Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons (Complete Series)

“I’m going to slacken away my bow warp,” said Captain John. “It’s got very taut with all this wet.”

“I’ll do the same with mine.”

They loosened the painters a little.

“It’s a grand harbour, you know,” shouted Nancy. “Just listen to it outside.”

In the sheltered harbour there were waves, but nothing to matter. The big rocks on either side broke the waves before they could get in. But they could hear the crashing of breakers on the outer shoals and along the steep western shore. Titty slipped away from the others and crawled to the edge of the low cliff that ran along that shore, and crouched there, facing into the wind. Spray from the waves breaking beneath her was blown into her face. Flashes of lightning lit up the whole lake and showed great waves stretching right across it with white curling tops. Then it was dark again. Then more lightning showed her the fields and woods and hills on the other side of the lake, beyond the raging water.

The others missed her and would have gone back to the tent without her if Nancy had not seen the gleam of a torch away to the left of the path.

John found her and tugged at her sleeve.

“Come along,” he shouted. “We thought you’d gone on already.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” said Titty, though John could not hear her, and they joined Nancy on the path and went back to the tent together.

“Well,” said Susan, “if you were wet before, you’re a lot wetter now. And nothing to change into.”

“It was worth it,” said Titty.

“Were the boats all right?” asked Roger.

“Couldn’t be snugger,” said Captain Nancy. “But their crews will have a lot of baling to do in the morning.”

“What’s the time now?” said Peggy. “Susan says it’s only about three.”

“It’s nearly five,” said John.

Nobody could go to sleep. They became shipwrecked sailors.

“Both our masts went by the board,” said Captain Nancy.

“And before that the mizen was struck by lightning,” said Captain John.

“Did you see the blue lights flickering on the ends of the spars?” said Nancy. “That was before the mizen was struck.”

“Then we started a plank,” said John, “and the water poured in.”

“The mate came running on deck shouting, ‘All hands to the pumps, five feet of water in the hold.’ That was you, Susan,” said Nancy.

“Why not me?” said Peggy.

“You were the second mate. You were cutting the wreckage adrift and making a raft. No, you weren’t. We didn’t make a raft. I forgot. You were cutting the wreckage adrift to clear the decks, and seeing to the lowering of the boats.”

“One boat was called Swallow and the other was called Amazon,” said Roger.

“And the waves were breaking over the ship,” said Titty, “and she was going down by the head with every soul on board. Someone had killed an albatross.”

“Pieces of eight, pieces of eight,” shouted the parrot.

“Yes. She was full of them,” said Titty. “That’s what made her sink so fast.”

“We launched the boats,” said Nancy, “and then the ship went down and we were alone on the deep.”

“Sometimes in the waves we could not see each other,” said John, “but sometimes we could.”

“We had no food in the boats but a biscuit each and a little water,” said Susan.

“Day after day we ran before the storm,” said Nancy. “North-west by north was our course. We had decided it before we left the ship.”

“We ate the biscuits and drank the water,” said Peggy.

“It blew and thundered and lightened and rained without stopping,” said Titty, “and Roger and I were baling Swallow and Peggy was baling Amazon.”

“Then the rain stopped, and for days and days we had nothing to eat and nothing to drink,” said Nancy.

“In Swallow we were going to draw lots who was to be eaten first,” said Titty.

“We were coming to that when we sighted land,” said Nancy.

“We sighted land too, just in time,” said Roger.

“There were great breakers on the beach,” said Nancy.

“We only saw the land when there was a flash of lightning,” said Titty. “Palm trees waving like anything.”

“There was lightning all the time,” said Nancy. “We ran on between the breakers. Our boats were capsized and we clung to them. They were thrown far up the beach by the waves. We were battered but saved.”

“So was the parrot,” said Titty. “And now we shall be here for twenty years. Every day we shall watch for a passing ship.”

“But how have we got a tent?” said Roger.

“Luckily there was one in one of the boats,” said Nancy. “I say, Peggy, what about a round of chocolate? There’s still a lot left.”

At last it began to grow light outside. For some time the thunder had been lagging after the lightning. After a flash it was a long time before the rumbling of the thunder began far away. The wind dropped. The noise of the rain on the tent grew less and less and came to an end. The dawn came up behind the eastern hills. The light of the lantern no longer filled the tent. Light was coming in from outside, through the canvas. The Swallows and Amazons went out into the early morning to look at the wreck of their camp. Patches of blue sky were showing overhead and patches of sunlight on the hills. Ragged clouds were blowing away. There was a wonderful smell of wet earth. The storm was over.

John went back into the tent to tap the barometer. It was going up.

Susan began raking the sodden ashes out of the fireplace. Nancy brought out her bundle of dry sticks. All the rest of the firewood was dripping wet, and it took them a long time to get their fire going. Without the dry sticks they could never have done it. Titty burrowed into what had been her tent and the mate’s, and brought out the parrot’s blue cloth and hung it on two sticks to dry.

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And then came the natives.

The first to arrive was Mrs. Dixon. Just as the fire was beginning to burn the shipwrecked sailors saw her coming down the field from the farm above Shark Bay, with a milk-can in one hand and a big bucket in the other. And there was Mr. Dixon coming too, with a pair of oars over his shoulder. Mr. Dixon baled their boat and pushed it out and rowed Mrs. Dixon across to the island, splashing as he rowed. Though the wind had gone down there were still waves on the lake, even between the island and the shore.

“Whatever can they want?” said Nancy.

Peggy and Titty had gone up to the look-out point to look at the lake. They came running back into the camp.

“Captain Flint’s coming,” shouted Peggy. “He’s nearly here, and there’s another rowing boat, and there’s a launch in the distance. I think it’s ours.”

“Mother’s in the other rowing boat, with a native,” said Titty.

“If it’s the launch, our mother’s in it, I bet you anything,” said Nancy.

“There are still quite big waves down the lake,” said Titty, “but mother’s got past them all right.”

Everybody ran down to the landing-place, and got there just as Mr. Dixon stepped out and pulled his boat up. Mrs. Dixon clambered out with her big bucket and the milk-can. She had a tray over the top of the bucket for a lid, and steam was coming from under it.

“No. It isn’t pigwash,” she said, “though you might think it. It’s porridge for drowned rats, which is what I reckoned you’d be. You’ve done well to get your fire lit at all. I could hardly rest for thinking of you in that storm. My word, how it did come down. And so you found Mr. Turner’s box that was stolen. And I thought it was you that took it. Dixon told me the news when he came from the village last night.”