Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons (Complete Series)

“Mrs. Blackett says he is very busy over some writing and wants to be let alone. She says she’s afraid her tomboys lead him a terrible life.”

There was silence. It was all right to talk to mother about their own affairs. Mother was a friendly native. But nothing could be said about the affairs of the Amazons. Mother noticed the silence, and at once began to talk of something else. She really was the very best of natives.

The birthday party grew cheerful again. The female native told stories of old days before they had been born. She talked of Malta and Gibraltar, and of sailing in Sydney Harbour when she was a little girl.

Later on in the afternoon they bathed, and mother came down to the landing-place to see Roger swim. He swam three strokes on his front and managed six good kicks on his back.

“If you have got as far as that,” the female native said, “I think you can keep the knife. All you want now is practice.”

John wanted to swim round the island again to show her that he could do it, but she said that once was quite enough for one day. Titty did some pearl-diving. Susan swam a short race with John and very nearly beat him.

Then there was tea.

At last it was time to take Vicky home.

The empty hamper was carried down to the landing-place.

“How soon are you going to get tired of your island?” asked the female native.

“Never, never,” said the Swallows.

“You’ve been lucky to have good weather so far,” she said. “And you seem to be doing yourselves no harm. But there’s only another week before we must be going south. You can stay here until nearly the end of it, unless the weather breaks. If the weather breaks, I mean if the rainy season comes on, you’ll have to come away. In the rainy season desert islands, even the best of them, are almost uninhabitable.”

The Swallows looked at each other.

“A week’s a long time,” said mother.

“But we want to stay for ever,” said Roger.

“I dare say you do,” said the female native.

She kissed them all round. They all kissed fat Vicky. Nurse and Vicky got into the boat and sat down in the stern.

Titty said, “Mother, you don’t mind being a native, do you?”

“Not a bit,” said mother.

“Then just for one minute I’ll be a native too. What about rubbing noses? Like the natives you told us about in the Australian bush.”

Titty and the female native rubbed noses, after which, of course, Roger had to do the same.

Then the female native kissed all the Swallows good-bye and took her place in the boat. The empty hamper was lifted in. John and Susan pushed the boat off, and mother rowed away.

“Let’s be a convoy,” said Captain John.

In a moment Swallow was afloat, her crew was aboard, and Captain John was rowing as hard as he could. The female native waited, resting on her oars. Then they rowed side by side. It was much harder to row Swallow than to row the boat from Holly Howe, because Swallow was deep in the water and built for sailing, not rowing. But the female native did not hurry. At last, just before they came to Houseboat Bay, Captain John stopped. He did not want to see the houseboat again that day. He turned Swallow round.

“Good-bye, natives,” called Titty.

“Good-bye, palefaces,” called the female native. “Drool is the word, isn’t it? Drool. Drool.”

“Let me row,” said Roger.

“Let me,” said Titty.

Captain John gave them each an oar. He and Susan sat in the stern. Roger rowed in the bows. Titty rowed stroke. Susan steered.

Susan pulled out her handkerchief to wave to the boat with the natives, disappearing in the distance. The handkerchief still had a knot in it. She unfastened the knot, but did not say anything.

As they landed once more at Wild Cat Island, John said, “Titty and Roger had better do some whistling for a wind. We shall have to hurry up about the war.”

Table of Contents

They spent that evening round the camp fire, making their plans. There would surely be a wind in the morning. But who could tell which way it might blow. A southerly wind would mean one plan and a northerly wind another, and, supposing there were to be one of those rare winds that made it possible to reach either way up or down the lake, neither of these plans would be much good. But such a wind would be the same for both sides, and it was little good making plans for it. Besides, such winds were very rare. No matter which way the clouds moved overhead the high hills on each side of the lake tended to make the winds blow up or down it. So they made two plans only, one for a southerly wind and one for a northerly. A northerly would make it easy for the Amazons to sail to Wild Cat Island. A southerly would make it easy for the Swallows to sail to Amazon River. Getting back mattered less. It would not matter how long that took.

So there were two plans made.

“In naval warfare,” said John, remembering a well-known book, “two things are important; to know exactly what you want to do and to do it in the manner that your enemy least expects.”

“Well,” said Titty, “what is it we want to do?”

“We want to get hold of the Amazon when the Amazons are not aboard her, and we have to remember that they will be trying to capture Swallow in the same way. Whoever gets hold of the other one’s ship wins. We settled that when they were here. The whole thing is that there’s no time to lose. They’ll be in a hurry too, so if the wind’s from the north to-morrow they will make an attack on us and if it’s from the south they will know that we shall make an attack on them.”

“I don’t see how we are going to capture Amazon if they come here in her,” said Susan.

“This is the plan for that,” said Captain John. “If there’s a northerly wind, one of us takes Swallow out and hides her in the reeds where we were fishing. The other three hide on the island in ambush close to the harbour. The Amazons will sail into the harbour, and land and go to the camp. While they are at the camp, we shall take the Amazon, and they’ll be marooned, and we shall have won. That’s simple enough.”

“And if it’s a southerly wind,” said Titty.

“Then it’ll be more difficult, for then they’ll be expecting us, and they’ll probably have a good plan of their own.”

“I don’t see how we can surprise them,” said Susan.

“It’s more difficult,” said Captain John, “but we can do it. There’s just one thing that we can do that they think we can’t do. We can find Wild Cat Island in the dark, and bring our ship into harbour. They know about the marks, but they don’t know that we have made them into leading lights. So they’ll be sure that we shall make our attack early enough to get home by daylight. Well, we won’t. A cutting-out expedition by day would only fail. The pirates’ harbour may be within sight of their house.”

“Stronghold,” said Titty.

“There may be natives all over the place who would give the alarm. We must capture their ship while they are feasting ashore, or sleeping off their drunken orgies.”

“They had a whole barrel in the boat. They must have tubs and tubs of rum on land.”

This, then, was the plan for a southerly wind. Swallow was to sail to the islands by Rio as soon as she could, so that they could keep a look-out beyond them, and see if the Amazons sailed out of Amazon River. It would never do for the Amazon to be hiding among the islands, so that the Swallows would find her gone when they came to the river. If they did not see her, the Swallows would sail on at dusk, into the river, find the boathouse, cut out the Amazon, put aboard a prize crew (Susan) to sail her back, and return to Wild Cat Island in the dark. There was to be a lighthouse on Wild Cat Island, and the leading lights would be lit to make it safe to bring the ships into the harbour in the dark. Candles will not burn all day, so someone had to stay on the island to light them at the last minute, as well as to look after the lighthouse. That someone was to be Titty. For one thing, Roger could not be left alone, and John and Susan would both be needed for sailing the two ships. For another, Titty longed to have Wild Cat Island all to herself, to be a lonely lighthouse keeper, to be Robinson Crusoe, and to feel just what a really desert island was like. A blanket would do for a goatskin.