The Happy Mariners (16 page)

For two seconds Rex and Guy faced each other, the thought flashing between them without need of words that this was the very tightest corner they had ever been in. They were both rather pale, but their eyes were steadfast and unfaltering. If it had been only themselves they might not have taken the danger so seriously; it was the thought of the women and children that worried them most, and it made matters no better that there was only one woman, aged ten and a half, and one child three and a half years younger. So far as anxiety was concerned, these two were more than enough. In the look that passed between the two boys, each read the other's firm resolve to die, if need arose, in defence of Elizabeth and Martin; but behind this heroic impulse was the knowledge that by far the best way of protecting them was not to die at all but to slaughter as many pirates as came within range of their muskets. Out of the corner of his eye Guy had noticed, without having time to think about it, that the log-cabin seemed smaller; and now, as he glanced round in search of a weapon, he saw what had happened to make it so. The log-cabin, according
to Rex's plan of the night before, had been divided into two rooms, the new room, the one further from the door, being reserved for Elizabeth, who, though she had resigned command in Rex's favour while on shore, was still entitled to full honours as captain of the cruise. Against this wall, in a neat row, stood no fewer than ten muskets.

‘Yes,' said Rex, noticing his glance. ‘We've been working like billy-o while you've been gone. They're all loaded, and what's more, Elizabeth and Martin know
how
to load them.'

‘I know how to fire them too,' said Elizabeth; and with an air of pale determination she took possession of a musket.

Rex and Guy, with a musket apiece, stationed themselves one at the south and one at the east wall; for the walls of the log-cabin, though stouter and stronger than when the Robinsons had first found it, still afforded many gaps through which their eyes could spy and the muzzles of their muskets be thrust.

‘You take the west wall, Elizabeth,' said Rex. ‘And Guy must look after the north side as well as his own. They won't look for resistance, so I expect they'll come to the door and pretend to be friendly. And
I
'll be there, because I mean to have first bang at them. Young Martin had better stand by to reload for us.'

For what seemed to the waiting children a very long while, though it could not in fact have been
more than two or three minutes, there was silence in the log-cabin; and no unusual sound reached them from outside. But suddenly Rex whispered: ‘Here they come!' And he raised his musket to his shoulder.

Guy, from where he stood, watched the pirates, a devilish and dirty crew, emerge from the forest, marching four abreast, with the debonair, crooked-nosed, black-patched, ruddy-whiskered, dandiacal Captain Gory Jake Blackheart at their head. ‘Shall I fire, Rex?' asked Guy. ‘They're coming my way, and I could pick off that captain fellow with a bit of luck.'

‘Wait till I give the word,' said Rex.

The muzzle of Rex's gun was resting in a little gap in the door; and towards this door Captain Blackheart, having halted his men in a whisper, tiptoed his way. His eyes were rolling and his whiskers quivering in a wicked ecstasy. Blissfully unconscious that the muzzle of a gun was pointing, at a distance of six inches, straight at his stomach, he lifted his skinny claw of a hand and tapped gently. Obtaining no answer, and hearing no sound, he tapped again.

‘Are the dear children within?' cried Gory Jake Blackheart in a wheedling voice, throwing over his shoulder a cunning leer for the entertainment of his followers. ‘Are the sweet chicks at home? 'Tis gentle Gory Jake come a-visiting.'

‘We're not at home to you, Gory Jake,' said Rex, in a very high-and-mighty tone of voice. ‘And if you
don't go away at once, all the beastly lot of you, I shall shoot your head off, Captain. So sucks!'

‘Blood and botheration!' exclaimed the pirate chief, stepping hastily back a pace or two. ‘Is this our proud English hospitality! By my skull and cross-bones, you puling brat, you shall eat those naughty words, and I'll cut your liver out into the bargain. And that,' he added, half to himself, ‘will make six hundred and thirty-four murders. And then there are your dear little brothers. Six hundred and thirty-five, six hundred and thirty-six. Oh, happy thought! But stay, art thou forgetting the pretty female, Gory Jake? Nay, nay! By all that's good and gracious, she shall be number six hundred and thirty-seven. What say you to that, Master Rex Robinson? How like you my arithmetic? You do not answer. You are bashful. Say your prayers, boy, while there's time, for at last, by blunderbuss, you are in my power.'

