Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons (Complete Series)

“It’s all right about that, Titty,” said John. “It’s all put right. It’s over.”

“Look here,” said Captain Flint. “I’ll do anything I can to make up. I’ve wasted my own summer, writing a book, and I’ve wasted some of yours too, Nancy’s and Peggy’s I mean, but I see their tent is here, so I suppose you are all together in things. Take back your Black Spot, and make peace with me, and we’ll have a first-class war at once. If you want to capture the houseboat come and do your worst. I’ll be ready for you. I’ve got nothing else to do now and I’ll make up for lost time.”

“Shall we forgive him?” said Peggy. “He’s quite good at being one of us if he likes.”

“We’ll forgive him,” said Nancy, “if it’s to be war, and a real battle on the houseboat. We’ll forgive him because he’s ashamed, and because he’s in trouble. He really has had his houseboat burgled.”

“Well, he deserved it,” said Titty.

“Yes,” said Nancy, “but nobody ought to be allowed to burgle it except ourselves.”

“Real battle,” said Captain Flint. “At three o’clock to-morrow. I must tidy up below after those scoundrels. But at three o’clock to-morrow I’ll be cleared for action.”

“Really and truly?” said Peggy.

“Honest Pirate!” said Captain Flint.

“All right,” said Nancy.

“Take back your Black Spot, then,” said Captain Flint.

“You keep it,” said Nancy, “to remind you never to turn native again.”

“I will,” he said. “But look here, I’d like to know the names of my enemies. And, by the way, why in your Black Spot did you call me Captain Flint?”

“Because Titty, that’s their able-seaman, said you were a retired pirate.”

“Why, so I am. But which is Titty? Are you Titty?” he said to Susan.

“Of course she isn’t,” said Nancy. “She is the mate of the Swallow, and her name is Susan.”

“How do you do, Mister Mate,” said Captain Flint.

“And this is Captain John of the Swallow.”

“The skipper and I have met already. He’s forgiven me, though I don’t deserve it.”

“This is Able-seaman Titty. Able-seaman Titty, Captain Flint.”

“So it was you who knew the dark secret of my pirate past.”

“I saw the parrot,” said Titty.

“And this is Roger, their ship’s boy.”

“I’ve been a ship’s boy myself,” said Captain Flint. “It’s a hard life.”

“And we are the Amazon pirates.”

“I know you two ruffians well enough,” said Captain Flint.

“Do you really mean a battle on the houseboat to-morrow?” said Titty.

“To-morrow as ever is,” said Captain Flint.

“We’ll take her,” said the able-seaman. “Have you got a good plank?”

“What for?”

“To walk,” said the able-seaman.

“Everything shall be in order,” said the retired pirate, who, of course, knew just how things should be.

“What about dinner?” said Roger.

“If it’s going to be war to-morrow,” said Mate Susan to Captain Flint, “would you like to stop and have dinner with us to-day? I’ll put the kettle on at once.”

“There’s nothing I should like better,” he said. “I seem to be in the middle of an enemy camp . . .”

“Bang in the middle of it,” said Nancy.

“But it’s such a good one that I’d almost like to join you altogether.”

“Too late,” said Nancy. “They’re going in two days. So are we. You’re not the least use now except as an enemy. But we don’t mind letting you be that, if you really want to be one of us again.”

“Three o’clock to-morrow, and the scuppers will be red with blood,” said Captain Flint. “But I suppose you don’t mind my stopping to dinner to-day.”

“Not a bit,” said Nancy. “The mate’s invited you. And there’s lots to eat. We brought a plum pudding to cut up in pieces, and fry. Most luscious. Cook gave it us. And then afterwards we found a cold tongue. It had hardly been touched, so we brought it too. But we came away rather privately because we thought we might be stopped, and so we went and forgot the grog.”

“I’ll have the kettle boiling in a minute,” said Susan. “You bring the plates out, Titty. Pick out some of the best potatoes, Roger, and we’ll bake them. There’s lots of hot ashes at the edge of the fire.”

“Come on, Peggy, and we’ll bring our stores into camp,” said Captain Nancy.

“Can I give you a hand with that lacing?” said Captain Flint, and in another moment he was sitting on the ground stretching out the sail while John reeved the lacing through the eyelet holes along the edge of the sail, and Susan was busy with the fire and the kettle, and Titty and the boy were bringing out plates and mugs and knives.

“This is a lot better than writing books,” said Captain Flint presently. “Now, skipper, if you’ll take two turns there and hold fast, I’ll show you a good way of finishing off.”

Considering that Captain Flint was having dinner with his enemies, it was a very friendly meal. Even Titty softened towards him before the end of it. He never made the mistake of calling her anything but Able-seaman. The tongue that the Amazons had found and brought away with them was very good. So was the seed cake of the Swallows. It was no good opening pemmican tins when there was nearly the whole of a tongue to be eaten. The plum pudding fried in slices would have come last, only the potatoes took a long time to get properly done, and in the end had to be used as a sort of hot dessert.

They were sitting round the fire, getting the insides out of the potatoes, which were almost too hot to touch, when they began to talk about the burglary.

“I wonder what made the Billies give you that message for me?” said Captain Flint.

“They said they’d heard something at Bigland,” said John.

“That’s away beyond the foot of the lake,” said Captain Flint. “If we could only find out where the burglar came from, there might be some chance of getting my box back. But there was nothing to show who he was or what he was. My boat looked as if half a hundred wild cats had been having a general scrimmage in the cabin, and that was all, except that they took my old cabin trunk. But everything that mattered was in it.”

“Was it a very heavy one?” said Titty.

“It was, rather.”

“Were there ingots in it?”

Captain Flint laughed. “Afraid not,” he said. “What there was was a typewriter, a lot of diaries, and old logs, and the book I’ve been writing all the summer. If they’d taken anything else I wouldn’t have minded.”

Thoughts struggled in Titty’s mind, but she looked at Captain Flint more kindly than before.

“Was it a book you’d been writing yourself?” she asked.

“It was,” said Captain Flint.

“About your pirate past?”

“Well, that came into it.”

“Was it a very good book?”

“Come to think of it,” said Captain Flint, “perhaps it wasn’t. All the same, I’d like to get it back. You’ve no idea what a job it is writing a book. Keeping a log is bad enough.”

“I know,” said Titty.

“And now I might just as well not have written it.”

“And been much nicer all the summer,” said Nancy.

“Don’t rub it in,” said Captain Flint sadly.

There was a rapid secret talk between the Amazons, ending with Nancy saying, “Well, tell him if you like.”

“Look here, Uncle Jim,” said Peggy.

“I beg your pardon, I thought my name was Captain Flint.”

“So it is. If you’re really going to be one of us again, we’ve got something to tell you. We know just when the burglar was burgling your boat. We saw him do it.”

“Did you, by Jove? Did you see which way he went?”