Barty Crusoe and His Man Saturday

  CHAPTER SIX

  Barty and the Good Wolf and Saturday and Blue Crest sat very quietindeed. It is always best to sit very quiet when pirates are landingon the beach just below your cave. You never can tell what will happenif you do something that attracts their attention.

  But after a few minutes Barty could not help whispering a little.

  "I have only read one book about pirates," he whispered, "and theyblindfolded prisoners and made them walk out on a plank until theytumbled into the sea. They slashed heads off, too. Will they take usprisoners?"

  "If they take us at all they will take us as prisoners," said the GoodWolf.

  Barty looked round the cave and thought what a nice place it was andhow comfortable the leaf bed had been.

  "I can't help thinking about that thing which I can't remember," hesaid to the Good Wolf. "I'm thinking very hard about it just now. Iwonder what it is."

  The Good Wolf had no time to answer because they heard the piratesshouting so loudly as they tried to pull their boat upon the beachthat he _had_ to go to the window and peep to see what they weredoing.

  "They look fiercer than ever, now that they are nearer," he whispered."They have such crooked swords and such curly black mustaches. Youwould better come and peep yourself."

  So Barty went and peeped. He did it very carefully so that only theleast bit of his curly head was above the cave window-ledge and itonly stayed there for a mite of a minute.

  The pirates dragged their boat up on the beach with savage shouts andsongs, and then they stood and looked all about them as if they weresearching for something. They looked up the beach and down the beach,and then they began to look at the cliff and talk to each other aboutit. Barty could _see_ they were talking to each other about it.

  "I believe they know we are here and are trying to find out where weare hidden," he said. It certainly looked as if they were. They lookedand looked and talked and talked. At last the Captain walked ahead afew dozen yards and climbed upon the rock and stood there staring upat the cliff-front as hard as ever he could; then he took a spy-glassout of his satchel and he looked through that.

  "It seems as if he is looking right at the window," said Barty, rathershaking, "I'm sure he must see it."

  He did see it that very minute, because he began to shout to theother pirates and to wave his hat and his sword.

  "There's a cave!" he yelled. "There's a cave! They are hiding inthere."

  Then he jumped down from the rock and ran with the other pirates tothe place where the green slope began. Barty and the Good Wolf andSaturday could hear their shouts as they ran, and they knew they wererunning fast though they could not see them from the cave window.

  I will not say that Barty did not turn a little pale. A desert islandis a most interesting place and adventures are most exciting, butpirates chasing up a green slope to your cave, waving swords andshouting and evidently intending to search for you, seems almost toodangerous.

  "I can't help thinking of that thing I can't remember properly," hesaid to the Good Wolf. "I wonder what it is."

  "Come and stand by me," said the Good Wolf. "Whatever happens we oughtto stand by one another."

  Barty went and stood by him and put his arm tight round his furryneck. There was something about the Good Wolf which comforted you evenwhen pirates were coming.

  They were coming nearer and nearer, and louder and louder their shoutssounded. They had come up the green slope very fast indeed, and Bartyand the Good Wolf could even hear what they were saying.

  "A little boy and a wolf," they heard. "They ran up the hill. Theymust have hidden somewhere." Then after a few minutes they heard thepirate crew on the ledge not far from the window.

  "There must be a way in," the Captain called out. "Swords and bloodand daggers! We must find it. Daggers and blood and swords! Where canit be?"

  Barty stood by the Good Wolf and Saturday stood by Barty and BlueCrest stood by Saturday, so they were all in a row prepared to meettheir fate.

  Suddenly there was a great big savage shout and there stood thepirates, all in a row, too, six of them staring in at the window. Itwas enough to frighten any one just to look at them, with theirdark-skinned faces and white, sharp teeth gleaming, and their blackeyes and beards, and their hats on one side.

  "Swords and blood and daggers!" said the Captain, when he saw Bartyand the Good Wolf and Saturday and Blue Crest standing in a rowlooking at him. "Blood and daggers and swords!" and he jumped over thewindow ledge right into the cave and all the other five jumped afterhim. After they were all inside, there was just one minute in whichboth rows stood and stared at each other. Barty wondered, of course,what would happen next. No one could help wondering. Would they beginto chop with the crooked swords? But they did not. They did somethingquite different. This is what they did:

  The Pirate Captain took off his hat with a big flourish]

  The Captain took off his big hat with a great flourish and made abow right down to the ground, then the second pirate took off his bighat with a great flourish and made a bow right down to the ground,then the third pirate took off his hat, and the fourth and the fifth,until all six had taken off their hats with a flourish and made themost magnificently polite bow any one had ever seen.

  "I beg your pardon," said the Captain in a most fierce voice. "I hopewe are not disturbing you. I apologize most sincerely--I trust youwill excuse us--I really do."

  Barty's eyes and mouth opened quite wide. His mouth looked like a veryred, round O. "Why?" he gasped out, "how polite you are."

