The Pirates in the Deep Green Sea (11 page)

‘But why have the knots got to be guarded?' asked Hew.

‘Now there's another bright boy!' said Gunner Boles. ‘They're two fine lads, these are, Sam. They both see deep into the nature of things, and ask sensible questions.—Now, I'll tell you, Hew, and that in one word, what we've got to guard the knots against at this present moment; and that's pirates!'

‘Those two men you found in the wreck,' said Timothy, ‘are they pirates?'

‘They're two of Dan Scumbril's lot,' said Gunner Boles.

‘You're going too fast,' said Sam. ‘You haven't told them how the trouble started yet.'

‘Give me time, and don't hurry me,' said Gunner Boles. ‘I was just coming to that.—Now, the
fact is, you see, that there's quite a lot of us old sailors living down on the bottom of the sea, and some of us are honest, and some aren't. Some of us do our job in the proper way, and others try to interfere. Some of us attend to our duty like a sailor should, and others are just a set of blackhearted pirates. There's often been a little trouble down there, the same as there often is up here. And then a few months ago the trouble got more serious. There were some who thought they weren't getting as much attention as they deserved. They weren't satisfied with doing an ordinary job, but wanted to get control of things and manage affairs at the bottom of the sea in their own way. So they began to say that the knots which we'd always used for tying together the parallels of latitude and the parallels of longitude weren't the proper sort of knots; and ought to be changed for a newer sort which they'd invented. So there's been a bit of argument lately, and a bit of fighting too; and it seems as though there's going to be more.'

‘Do you want us to fight?' asked Timothy.

‘Not if you can help it,' said Gunner Boles, and Hew looked disappointed.

‘Gunner Boles,' said Sam, ‘came up into these northern latitudes just three weeks ago, when it was reported that there wasn't anyone watching that knot off the north-west of the Calf. The man who had been there had disappeared. So Gunner Boles came along, and took his place. And the next thing that happened was that I found those two
fellows down in the wreck———'

‘Two of Dan Scumbril's lot,' said Gunner Boles.

‘They're in the cellar now,' said Sam. ‘We brought them up one at a time, and the first one wouldn't speak, but the second couldn't hold his tongue. His mates, he said, would be up here in next to on time, and Gunner Boles would go the same way as the last man who'd been looking after Knot 59 N., 4 W.—That's the one out there.—Within a month, he told us, Dan Scumbril's lot and Inky Poops's lot would be in control of all the parallels of latitude from Popinsay to Greenland, and all the parallels of longitude from Norway to North America. And they'd start to change all the knots, he said, and put in the new sort they fancy, and which aren't any good.'

‘Inky Poops,' explained Gunner Boles, ‘is another of those pirates. He and Dan Scumbril are the worst of them. They're the leaders.'

‘Scumbril and Inky Poops,' said Timothy. ‘That sounds funny, doesn't it?'

‘It reminds me of Father when he's in a bad temper,' said Hew.

‘Scoundrels and nincompoops!' shouted Timothy, imitating his father's voice.

‘They're the people that Father used to complain about,' explained Hew.

‘And a very good description of those that we complain about,' said Gunner Boles. ‘But complaining isn't enough, d'you see. We've got to stop them, and we've got to do it quick.'

‘But how?' asked Timothy.

‘Well, that's where you come in,' said Gunner Boles. ‘We've got to get reinforcements, d'you see. We've got to send news of the plot we have discovered, and we've got to get help from the Loyalists. But I can't go, and Cully can't go, because we've got to watch the knot. And Sam can't go, because I want him to stay here on Popinsay in case things get awkward in the next few days. We've been wondering, Sam and I, whether we could trust the message to a couple of Powder Monkeys——'

‘Who are they?' asked Hew.

‘You'll find out soon enough,' said Sam. ‘At least, I expect you will.'

‘They're the little boys that used to carry powder to the guns in the great sea-battles of Lord Nelson's time,' said Gunner Boles. ‘There's a good many of them living along with us at the bottom of the sea, and there's Cabin Boys too; but they're on the other side. Well, we thought about the Powder Monkeys, as I've just told you, but they're wild youngsters, and I wouldn't care to trust them with what's so very, very important.'

