Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons (Complete Series)

Susan pulled with one oar and backwatered with the other, turned Swallow round, and paddled her in towards the harbour.

“DO YOU SURRENDER?”

“Let me row Amazon in,” said Titty. “I got her out in the dark last night.”

“Look here, Titty, can you see the marks? The wind’s exactly right. You can sail her in. I’ll lower the sail at the right moment. You needn’t think about anything but keeping the marks one behind the other.”

“I’ll try,” said Titty, and steered straight in.

“Don’t take any notice of me,” said John. “Keep the marks together.” Just as they shot in among the rocks he lowered the sail and pulled up the centre-board. “Keep your eye on the marks. That’s right. Look out for Swallow. Well done!”

Just as Swallow grounded on the beach in the little harbour, Amazon slid quietly in and grounded close beside her.

The Amazons were waiting on the beach. They seemed altogether friendly. Peggy Blackett pulled Swallow up, and Nancy Blackett did the same for Amazon. But Captain John was taking no risks.

“Captain Nancy,” he said, “which ship is flagship?”

Captain Nancy did not hesitate. “Swallow is. And earned it. But do buck up. No one knows we’re here. We’re supposed to be in bed. And we must get home in time to get up for breakfast when we’re called.”

“You’ll never do it,” said Captain John.

“Yes we will. The wind’s getting stronger every minute, and the sun’s only just rising. But do be quick. Let’s help to carry the things. There’s an awful lot to say.”

Titty climbed out over Amazon’s bows, and Captain Nancy shook her by the hand and slapped her on the back. “By thunder, Able-seaman,” said she, “I wish you were in my crew. This morning when I saw that you’d done us all by yourself, I could have swallowed the anchor. You did just exactly what we had planned to do.”

Susan was unloading the blankets and things from Swallow. Roger had run off to the camp. Everybody else took something to carry. Roger came running back.

“They’ve got a grand fire,” he said, “and the kettle’s boiling over.”

“Who’s for tea?” said Mate Susan.

“Well, there’s hardly time,” said Peggy.

“Come on, quick,” said Nancy. “There’s lots that’s got to be said, and we can slop the tea down while we’re saying it.”

The Swallows and the Amazons trooped along the path to the camp. The Amazons did most of the talking.

“The real thing is,” said Captain Nancy, “that we’ve got leave to come and camp on the island for a few days, beginning the day after to-morrow. . . .”

“That’s to-morrow now,” said Peggy.

“Mother had a party last night at home, and there are people coming to-day, you know, the sort of people we have to be best-frocked for. So the only thing was to have the war last night. We can’t very well be at war with each other while we’re living in the same camp. The wind wouldn’t let us have it before. It had to be last night or never. And then the able-seaman did us. It was a noble feat of arms.”

“I got in an awful row when we found Amazon had gone,” Peggy broke in. “Captain Nancy thought she had drifted away, and when I said she couldn’t drift against the wind . . .”

“You wait, Peggy,” threatened Captain Nancy.

“Oh, well,” said Peggy. “You know what you said. Anyhow, it wasn’t till it got light that we knew what had happened to her. At least we didn’t know at first, not even after we saw her. Not until Able-seaman Titty sat up and hauled our flag down.”

“Well,” said Captain Nancy, “yours was a great plan. Anybody might have been taken in by it. When we saw you at the boathouse . . .”

“Where were you?” asked Captain John.

“We were in the reeds at the mouth of the river.”

“I never thought of that,” said Captain John.

“When we saw you had gone up the river, I was sure you were all aboard. I knew you’d find nothing up the river, and I thought we should have time to get down to Wild Cat Island before it was quite dark. I thought you’d be going back there at once. But I never thought of your leaving a shore party and going up the river simply to trick us into our own trap. It really was a great plan.’ ”

“But it wasn’t a plan, really,” said Captain John. “At least I never thought of it. But what were you going to do?”

“Well, it worked, anyhow,” said Captain Nancy. “Our plan was very simple. We were going to sail to Wild Cat Island. My mate was to put me ashore there and sail on and wait in the next bay. I was going to hide, and then, when you came back and went to the camp, I was going to collar Swallow and go off to look for Peggy and the rest of the fleet.”

“What did happen?” said Susan.

“It took us much longer to get here than I had thought it would. It got dark so quickly, and we had a horrible time getting through the islands. And then, when we saw your lantern . . .”

“Lighthouse,” said Titty.

“We thought you’d got back before us. Then we saw a light moving on the island.”

“That was my torch,” said Titty.

“And we thought we’d sail on and wait somewhere till dawn. Then we saw the two lights, and I guessed at once that they were on the marks. So I came in under oars to tell you about to-morrow. Then we went to the camp and found nobody. Then we shouted a bit, and came back to the harbour, and there was no Amazon. Titty did her part awfully well.”

“Then what did you do?” asked Susan.

“We had a bit of an argument,” said Nancy.

“A bit,” said Peggy. “It was a whole one and a half.”

“Then we found a seed cake and ate it. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not a bit,” said Susan. “There’s a new one coming to-day.”

“I ate all your chocolate in Amazon,” said Titty.

“You’d earned it,” said Captain Nancy generously.

They came to the camp. The fire was blazing high and steam was pouring from the kettle.

“Shall I make the tea?” said Peggy Blackett.

“Avast there, Peggy,” said Captain Nancy. “We’ve lost. Captain John is Commodore. Captain John, do you think your mate will give us some tea?”

“Mister Mate,” said Captain John, “a round of tea would do us all a bit of good.”

“But there’s no milk,” said Susan, “and it’s too early to go to the farm.”

“And there isn’t time for that,” said Captain Nancy. “Let’s have it without.”

“And call it hot grog,” said Titty.

So hot grog it was and served in large tots. No tea with milk ever tasted better than this hot milkless tea on Wild Cat Island while the first sunlight was creeping down from the tops of the opposite hills. But it was so hot and the Amazons were in such a hurry to be off that Peggy was sent down to the landing-place for a bottle full of cold water to cool the grog with.

“Is the war over?” said Nancy. “It had better be, if we’re coming to-morrow.”

“Right. Peace,” said Captain John.

“Skip off and haul down the white flag, then,” commanded Nancy, and Peggy, putting her mug of hot grog on the ground, went up to the look-out place and hauled down the blanket from the lighthouse tree.

“The sun’s really coming up now,” said Peggy when she came back. “We ought to start or we shall never be back in time.”

“Come on, then,” said Nancy. “And to-morrow we’ll set sail as early as ever we can, and we’ll bring our tent, and then we’ll make a raid on Captain Flint.”