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“Then, having washed the blood away, we’d little else to do

Than to dance a quiet hornpipe as the old salts taught us to.”

masefield.

The Amazons were the first to wake in the morning, because for some time they had been sleeping in a house, and had not grown accustomed, like the Swallows, to the early morning sunlight through the white tent walls. “Show a leg, show a leg,” they shouted to the others and soon had the whole camp astir. “Remember,” they shouted, “battle at three o’clock sharp. There’s no time to lose.” Really, in spite of bathing and fetching the milk and having breakfast and dinner, it seemed a very long time before the small hand of the chronometer crawled round past the II, and nearly as far as the III, on the chronometer face. A watched pot never boils, and a watched watch seems to lag on purpose. But at last Captain John looked at it for the last time, and gave the order. The Grand Fleet set sail.

“Shall we go in under sail or oars?” Captain John consulted with Captain Nancy, as the Amazon and the Swallow, slipping quietly along with a following wind, came near the point at the southern side of Houseboat Bay.

“More seamanlike to do it under sail,” said Captain Nancy.

“There won’t be a leeside to him,” said Captain John. “The houseboat’ll be lying head to wind. Our plan will be to reach into the bay, and then come head to wind one on each side of him. If you’ll lay yourself aboard his starboard side, I’ll bring Swallow up on his port.”

“Very good, sir,” said Captain Nancy.

“Lower sail as we come alongside. Grapple, and board him. He’ll go for one lot of us. He can’t go for both. The others’ll get aboard and take him in the rear.”

“Hand-to-hand fighting from the very first,” said Nancy.

“What about nailing our colours to our masts?” said Able-seaman Titty.

“Fasten the flag halyards with a clove hitch,” said Captain Nancy. “That’ll be as good.”

“Just look at his flag,” said Roger, who, as usual, was at his post in the bows.

They had passed the point, and could see into Houseboat Bay. There lay the houseboat, moored to her big barrel buoy, and on her little flagstaff of a mast, accustomed to carry the red ensign, was a large and most unusual flag, blowing out finely in the wind. It was a green flag, and in the middle of it, nearly filling it, was a huge white elephant. The Houseboat Man, Captain Flint, had dug it out for the occasion.

“I know what it is,” said John. “It’s the Siamese flag.”

“I’ve seen it before,” said Mate Peggy. “He brought it back from the East last year.”

“Well, it’s coming down in two shakes,” said Captain Nancy. “As soon as ever we get aboard. Down with the Elephant! Swallows and Amazons for ever!”

“Blow your whistle, Mister Mate,” said Captain John. “The fleet will now attack.”

Susan blew her whistle.

“Blow it both loud and shrill like the man in the ballad,” said Titty.

Susan was still blowing.

“Let me blow it,” said Roger, and Susan, out of breath, gave it to the boy, who kept on blowing it till he nearly burst.

The two ships, the brown-sailed and the white, heeled over as their steersmen brought the wind on the beam to reach into the bay. For a minute or two the water foamed from under their bows. Then, as they came into the shelter of the point, the water quietened. Roger blew on, in gusts, whenever he had any breath to blow with. Suddenly a head in a huge white sun helmet appeared out of the forehatch of the houseboat. Another whistle, louder than Mate Susan’s, sounded over the water.

“Blow, blow, Roger!” said Titty.

The Swallow and the Amazon swept on towards the houseboat, the Amazon drawing a little ahead.

“Slacken away your mainsheet, Amazon,” shouted Captain John. “Remember, I’m to board him on the port side. We ought to come alongside him at the same moment.”

Captain Nancy let out her mainsheet, spilling the wind, and Swallow shot ahead.

“All right now,” shouted Captain John.

The huge sun helmet rose higher out of the forehatch of the houseboat, and Captain Flint, in a shirt and a pair of flannel trousers, with a big red handkerchief tied round his middle like a belt, struggled up on deck. He had some difficulty in getting through the hatch.

