Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons (Complete Series)

“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.”