Barty's bed of leaves was so comfortable that he slept all night like
a dormouse and never rolled over once. There is no knowing when he
would have opened his eyes if he had been left to himself, but when
the sun had risen and begun to make the blue sea look as if it were
sparkling with diamonds, he suddenly awakened and sat up to listen to
something he had heard in his sleep.
What he had heard was Blue Crest. There she sat on the edge of the
cave window, whistling the calling song she had learned from him the
day before.
"Hello," said Barty, "I'm glad you've come back. I wondered where you
were in the tropical storm." Blue Crest spread her wings and flew into
the cave to perch on his wrist. She sang a little song of her own. She
was saying "good morning" and letting him know she was glad he had
come to the Desert Island. Barty whistled back to her and stroked her
feathers with his fingers and lifted her up to put his cheek against
her soft wing. Anyone would like to be wakened by a bird who was tame
enough to sit on one's wrist and sing.
"But where is the Good Wolf? And I don't see Man Saturday," he said
suddenly, looking round the cave.
Blue Crest spread her wings and flew to the cave window again. Barty
scrambled down from his leaf bed and followed her. It was a very nice
window to look through. You could see so much sea and sky, and the
white beach seemed so far below; and when he looked down Barty saw
where the Good Wolf and Man Saturday had gone. They were standing in
the sands together and looked as if they were very much interested in
something lying near them. Barty was just wondering what they were
doing when he was so startled by something that he jumped. There was a
sudden sound of the flapping of wings and a large white bird rushed
past him quite close to his face. It flew out of a round hole in the
front of the cliff, and the sight of it made Barty think of
something.
"If she were a hen I should know there were eggs there," he said, "and
that would be convenient."
The truth was that getting up had made him think of breakfast, and
breakfast made him think of eggs. Blue Crest put her head on one side
and gave three cheerful chirps. Then she flew to the round hole and
disappeared inside. In about a minute she appeared again standing at
the entrance, and she whistled Barty's call.
The little boy scrambled out onto the ledge outside the cave window.
He knew that she was calling him to come and look at something. By
standing on tiptoe he could look into the hole, and when he looked he
saw it was full of very white eggs, which was so exciting that he
could not help calling out to the Good Wolf and Saturday.
"Hel-lo! Hel-lo!" he shouted. "I'm coming and I've got some eggs for
breakfast."
He was putting some into his blouse, which seemed a good place to
carry them, when he saw the Good Wolf look up at him and then saw him
turn towards the cliff and begin to run. He ran up the green slope so
fast that he began to gallop, and he galloped until his tail and his
hair streamed straight out behind him as they had done when he was
running away from the tropical storm. He was excited.
Barty ran to meet him. He wanted to hear what had happened, so did
Blue Crest; she flew after him. When they met the Good Wolf, he was
quite out of breath and so was Barty. Blue Crest was not, but she
fluttered down for a rest on Barty's shoulder.
"Have you a piece of glass in your pocket?" the Good Wolf panted out.
"Yes," answered Barty, beginning to fumble in his pockets. "At least I
had yesterday a piece of grandma's old spectacles. Where is it?"
fumbling deeper and deeper. "Oh! I must have lost it! It's gone!"
"I thought so," said the Good Wolf. "It fell out of your pocket onto
the beach and something has happened. Come and see what it is." You
may be sure Barty did not lose any time. He had to hold his blouse
tight so that the eggs would not break when he was running.
When he got to the beach he found Man Saturday standing as he had seen
him from the cliff ledge. He was looking very hard at the small pile
of something Barty had noticed that they were watching when he first
saw them.
"What is it?" he cried out, feeling very much interested himself.
"Don't you see anything curious?" asked the Good Wolf.
Barty drew nearer and the next minute he gave a shout.
"Smoke is beginning to come out of it," he said. "It looks like real
smoke. What set it on fire? What is that shining thing? Why, it's my
piece of glass," and he made a jump towards it.
"Don't touch it," said the Good Wolf. "The sun has been shining
through it onto the leaves and has made it into a burning-glass, and
it has lighted a fire. That is what has happened. Now you can cook
your eggs."
"Let us roast them," said Barty. "Roasted eggs make you feel just like
a picnic."
[Illustration: Barty drew nearer and next moment gave a shout]
Man Saturday gave him a cunning little look and then began to be very
busy indeed. He ran and brought more sticks and leaves and Barty knelt
down and blew the tiny flame until it grew into a bigger one, and then
he fanned with his hat until the chips and twigs were snapping.
In a few minutes there was fire enough to cook anything and then began
the breakfast making. It _was_ like a picnic. They put the eggs in the
hot sand to roast and found some crystals of salt dried in the
crannies of the rocks. Man Saturday brought some young cocoanuts and
some of the roots that were like a potato, and they were roasted too.
Man Saturday ran about chattering and imitated everything Barty did.
He seemed quite delighted with the idea of roasting things in hot
ashes, and when Barty and the Good Wolf went together to their
swimming pool to have a bath while the breakfast was cooking, he sat
beside the fire and watched it, with his arms hugging his knees and
his eyes twinkling. "He always looks as if he were thinking very hard
indeed," Barty said. "Perhaps he is thinking now how queer it is that
a piece of glass can set things on fire. I dare say he never saw fire
before."
Barty splashed about splendidly in the clear green water of the
swimming pool and before his bath was ended he could swim ever so much
better than he had swam the day before. He came out of the sparkling
water all rosy and laughing with delight. But when he was putting on
his clothes he stopped with a stocking half way on and began to think.
