iced cake in their midst. The sea-chest was doing duty as a table, and a mound of newly-turned earth, with a dozen spades lying in disorder on top of it, bore witness to the recent excavation. The whole festive scene was illuminated by the newly-risen moon. Each pirate wore a clean white bib. They were all in a frenzy of impatience; some biting their nails, their eyes bulging and wild; others leaning forward with their long red tongues hanging out of their brutal mouths.

  ‘Oo! Oo!’ cried the voice of Bill Murder. ‘Give us a slice, Captain, for pity’s sake. It do look good, don’t it, Nautical?’

  ‘Yes, Mr Murder,’ replied his neighbour, Nautical Tallboy. ‘I am sure I quite agree with you, Mr Murder. A more inviting confection I have seldom seen.’

  ‘Silence there amidships!’ It was the voice of Gory Jake, more suave and cruel than ever. ‘To-night, my hearties, we’ve got to behave like gendemen. Everything to be done in a neat and orderly style, with bibs kindly provided by Mr Nautical Tallboy at his own suggestion. Now, gentlemen, by your leave, I’ll call the roll.’ Whereupon from his breast pocket he fished out a large square book like a school attendance register, and with a stub of pencil which he found stuck behind his right ear he ticked down the column, licking the point of his pencil between entries, as each man answered to his name:

  George Swearword

  Edward Milk

  Holy Smoke

  Bill Murder

  Lord Smithereens

  Bartholomew Blabb

  The Honourable Arthur Spatt

  Albert Memorial Weeks

  Horrible Horace

  Daniel Dago

  Timothy Prigg

  Nautical Tallboy

  Every man answered ‘Ay, ay, sir!’ The Captain coughed approval. ‘As for dear Ernest and faithful Harold,’ he remarked, ‘it’s their high privilege to guard that longboat, while we sit here filling our bellies with good rich cake. Oh, messmates, what a blessed thing is duty! And now, gentlemen, we will cut that same cake into thirteen symmetrical pieces.’ He raised his cutlass high.

  ‘Pigs!’ shouted Rex. ‘It’s our cake.’

  At the sound of his voice the savages, unable to restrain themselves any longer, set up a terrific yelling. The effect on the pirates was magical. Whatever higher qualities they lacked, poor fellows, they were at least good runners. They scattered in all directions, like rabbits, not even stopping to remove their bibs; and in a few seconds not one of them was to be seen except Bill Murder, who, frightened though he was, paused in his flight to cast one mournful lingering last look at the beautiful cake. The next instant he, too, had vanished, and the Robinsons, who had other things to do at the moment than chase pirates, gathered round the deserted table and read their names clearly written in pink on that snow-white crest. When they had done admiring it, they lifted the lid of the sea-chest, gasping with excitement. But all they could see inside was the sundial and the catapult. ‘Here, Martin,’ said Elizabeth, ‘here’s your catapult.’ The elder boys, a little disappointed, turned back to the cake for comfort. ‘Though I’m sure the other things are underneath the sundial,’ said Elizabeth, ‘if only we could lift it.’ Rex said: ‘Oh, come on, we’d better tuck in. We can make sure of the cake. It’s too big to carry to the ship.’

  ‘You cut it, Rex,’ said Guy, ‘with your cutlass. A hundred and five pieces we shall need altogether. There are the savages, don’t forget.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Rex. ‘And I expect they’re mighty hungry. I interrupted their meal.’

  Martin looked rather crestfallen. ‘There won’t be much left for us. And we ought to take some home for Mother and Father and Nancy.’

  ‘We’ll each take a piece in our pockets,’ said Rex. ‘Except Elizabeth: she hasn’t got a pocket.’ He cut the three pieces without further delay, in order, I suppose, to make sure of them.

  ‘And I think,’ said Guy, ‘the Cannibal Chief should have the next, don’t you?’

  So the fourth piece of cake was handed politely to the Cannibal Chief. He grinned, smelt it, put it into his mouth whole, and began munching savagely. Then he made a very wry face, and, with a nice feeling that one would hardly have credited him with, he stepped aside, turning his back on the children, and spat it all out. It was not quite the kind of diet he was accustomed to.

  ‘Well, I’m dashed!’ said Rex.

