The Pirates in the Deep Green Sea (33 page)

‘A plan, a plan!' cried Scumbril. ‘A plan of escape, and quickly! Use your brains, Inky, and tell me what to do now. How do we escape from here?'

But Inky shook his head, and gasped for breath, and said, ‘I've come to the end of my tether, Dan my dear. I don't know what to do, and that's the truth of it. Unless I make a speech, and tell them what a hard life we've had, and persuade them to give us another chance. I've got a silver tongue, Dan——'

‘Boil my bones for mutton-broth if I'll listen to another word of it!' roared Scumbril. ‘Your tongue's done me no good, and you no good either, and it's too late to hope for a change of luck now. No, no! It's the ocean again for us, the green sea again, and we must jump for it!'

‘But Davy Jones may still be here! The sailors will be looking for us still, and keeping watch under the cliffs!'

‘We'll take the risk,' cried Scumbril. ‘The sea is broader than the land, we know it better than the land, and we've a wider chance there. So come, then—jump!'

He seized his shivering companion by the hand, and leaping from the cliff, dragged Inky with him. They met the water with a great splash, and disappeared. There was nothing to be seen but a whitish circle of melting foam when Timothy and Hew and Sam Sturgeon reached the edge of the land, and looked down at the sea.

‘They've escaped!' said Timothy in bitter disappointment.

‘Maybe,' said Sam, ‘and maybe not.'

They stood, breathing heavily, and stared
anxiously at the calm green water. A few puffins flew nervously to and fro, a fulmar sailed past and looked at them with a cold black eye; they saw nothing else. And then, fifty yards out, the head of an oldish bald man with red side-whiskers rose from the sea, and Gunner Boles lifted his hand in salute and shouted, ‘Thank 'ee kindly, boys! Thank 'ee, Sam. We've got 'em safely now. Safe, and tied up all a-tauto!'

Then he disappeared again, just before Mr. Louttit and his friend reached the cliffs.

Four miles away, in the graveyard beside the parish church, Pott and Kettle lay in silent bewilderment and wondered what was going to happen to them. They had heard something of the uproar in church, and the beginning of their leaders' flight, but they had stayed quietly in the shed where the gravedigger kept his tools, and no one had thought of looking for pirates there.

After breakfast on the following morning Sam Sturgeon and Timothy and Hew went over to the Hen with a basket of new-made scones and butter and raspberry jam for Cully. They found him lying comfortably in his pool with his arms securely anchored to eight large stones, and the yellow parasol propped up behind him, for the morning sun was shining hotly. William Button and Henry String sat opposite him at the edge of the pool, and with very glum looks were reciting the following verses:

‘William the Conqueror, 1066,

Then William called Rufus—as red as old bricks—

And the First of the Henrys, but nobody reckoned

He'd ever be followed by Henry the Second;

For the Barons broke out, under Stephen and Maud,

To pillage and plunder, and rob and maraud!

There was fearful disorder till Henry could check it,

Who checked not the murder of Thomas à Becket.

Richard the First went to fight with Saladm,

But his brother King John was rather a cad, in

Whose reign the good Barons all signed Magna Carta

For fear they would suffer the fate of Prince Arthur …'

‘That's not a very good rhyme,' said William Button.

‘It's good enough,' said Cully, ‘Go on.'

‘Henry the Third couldn't make the police

Arrest Simon de Montfort for breach of the peace;

Edward the First was polite to his wife,

But harried the Scots for the whole of his life;

Edward the Second, a very weak fella,

Was tipped off the throne by his queen, Isabella,

Who wanted a change. —It seems that she thought him a

Poor sort of fish, and much preferred Mortimer. —

Then Edward the Third very proudly appeared,

Who fought with the French in a very long beard;

The Black Death did a great deal of harm in his reign,

And his son, the Black Prince, fought some battles in Spain.

But Richard the Second, he sat on the ground,

And asked his companions, “Why does it go round?

I'm not feeling well, I've a pain in my forehead,

Wat Tyler's a beast, and John of Gaunt's horrid,

There are Welsh in the west, and Scots in the north,

And I've got to make room for Henry the Fourth …”'

‘Is that true?' asked William Button.