‘We'll see about that,' said Rex. ‘I'm going to shoot you now, so you'd better look out.'

Rex pulled the trigger. There was a terrific bang, and the kick of the musket sent Rex staggering back into the cabin, but he recovered himself and rushed back to the spy-hole to see the effect of his shot. At first he thought that Gory Jake's head had been blown off. But no, it was only his three-cornered hat. With his baldness exposed, his dignity shattered, the villain cut such a pitiful figure that Elizabeth, I am sure,
could she but have seen him, would have spared him a pang of pity; would perhaps even have offered to work another skull-and-crossbones device in place of the one now destroyed for ever, together with the hat it had adorned.

Gory Jake, gazing ruefully at the remains of his hat, looked at first as though he were about to burst into tears. But he mastered his grief and began a-screaming: ‘I'll slit you in strips! I'll have you boiled in oil, you nasty ill-mannered child, and cod-liver oil to boot! Alas my poor hat, the one me dear mother gave me! Many a pretty murder hast thou witnessed, O hat, but now—never again. Ah bitter cry! Never again! Now must I fill my heart with thoughts of vengeance, lest womanish tears o'erwhelm me. Hark ye, children, and learn how Gory Jake and his jolly band of rascals have outwitted ye and planned your doom. 'Twas we that built this same log-cabin as a snare for ye. Like silly ninnies, like the shallow-pated landlubbers ye are, ye walked into the trap; and here are we, good pirates all, a score of pleasant-spoken gentlemen left of threescore-and-ten, come to skin ye alive and make mincemeat of ye, to take your map, your treasure, and your ship.'

Martin, his eyes shining with excitement, his lips wearing the happy smile of dreams come true, stood in the middle of the floor forgetful of danger, eagerly drinking in every word the pirate uttered. The notion that these bloodthirsty men might carry out their
threats hardly occurred to him, and he was a little surprised to see that Elizabeth and his brothers, vigilant at their posts, looked far from happy. Their faces were blanched, their eyes grimly intent, their lips set in a stiff line.

‘Guy,' said Rex, ‘when I say “three” we'll both fire. One, two, three.'

Bang! bang!

‘Mine's down!' said Guy.

‘Mine's hit,' replied Rex. ‘Quick, Martin! Another musket! But only in the arm, I think. Did you kill yours, Guy?'

‘Yes,' said Guy, ‘I think so. And I rather think,' he added, ‘that I'm going to be sick.'

‘Oh, rats to that!' Rex was taking aim again. ‘Get hold of another musket. Look out, Elizabeth, they're trying to surround us.'

Elizabeth's reply was to pull her trigger, snatch another musket from Martin's eager hands, and fire again.

‘Bag anything?' said Rex.

Elizabeth hardly knew. Six prowling rascals had come her way, and all six were now lying on their stomachs making neither sound nor movement. It seemed unlikely that she had killed them all. ‘I think they're only shamming dead.'

‘Well, don't let them sham any more,' advised Rex, whose finer feelings were becoming frayed by the thought of what Mother would say if any harm
came to her children. ‘Don't let them
sham
dead. Dead 'em. Blaze away like a good un!'

With these last words he himself blazed away, and another pirate fell.

The rest of the enemy were advancing in open formation in a series of little sudden runs. Muskets they had none, for their escape from the sinking ship had been too desperate a business to admit of bringing fire-arms, but with two cutlasses apiece and their belts bristling with knives, they looked a dangerous lot. Now, however, finding themselves so nakedly exposed to the Robinsons' fire, they began to waver; and finally, as if by common agreement and without consulting their leader, who still stood brandishing his blade and urging them on with hideous oaths, they all fell flat on their faces.

‘Skin ye!' roared Gory Jake. ‘Skin ye for a set of craven-hearted scallywags! Up and at 'em, ye lubbers! There's a map in yonder cabin, and treasure maybe, and only four lily-livered babes to defend it from us. Pirates? Nay, ye're no better than a pack of snivelling churchwardens. Ye're a disgrace to your calling, every man jack of ye, and by blood and botheration, by skull and crossbones, I'll have ye struck off the Pirates' Register for unprofessional conduct while on active service.'