‘So you want us to take the message,' said Timothy.

‘I'm not going to persuade you to take it,' said Gunner Boles, ‘and there's no one here that can order you to go. But I shan't deny that Sam and I are looking for volunteers.'

‘But where should we have to go?' asked Hew.

‘To Davy Jones's Locker,' said Gunner Boles.

‘And where's that?'

But before the Gunner could answer they were startled by the sound of someone screaming at the top of her voice. It was a fierce and angry voice, but frightened too. They they heard—
thud, thud
— the sound of heavy blows, and something falling, and another scream, and then something else that fell.

‘That was Mrs. Matches,' said Timothy, but already Sam had opened the door and was hurrying out, followed by Gunner Boles. They ran down the passage to the kitchen, and there on the kitchen floor lay the two pirates who had been captured in the wreck, unconscious, with Mrs. Matches, also unconscious, lying across the legs of the taller one. Firmly grasped in her right hand was the kitchen poker.

It was lucky for Mrs. Matches that quite early in life she had formed the habit of taking the kitchen poker to bed with her. This was not because she was frightened, but because she was prudent.

‘I've never seen a burglar,' she used to say, ‘and I hope I never will. But if I do, I want to have something to hit him with.'

Once upon a time, in the early days of her married life, she made a slight mistake when her husband came home late one night; and after he had spent three months in hospital he went to Australia, and she never saw him again. But that did not break her of the habit.

While Sam and Gunner Boles and the boys were discussing geography in the study, Mrs. Matches had been wakened by a noise in the kitchen, which lay immediately below her bedroom. It sounded as if someone had knocked a saucepan off the stove, and then Mrs. Matches thought she heard voices. She got up at once and put on her dressing-gown, and firmly grasped the poker which lay ready on the chair beside her bed. She opened her door, and tiptoed carefully down the back stair.

In the kitchen the two pirates, who were members of Dan Scumbril's party, if Gunner Boles was right, were eating cold mutton and a gooseberry-pie. The long lean pirate had teeth like a shark's. They were very sharp, and triangular in shape, and that was how they had got out of the cellar in which Sam Sturgeon had imprisoned them. The long lean pirate had bitten through the rope which bound his companion's wrists, and when they had untied each other, they discovered that the door of the cellar—which was fastened on the one side with a heavy lock—could be lifted quite easily off its hinges. So they had escaped without much difficulty, and being hungry they sat down in the kitchen to have some breakfast before going back to sea.

When Mrs. Matches opened the door—very cautiously, inch by inch—and peeped round, and saw the two of them sitting at her table, she would have been very frightened indeed if she had not had a poker in her hand. But being well-armed, she flung open the door, and screaming wildly, attacked the two pirates before they could do anything to defend themselves. With three or four well-aimed blows she struck both of them senseless to the floor, and then with a final scream she fainted, and fell across the legs of the long lean one.

A moment later Gunner Boles and Sam Sturgeon and the boys came in, and the two pirates were quickly bound hand and foot again, and taken back
to the cellar. And now Gunner Boles put a gag between the tall pirate's teeth, to prevent him biting through the new ropes with which they were tied, and Sam Sturgeon fastened the cellar door with a screw-driver and two large screws.

Mrs. Matches recovered quickly from her fainting-fit, and Timothy and Hew tried to explain to her who the pirates were. They had by no means satisfied her when Sam Sturgeon and Gunner Boles came up from the cellar, and then they had to explain to her who Gunner Boles was. This was no easier than explaining the pirates, but Gunner Boles himself was extremely helpful. He sat down beside Mrs. Matches, and took her hand, and said to her very earnestly, ‘You're a fine, brave woman, ma'am. You're as good a hand with a poker as any I've ever heard of, and I've had a lot of experience in my time. You're the sort of woman that Lord Nelson himself would admire, if he was with us to-day, and I can't give you higher praise than that. We're deeply indebted to you for what you did, Mrs. Matches, and I do assure you that we're all your very devoted and obedient servants, ma'am.'

