Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons (Complete Series)

Just then the woodman turned his great horse and rode off, clumpetty clump, down the road, waving his hand to Mary, who waved her hand to him.

“You stay here,” said mother, “and Mr. Turner and I will go across the road to talk to Mary.”

“I’m coming too,” said Bridget.

“Less trouble to carry you than to put you down,” said Captain Flint.

The four explorers and their two allies waited in the wood while mother and Captain Flint, with Bridget on his shoulder, crossed the road to talk to Mary Swainson. They talked to Mary for a minute or two at the other side of the road, and then went off with her along the cart-track that led through the wood to Swainson’s farm. They were gone a long time, while Nancy and Peggy, remembering the plans that had been upset by the shipwreck, and how they had meant to go up to the moor to see the secret valley, were asking Titty and Roger all about it, and just where it was. Titty and Roger answered their questions as well as they could, but were very careful to say nothing about Peter Duck’s cave.

“Let’s go up there the first day we can get away,” said Nancy.

When mother and Captain Flint and Bridget came back, anybody could tell that mother was very pleased with what she had seen. Captain Flint was carrying a basket of eggs, and Bridget was eating an apple.

“She’s a very nice, sensible, kind girl,” said mother, “and I liked the farm, too, and the old people.”

“Did he sing to you?” asked Roger.

“Yes, he did, until Mrs. Swainson and Mary made him stop.”

“He’s a fine, musical old chap, is old Neddy,” said Captain Flint.

“So it’s settled,” said John. “We can stay where we are?”

“Yes,” said mother, “I think you can. Only do please remember what your father said.”

“Hurrah,” said Roger.

And then, when they had got back to the cove, Captain Flint said, “There’s just one thing. They’ll have to find another place for the camp, or they’ll be washed away with the first rain.”

“Why, I ought to have thought of that,” said mother.

“But there are plenty of better places close along the shore,” said Captain Flint. “Dry, anyhow.”

“Not so secret,” said Peggy.

“We’ll find them a place,” said Nancy.

“We’ll go to our valley,” said Titty. “Next to the island, it’s the finest place in the world.”

“What valley is that?” asked mother.

Titty and Roger explained as well as they could.

“I know it,” said Captain Flint. “But I haven’t been up there these twenty years. It’s a good place for a camp, if it’s the place I’m thinking of. It’s got a . . .”

“Oh,” shouted Roger.

“Don’t tell. Don’t tell. . . . It’s a secret. . . . If it’s . . .”

Titty was only just in time to stop him. He looked down, puzzled.

“If it’s what?”

“Whisper it,” said Titty. . . . “Oh, that’s all right. It’s something else that’s a secret.”

“Then I can go on?” asked Captain Flint. “What I was going to say was that it’s got a good trout tarn up above it. I’ll show you how to catch trout there.”

“We saw lots in the beck,” said Roger.

“How far is it from Swainson’s farm?” asked mother.

“Not much farther than we are here,” said Captain Flint.

“We haven’t been up to see it yet,” said John. “We were going to-day. But it would be much better to be near the lake.”

Titty’s hopes that had risen high for a moment fell once more, though not very far. After all, the main thing was that exploring was not to come to an end.

“I don’t mind where you are,” said mother, “so long as you are within reach of Mary Swainson. She’s going to keep me in touch with you when she brings the milk across to the village.”

“And you and Bridgie’ll come to see us,” said Susan.

“And Captain Flint, too,” said Titty.

“I’d like to see if you can make as good a job of being shipwrecked as you did of last year’s war,” said Captain Flint.

“The shipwreck’s real enough,” said John grimly.

“Bother the great-aunt,” said Nancy. “If it wasn’t for her we’d come and be shipwrecked too.” She looked almost resentfully at Amazon, snugly beached beside the rowing boat. “You can do all sorts of things. You can discover the sources of the Amazon River. You can discover us. There’s nothing you can’t do. But we can’t do anything worth doing, not until the great-aunt’s gone.”

“By Jove,” said Captain Flint, “I’m glad you reminded me. We had all to be back for tea, and now we’re going to be late for supper if we don’t hurry. So if Mrs. Walker doesn’t mind.”

“But you can tell her there’s been a shipwreck,” said Roger.

“It’s no good talking of shipwrecks to Aunt Maria,” said Captain Flint.

“Bridget and I ought to be getting back, too,” said mother. “Bridget’s bed-time isn’t far off.”

There was a general embarking. John and Susan pushed off the rowing boat, when mother, Bridget and Captain Flint were aboard. Titty and Roger helped to push off Amazon. Then the four explorers ran out to the northern headland to wave good-bye. It felt queer and wrong to be the ones left on land and to know that even if they wanted, they had no boat in which to put to sea.

“Don’t sit up late to-night,” mother called. “After a shipwreck it’s best to get early to bed.”

The shipwrecked explorers watched the little white sail of Amazon disappear among the islands off Rio. Then the rowing boat moved under the Peak of Darien. It, too, was gone. They felt suddenly very tired. Nobody minded when Susan said they would get supper over at once. They had a good bread-and-milk supper, and when it was done there did not seem to be much that anybody wanted to say, even when it was found that not a flash could be got from any one of the three torches that, in the pocket of a knapsack, had gone down with the ship. Candle-lanterns were all you needed to go to bed by. There was no chattering in the tents while they were wriggling down into their sleeping-bags, and though the noise of the beck hurrying past the tent doors was different from the noise of the lake lapping on the rocks of the island, two minutes after John called “Lights out” there was nobody awake to listen to it.

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There were no trees between the tents and the sun as it rose over the eastern hills on the other side of the lake. The sunlight and the noise of the beck hurrying through the middle of the camp woke Captain John early in the morning. He woke to thoughts so sad that he turned over inside his sleeping-bag and did his best to go instantly to sleep again. Last night he had thought that the worst part of being shipwrecked was over. He knew now that it had only just begun.

Making that silly mistake about hanging on too long and trying not to jibe until at last the wind flung the sail over for him when he least wanted it . . . all that was being shipwrecked. But after the wreck there had been the diving and the salvage work, getting Swallow to the beach. Then there had been the mending of the ship, and the perilous voyage to Rio in her under her jury rig, with water creeping in. All the time there had been something to do in a hurry. All the time there had been something to do with boats. Just for one moment last night he had felt queer, seeing the rowing boat and the Amazon go away and knowing that he could not follow them. But even then there had been other things to think of. This morning he was face to face with the truth.