“He’s rather a fat pirate,” said Titty critically.

Captain Flint was bending over something on the foredeck that glittered in the sun. It was the little brass cannon.

“It’s the cannon,” said Roger. “He’s going to fire.”

Captain Flint straightened himself sharply. An enormous puff of blue smoke hid him for a moment, and there was a bang that echoed again and again between the hills on either side of the lake.

“Hurrah!” yelled Captain Nancy.

“Hurrah!” shouted Peggy.

“Hurrah!” shouted the whole ship’s company in Swallow.

Captain Flint was busy again with the little cannon. He poured something into it out of a tin. Then he pushed something into it. Then he put it in its place, and took a pinch of something from the tin, and put it in the touch-hole of the little cannon. He lit a match, bent down once more over the cannon and again stood up sharply, this time putting his hands over his ears. There was another cloud of smoke, and a terrific bang. Something dropped in the water, between the houseboat and the advancing fleet.

“It’s only the wad,” shouted Nancy.

“At him before he can fire again,” shouted John.

But Captain Flint was no mean gunner and, just as Swallow slipped by under the stern of the houseboat, there was another crash from the cannon, and the smoke and the smell of gunpowder drove over the little ship.

“Let go halyards,” John and Nancy shouted almost at the same moment, as Swallow and Amazon shot up on opposite sides of the houseboat.

“Grab the gaff, Susan,” shouted John. “Down with it. Hang on to anything you can, Roger, and make the painter fast. Board!”

There was a railing round the houseboat’s after-deck. Captain John swung himself up to the deck by it, climbed over it, and gave a hand to Susan. At that moment Captain Flint, roaring, “Death or Glory!” charged up the companion-way. He had gone down again through the fore-hatch and run through the cabin. He came up whirling two scarlet cushions round his head. But in hand-to-hand fighting like this it is not weapons that count, but hands. Captain Flint’s were large, but he had only two of them. The Swallows’ were small, but they had eight.

THERE WAS A BANG

One tremendous blow of a scarlet cushion caught Captain John on the side of the head, and sent him to the deck. But he was up again in a moment, and charged head down into Captain Flint. Mate Susan had got a good hold of one of the cushions. Titty and Roger, who had clambered aboard, took Captain Flint firmly round each leg and clung on like terriers so that as he moved they dragged with him. Even so, the battle might have ended with the complete defeat of the Swallows if Captain Nancy and her mate, Peggy, who had come aboard by the fore-deck, had not rushed along the roof of the cabin and, with a wild yell, flung themselves into the struggle. Captain Nancy leapt from the roof of the cabin on to Captain Flint’s back, and clasped him round the neck. Peggy joined John and Susan in pulling at him from in front, and, overwhelmed by numbers, Captain Flint came heavily down on the deck.

“Yield,” shouted Nancy.

“Not while my flag flies,” panted Captain Flint. “Elephants, Elephants, Elephants for ever!”

But Able-seaman Titty was already running forward along the narrow gangway outside the cabin. In another moment, the huge elephant flag came fluttering down to the fore-deck.

“We’ve won,” shouted John. “Your flag is struck.”

“Why, so it is,” said Captain Flint, struggling to a sitting position, and looking at the bare flagstaff. “Quick work. But very hot. I surrender.” He lay down flat, puffing heavily.

“Bind him,” said Captain Nancy.

Peggy picked up a coil of rope lying handy, and John and Peggy between them bound the prisoner’s legs together. Then, with the help of the others, they rolled him over and bound his arms. Then they tugged him along the deck, and lifted up the top part of him, so that he was sitting on the deck with his back leaning against the cabin. He fell over sideways. John pulled him up again, and he fell over on the other side. “I’ll put you up once more,” said Peggy, “but, if you roll over again, you shall lie there.”

At that moment Titty came back.

“If we’re going to make him walk the plank,” she said, “there’s one all ready on the fore-deck.”