Mrs. Matches was greatly impressed by this polite and handsome speech. She realised at once that Gunner Boles was not only a good man but a true sailor, and after that she did not really mind where he came from or how he had arrived at Popinsay House. So she cleared away the remains of the pirates' meal, spread a clean cloth on the
table, and began to fry bacon and eggs and make a pot of tea.

‘For if you've been at sea for all those years, as the boys were telling me, Mr. Boles, you must feel very hungry now that you've come ashore,' she said.

Now Sam was in a difficulty. He did not want to go on with their conversation about the trouble at the bottom of the sea in front of Mrs. Matches, because she would certainly declare that the boys must not be mixed up in it. But he could not tell Mrs. Matches that they had been discussing something very important, and would she excuse them if they went back to the study—because that would offend her. So after thinking the problem over, he said, ‘Well, you go on with your breakfast, Mr. Boles, and I'll put these boys to bed again. It's no time for the like of them to be up, as you'll agree—and so will you, Mrs. Matches.'

But as he spoke he winked at the boys, to let them know that he was on their side, and they went up to bed—or so Mrs. Matches thought—without grumbling at all, or arguing even for a minute. Sam went with them, and when they were in their own room he sat down on Timothy's bed and asked them, ‘Well, now, have you made up your minds yet?'

‘About going for help, you mean?' asked Timothy.

‘That's right,' said Sam.

‘To Davy Jones's Locker?' asked Hew.

‘You've got the address right,' said Sam.

‘But where is it?' asked Timothy.

‘At this time of year,' said Sam, ‘Davy Jones brings his Court up to a place about three hundred miles off Mizen Head, which is down at the bottom left-hand corner of Ireland. In the winter he lives well below the Equator, but when the weather gets better, in May or thereabout, he comes up to his summer place off the south-west coast of Ireland.'

‘But how can we get there?' asked Timothy. ‘And how could we live under the sea?'

‘We've been making some arrangements,' said Sam, ‘just in case you'd agree. No one's compelling you to go—remember that—and I'm not even trying to persuade you. But if you like to volunteer—well, you'll get Mr. Boles and me out of a great difficulty, and perhaps you'll be able to save the situation down below. Which, it seems to me, is pretty serious.'

‘I think we ought to volunteer,' said Timothy gravely.

‘Of course we're going to volunteer,' said Hew. ‘I made up my mind long ago.'

‘But what are the arrangements you've made?' asked Timothy.

‘You'll have to wait for Gunner Boles to tell you about them,' said Sam, ‘and the first thing you'll have to do is to take an oath.'

‘An oath of loyalty?' asked Timothy.

‘Not exactly,' said Sam. ‘You'll have to swear that you'll never tell what it is that gives Mr.
Boles — and you yourselves, of course — the power of living down there in the depths of the green sea, and feeling as comfortable on the bottom of the ocean as ordinary human beings up here on dry land. That's the secret you must promise to keep, because if it came to be widely known there'd be such a crowd of visitors and holiday-makers going down to have a look for themselves, that the old sailors wouldn't hardly have room to turn. And they like their privacy; they like to have the sea to themselves, those old sailormen.'

‘You mean it's quite easy to live under water?' asked Timothy.

‘It's not so difficult as you might think,' said Sam.

‘Then when do we start?' asked Hew.

‘Take your breakfast to-morrow in the ordinary way,' said Sam, ‘and then come out to the little beach on the Hen. I'll be there waiting for you, and maybe Gunner Boles will be with me, or Cully. I'll have to go now, and tell him the good news. It's time he was getting back to duty, and he'll go with a good heart when he hears that you've decided to help us. So tuck yourselves up and get some sleep if you can, because you're going to have a busy day to-morrow.'

Then Sam turned out the light, and closed the door behind him.

Between the Calf of Popinsay and the Hen there was a deep channel through which the tide ran strongly. The rocks under the low cliffs of the Hen were worn into strange shapes, and here and there, when the tide was out, deep pools remained in the rose-pink stone as round and smooth as pudding basins, but as big as a double bed. Floating in one of these pools, in the morning sunlight under a cloudless blue sky, Cully lay as comfortably as if he were indeed in bed, and sang a little song while three oyster-catchers, two arctic terns, and four ringed-plover stood round the pool and listened to him.