‘Nobody, to my knowledge, has ever questioned the fact that Henry the Fourth succeeded Richard the Second,' said Cully coldly.

‘What William really wants to know,' explained Henry String, ‘is whether it's true that Richard asked silly questions and had a headache.'

‘According to the poet Shakespeare,' said Cully, ‘Richard was a brilliant young man. All brilliant young men suffer deeply and ask questions all the time, to which they never believe the answers. Go on. It's Henry the Fifth next.'

But now Timothy and Hew and Sam Sturgeon came forward, and Timothy, after apologising for their interruption, asked Cully what he was doing. Cully, still speaking very pompously, said he had discovered that the Powder Monkeys' education had been sadly neglected, and he was therefore teaching them a little English history, which every boy ought to know. But William Button and Henry String, who were by no means fond of lessons, said that now they must talk to their visitors, and Cully agreed with them when he saw the basket that Hew was carrying; for he much preferred eating scones and raspberry jam to teaching history. Hew sat down beside him to spread the scones, and William Button told Timothy and Sam that he had a most important message for them.

‘It's from the Admiral,' he said. ‘He's captured all the pirates now. He's got Scumbril and Inky Poops safe in his hands, and he's going back to his summer court to-night. He told me to tell you that the fleet will be passing west of the Calf of Popinsay about six o'clock, and if you like to come out in
Endeavour
you'll get a chance to see it, and the Admiral too, and you can wave good-bye to him. If you want to come, he said, you ought to take station about three cables west of the Calf, and not later than six.'

‘We ought to go back at once,' said Sam, ‘and tell the Old Man. He'll come for certain, and he'll want to see that everything's ship-shape and Bristol-fashion aboard
Endeavour
first. It's lucky we
had her painted, but the Old Man won't be satisfied till she's as clean and smart as we can make her.'

‘Are you and Henry going back with Davy Jones?' asked Timothy.

‘No, we're staying to look after him,' said William, pointing to Cully in his pool. ‘Gunner Boles is standing by the knot till someone comes to relieve him, and then, if Cully's able to travel, we'll all go south together, I expect.'

‘I'm very glad we'll see you again,' said Timothy.

‘So am I,' said William. ‘You'll come out and have a talk with us now and then, won't you?'

Sam was impatient to return to Inner Bay and prepare for the great occasion of saying good-bye to Davy Jones, and to Cully's annoyance they stayed only a few minutes to talk to him, and then went home. Captain Spens, as Sam had foreseen, was very excited by Davy Jones's invitation, and told Sam to look out his full-dress uniform.

‘And when you've done that,' he said, ‘get hold of Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall and set them to work on
Endeavour
. They've got to scrub everything that can be scrubbed, and polish everything that'll take a polish. Tell them to wash and shave and put on their new jerseys. We'll need an ensign, because we'll have to dip it as the fleet goes past. There's a big White Ensign somewhere in the attics: we'll use that. But there aren't any flag-halliards are there? Well, you'll have to rig

But now Timothy and Hew and Sam Sturgeon came forward, and Timothy, after apologising for their interruption, asked Cully what he was doing. Cully, still speaking very pompously, said he had discovered that the Powder Monkeys' education had been sadly neglected, and he was therefore them, and to make sure they work you'd better do it yourself. And you ought to wear uniform, it'll look better. And the boys' hair needs cutting. You can cut hair, can't you? Well, cut their hair immediately after lunch. And now get busy, Sam, for we've no time to waste.'

Sam indeed had plenty to keep him occupied, but everything was ready by tea-time, and shortly after five o'clock the
Endeavour
left the pier and headed westward. Her paint was gleaming, her brass-work shone in the sun, and Captain Spens, wearing a cocked hat, a frock-coat, his medals and a sword, looked very handsome indeed. Sam Sturgeon, his buttons brightly polished, was in his old blue tunic, now rather tight for him, and red-striped trousers; and Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall wore peaked caps and their new jerseys. Timothy and Hew, with their hair cut very short behind, wore their best grey flannel suits.

