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The Swallows and the Amazons went together to the harbour at the southern end of the island. The path was now well trodden, though they had to stoop under boughs and step over brambles and push branches out of the way. In the little basin the two ships lay together with their noses drawn up on the beach. The Amazon was a fine little ship, with varnished pine planking. She was a much newer boat than the Swallow, of the same length, but not quite so roomy. Close by the foot of the mast, between the mast and the centre-board case, there was a small barrel of polished oak.

The centre-board case puzzled Roger.

“What’s that big thing sticking up all down the middle of the boat?” he asked.

“That’s the case for the centre-board,” said Peggy.

“But what is the centre-board?”

“It’s an iron keel that we can lower into the water when we are beating against the wind. When we are running before the wind or when we are in shallow water we can haul the keel up into that case,” said Nancy. “How do you manage to sail against the wind without one?”

“Swallow sails very well to windward,” said Captain John. “She has a keel about six inches deep, but it’s there all the time, so that we don’t have to have any centre-board case to get in the way inside her.”

“Uncle Jim—Captain Flint—says you can’t do anything to windward without a centre-board,” said Nancy.

“That only shows he doesn’t know Swallow,” said Captain John.

“What’s the barrel for?” asked Roger.

“It was meant as a water breaker, because our natives thought the water in the lake wasn’t fit to drink,” said Peggy. “But we always drink it, not straight out of the lake, but boiled for tea, and so we use the water breaker as a puncheon for feastable drinks. It’s got some lovely stuff in it just now.”

“We’ll carry it back to the camp,” said Nancy Blackett.

“It’ll be rather heavy, won’t it?” said Susan.

“Not the way we carry it,” said Nancy. “We sling it on an oar for portage. That’s the proper way. Come on, Peggy, lend a hand.”

The Amazons climbed into their ship. Nancy took a length of rope from the stern and made a noose at one end of it. Then she and Peggy hove up the barrel till it rested on the gunwale in the bows. John and Susan held it there, while the Amazons came ashore with the rope and one of the oars. Nancy fixed the noose round one end of the barrel and made it fast so that it could not slip. Then she took two turns of the rope round the oar and brought the rope down and through the loop, then along the top of the barrel and round it, to make another noose at the other end, then twice round the oar and down again, and made it fast.

“Ready, Peggy?” she said.

“Ready,” said Peggy.

“Heave ho,” said Captain Nancy. They lifted the oar so that each of them had one end of the oar on her shoulder. The barrel hung steady below the oar between them.

“March!” said Nancy, and the Amazon pirates marched up out of the harbour and along the path through the trees.

CARRYING UP THE PUNCHEON

“It doesn’t weigh anything when you carry it like this,” said Peggy. “This is the way all pirates carry their barrels and their treasure, or anything else that they take ashore from their ships.”

Susan, Titty, and Roger went with them. Captain John waited in the harbour. He was still thinking about what the Amazons had said about the harbour being marked. What did they mean, exactly? He had seen the cross painted on the stump of a tree just by the shore, and when he had said that anyone could put a cross on a tree Nancy Blackett had told him that that showed that he did not know how the harbour was marked. Well, how was it marked? He looked about him. There was the stump with the white cross on it. But he could see nothing else that looked at all like a mark. There were no marks on the rocks and he could not see any more marks on trees. His respect for these Amazons grew. They seemed to know everything, besides being very good sailors. He would have to ask them, and yet, as a captain, it wasn’t the sort of thing he liked to ask. He took a last look round and then hurried after the others.

He caught them up just as they were coming into the camp. The Amazons lowered the oar from their shoulders and set the barrel by the two flags. Then they wedged a few stones under it at each side to bring its tap well off the ground.

“We forgot the mugs,” said Peggy.

“We’ve got plenty,” said Susan, and she and Titty brought the mugs from their tent.

“We brought six mugs when we sailed out from home,” said Titty, “for fear of breakages, and luckily we haven’t broken any yet.”

“We’ve got flagons in our ship,” said Peggy. “They are just like these.”