The pirates lay in the grass and answered not a word. Gory Jake's voice became less shrill. He tried what kindness would do. ‘Now, Timothy Prigg,'
said he, ‘it's you I'm addressing, shipmate. You've rendered good service in your time, with your weepy creepy ways and your face like a lovesick choir-boy. Be a man, Timothy Prigg. Be a pirate! And belay sulking there like a slug and breaking your poor old captain's heart.'

But Timothy Prigg said nothing.

‘Come then,' went on Gory Jake, ‘what of you, Albert Memorial Weeks?—And you, George Swearword? — And you, Horrible Horace? — And you, Honourable Spatt? Good lads all of ye, or so I thought till this minute. By blunderbuss, I'll stop a shilling off your wages, so I will!'

To this appeal only one pirate responded—a blear-eyed, blue-chinned fellow who jumped up suddenly and said: ‘I'm with you, Cap'n.' But the next instant—
bang, bang!
He dropped like a stone, and Gory Jake cursed again.

‘Three fingers gone!' he remarked proudly, holding out the wounded hand for the encouragement of his followers. ‘Will ye lie there and let your captain be shot to pieces?' This seemed to be exactly their intention, for they made neither movement nor answer. ‘Very well,' said Blackheart, puffing out his chest, and looking as magnificent as his somewhat unfortunate features permitted, ‘I'll take the fortress single-handed, and the treasure, too, by botheration!' With these bold words he made a mighty rush at the door. Rex fired again, but missed his mark. The
door burst open, and Gory Jake Blackheart tumbled in, flinging Rex on his back. At this the pirates in the grass jumped to their feet yelling with savage exultation. Then several things happened all at once. Before the other pirates could rush the doorway, Elizabeth had closed and fastened it; and at the same moment Guy, leaping over his brother's prostrate wriggling body, caught Gory Jake neatly by the ankles. The pirate went down like a ninepin, but was up again in a trice, his eyes bulging with bad temper, his lips uttering lurid language. But now Rex, too, had regained his feet, and all three boys danced round the enemy, while Elizabeth, to discourage his followers, fired once again through the gap in the door. Gory Jake swung his cutlass murderously; his black teeth grinned in glee. Three times he rushed at one or another of his young adversaries; three times he nearly overbalanced himself by aiming a mighty slash at their heads. Rex and Guy, working together for all the world as though their defence had been carefully planned in advance, succeeded in drawing his attack always upon themselves, hoping that he would not notice young Martin, who, with an unloaded musket for a club, pestered the villain from behind.

Whenever Gory Jake threatened Rex with the upraised cutlass, Guy darted in and punched the piratical ribs; and whenever Guy seemed in danger Rex emitted a terrifying yell and struck with a spade
at the pirate's head. At last, finding his weapon more hindrance than help, Gory Jake dropped the cutlass and ran at them with his naked hands. Just then Martin's club descended with a tremendous thwack on the fleshy part of Gory's left leg. He wheeled about. ‘Ha, little flea! For that I shall squash you with my little finger nail.' He shot out his claw and grasped Martin by the shoulder. Martin, striking at him again with more enthusiasm than accuracy, lost his balance and got himself and the musket hopelessly entangled with the pirate's legs. Gory Jake, swaying dangerously this way and that, managed to keep his balance just long enough to receive a hearty smack on his bald head with the flat of Rex's spade. Then he fell heavily on his face, and lay groaning and cursing feebly, one arm doubled underneath his body.

‘Sit on his head!' yelled Guy. ‘And mind he doesn't kick.'

But Rex did not sit on the captain's head. He preferred to stand over him, with spade persuasively uplifted, and say: ‘If we let you go, will you play fair and take your beastly lot of rotters away, and leave us alone?'

Gory Jake went on groaning.

‘If you don't promise,' added Rex, ‘I shall have to give you one or two with this spade.' Rex spoke without much conviction, hoping against hope that Gory Jake would surrender, because he knew in his heart that when a man, pirate or no pirate, is lying
on his stomach groaning with pain, it is impossible to hit him with a spade, however richly he may seem to have deserved it, and however many women and children his existence endangers. Receiving no answer except another groan, Rex said: ‘Well, anyhow, Mr Blackheart, we can't have you here. So you needn't think it. We haven't got any rope to tie you up with, if you want to know. And prisoners are such a nuisance. Always want watching, and they eat you out of house and home. We've had two of your lot before. So will you go quietly, or have I got to kill you? Martin, load me up another gun, there's a good lad.'