  "Thank you extremely," roared the Captain. "We appreciate thecompliment. We are not known anywhere but on this particular desertisland, but if we were known, we should be known for our politeness.We are the Perfectly Polite Pirates," and his row of pirates made sixbows again.

  "I--I didn't know pirates were _ever_ polite," said Barty.

  "They never are," answered the Captain. "They are rude, all butourselves. We were rude until a few years ago--when we met the BabooBajorum, and he would not stand it any longer."

  "Who is he?" asked Barty.

  The Perfectly Polite Pirate Captain made a splendid bow to Saturday.

  "He is a relation of this gentleman," he said, "only he is twentytimes as big and twenty times as strong, and if you do anything hedoes not like he can break you into little pieces and throw you away."

  Barty gave Saturday an alarmed look. "Have you a relation like that?"he said.

  "Chatterdy-chat-chatterdy," Saturday answered, and Barty knew he meantthat if he had he was not a _very near_ relation.

  One thing which puzzled Barty very much was that though the pirateswere so polite that they kept bowing all the time they looked asfierce as ever, and when the Captain said such polite things, hisvoice was so rough and savage that it made you almost jump out of yourskin when he began to speak.

  "I hope you won't be cross at my speaking about it," Barty said, "butyour voice scarcely sounds polite at all."

  "Oh!" said the Captain as fiercely as ever, "I beg five hundredthousand million pardons, but that is nothing but a bad habit we can'tget rid of. We spoke like this for such a long time that now we can'tmake our voices sound polite at all. We take voice lozenges six timesa day, but it seems scarcely any use, and we can't help looking fierceand swinging our swords. But we are really as gentle as doves."

  "I--I never sh-should have thought it," said Barty, moving back alittle, because the pirate Captain began to swing his sword that veryminute, and it looked rather alarming even if he were as gentle as adove.

  He saw that Barty was startled and stopped himself and made anotherbow.

  "Pray excuse me," he said. "You see what a habit it is."

  "What did you come here for?" asked Barty, feeling rather braver.

  "To ask you to a tea party--to inquire if we might have the extremepleasure of your society at a tea party on the ship."

  "I never should have thought that either," said Barty. "We ran awayand hid because you looke
d so frightening."

  The Pirate Captain put his sword into its scabbard carefully, and tookout his pocket handkerchief to wipe away the tears which came into hiseyes.

  "That is always the way," he said, looking quite overcome. "That iswhat happens when you get into bad habits and can't get out of them.We are so fond of having tea parties, but people don't want to come tothem. When we feel that we can't live any longer without a tea party,we have to put to shore and chase people with our swords and takethem prisoners. Sometimes we have to blindfold them and put chains onthem to get them on board, for they always think they are going to bemade to walk the plank. They are _so_ surprised when we take off thechains and give them tea and muffins and strawberry jam."

  Barty began to feel quite cheerful. This was a much nicer adventurethan he had thought it was going to be. To meet real pirates who wereperfectly polite, and to go on board a pirate ship to tea, was reallyentertaining as well as exciting.

  "Will you come?" inquired the Pirate Captain perfectly politely inspite of his savage voice, which Barty was beginning not to mind. "Youwill do us such an honor. And will this gentleman come?" he bowed tothe Good Wolf. "And these two?" he made a bow to Saturday and BlueCrest.

  "We will all come," said Barty; "every one of us."

  All the six pirates bowed down to the floor of the cave again.

  But then the Pirate Captain frowned such an awful frown that Bartybegan to feel a little frightened again.

  "Don't you want us to go?" he inquired. "You look as if something hadmade you angry."

  "Oh! I _beg_ your pardon," said the Captain. "You think I am frowning,but I am not. I am really smiling. That is my way of looking pleased.I can't do it the other way. I was so fierce all the years before Ibecame polite that I can't untwist my face, and when I am perfectlydelighted I scowl as if I were going to bite people's heads off. It ismost inconvenient. _Don't_ let it disturb you."

  "I will try not to," answered Barty, "but it startles me because I amnot used to it."

  "Will you come to the ship now?" said the Captain. "Baboo Bajorum iswaiting."

  That made Barty give another little jump. "Baboo Bajorum," he said;"the one who is strong enough to break people into little bits?"

  "He can break them into very little bits," said the Captain. "And hedoes not always save the pieces. But he never does it if you arepolite. He is really very nice indeed."

  "I always try to remember to say 'please,'" said Barty. "And Ibelieve I should like to see what he is like."

  "He will be another adventure," said the Good Wolf.

  "Pray, do us the honor to lead the way," said the Pirate Captain,bowing, and he and his men stepped behind Barty and the Good Wolf andSaturday and Blue Crest.

  So Barty crept through the passage and the Good Wolf crept after himand Saturday crept after him and Blue Crest hopped after him, and thenthe six pirates lay down on their stomachs and crept after them, andwhen they all crawled out in a line through the entrance on to thehill, they made such a long row that they reached yards and yards.

 

  CHAPTER SEVEN