The Happy Mariners (19 page)

The other three leapt to their feet. ‘But where shall we run?' asked Elizabeth piteously.

Rex caught her by the arm. ‘Oh, don't stop to talk! Run anywhere.'

‘Just like old Rex,' grumbled Guy, rather ungratefully, considering how bravely Rex had commanded the party. ‘I say, Rex, wait a minute. Perhaps old Funny Face can help us.'

The same idea had already, it seemed, occurred to Martin. ‘Oh, Mr Cannibal!' he said, letting his paper and comb fall to the ground unnoticed. ‘Please ask your friends not to eat us.'

The Cannibal Chief nodded and grinned, evidently not understanding a word. He half rose to his feet, and all the children crowded round him, trying to explain by signs what Martin meant. But just then the sounds from the forest reached the old man's ears, and in that ferocious howling and caterwauling he recognized, with a winsome smile, the voices of his own people. Instantly he became the embodiment of barbaric dignity. Forgetful of his wounds, he stalked majestically to the door, opened it, and took up his stand just outside. At the same moment Rex's pursuers, their appetites sharpened and their tempers shortened by the chase, rushed into the clearing. At
sight of their Chief their cries of hunger changed to a chant of jubilation. To see him was as good as a feast. The children, huddled together in the log-cabin, waited trembling for their fate to be decided. Which was it to be, life or death, stewpot or voyage home? The Cannibal Chief raised his hand in a gesture commanding silence.

‘Ooba-dooba-doodah, bolla woosh!' he said.

He turned and seized Elizabeth gently by the hand. Rex and Guy sprang forward, resolved to die fighting, but Elizabeth said: ‘Don't fight. Please don't. I think he means to save us if he can. See the way he's smiling.'

‘Is he smiling?' said Guy. ‘Sorry, I didn't know.'

Elizabeth allowed the Chief to conduct her outside, and there her brothers hastened to join her, still suspecting treachery.

‘Bolla woosh,' said the Cannibal Chief to his followers. ‘Rubbadub goff mazeem. Bolla goff savitta savitta savitta itchima woosh karoo!' he added fiercely. Then, turning to Elizabeth, he flung himself flat on his face at her feet.

The savages stood rigid, not uttering a sound, but grinning soulfully and showing the whites of their large eyes.

‘Oh don't do that,' begged Elizabeth. ‘You'll never get well if you do things like that.'

‘Savitta goff, savitta savitta goff!' mumbled the Cannibal Chief.

‘Whatever does he want?' asked Elizabeth. ‘I don't know, do you?'

As though in reply to her question, the Cannibal Chief, without moving the rest of his body, stretched out a hand and gently took hold of Elizabeth's right foot and placed it firmly upon his own head. There he held it for several moments. When he released her she quickly withdrew the foot, and the Cannibal Chief slowly rose, his face shining with satisfaction.

‘Bolla goff savitta!' he yelled at his men. ‘Savitta bolla goff!'

The foremost among them stepped forward with a loud cry, and, before she realized what was happening, Elizabeth found another brown body stretched at her feet.

‘Oh dear, this is awful!' she sighed.

‘I think it's rather fun,' remarked Guy. ‘Better than being eaten, anyhow.'

‘Go on, Elizabeth!' Martin urged her. ‘Step on his head.'

Elizabeth by now was beginning to feel secretly rather grand about it. It was not after all so bad being in the middle of the picture, once she had got over her stage-fright. So she placed her foot gently but confidently on the wholly mop presented to her. When she removed it, two seconds later, the man rose, and another quickly took his place.

‘But have I got to do them all?' she protested. ‘Why, there must be nearly a hundred of them!'

There were in fact exactly a hundred of them; counting the Chief, a hundred and one. Elizabeth got quite tired before the ceremony was over; but, as Rex said, it was just as well to make sure of them.

‘When it's all over,' he added, ‘we'll take them treasure-hunting with us. They'll be a very useful bodyguard. Pleasant chaps, aren't they, when you come to know them?'

When the last of the savages had paid homage, Martin said, with a little sigh of satisfaction: ‘There, Elizabeth, isn't that nice! Now you're Queen of the Cannibals. Shall I play them a tune now? I think they deserve one, don't you?'

That Cannibal Chief (who, in spite of his wounds, obstinately declined to be left behind) was certainly a very intelligent man in his own fashion; for when Elizabeth remarked, on the way to the treasure-ground: ‘Of course they're very nice savages, but they do make a noise, don't they!' he instantly, with one fierce yell, silenced them. Martin was particularly glad of this, for he could see that Fandy, gliding along at his side, was more than a little frightened of the savages. As for Elizabeth, she felt almost maternal towards them, and would have been terribly upset if any harm had come to them. The expedition now moved forward stealthily; for the cannibals were of the kind that do nothing by halves; either they would scream and yell, and playfully dig each other with their sharp spears, or they would tiptoe through the forest, making, the whole hundred of them, less noise than a single mouse.

‘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 her 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.