“So there is,” cried Nancy. “I’d forgotten about it. But how are we going to get him there?”

Captain Flint wriggled his feet, and wagged his head from side to side.

“I’m not a snake,” he said, “I can’t get along without feet.”

“We must get him to the fore-deck somehow,” said Captain Nancy.

“Undo his legs and make him walk over the cabin,” said Peggy.

“Cabin roof won’t bear me,” said the prisoner.

“It’s not safe to let prisoners go below,” said Titty. “They might set fire to the magazine and blow up the ship.”

“We’ll take him round by the gangway,” said Captain Nancy. “He won’t dare to struggle there while his arms are tied.”

So they undid the rope from round his legs. With a good deal of difficulty they got him on his feet. He showed signs of sitting down again at once.

“None of that,” said Captain Nancy, “or it’ll be worse for you. Far worse.”

One end of the rope was still wound round and round his arms and body. They made it fast, so that the other end served as a sort of painter or leading-string. Nancy and Peggy took hold of the rope, and went first along the narrow gangway. The prisoner, balancing himself as well as he could, walked next. John and Susan followed close behind him. Roger and Titty ran forward over the cabin roof.

On the fore-deck there was a capstan, from which the chain went to the big barrel buoy to which the houseboat was moored. There was the little brass cannon. There was the white sun helmet lying by the fore-hatch. There was a locker close to the little mast at the foot of which on the deck lay the green and white elephant flag. On the starboard side of the deck there was a springboard, from which, on happier days, the owner of the houseboat was accustomed to take his morning dive. It might have been designed for the use of prisoners on their way to feed the sharks. At the sight of it Captain Flint shuddered so violently that he nearly upset the determined buccaneers who had captured him and his ship and were now holding him to prevent any attempt at escape.

“Belay that,” growled Captain Nancy. Captain John was really commodore, but in some things Captain Nancy could not help taking the lead.

“Tie the prisoner to the mast,” she said, and it was done.

“Don’t laugh,” she roared at the prisoner.

“Then help that pirate out of my sun helmet,” said Captain Flint.

Roger, the boy, had picked up the big sun helmet, and put it on, and the whole of his head was inside it. There was a moment’s pause while Mate Susan freed him from it.

“Would you mind putting it on my head,” said the prisoner. “A last wish, you know. My bald head can’t stand the sun.”

Mate Susan put it on for him, and the prisoner, wagging his head, shook it into place.

“Now, Captain John,” said Nancy. “We must consider his crimes. The worst is treachery. All this summer he has been in league with the natives.”

“Desertion,” said Peggy. “He deserted us.”

“He came to Wild Cat Island, and went into our camp when we were not there,” said Titty.

“He called Captain John a liar,” said Nancy.

“That was a mistake,” said Captain John hurriedly. “We’ve made peace over that.”

“We can let him off that, then,” said Captain Nancy. “But it doesn’t matter. His other crimes are quite enough. Hands up for making him walk the plank!”

Her hand and Peggy’s went up at once. So did Titty’s. So did Roger’s. John and Susan hesitated.

“Oh, look here,” said Nancy, “no weakening. It’s far too good a plank to waste.”

“I think we ought to give him a chance,” said John. “Untie his arms, and let him swim for it.”

“Right,” said Nancy. “We’ll agree to that. All hands up?”

All hands went up.

Roger was looking over the side.

“Are there plenty of sharks?” he said.

“Millions,” groaned the prisoner.

“Bandage his eyes,” said Captain Nancy. “Here’s a handkerchief.”

“A clean one?” asked the prisoner.

“Well, let him have Peggy’s. Hers was clean yesterday,” said Nancy.

Peggy’s handkerchief had not even been unfolded. It was quickly made into a bandage, and tied over Captain Flint’s eyes.

“Untie him from the mast, and get him on the plank,” said Nancy.