The
Endeavour
went out past the Calf and with her engine running very slowly kept a kind of sentry-beat, up and down, at about three cables' distance from the cliffs. They had arrived too early and had to wait a long time. Captain Spens was growing somewhat impatient when at last Sam pointed to the north and exclaimed, ‘Here they come!'

A great finback-whale broke the smooth surface of the sea, and straight behind it, in the very centre of its wake, appeared another; and behind that another, and another, till the whole fleet was in
sight and moving swiftly towards them. Old Mattoo swung the
Endeavour
broadside-on to the whales, her bow to the north. Sam Sturgeon stood by the flag-halliards, and Captain Spens, Old Mattoo, James William Cordiall, Timothy, and Hew arranged themselves in line on the port side, and faced the west. As the leading whale approached, the Ensign was dipped and Captain Spens stiffly saluted.

In the howdah of the leading whale were Davy Jones, a couple of his Councillors, and a dozen sailors, now also standing at attention. Davy Jones raised his great arm in salute and shouted, ‘Well done,
Endeavour!
We shall remember you!'

All his sailors cheered. Whale after whale came surging past, the sea breaking white under their great blunt heads, and the sailors stood tall and sturdy in their howdahs, and cheered the
Endeavour
. Timothy and Hew waved their hands and cried ‘Hurrah!' till they were hoarse, and Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall, looking very pleased with themselves, made deep noises in their throats like the bears at the Zoo when visitors throw buns to them. Sam Sturgeon cheered, and Captain Spens, quite forgetting his dignity, took off his cocked hat, waved it wildly in the air, and shouted ‘Hurrah!' more loudly than anyone else.

In the middle of the fleet, standing closely together on the basking-sharks of the supply column, were the captured pirates. They were roped one to another, and looked monstrously grim and ill-tempered, but none so fierce and
surly as Dan Scumbril and Inky Poops, who were tied back to back on a shark that carried only them and their guards. There was silence while they passed, and then from the rear of the fleet came a great noise of singing. The sailors were singing their marching song, and on the last whale of all stood Aaron Spens, shouting his greetings and love to the boys, and kissing his hands to them, while his sailors chanted in stentorian voices of Nelson and Drake and prize-money and rum.

And then, as soon as he had passed the
Endeavour
, and Sam Sturgeon had hoisted the Ensign again, Aaron Spens sent his whale down in a long steep dive, and looking to the south the boys and their father saw that all the fleet had disappeared, and the whole sea lay empty and shining under the sun.

‘Never in my life,' said Captain Spens, ‘have I seen a finer sight! Never!' he repeated, and with a great gesture threw his cocked hat into the sea.

‘Nor have I,' said Timothy, and snatching Sam Sturgeon's blue cap, threw that into the sea.

‘Nor have you!' cried Hew to Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall; and whipped off their peaked caps and tossed them overboard.

Then they all shook hands with each other, and Old Mattoo headed the boat for home. But when their excitement had dwindled they began to feel a little sad and dispirited, because Davy Jones and his sailors had gone, and Popinsay, when they landed at Inner Bay, seemed quiet and empty.

‘I wish they had stayed here,' said Timothy.

‘So do I,' said Hew. And every day, for a fortnight at least, they said the same thing.

But they had plenty to occupy their minds besides thinking of Davy Jones. The weather was fine, and they often went fishing for cod and haddock in the
Endeavour
. More often they fished for trout in the loch, and every morning they swam in Inner Bay. They discovered, to their great disappointment, that they could no longer swim under water for any length of time, because the oil that was made of sixty-nine different ingredients had long since dried on their skins, and was no more use to them. But in the ordinary way of swimming they were twice as strong as they had been, and in the Atlantic swell that broke under the cliffs they could dive like seals. Nearly every day they talked with Cully and the Powder Monkeys, and the days went by with surprising speed.

In the evening Sam Sturgeon used to go and talk to Gunner Boles on the Hen, and one night he came into the boys' room, and woke them up, and said, ‘They're leaving to-morrow. Gunner Boles's relief has come, and arrangements have been made for taking Cully down south. I don't quite know what time they're setting out, but you'll have to say good-bye to them in the morning.'