Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons (Complete Series)

The White Flag

Table of Contents

Captain John let loose a hurrah that startled even himself and woke the sleeping Roger.

“Titty, Titty, how ever did you do it?” he said.

“Well done, Titty,” said Susan.

Roger sat up in the bottom of the boat. “Hullo, Titty,” he said, and then curled up and went to sleep again.

John jibed Swallow and then, bringing her to the wind, ran her alongside. Mate Susan scrambled forward and grabbed the gunwale of the Amazon.

“But where are the Amazons?” said John.

“They’ve got our camp. They’ve got Wild Cat Island,” said Titty. “I couldn’t help it. I was asleep, and there was an owl, and I thought it was you, and I lit the lights, and they came into the harbour. Then they went to the camp and I took Amazon.”

“Who cares about the camp?” cried John. “It was whoever could capture the other’s ship. And now we’ve got her. And I thought we’d failed. Swallow is flagship after all. Well done, Titty.”

Titty tried to tell her story, how she had pushed out in the dark, how she had tried to anchor near the opposite shore and had only found out when day came that she had anchored by Cormorant Island instead. Owls . . . the noise of rowing . . . men quarrelling . . . the leading light going out . . . it all seemed a muddle.

“The main thing,” said Captain John, “is that Amazon is our prize. Now we’ll sail over with the whole fleet. We’ll make a landing in the face of the enemy and retake the island. Or we’ll call upon them to surrender, and if they won’t we’ll keep the sea for days and days until they starve. But they’ll have to give in. Hullo, what are they doing?”

Susan, Titty, and John stared at Wild Cat Island. Roger woke up again and stared too.

A large blanket, flapping heavily in the wind, was being slowly hoisted up the lighthouse tree. They could see the Amazons holding the ropes below it. It was a big, stout blanket and, though the wind was fresh, it could not blow it out square, but kept it flapping in slow, disheartened flaps.

“It’s one of our blankets,” said Susan.

“It’s a white flag,” said Titty. “They’re surrendering.”

“It isn’t very white,” said Roger sleepily.

“It’s meant to be,” said Titty. “I know it’s a white flag.”

“We’ll soon find out,” said Captain John. “I say, Mister Mate, will you sail the prize or shall I?”

“You’d better,” said Susan, “because of the centre-board.”

“Right,” said the captain. “Roger stays with you in Swallow. Titty sails in Amazon. Look out, Titty, I’m coming aboard.”

He climbed from one boat into the other.

“Hang on to Swallow’s painter while I get sail on Amazon,” he said.

“Aye, aye, sir,” said Titty.

Mate Susan let go of Amazon’s gunwale, and Swallow drifted astern at the end of her painter.

“Where’s the pirate flag?” asked Captain John, looking up the mast to see that all was clear for setting sail.

“They’d left it at the mast-head,” said Titty. “I hauled it down as soon as it was light and I saw it. I didn’t think of it before.”

“You did quite right,” said Captain John. “While she’s a prize she mustn’t fly her own flag. She ought to fly ours, but we haven’t a spare one.”

Amazon’s sail was a standing lug, just the same as Swallow’s, so that John had no trouble in setting it. He began hauling in the anchor rope.

“Now then, Able-seaman, will you take the tiller to sail her across? She’s your prize really, you know. Are you ready, Mister Mate? Shall we cast off Swallow?”

“Ready,” said Susan. “Roger, run forward to coil down the painter.”

Roger, fully awake now, hurried to the bows. Titty let go of Swallow’s painter. Roger hauled it in hand over hand and coiled it down. Swallow’s sail filled and she began to move. John hauled on the Amazon’s anchor rope until it was straight up and down.

“Ready, Titty.”

“Ready.”

“She’s sailing now. Keep her full.” John hauled up the anchor as fast as he could. Amazon began to sail, but slipped away to leeward.

“Centre-board’s not down,” said John. “She’ll sail all right as soon as it is. She hasn’t got a keel like Swallow.”

He lowered the centre-board and Amazon stopped slipping sideways and her wake lengthened astern of her.

“All right, Titty?” he asked.

“Fine,” she said. “I mean, aye, aye, sir.” With her mouth a little open and her eyes earnestly on the sail she was steering Amazon for the first time. It was no wonder that she used the wrong words.

In the fresh morning wind the fleet moved towards Wild Cat Island, Swallow a little ahead.

Mate Susan called across the water, “Shall I make straight for the harbour? I can do it easily on this tack.”

“No,” called Captain John. “We’d better sail to the look-out point, and ask them what they mean by that blanket.”

“I’m certain it’s a white flag,” said Titty, without shifting her eyes from the sail.

“We’ll make sure of it, anyway,” said Captain John. “They might try to rush the Amazon as we bring her in.”

At the look-out place, under the great flapping blanket that hung on the lighthouse tree where the lantern had hung last night, were the Amazon pirates. They were not standing still. They seemed to be dancing.

“What are they doing?” said Captain John.

“That’s Captain Nancy, the one who’s jumping up and down,” said Titty. “Perhaps she’s dancing with rage.” Titty could not afford to take more than a short look out of the corner of her eye. She was sailing their ship, and she wanted them to see that she could do it. She wanted to leave a wake as straight as theirs.

Susan in the Swallow went about before reaching the island. Amazon passed under her stern.

“It’s deep water right under the look-out place,” said John. “You can sail her close to it. She’ll lose the wind, but she’ll find it again the other side. She’s got enough way on her to carry her past.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” said Titty.

The Amazons on the look-out place seemed to be beckoning them on. “Hurry up,” they shouted.

Titty sailed close under the point, and John shouted up to the Amazons, “Do you surrender?”

Nancy Blackett shouted back: “We do. We jolly well do. But buck up.”

“Do be quick,” shouted Peggy.

“No trickery,” shouted John.

“Honest Pirate,” shouted Nancy.

“Honest Injun too?” said John doubtfully.

“Honest Injun,” shouted Nancy. “Honest anything you like. But don’t waste any more time. Bring her to the landing-place.”

“We’ll take her into port,” said Captain John.

“The landing-place is nearer.”

“She’s our prize,” called John, “and we’ll take her to the harbour.”

Already Amazon had passed with flapping sail through the sheltered water under the point. Now she had the wind again, and was sailing fast across the channel between the island and the eastern shore of the lake.

“Close-hauled, Titty,” said Captain John.

“Close-hauled it is,” said Able-seaman Titty, bringing Amazon nearer to the wind. “But what are they in such a hurry about?”

“I don’t know,” said Captain John. “Don’t stint her. We’ll race Susan for the harbour. She’s beating up the other side.”

But Swallow had too good a start and was sailing in the open lake. When Titty brought her prize round the rocks at the southern end of the island, Swallow was already there. Susan had taken down her sail and was waiting with oars out, just outside the entrance to the harbour.

“It’s all right,” shouted John. “You can go in. They’ve surrendered. They’re in an awful hurry about something. We’ll go in together.”