Mate Susan and John loosed him from the mast. Then they unbound his arms. The prisoner swayed heavily this way and that. At last, with Titty and Roger pushing behind, Peggy, John, and Susan between them guided him to the plank. Captain Nancy watched with folded arms.

“Now walk!” she cried.

Captain Flint, blindfolded, moved his feet little by little along the springboard. He stopped, shaking all over, while the springboard bent and quivered under his weight.

Captain Nancy stamped her foot. “Walk, you son of a sea-cook,” she cried.

Captain Flint took another step or two, until he was at the very end of the plank, high over the water.

“Mercy,” he begged. “Mercy!”

“Walk,” shouted Nancy, “or . . . !”

Captain Flint stepped desperately forward, taking a long stride into thin air. Head over heels he fell. There was a colossal splash that even wetted the Swallows and Amazons on the deck of the houseboat. Captain Flint had disappeared, and the white sun helmet floated alone, tossing lightly on the ripples.

“Perhaps he can’t swim,” said Titty. “I never thought of it.”

But just then the big bald head of Captain Flint rose out of the water. He blew and spluttered mightily, tore the handkerchief from round his eyes, and sank again.

He came up once more, this time close to the sun helmet. He grabbed it and threw it, spinning, up on the deck of his ship.

“He can swim all right,” said Titty.

Suddenly he let loose a yell. “Sharks, sharks!” he shrieked, and, splashing as hard as he could, swam to the houseboat’s big mooring buoy. He climbed on to it, though it upset him once or twice. At last he was sitting astride on the top of it.

“This place is stiff with sharks,” he called. “One of them’s nibbling at my foot.”

He slipped sideways off the buoy, and swam to the side of the houseboat, splashing tremendously.

“A rope, a rope!” he shouted, bobbing in the water and splashing with his arms, while the Swallows and Amazons looked down at his struggles.

CAPTAIN FLINT WALKS THE PLANK

“Shall we let him have one?” said Susan. “He’s been a good long time in the water.”

“You’ll never be in league with natives again?” said Nancy.

“Hard-hearted pirate, never,” said Captain Flint, blowing like a walrus that has come up to breathe.

“We’ll give you a rope,” said Nancy.

“I’d much rather have a rope ladder,” said Captain Flint. “At my age I’m getting too fat for ropes. There’s a rope ladder just by the springboard, the plank, I mean. It’s made fast. You’ve only got to throw the loose end overboard.”

John threw over the rope ladder, and a moment later Captain Flint stood once more on the deck of his ship with the water pouring from him, and running away into the scuppers. He sat down on the capstan and swung his arms about his chest. “Well, that’s that,” he said. “Not even the Amazon pirates are ruthless enough to make a man walk the plank twice on one day. Hullo, Roger, looking for the sharks?”

Roger had been looking down into the water from the houseboat’s deck.

“I don’t believe there are any,” he said. “None big enough, anyway.”

“The young ruffian’s sorry I haven’t left a leg or an arm behind with them,” said Captain Flint. “What are you going to do with me now?” he added. “You’ve captured my ship, you’ve hauled down my noble elephant, you’ve trussed me like a chicken, you’ve made me walk the plank. I’ve walked it, dodged the sharks, and come aboard to report for duty. Do you think my crimes are wiped out? Because if they are . . .” He paused.

“What?” said Captain Nancy.

“All the best sea fights end with a banquet,” said Captain Flint. “And there’s one waiting in the cabin and nobody but the parrot on guard there. Just let me go below and start the Primus while I get into some dry things, and then there’s nothing to keep us from it.”

Nobody had anything to say against that.

Captain Flint lowered himself through the fore-hatch. A moment later he put his head out.

“By the way,” he said, “I suppose you’ll want to hoist the Jolly Roger on your prize. You’ll find one in the locker.” He bobbed down again, and they heard him bumping about below deck. Peggy opened the locker by the mast, and there, on the top, lay a black flag with a skull and cross bones on it as big as the elephant. She and Titty took the elephant flag off the halyards and fastened on the Black Jack. Then, with a cheer from both ships’ companies, Peggy ran it to the masthead.