She filled all the mugs from the barrel. Nancy Blackett, meanwhile, was sitting by herself, thinking hard. She took a mug when it was brought to her by Roger, and she took a hunk of molasses from the bag when it was offered to her by Titty, but, for a moment or two, she hardly seemed to see them.

At last she said, “The proper thing is to drink to the Jolly Roger, skull and cross-bones, death and glory and a hundred thousand pieces of eight. But you aren’t pirates, so we can’t all drink to that. Really we ought to drink confusion to our enemies. . . .”

“The pirate with the parrot,” said Titty.

“The houseboat man,” said Captain John.

“Right,” said Nancy, “I’ve got it. Swallows and Amazons for ever, and death to Captain Flint!”

“Swallows and Amazons for ever,” repeated Peggy, “and death to Uncle Jim!”

“Captain Flint, you chump-headed galoot,” said Captain Nancy.

The others said it all right, even Roger.

“Now swig,” said Captain Nancy.

It was certainly the finest lemonade that pirate or explorer ever swigged.

“I never tasted better rum,” said Able-seaman Titty.

“It is good,” said Captain Nancy. “And so are your molasses.”

Toffee does not help talking, and for a little time no one said anything.

At last Titty asked, “Where did Captain Flint get his parrot?”

Peggy Blackett swallowed a lump of molasses and began at once: “He brought the parrot from Zanzibar. He’s been all over the world. Mother says he was the black sheep of the family when he was young, so he was sent to South America. But he didn’t stay there. He went everywhere. Last year he came home and said he’d gathered enough moss and meant to settle down. Mother’s his sister, you know. But he always liked being at sea. So he bought the houseboat, and last year we were often in it. Last year he was one of us and we used to sail with him in Amazon. Then he gave us Amazon and went off again before the winter. And this year when he came back he said he had a contract and was going to write a book, and all through the summer he’s been living in the houseboat, but instead of sailing with us he’s in league with the natives. We’ve done everything we could to wake him up. But it’s no good. He even asked mother to make us leave him alone. So mother told us he was writing a book and had to be left alone. But we thought it wasn’t his fault to be writing a book, and that we would show him we didn’t think any worse of him for it. But he wasn’t pleased at all, even when we offered to come and live on the houseboat with him. It ended by his forbidding us to come near him.”

“That’s why we watched till he went ashore and boarded the houseboat and took the green feathers for our arrows,” said Nancy, “just to show him. He had them in a pot for pipe cleaners.”

“It’s such a pity, too,” said Peggy. “We were teaching the parrot to say, ‘Pieces of Eight,’ so that it would be a good pirate parrot to take with us to Wild Cat Island. It only says ‘Pretty Polly.’ That’s no use to anyone. But they say green parrots don’t talk as well as grey ones.”

“You said you thought he was a retired pirate, didn’t you?” said Nancy to Titty.

“Yes,” said Titty.

“Then perhaps it’s all right for him to have a parrot that only says ‘Pretty Polly.’ One of the other sort would give him away.”

“Did he really fire at you yesterday?” asked Captain John. “We saw the smoke and heard the bang.”

“That wasn’t him; that was us,” said Captain Nancy. “We sailed into the bay and round the houseboat and looked in through the cabin windows. Uncle . . . Captain Flint was asleep. We saw him. So we took one of those big Roman candles that fizz and then go off with a bang, and we put it on the cabin roof and lit it and sailed away. We were just clearing the point when it banged. We had saved it from last fifth of November, but it hadn’t gone bad at all. It couldn’t have banged better.”

“We heard it here,” said Roger. “It was a good bang.”

“I bet it made him savage,” said Nancy.

“He was standing on deck shaking his fist when we were sailing up to Rio after you,” said John, “and that was long after.”

“Well, we are all at war with him now,” said Nancy. “Some day we’ll capture the houseboat. We could easily do it all together. Swallow on one side and Amazon on the other. He couldn’t be both sides of the deck at once. Then we’ll give him his choice. He must throw in his lot with us like last summer, or else he must walk the plank.”

“It’ll be best for him to walk the plank,” said Able-seaman Titty. “Then we’ll take his treasure and buy a big ship, and live in her for ever and ever and sail all over the world.”