  ‘So am I!’ said Guy. ‘But never mind,’ he added, grinning at Elizabeth, who looked really troubled. ‘We’ll eat it ourselves, shall we? It wouldn’t be kind to offer the others any after that.’

  Without more ado the Robinsons began eating their cake, and I assure you that it was the most delicious cake that ever came out of an oven—rich, sweet, black, and crammed with the most surprising fruits. They had eaten scarcely anything all day, so they now made up for lost time; and they were just finishing up their third large slice each, and Fandy was busy with the crumbs, when Rex exclaimed in alarm: ‘I say, what asses we are! Those pirates have got our boat. They’ll get to the Resmiranda in it, and sail off in her, leaving us here.’

  The thought of never seeing their home again made them forget all about the cake, and the treasure too. ‘What on earth shall we do?’ they asked each other. Martin, for the first time since his night’s adventure, remembered the Cuckoo and her promise. ‘Aunt Cuckoo! Aunt Cuckoo!’ he called lustily.

  ‘Goodness!’ exclaimed Rex. ‘The kid’s off his nut. What’s the game, Martin?’

  ‘Aunt Cuckoo!’ called Martin again. But there was no answer to his call, and his heart filled with despair.

  Elizabeth couldn’t resist lifting the lid of the treasure chest again and having another look. What a pity the sundial took up so much room and was so heavy! For the other things, she was confident, were packed away neatly underneath it. She would have dearly loved to lift the sundial out and find the Spanish shawl for Mother and the pieces of eight for Father, but there was no time even to try.

  ‘Come on, Elizabeth!’ cried Rex and Guy. ‘Don’t get left behind this time!’ Rex admonished her. ‘There’s not a moment to lose.’ And in their hurry the boys forgot to pocket the three slices of cake for the people at home.

  Elizabeth clutched the Cannibal Chief by the arm and said quickly, accompanying her instruction with an elaborate pantomime: ‘You take the treasure away, and bury it somewhere else.’ She went through the motions of digging, and pointed at the sea-chest, and waved her arms to indicate a great distance. ‘And look after it for me till I come back.’ The friendly savage looked so intelligent, so deeply delighted by the trust reposed in him, that she was sure he understood. ‘I’d like to take you too,’ she said. ‘But I can’t, so good-bye!’ So saying she ran like a hare after her brothers, with Martin and Fandy at he
r heels; and very soon she overtook them, for they had waited for her.

  ‘And now,’ said Rex sternly, ‘we mustn’t stop running until we get to the creek. And if we’re too late, Elizabeth, it’ll be your fault.’

  They reached the creek in time to see the longboat, loaded with pirates, put off from the shore. ‘If only I had a gun,’ said Rex wistfully. But he said nothing more about its being Elizabeths fault. Further and further away moved the longboat, making straight for the Resmiranda, which lay at anchor in the outer harbour of Gunpowder Creek. ‘Aunt Cuckoo!’ called Martin again. This time nobody paid any attention to him; they were all too busy watching the pirates’ progress, and too unhappy at the dreadful plight they found themselves in.

  ‘Can’t we do anything?’ cried Elizabeth.

  No one answered her. There was a long silence, nothing being audible but the night wind sighing through the forest, the muffled crash of breakers on the shore, and the hiss of the pirates’ oars growing ever more faint as they neared the Resmiranda. The sea shone like grey satin, and the Resmiranda, graceful and glittering, with her masts and half her deck silvered by moonlight, looked like some lovely phantom of the seas, a ship in a dream.

  Suddenly Guy exclaimed, in quick excited tones: ‘Look! There’s someone aboard her. There’s a man on the Resmiranda’s deck.’

  ‘So there is,’ said Rex, while Elizabeth and Martin only gazed and gazed with yearning eyes across the rippling silver field of water. ‘Who can it be?’

  Something fell into the water two yards from the longboat’s prow, and a moment later the sound of cannon-fire was heard.

  ‘Good!’ cried Rex. ‘He’s firing at ’em, whoever he is. He’s got that gun going.’

  ‘It must be Phineas,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Who else?’

  Martin clapped his hands. ‘Hooray! Phineas for ever! Go it, Phineas! They’re a nasty lot, those pirates.’