"It is very queer," he said in a puzzled voice, "but I keep thinking
of something and I don't know what it is I'm thinking about."
"That's queer," said the Good Wolf.
"The Desert Island is beautiful, and the cave, and Man Saturday, and
Blue Crest, and the swimming, but I feel as if I want to tell somebody
about it and I don't know who it is. I can't remember."
"You'll remember in time," said the Good Wolf, "if you don't bother
about it. I think the eggs must be roasted enough by now."
They went to see and found them all beautifully done. It was a lovely
breakfast. They drank cocoanut milk out of cocoanut shells, instead of
coffee, and the roasted eggs tasted _exactly_ like a picnic.
Man Saturday ate a cocoanut and seemed to enjoy it very much. After he
had finished he began to walk up and down the beach and to look out at
the sea as if he were keeping watch. Barty thought he looked anxious
about something.
"What do you think he is looking for?" he asked the Good Wolf. Just at
that minute Man Saturday stopped walking up and down and stood quite
still shading his eyes with his small black paw. The Good Wolf
watched him for a few minutes.
"I think," he said, "that he must be looking out for ships."
"What does he want them for?" said Barty.
"He doesn't want them," answered the Good Wolf. "He is afraid of
them."
"Why," said Barty, "what sort of ships?"
"Pirates," said the Good Wolf.
That made Barty feel just a little uncomfortable.
"Pirates are almost as bad as cannibals, aren't they?" he said.
"Sometimes worse," said the Good Wolf, "though of course it depends
upon the kind of pirates."
Man Saturday was not looking out from under his hand any more; he was
running quickly across the beach to the cliff. When he got there he
began to climb up the face of it. Only a monkey could have done it. He
caught hold of tiny bushes and twigs and clumps of green things and
pulled himself up like lightning. In a few minutes he was as high as
the cave and he stood on the ledge and looked out from there, shading
his eyes again with his black paw.
"He can see round the point from there," said the Good Wolf.
"Do you feel at all nervous?" asked Barty.
"I had a good night's sleep and I have had an excellent breakfast,"
the Good Wolf said, "and I am prepared for almost anything--but
Pirates and Cannibals are known to be very disagreeable."
"But they are adventures, if they don't catch you," said Barty,
cheering himself up.
"They are adventures if they _do_ catch you," answered the Good Wolf.
"The Best Adventure is finding out how to get away," said Barty.
"Well, you see a person comes to a desert island for adventures," said
the Good Wolf.
Barty sat and hugged his knees and looked rather serious.
"Robinson Crusoe had a good many," he said. "He had to be shipwrecked
before he could get to his island."
"Look at Man Saturday!" he said the next minute. Man Saturday was
dancing up and down on the ledge and looking very much excited. He
kept pointing round the headland and they could see that he was
chattering though they could not hear him.
"He sees something coming round the point," said the Good Wolf. "This
is beginning to look serious."
"But in adventures people always do get away," said Barty, cheering
himself up again. "You see they couldn't write the adventures if they
didn't."
"There, you have thought of the right thing at the right time again,"
said the Good Wolf. "It's a most valuable habit. Do I see a ship with
black sails coming round the point?"
"Yes," answered Barty, "you do, because I see it myself. It is a very
fierce looking ship, with guns sticking out through holes, and there
are black flags as well as black sails, and white bones and skulls are
painted on them. It is a very fierce ship indeed."
"Man Saturday is beckoning to us to go to the cave," the Good Wolf
said, "perhaps we would better go."
Barty thought so, too, so they had another run back up the green
slope and Blue Crest flew with them. They ran as fast as they had run
in the storm, and when they got to the creeping in place they were
inside in two minutes.
Man Saturday had clambered in through the window and he was chattering
as fast as he could. He jumped onto Barty's shoulder and put his arm
round his neck as if he intended to protect him. Blue Crest perched on
the leaf bed and sang a little thrilling song which Barty knew was
meant to be encouraging and was also full of good advice if he could
have understood it.
Then all four went to the window and looked out.
The Pirate ship had come quite close to the shore by this time. Barty
could see that there was a crowd of men on the deck and that they
looked as fierce as the ship. They had big hats, and big beards, and
big moustaches, and big sharp-looking crooked swords at their sides.
Some of them had taken their swords out of their scabbards and were
flourishing them about.
"That biggest one is feeling the edge of his to see if it is sharp,"
said Barty. "I think he must be the captain. It would be so nice to
stay in here and watch them if they wouldn't come and find us."
"Chattery-chattery--chat-chat chatterdy," said Man Friday, pointing to
make them look at something which was happening at the side of the
ship.
[Illustration: The Pirates began to row towards the shore]
He was pointing at some of the pirates who were letting down a boat
into the sea. As soon as it was in the water they let down a rope
ladder and half a dozen of them swarmed down it. Then the captain
walked to the side and climbed down too. He took a seat and sat with
his bare crooked sword across his knees. He waved his arm fiercely
to the other pirates and they began to row towards the shore.
"Don't let us look out of the window any more," said Barty. "They
might see us."
"I am afraid they saw us when we ran up the hill," said the Good Wolf.
Barty rather gasped. You would have gasped yourself, you know, if you
had been in a cave on a desert island and a boat full of pirates was
being rowed very fast to the shore, just at the foot of the cliff
where your cave was.
"Well," said Barty, "this _is_ an adventure. I hope it will end right.
But I do wish there weren't so many pirates and they did not look so
fierce."
And he sat down quite flat on the cave floor, and so did the Good
Wolf, and so did Man Saturday. Blue Crest sat on Barty's shoulder and
really hung her head and drooped her wings.
[Illustration]