“We could go to the China Seas to see daddy,” said Susan.

“We could discover new continents,” said Titty. “America can’t fill everything. There must be lots that haven’t been found yet.”

“We’d go to Zanzibar and bring back a whole shipload of parrots, grey ones, talking like fun,” said Peggy.

“And monkeys,” said Roger.

“I like green parrots best,” said Titty.

“Look here,” said Nancy Blackett, “we are forgetting all about this parley. We can’t fight Captain Flint all the time. But we can practise. We mustn’t sink each other’s ships. . . .”

“Nobody shall sink Swallow,” said Roger fiercely.

“All right,” said Nancy, “nobody’s going to. But it’ll be very good practice for us to try to capture Swallow, and for you to try to capture Amazon. The one who wins shall be flagship. There’s always a flagship in a fleet. If you capture Amazon, then Swallow will be flagship and Captain John will be commodore. If we capture Swallow, then Amazon will be flagship and I’ll be commodore. Beginning from to-morrow.”

“And when that’s settled, we’ll go and take the houseboat,” said Titty.

“But,” said John, “you know where we keep Swallow, because you know we are here. If we don’t guard her, you can easily take her. But we don’t know where you keep Amazon.”

“You saw where we went yesterday.”

“We saw you go behind a promontory on the western coast.”

“Well, if you go beyond that promontory you’ll find the mouth of a river. That’s the Amazon River. Not far up it on the right bank, that’s the left bank as you sail up from the lake, there’s a boathouse. It’s a stone boathouse, with a big wooden skull and cross-bones that we made fastened over the front of it. In it there’s a motor launch that you mustn’t touch because it belongs to the natives, and there’s a rowing boat and also Amazon when she’s at home. Now you know.”

“Half a minute,” said John, “I’ve got a chart here.”

He got the guide-book and opened it at the map which showed the whole length of the lake. Nancy Blackett showed him the river Amazon. It had another name on the map. John gave her the pencil.

“You mark where the boathouse is,” he said.

Captain Nancy made a mark with the pencil in the right place.

“It’ll be a cutting-out expedition only,” she said. “It’s agreed that whoever wins is to be as careful with the other boat as with their own.”

“That’ll be us,” said Peggy. “Nancy always does a thing if she says she will.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Captain John.

“Beginning from to-morrow,” said Captain Nancy.

“Look here,” said Susan, “hadn’t we better have dinner before all the lemonade has gone.”

“Jamaica rum,” said Titty, with reproach.

“We’ve got a lot of sandwiches,” said Peggy.

“We’ve got pemmican,” said Susan, “and sardines. We finished the meat pie and the next one doesn’t come till to-morrow.”

“What a pity we haven’t been fishing,” said Titty. “We might have been able to give you some fried shark.”

“We like sardines just as well,” said Peggy.

There was a stir in the camp. Peggy, the mate of the Amazon, seemed to be in charge of the ship’s food, like Susan, the mate of the Swallow. With Titty and Roger to help them, they set about making ready a meal. They put fresh wood on the fire and blew up the embers to boil the kettle. They agreed that it was best to have boiling water for washing up and for making tea in case the little barrel did not hold out. Then there were sardine tins and a tin of pemmican to open, and sandwiches and a cake to be brought from the Amazon.

The two captains did not move at first, but watched the business of their crews.

At last John said, “Look here, Captain Nancy, I wish you’d tell me about the marking of the harbour.”

“It’s quite simple, Captain John,” said Nancy. “Come along and I’ll show you while our tars are rigging the meal.”

They walked together to the harbour, meeting Peggy with the basket full of cake and sandwiches on the way. When they came to the harbour they were alone, for which Captain John was glad. He went straight to the stump of a tree with a cross on it.

“I found this at once,” he said.

“And you didn’t find anything else,” said Captain Nancy. “That’s because we are Amazon pirates and keep our marks secret. One of them is no good without the other, and the other isn’t marked at all.”

“How is it a mark then?” said John.