Captain Flint’s head bobbed up again through the hatch.

“What about going below?” he said. “You’d better come in by the companion-way. And mind your heads, though I suppose none of your heads are in as much danger as mine.”

“Is yours really in danger?” said Titty, looking at it with interest.

“Not for high treason,” said Captain Flint. “Only of being bumped on the way into the cabin.”

Nancy was looking at a large burnt patch on the cabin roof.

“Well,” she said to Captain Flint, “as one pirate to another, I’m sorry it made such a mess. I never would have thought the thing would have burnt both ways. But didn’t it just bang?”

“It did, rather,” said Captain Flint, as he disappeared once more.

The Swallows and Amazons went aft to the companion to go down into the cabin. The captains and the mates went by the gangway outside, the able-seaman and the boy over the cabin roof.

The cabin was all that the cabin of a retired pirate should be. Captain Flint had been hard at work, tidying up after the burglary, and the walls were hung once more with strange weapons and curiosities from all the seven seas. Everything that had not been broken and thrown overboard was back in its place. There was a long, narrow table down the middle of the cabin, with chairs set on each side of it. The green parrot was perched on the back of one of the chairs.

“Pieces of eight, pieces of eight, say pieces of eight!” said Nancy Blackett to the parrot.

“Pretty Polly,” said the parrot.

“You’re not fit to be a pirate’s parrot,” said Nancy.

“Are the chairs fixed to the floor?” asked Roger.

“No,” said Peggy.

“They are on daddy’s ship,” said Roger.

“We don’t get a very high sea in this bay,” said a voice from the doorway into the foc’s’le.

The roar of a Primus stove came suddenly to an end. Captain Flint, changed and in dry clothes, came in with a big kettle.

“Sort yourselves,” he said, and they sorted themselves, and the feast began. It was as good a feast as Captain Flint had been able to get sent from Rio. For example, there were ices, strawberry ones. There were parkins and bath buns and rock cakes and ginger-nuts and chocolate biscuits. There were mountains of sandwiches to begin with. Then there was a cake with a paper cover over it. When the cover was lifted off, there was a picture of two little ships done in pink and white icing.

“The Swallow and the Amazon” said Roger.

“That’s what they’re meant for,” said Captain Flint.

Friendliness between the Swallows and Amazons and the retired pirate grew rapidly as the feast went on. Indeed, when Captain Flint was going to help himself to a strawberry ice, Mate Susan stopped him.

“You mustn’t have ices after walking the plank,” she said. “Mother says they give you a chill in the stomach if you eat them when you’ve just bathed.”

“By Jove, I suppose I ought not,” said Captain Flint, and took a piece of cake instead.

“You did walk the plank most awfully well,” said Titty.

“Practice,” Captain Flint replied.

The parrot had a bite of almost everything, but seemed to like lump sugar best. Titty put out her hand to it, and the parrot climbed on her wrist, and walked all the way up to her shoulder.

“Next year we’ll make a voyage to a place where the trees are full of parrots,” she said.

“We must think of something really good for next year,” said Captain Flint. “Here and now I promise you that I shall be writing no more books. I shall have retired from everything except being a pirate. But, as for parrots, I’m going south for the winter, and I’ll bring back parrots all round if you want them.”

“Not really?” said Titty.

“Really,” said Captain Flint.

“One that can really swear?” said Nancy.

“An out-and-out ruffian,” said Captain Flint.

“What about monkeys?” said Roger.

Captain Flint pulled out a notebook and a pencil.

“Item. One monkey,” he said, taking a note. “With or without a tail?”

“With a tail,” said Roger. “The other sort are only apes.”

