Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons (Complete Series)

“But,” said Titty, “you are pirates too.”

“That’s why he hates us. He must be Captain Flint. He knows what pirates are. He knows the day will come when he will walk the plank off the deck of his own ship when we have captured it.”

“We’ll help,” said Roger.

“He hates us,” said Captain John. “He has been stirring up the natives against us.”

“Let’s be allies,” said Nancy Blackett, “then it won’t matter who the island belongs to. We will be allies against Captain Flint and all the natives in the world.”

“Except our friendlies,” said Titty.

“Let’s be allies,” said Peggy. “Really we wanted to be allies as soon as we saw your smoke on the island yesterday. We are sick of natives. And we wanted to be allies at once, if only we hadn’t promised to be home for lunch. That was why we just sailed round the island and defied you with our flag. There wasn’t time for anything else. Then we went home.”

“We watched you from beyond the big islands by Rio,” said Susan.

“Rio?” said Nancy. “Rio? Oh, well, if you’ll agree to let the island go on being called Wild Cat Island, we’ll agree to Rio. It’s a good name.”

“Wild Cat Island’s a good name too,” said John politely.

“But how could you see us beyond the islands by Rio when we left you here,” asked Peggy.

“We manned the Swallow and gave chase,” said John.

“Thunder and lightning,” said Nancy Blackett, “what a chance we missed. If we’d only known we’d have given you broadside for broadside till one of us sank, even if it had made us late for lunch.”

Peggy Blackett went on. “We came here to-day to look at you again. We got up at sunrise and sailed close by the island, and there was no smoke and we thought you had gone. Probably you were all asleep. Then we saw your ship at the landing-place. We sailed on to Tea Bay and had our second breakfast there, a real one with tea. The first was only cold porridge and sandwiches we got from cook last night. Then we crawled along the shore and saw one of you coming back from somewhere in your ship. The others were bathing. Then we saw you all disappear, and we crawled back to our ship and sailed straight into the harbour. There was nobody there. Then we came through the bush on the island, scouting, and saw you round your camp fire. We took away your ship and put her in the harbour. Then we came back and made a surprise attack. When you found your ship was gone and you all ran down to the landing-place we slipped past and took the camp, and Nancy was saying that somehow it was going to be difficult to be allies . . .”

“Avast there, Peggy, you goat,” said Nancy Blackett. “Excuse my mate,” she said to Captain John. “She does chatter so.”

“Well, Nancy was saying that our surprise attack was such a good one that we’d have to go on being enemies, and I said I was sick of enemies, what with our natives and Uncle Jim being no good this year. . . .”

“He’s Captain Flint,” said Nancy.

“Anyway, if she hadn’t remembered about parleys you would have been natives too, for ever and ever,” said Peggy.

“We couldn’t be that,” said Titty.

“Of course not,” said Nancy Blackett; “it’s much more fun being sea-dogs and timber shiverers. I propose an alliance.”

“I don’t see why not,” said Captain John.

“My idea,” said Nancy Blackett, “is an alliance against all enemies, especially Uncle Jim—Captain Flint, I mean. But we want the sort of alliance that will let us fight each other if we want to.”

“That’s not an alliance,” said Titty, “that’s a treaty, a treaty of offence and defence. There are lots in the history book.”

“Yes,” said Nancy Blackett, “defence against our enemies and all sorts of desperate battles between ourselves whenever we want.”

“Right,” said Captain John.

“Have you got a bit of paper and a pencil?” asked Nancy.

“I have,” said Titty, and ran into the mate’s tent and brought out a leaf from her log and a pencil.

Nancy took it and wrote:—

“I, Captain John of the ship Swallow, and I, Captain Nancy of the ship Amazon, do hereby make a treaty of offence and defence on behalf of our ships and our ships’ companies. Signed and sealed at this place of Wild Cat Island in the month of August 1929.”

She passed the paper to the others.

“It looks all right,” said Captain John.

“It ought to be ‘this month,’ not ‘the,’ ” said Titty. “And you haven’t put in the lat. and long. They always put them in all over the place.”

Nancy Blackett took the paper, crossed out “the” in front of the word “month” and put “this” instead, and after the word “Island” wrote in “Lat. 7 Long. 200.”

“We ought to sign it in our blood,” she said, “but pencil will do.”

John took the paper and signed, “John Walker, Master.”

Nancy signed it, “Nancy Blackett, Amazon Pirate.”

The two captains shook hands.

Peggy said, “Well, it’s peace to-day, anyhow.”

Susan said, “Perhaps you would like some of our toffee?”

“Molasses,” said Titty.

Peggy said, “We did see it when we took the camp, but we did not like to take any. We’d like some very much, if you’re sure you can spare it.”

Nancy said, “Let’s broach a puncheon of Jamaica rum. We’ve got a beauty in the Amazon. Let’s go to the harbour and get it. It’s really good stuff. Sometimes our cook is quite friendly, for a native. She calls it lemonade.”

Table of Contents

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.