He unwrapped the drawing-board with the map on it. Daddy looked at it.
“You’ve done the whole lot? … Well done, indeed. Why it’s a blooming masterpiece. That’s Titty’s work, I know. That Walrus … seal … I beg your pardon … beats the band. And I like your buffaloes. …”
“It isn’t inked, of course, said Titty. “I’ll finish the inking tonight and put all our tracks in properly in different dots.”
“It’s pretty good as it is,” said Daddy. “Just have a look, Mary. But what’s all this up in the corner … ‘Secret Archipelago Expedition … Swallows, Amazons and Eels. …’ Eels?”
“That’s the tribe,” said Titty.
“We couldn’t have done it without them,” said John. “Every single one of them’s helped. We had six boats when we were doing the upper waters and the Mango Islands. …”
“Useful kind of savages,” said Daddy looking round them. “What’s become of that bag of bulls’ eyes? Pass them round. Yes. That’s the kind of savage to meet. Pity they don’t know English. Hey, you. Chow, Chow. Suck ’em. Bulls’ eyes. Plenty sweet … and a bit pepperminty too.”
“How did you know they were savages?” asked Titty.
“Oh we knew all right,” said Commander Walker. “They look it, don’t they? There’s a savage look in their eyes.”
“You should have seen them yesterday,” said Nancy, who had brought Firefly close to and was waiting till there was room to come alongside.
“Hullo the Pirates,” said Commander Walker. “Your Mother’s meeting you in London, to scrub and holystone you ready for school.”
“We’ve had a lovely time,” said Nancy and Peggy together.
“Hullo, Roger. Not down to starvation rations yet. Lucky we were able to pick you up before the grub ran out.”
Just then the wind caught Bridget’s hair.
“Bridget!” cried Mother. “What have you done to yourself? What’s all that red on your forehead?”
“Blood,” said Bridget. “Blood. I’ve been a human sacrifice. It’s all right. Daisy says it’ll come off easily with a drop of turpentine. And nobody’s said ‘Hullo, Sinbad’.”
“Hullo, Sinbad,” said Mother and Daddy together.
Presently the two boats of the explorers, Wizard and Firefly, lay astern, ready for the long tow to Pin Mill. Everybody was aboard. The Goblin swarmed with thirteen people and a kitten, Daddy and Mother and the whole blood brotherhood of the tribe of the Eel. They were standing on the foredeck, sitting on the cabin-top, going below to have a look in the crammed cabin, and coming up again. The bag of bulls’ eyes passed from hand to hand and a strong smell of peppermint hung about the ship.
THE MAP COMPLETE
“What on earth’s that?” asked Commander Walker as Daisy, who had been carefully looking after it, passed the totem to John.
“It’s a totem,” said John.
“It’s the totem of the Eels,” said Daisy and then, remembering she knew no English, she went on rapidly, “Eelalog … oris … illa … illa … belango …”
“Ah, yes,” said Captain Walker. “Nothing could be clearer than that.”
“But are you going to take it with you?” asked Mother. “Somebody must have taken a lot of trouble over it.”
“The Mastodon made it,” said Titty.
“Jolly good work,” said Commander Walker. “Who’s the Mastodon?”
The Mastodon grinned rather sheepishly.
“You should just see his hoofmarks,” said Roger.
“Won’t he want to keep it?” said Mother.
The Mastodon shook his head.
“Orus belango,” said Daisy.
“It’s ours now,” said Titty. “He gave it to us. We’re in the tribe too.”
“We’re all full of Eel’s blood,” said Roger.
“Properly vaccinated,” said Nancy.
“I bled more than anybody,” said Bridget.
“It’s all right, Mother,” said Susan. “We used a lot of iodine as well.”
“Well, Mary,” said Daddy to Mother. “We’re going to hear some travellers’ tales when we get home. We ought to carry that thing at the masthead. Give it Bridgie’s hair-ribbon for a pennant. And where are your flags? We’ll fly them from the crosstrees, as soon as we’re off and I can take down the Blue Peter.”
“Have we really got to start right away?” said Titty.
“We have. … I ought to have come for you yesterday, but I couldn’t get down from London in time.”
“Oh, I say,” said Nancy. “It’s a good thing you didn’t.”
“Why?”
There was a general silence. The rudder being mended in the town. … Half the expedition looking for the other half. … The Egyptians surrounded by water in the middle of the Red Sea. … The savage attack. … Corroboree and human sacrifice. … The dreadful blank spaces that would have been left on the map. … Everybody could think of plenty of reasons why.
“Susan,” said Mother. “I don’t know their language, but you can translate. … Will you tell them we’re sorry we have to go off in such a hurry, and that we must try to meet again next holidays.”
“They’ve got a boat,” said John. “Bigger than Goblin.”
“Well, if ever they come round to Shotley we’ll be very glad to see them.”
“Thank you very much indeed,” said Daisy surprisingly.
“I thought you didn’t know English.”
“Oh well,” said Daisy, and laughed.