Captain Nancy squatted on the beach and drew a half circle. “Suppose this is the harbour,” she said, “and these are the rocks outside.” She put some big stones in about the position of the rocks outside the harbour. “You want to come in. Well, a straight line like that brings you clean through the rocks without touching any of them. Draw the line a bit longer, right into the harbour and up on the beach. Your marks must be on that line. Take this for your first mark.” She planted a twig. “That’s the stump with the cross on it. Now you find anything else that you can see over the first mark and also on the same straight line. It can be anything. There’s no need to mark it if you know it. Then when you want to come into the harbour from outside all you have to do is to keep the two marks one behind the other. So long as you do that you will be on the straight line that brings you safe through between the rocks. Even if the lake—the sea—is high, so that some of the rocks are under water, you can sail in without looking at them if you keep your two marks one behind the other.”

“ ’Um,” said Captain John.

“Hop into Amazon, and I’ll take her out and show you.”

John stepped into Amazon. Nancy Blackett shoved off and took her right outside the rocks, so that they were in the open sea. Then, sculling with an oar over the stern, she brought her round so that she was headed towards the island.

“Now,” she said, “do you see the stump with the cross on it?”

“Yes,” said John. “I can see the cross all right. The stump is hard to see against the beach. It’s the same colour.”

“That’s why we had to paint the cross,” said Nancy. “Now, look above it to the right and you’ll see the fork of a tree with a big patch of bark off it just below the fork. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“That’s the other mark. As it is now there are rocks between us and the harbour. But, if I bring her up a bit, you’ll see that fork of a tree come nearer to the marked stump until it’s exactly over it. Then we can go straight in. Sing out as soon as the two are in a straight line.”

“They’re in a straight line now,” said Captain John.

“Right,” said Captain Nancy. “Now, I’m not going to look at anything again. I’ll simply scull and keep my eyes looking at the bottom of the boat. You watch those two marks and tell me the moment they are not one above another.”

She began sculling fast over the stern, and the Amazon moved in towards the rocks.

“The fork is to the right of the stump,” sang out John.

Nancy sculled away, slightly altering her direction. “How is it now?” she said.

“In line.”

She went on sculling.

“Fork showing on the left . . . in line again . . . showing on the left . . . in line . . . fork showing on the right . . . in line.”

Nancy never looked up, but altered the direction of the boat a little every time John said that the marks were out of line. The Amazon moved on between the rocks and came at last into the harbour.

“We’re through,” said John. “That was jolly good work.”

“It’s quite simple,” said Captain Nancy. “Captain Flint taught us, last year when he was Uncle Jim, before he went bad. That’s the way all harbours are marked, with two marks, showing how to steer into them. Really, of course, they ought to have lanterns on them, for coming in at night. With lanterns on the marks you could come in through the rocks even if it was perfectly dark.”

“Is that what the pilot books mean by leading lights?” asked John.

“What are pilot books?” asked Nancy, and John was pleased to find that there were things that even Captain Nancy did not know.

They pulled up the Amazon and went back to the camp to take part in the feast. It was a very good feast. The sandwiches and sardines went well with the pemmican and the lemonade. By the time that was done the big kettle was boiling like anything, and it seemed a pity not to have tea with the cake.

Time went fast as the six mariners sat round the fire planning voyages. At last Captain Nancy looked up at the sun.

“We’d better be sailing,” she said, “or there’ll be more trouble with the natives. We’ve been late for supper twice this week already. This wind always goes and drops about sunset, and it’s a tremendous way to row. Stir your stumps, Peggy.”

“One of them’s asleep,” said Peggy.

“It’ll wake up if you stir them both,” said Captain Nancy. “Come on, lend a hand with that puncheon.”

The empty barrel was easy to carry, but, to do the thing properly, they slung it on the oar as before. Titty carried the pirate flag for them. Roger carried the basket. The whole crew of the Swallow went down to the harbour to see the Amazons off.

The Amazons worked out of harbour, set their sail and, with the fair wind that was still blowing, were soon slipping past the northern end of the island. The Swallows had run back to the look-out place to wave to them.

“War beginning to-morrow,” shouted Captain Nancy.

“All right,” shouted Captain John.