Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons (Complete Series)

“She is a prize, and we have taken her into our harbour.”

“It’s our harbour,” said John. “And anyhow that’s not much good to you. You can’t get out from this end of the island against the four of us. The harbour end of the island is in our hands, so that really it’s the Amazon that’s a prize, and we’ve got both ships. You’ve only got our tents.”

Titty spoke. “Why have your arrows got green feathers? The pirate on the houseboat must have given them to you. You must be on his side.”

The younger Amazon exclaimed, “But the green feathers are our trophies. We took them ourselves. He was keeping them to clean his pipes and we boarded his ship and took them.”

The elder Amazon said, “We are all on the same side, and I don’t see the good of fighting.”

John said, “But why did you come to our island . . .?”

“Our island,” said the Amazons together.

“How can it be your island? This is our camp?”

“It’s been our island for years and years,” said the Amazons. “Who built the fireplace? Who marked the harbour?”

“How marked the harbour?” said John. “You mean putting a cross on a tree there. Anyone could put a cross on a tree.”

The elder Amazon laughed. “That just shows it’s our island,” she said. “You don’t even know how the harbour is marked.”

“We do,” said Roger.

John was silent. He knew that they did not.

At last he said, “Right, we’ll parley. But you must put down your weapons, and so will we. You must take down your flag, because ours is in Swallow, so that we can’t put it up beside it.”

The elder Amazon said, “It seems a pity to take down the flag when there is such a good wind blowing it out. It isn’t as if it was just hanging. One of you go to the harbour to get your flag from your ship, and then we can have both flags flying during the parley and everything will be proper.”

“No fighting while one of us is going for it?”

“No. Peace. We’ll put our weapons down now.”

The Amazons put their bows on the ground. Roger and Titty put down their pikes. John and Susan had no weapons to put down.

“Mister Mate,” said John, “will you send one of your men to the harbour to bring our flag from Swallow?”

“Skip along, Roger,” said Mate Susan, and then, turning to the Amazons, “You swear the houseboat man is not there to take him prisoner?”

“Of course,” said the Amazons. “But will you swear he does not do anything to our ship? We were very careful with yours, and we haven’t done anything to your tents. We could have burnt them easily or razed them to the ground.”

“We swear,” said Captain John.

“Why not scuttle their ship and keep them prisoners?” said Titty.

“Until the parley is over it is peace,” said Captain John. “Skip along, Roger, and get the Swallow’s flag, but don’t touch anything else.”

Roger ran off. “I’ve got their knife anyway,” he shouted.

The elder Amazon turned to the other.

“Peggy, you donkey,” she said. “Where’s the ship’s knife?”

Peggy, the younger Amazon, felt in the pocket of her breeches.

“Gone,” she said. “We must have left it when we were in hiding in the bush.”

“We don’t want to take their knife,” whispered Susan to John.

“We’ll give you back your knife,” said John to the Amazons. “As soon as our man comes back from the harbour he shall put it with the other weapons. We don’t really want your knife. We have three knives on our ship.”

“Besides the knives for cutting pemmican and bread and butter,” said Susan.

“This knife was given us by Uncle Jim last year for polishing the cannon on the houseboat,” said the elder Amazon.

“Is the man on the houseboat your uncle?” asked Titty. “I thought you said he was your enemy too.”

“He is only our uncle sometimes,” said the younger Amazon. “He was last year, but this year he is in league with the natives, and the natives are very unfriendly.”

“Our natives are friendly,” said Titty. “Everybody is friendly except the houseboat man . . . and you,” she added. “And if he’s your uncle you must be in league with him.”

“We jolly well aren’t,” said the elder Amazon.

“Shut up, Titty, and wait for the parley,” said Captain John.

Roger came back with Titty’s flag from the Swallow.

“They’ve got a lovely boat,” he whispered to Mate Susan.

“Hand over that knife,” said John.

Roger handed it over and John cut a tall sapling from a hazel on the edge of the clearing. He made a sharp point at one end of it to stick in the ground. Then he fastened Titty’s flag to the top of it, found a soft place, and planted his flagstaff firmly beside the pirate flag of the Amazons. Then he wiped the knife on the grass, shut it up, and put it with the bows and the pikes.

“Now for the parley,” said he. He walked towards the Amazons and held out his hand.

“My name is John Walker,” he said, “master of the ship Swallow. This is Susan Walker, mate of the Swallow. This is Titty, able-seaman. This is Roger, ship’s boy. Who are you?”

The elder Amazon shook hands with him.

“I am Nancy Blackett, master and part owner of the Amazon, the terror of the seas. This is Peggy Blackett, mate and part owner of the same.”

“Her real name isn’t Nancy,” said Peggy. “Her name is Ruth, but Uncle Jim said that Amazons were ruthless, and as our ship is the Amazon, and we are Amazon pirates from the Amazon River, we had to change her name. Uncle Jim gave us the ship last year. We only had a rowing boat before that.”

Nancy Blackett scowled ferociously. “I’ll shiver your timbers for you if you don’t stop chattering, Peggy.”

“They must be in league with the houseboat pirate,” said Titty. “Didn’t you hear how she said he gave them their ship?”

“That was last year,” said Nancy. “He was friendly last year. This year he’s worse than the natives.”

“Hadn’t we better sit down?” said Susan. “Shall I put a stick or two on our fire and warm up the kettle? It’s still got some tea in it.”

“We don’t want any tea, thank you,” said Nancy. “But use our fireplace if you want to.”

“It’s our camp,” said Roger.

“Let’s sit down,” said Mate Susan.

The two parties sat on the ground by the fireplace where the fire was still smouldering. Susan was right. It is much more difficult to be fierce sitting down than standing up.

“First of all,” said Nancy Blackett. “When did you come to these seas?”

“We discovered this ocean nearly a month ago.”

“When did you first come to this island?”

“We have been on the island for days and days.”

“Well,” said Nancy Blackett. “We were born on the shores of the Amazon River, which flows into this ocean. We have been coming to this island for years and years.”

“We used to come in a rowing galley until Uncle Jim gave us the Amazon,” said Peggy. “We used to land at the place where we found your ship, until we discovered the harbour. We have made our camp here every year.”

“Look here,” said Nancy Blackett. “What is the name of the island?”

“We haven’t yet given it a name,” said John.

“It is called Wild Cat Island. Uncle Jim called it that, because it belonged to us. That shows you whose island it is.”

“But it’s our island now,” said John. “It was uninhabited when we came and we put our tents up here, and you can’t turn us out.”

Titty broke in.

“Is your Uncle Jim a retired pirate?” she asked. “I said he was as soon as we saw him.”

Nancy Blackett thought for a moment. “It’s quite a good thing for him to be,” she said at last.