“All for the shore,” called Commander Walker and went to the foredeck. There were hurried goodbyes all round. John and Roger ran forward to help haul on the anchor chain.
The savages tumbled into their war-canoes, and cast off.
Commander Walker broke into song:
“Farewell and adieu to you noble natives,
Adieu and farewell to you bold savagees,
For we’re under orders
For to steer for old England,
And we must be sailing across the wide seas.”
“Karabadangbaraka!” shouted the explorers.
“It’s all right. They won’t tell anybody,” called Titty, seeing an anxious look on the face of the Mastodon as he glanced at Daisy.
“Akarabgnadabarak!” shouted three of the savages.
“Akarabgandabarak!” shouted the fourth.
“Anchor’s atrip,” called Captain Walker. “You take the tiller, John.”
John ran aft to the tiller. Captain Walker was hoisting the staysail. The Goblin gathered way. At her masthead was the totem of the Eels, a monstrous eel in red and blue and green, with a long white ribbon fluttering from it in the wind. Nancy and Titty had taken the flags from their staffs, and, when the Blue Peter came down, up they went, the swallow flag to one crosstree and the skull and crossbones to the other.
There was a cheer from the four boats of the savages and an answering cheer from the Goblin.
Then the savages’ boats were hidden by the land. The Goblin, with Wizard and Firefly, one behind the other, towing astern, bore away down Secret Water for the open sea. She passed the cross-roads buoy. Lapwing, the mission ship, lay at anchor. The explorers thought they saw the missionaries waving, but they were not sure. Then the mission ship was hidden by Flint Island, and the Goblin was heading for her home port. A fair wind and the ebbing tide hurried her out across the sparkling bay. The explorers, crowded aboard her, looked astern and saw the islands of the Secret Archipelago merge once more into a long unbroken line on the horizon.
About the Author
Arthur Ransome was born in Leeds in 1884 and went to school at Rugby. He was in Russia in 1917, and witnessed the Revolution, which he reported for the Manchester Guardian. After escaping to Scandinavia, he settled in the Lake District with his Russian wife where, in 1929, he wrote Swallows and Amazons. And so began a writing career which has produced some of the real children’s treasures of all time. In 1936 he won the first ever Carnegie Medal for his book, Pigeon Post.
O
ther books by Arthur Ransome
in Red Fox
Swallows and Amazons
Swallowdale
Peter Duck
Winter Holiday
Coot Club
Pigeon Post
We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea
The Big Six
Missee Lee
The Picts and the Martyrs
Great Northern?
THE ARTHUR RANSOME SOCIETY
The Arthur Ransome Society was formed in June 1990 with the aim of celebrating his life and his books, and to encourage both children and adults to take part in adventurous pursuits – especially climbing, sailing and fishing. It also seeks to sponsor research, to spread his ideas in the wider community and to bring together all those who share the values and the spirit that he fostered in all his storytelling.
The Society is based at the Abbot Hall Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry in Kendal, where there is a special room set aside for Ransome: his desk, his favourite books and some of his personal possessions. There are also close links with the Windermere Steamboat Museum at Bowness, where the original Amazon has been restored and kept, together with the Esperance, thought to be the vessel on which Ransome based Captain Flint’s houseboat. The Society keeps in touch with its members through a journal called Mixed Moss.
Regional branches of the Society have been formed by members in various parts of the country – Scotland, the Lake District, East Anglia, the Midlands, the South Coast among them – and contacts are maintained with overseas groups such as the Arthur Ransome Club of Japan. Membership fees are modest, and fall into three groups – for those under 18, for single adults, and for whole families. If you are interested in knowing more about the Society, or would like to join it, please write for a membership leaflet to The Secretary, The Arthur Ransome Society, The Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 5AL, or email to
[email protected] THE ARTHUR RANSOME TRUST
“I seem to have lived not one life, but snatches from a dozen different lives.”
Arthur Ransome wrote twelve adventures about the Swallows and Amazons and their friends. He also wrote many other books and articles. He had a lot to write about, because in “real” life he was not only an author, but also a sailor, journalist, critic, story teller, illustrator, fisherman, editor, bohemian, and war reporter, who played chess with Lenin, married Trotsky’s secretary, helped Estonia gain independence and aroused the interest of both MI6 and MI5.
The Arthur Ransome Trust (ART) is a charity (no: 1136565) dedicated to helping everybody discover more about Arthur Ransome’s fascinating life and writings. Our main goal is to develop an “Arthur Ransome Centre” in the Lake District. If you want to know more about Arthur Ransome, or about ART’s projects, or think you would like to help us to put Ransome on the map, you can visit us at:
www.arthur-ransome-trust.org.uk
[email protected] SECRET WATER
AN RHCB DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 446 48376 3
Published in Great Britain by RHCB Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2011
Copyright © Arthur Ransome, 1939
First Published in Great Britain 1939 by Jonathan Cape
The right of Arthur Ransome to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Arthur Ransome, Secret Water
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