  Another cannon-ball fell into the sea, missing the longboat, as it seemed, by inches. And then—smack I The children danced with delight. ‘That got ’em,’ said Rex. ‘Plump in the middle.’

  And now the pirates, what were left of them, were struggling in the water, some of them clinging to the fragments of the shattered boat.

  ‘Jolly good riddance!’ said Guy.

  ‘But how,’ asked Elizabeth, are we going to get to the Resmiranda? We can’t swim there…. Why, listen!’

  Somewhere in the forest a cuckoo was calling. It called four times.

  ‘Four o’clock,’ said Martin. ‘That’s Aunt Cuckoo, I expect. The one I shouted for, you know. Four o’clock, and we’ve got to be back to tea at five, Mother said.’

  ‘And so you shall, Martin Robinson,’ remarked the loud voice of Aunt Cuckoo, just behind them.

  The children wheeled round in astonishment. The elder ones began to think that they must be dreaming when they saw this huge painted wooden bird blinking and nodding at them. But Martin took her quite for granted. ‘Oh, Aunt Cuckoo,’ he said, ‘I’ve been calling you for a long time, over and over again.’

  ‘I dare say you have,’ replied Aunt Cuckoo, nodding her wise old head with every word. ‘But duty must be done, and I had me four o’clock to strike, don’t forget, before I could bother with you. And now,’ she added briskly, ‘tell me what you want and be quick about it, for I’ve less than half an hour to waste on you.’

  ‘Please,’ said Martin, ‘we want to get back to the Resmiranda, and there’s no boat.’

  ‘That’s easily done,’ Aunt Cuckoo assured him. ‘Jump on my back, child, and I’ll give you a ride there.’

  Martin stared. ‘Can you fly as well as talk?’ he asked admiringly.

  ‘Can a duck swim?’ retorted Aunt Cuckoo. ‘Can a pig squeak? Can a dog bark? Can a cat howl? Can a clam cling?’

  ‘Oh,’ said Martin,’ and there’s Fandy too.’ Fandy sat near, unconcernedly washing his face. ‘Do you mind taking Fandy as well?’

  Aunt Cuckoo snorted, or she came as near to snorting as a bird can. ‘I’m not afeard of fifty Fandies,’ she said.

  ‘Oh, there’s only one,’ Martin promised eagerly. ‘And he’s always quite polite to birds. And have you room on your back for Elizabeth and Rex and Guy as well?’

  ‘One at a time,’ answered Aunt Cuckoo. ‘Jump up now, Martin, and don’t keep me waiting any longer.’

  Martin took her at her word, climbing on to her back, one arm clutching Fandy, the other wound round Aunt Cuckoo’s neck. Then the queer old bird spread her wooden wings, and with the sound of creaking timbers she flew swiftly across the sea.

  Chapter 21

  Home to Tea

  As soon as Aunt Cuckoo had deposited him and Fandy on the deck of the Resmiranda, and flown back to fetch the others, Martin ran up to Phineas Dyke with a shout of joy. Phineas, who stood dreaming by the gun, turned at the boy’s approach and greeted him with a puzzled smile.

  ‘Oh, Phineas!’ cried Martin. ‘Don’t you know me? I’m the young fighting cock of the party!’

  Phineas’s grin broadened, but it was evident that he had not yet emerged from his dreams. ‘Now what party be that, youngster?’ said he.

  ‘The Robinsons,’ answered Martin. ‘You can’t have forgotten us already. Have you been asleep again, one of your funny sleeps I mean?’

  ‘Mebbe I have.’ Phineas slowly nodded, his gaze fixed on a remote distance. Even Martin, young as he was, could see that the man was living at that moment in another world, a world crowded with jostling memories. Old ships sailed in his eyes; the voices of vanished comrades struck upon his inward ear. The sea in which the Resmiranda now lay straining at anchor was moving and tossing all about him? for a sharp wind had arisen to whip the dark green moonlit water into foam-crested waves; but it was other and older oceans whose music he now heard, it was the salt winds of centuries earlier that he felt a-buffeting his face. Martin did not understand all this, but he understood enough to be awed into silence. Gazing at Phineas, he became so deeply absorbed that when Elizabeth arrived and ran to his side he could only say: ‘Hullo, Elizabeth!’ and fall to thinking again. But presently he plucked up courage enough to ask: ‘How did you get back to the ship, Phineas? And if you don’t remember us, and our voyage together, why did you fire at the pirates? I mean, how did you know they were pirates?’