“Don’t bring green parrots for us,” said Nancy. “Bring them grey with red tails. Then we can feather our arrows with red feathers instead of green ones.”

Captain Flint opened his mouth and shut it again. He looked hard at Nancy Blackett, and then at a jampot on a shelf, in which there was a single green feather and some new pipe-cleaners. Nancy Blackett caught his eye.

“Your fault for being an enemy,” she said. “And after all, we didn’t take anything but a few feathers. We might have sunk the ship. And, anyway, you are in with us again now.”

“True,” said Captain Flint. “But I wonder how many burglaries there have really been.”

“One,” said Nancy. “Ours wasn’t a burglary. It was honest revenge.”

“What are you going to do to-morrow?” asked Captain Flint a little later. “It’s your last day, isn’t it?”

“What about fishing?” said Peggy. “We haven’t fished for ages. You can come too if you like.”

“Yes,” said Nancy. “Your boat is much better for fishing than ours are. Besides, you know the best places.”

“Do come,” said John.

“Please,” said Susan.

“Well, if there’s not too much wind, we might make a day of it. I’ll come, but I can’t start too early. And then we’ll plan something tremendous for next year.”

“I’m not going fishing to-morrow,” said Able-seaman Titty.

“Why not?” said Susan.

“I’m going treasure-hunting.”

“Where?”

“Cormorant Island. I’m sure it’s still there. The sea chest, I mean.”

“Waste of time, Able-seaman,” said Captain Flint.

“I know it’s there,” said Titty. “And Roger can come too if he likes.”

“Then there’ll be two expeditions to-morrow,” said Captain Flint. “One treasure-hunting, and one whaling. What do you think about it, Roger?”

“I’m going with Titty,” said Roger. And so it was settled, though Susan did say, “They can’t go alone unless it’s a calm day.”

After the feasting had ended, and it lasted a long time, Peggy said, “I say, Uncle Jim.”

“He’s not Uncle Jim, you galoot,” Nancy said.

“Of course not,” said Peggy. “I say, Captain Flint, have you still got the accordion?”

“Tip us a stave,” said Captain Nancy.

“If you’ll dance the hornpipe, I will.”

“There’s no room in the cabin.”

“On the poop then.”

Captain Flint brought a huge accordion out of the fore-cabin.

“Lucky the burglar didn’t find that,” he said, “or he’d have taken it for certain. But perhaps he had no ear for music.”

They all went up on the after-deck. Captain Flint sat on the rail and played the sailor’s hornpipe, while Captain Nancy danced.

“That’s not the way we do it,” said Titty.

“Let’s see your way,” said Captain Flint.

He played on and on, and Nancy and Peggy danced their hornpipe and Captain John, Mate Susan, Able-seaman Titty, and the ship’s boy danced theirs. The stamping on the deck could have been heard a mile away in the quiet evening. Faster and faster played Captain Flint. Faster and faster danced the Swallows and Amazons, until the tune went so fast that it stopped being a tune at all, and they all flung themselves on the deck, tired out.

“And to think how I’ve wasted this summer,” said Captain Flint.

Then he played songs, and presently, when they had got their breath again, they sang. He played “Spanish Ladies,” and “The Whale,” “Amsterdam,” “Blow the Man Down,” “Away to Rio,” and many another.

At last it grew dusk.

“Our harbour lights are not lit,” said Captain John.

“We must get back before dark,” said Mate Susan.

“And there’s hardly any wind left,” said Captain Nancy. “Let’s start while we can sail.”

“Whaling to-morrow,” said Captain Flint, as he said good-bye.

“Treasure-hunting,” said Able-seaman Titty.

A few minutes later the Swallow and the Amazon were heading out of the bay.

Captain Flint leaned on the rail and watched them go. The sound of his playing reached them over the water until they cleared the point and met the wind.

“He made a jolly good pirate,” said Captain John.

“It’s a pity he’s so old,” said Roger.

“He isn’t so awfully old,” said Titty.