  ‘Ah yes, the pirates,’ murmured Phineas.

  Elizabeth had taken in the situation at once. ‘I think, Martin,’ she said, ‘poor Phineas is too tired to talk now. He’ll be better when we sail. He’s better already than he was on the island.’

  ‘I wonder why, Elizabeth?’

  ‘He belongs to this ship, don’t you see? He’s lived on her for three hundred years. It’s his home, and he’s helpless and kind of lost anywhere else. That’s why he came back, I’m sure. He just forgot all about us and went back to his old ship without quite knowing what he was doing. Like people walking in their sleep.’

  ‘He couldn’t have walked across to the Resmiranda. Did he come in the boat, or did he swim?’

  After a silence Elizabeth answered: ‘I don’t know. I’m only guessing. Perhaps he swam. Or perhaps … Oh, I don’t know,’ she ended, as if not wishing to say what was in her mind.

  ‘Oh, Phineas, look out!’ yelled Martin suddenly.

  An evil face, ghastly grey in the moonlight, had appeared at the deck rail—a face with a crooked nose, two black patches, copious red whiskers, and a squint. These features were crowned by a head so bald and white that if you had cracked it with a soup ladle you wouldn’t have been at all surprised to see a chicken hop out. That Gory Jake succeeded in inspiring fear in all beholders, in spite of his natural disadvantages, says much for his professional skill. Certainly Martin and Elizabeth were terrified at sight of him, and they yelled again as he leaped nimbly on to the deck and danced threateningly towards them. Phineas roused himself only just in time to seize a cutlass and parry the villain’s first blow. Gory Jake snorted and cursed, but Phineas fought silently, like a man i
n a trance, though nothing could have exceeded the dexterity with which he dodged the murderous blade or the swift cunning with which he thrust and slashed.

  When the fight was at its fastest and most furious, Guy arrived, on Aunt Cuckoo’s back. ‘You naughty boys!’ cried Aunt Cuckoo, as she spread her wings for the return flight. ‘Quarrelling again!’ Guy ran down the hatch like lightning, and in ten seconds was back on deck with a cutlass. But he forbore to join in the fight, for the two were fairly matched, man to man, and short of dealing Gory Jake a treacherous blow from behind, which was not to be thought of, he saw no way of helping. So he stationed himself, cutlass ready, eyes alert, in front of Elizabeth and Martin, lest the pirate’s attack should unexpectedly converge on them.

  The blades singing through the air, the clash of steel meeting steel, the hissing breath of the fighters and the pad-pad-patter of their feet as they ran to and fro and round each other, dodging and parrying, feinting and thrusting, leaping like lions or crawling and crouching like cats—these things set Guy’s blood boiling with excitement. He had no eyes or ears for anything else. ‘Is that you, Rex? Don’t interfere with ’em. My, he’s a grand fighter, Phineas is! Oh, well played, sir! ‘But the cry came a bit too soon. Phineas was down, borne down by the impetus of his own tremendous attack, and Jake, turning in a flash, rushed upon him with horrible glee. Guy and Rex dashed forward: they couldn’t stand by and watch Phineas slaughtered. But Phineas had already recovered himself, and, as Gory Jake bent down to administer the fatal slash, with incredible agility he sprang in under the upraised arm and with a mighty upward stroke made an end for ever of Captain Gory Jake, who had just time to mutter, the moment before his wicked head fell off: ‘Thwarted! And only six hundred and thirty-three!’ Then he expired; for without a head not even a pirate can survive, and Gory Jake’s head was now severed from his body, and sawdust spurted from both parts in a copious flood. Elizabeth and Martin turned their eyes away, but the two elder boys made no bones about helping Phineas to clear the deck of these piratical fragments. In two pieces, Captain Gory Jake Blackheart was dropped into the sea, where his infamous crew had already perished. And may his miserable fate prove a warning to all pirates into whose hands this book shall fall!