Barty and the Good Wolf and Saturday and Blue Crest sat very quiet
indeed. It is always best to sit very quiet when pirates are landing
on the beach just below your cave. You never can tell what will happen
if 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 they
blindfolded prisoners and made them walk out on a plank until they
tumbled into the sea. They slashed heads off, too. Will they take us
prisoners?"
"If they take us at all they will take us as prisoners," said the Good
Wolf.
Barty looked round the cave and thought what a nice place it was and
how comfortable the leaf bed had been.
"I can't help thinking about that thing which I can't remember," he
said to the Good Wolf. "I'm thinking very hard about it just now. I
wonder what it is."
The Good Wolf had no time to answer because they heard the pirates
shouting so loudly as they tried to pull their boat upon the beach
that he _had_ to go to the window and peep to see what they were
doing.
"They look fiercer than ever, now that they are nearer," he whispered.
"They have such crooked swords and such curly black mustaches. You
would better come and peep yourself."
So Barty went and peeped. He did it very carefully so that only the
least bit of his curly head was above the cave window-ledge and it
only stayed there for a mite of a minute.
The pirates dragged their boat up on the beach with savage shouts and
songs, and then they stood and looked all about them as if they were
searching 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 about
it. 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 we
are hidden," he said. It certainly looked as if they were. They looked
and looked and talked and talked. At last the Captain walked ahead a
few dozen yards and climbed upon the rock and stood there staring up
at the cliff-front as hard as ever he could; then he took a spy-glass
out of his satchel and he looked through that.
"It seems as if he is looking right at the window," said Barty, rather
shaking, "I'm sure he must see it."
He did see it that very minute, because he began to shout to the
other pirates and to wave his hat and his sword.
"There's a cave!" he yelled. "There's a cave! They are hiding in
there."
Then he jumped down from the rock and ran with the other pirates to
the place where the green slope began. Barty and the Good Wolf and
Saturday could hear their shouts as they ran, and they knew they were
running 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 island
is a most interesting place and adventures are most exciting, but
pirates chasing up a green slope to your cave, waving swords and
shouting and evidently intending to search for you, seems almost too
dangerous.
"I can't help thinking of that thing I can't remember properly," he
said to the Good Wolf. "I wonder what it is."
"Come and stand by me," said the Good Wolf. "Whatever happens we ought
to stand by one another."
Barty went and stood by him and put his arm tight round his furry
neck. There was something about the Good Wolf which comforted you even
when pirates were coming.
They were coming nearer and nearer, and louder and louder their shouts
sounded. They had come up the green slope very fast indeed, and Barty
and the Good Wolf could even hear what they were saying.
"A little boy and a wolf," they heard. "They ran up the hill. They
must have hidden somewhere." Then after a few minutes they heard the
pirate crew on the ledge not far from the window.
"There must be a way in," the Captain called out. "Swords and blood
and daggers! We must find it. Daggers and blood and swords! Where can
it be?"
Barty stood by the Good Wolf and Saturday stood by Barty and Blue
Crest stood by Saturday, so they were all in a row prepared to meet
their fate.
Suddenly there was a great big savage shout and there stood the
pirates, all in a row, too, six of them staring in at the window. It
was enough to frighten any one just to look at them, with their
dark-skinned faces and white, sharp teeth gleaming, and their black
eyes and beards, and their hats on one side.
"Swords and blood and daggers!" said the Captain, when he saw Barty
and the Good Wolf and Saturday and Blue Crest standing in a row
looking at him. "Blood and daggers and swords!" and he jumped over the
window ledge right into the cave and all the other five jumped after
him. After they were all inside, there was just one minute in which
both rows stood and stared at each other. Barty wondered, of course,
what would happen next. No one could help wondering. Would they begin
to chop with the crooked swords? But they did not. They did something
quite different. This is what they did:
[Illustration: The Pirate Captain took off his hat with a big
flourish]
The Captain took off his big hat with a great flourish and made a
bow right down to the ground, then the second pirate took off his big
hat 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 the
most magnificently polite bow any one had ever seen.
"I beg your pardon," said the Captain in a most fierce voice. "I hope
we are not disturbing you. I apologize most sincerely--I trust you
will excuse us--I really do."
Barty's eyes and mouth opened quite wide. His mouth looked like a very
red, round O. "Why?" he gasped out, "how polite you are."
"Thank you extremely," roared the Captain. "We appreciate the
compliment. We are not known anywhere but on this particular desert
island, but if we were known, we should be known for our politeness.
We are the Perfectly Polite Pirates," and his row of pirates made six
bows again.
"I--I didn't know pirates were _ever_ polite," said Barty.
"They never are," answered the Captain. "They are rude, all but
ourselves. We were rude until a few years ago--when we met the Baboo
Bajorum, 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 twenty
times as big and twenty times as strong, and if you do anything he
does 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 meant
that if he had he was not a _very near_ relation.
One thing which puzzled Barty very much was that though the pirates
were so polite that they kept bowing all the time they looked as
fierce as ever, and when the Captain said such polite things, his
voice was so rough and savage that it made you almost jump out of your
skin when he began to speak.
"I hope you won't be cross at my speaking about it," Barty said, "but
your voice scarcely sounds polite at all."
"Oh!" said the Captain as fiercely as ever, "I beg five hundred
thousand million pardons, but that is nothing but a bad habit we can't
get rid of. We spoke like this for such a long time that now we can't
make our voices sound polite at all. We take voice lozenges six times
a day, but it seems scarcely any use, and we can't help looking fierce
and swinging our swords. But we are really as gentle as doves."
"I--I never sh-should have thought it," said Barty, moving back a
little, because the pirate Captain began to swing his sword that very
minute, and it looked rather alarming even if he were as gentle as a
dove.
He saw that Barty was startled and stopped himself and made another
bow.
"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 extreme
pleasure of your society at a tea party on the ship."
"I never should have thought that either," said Barty. "We ran away
and hid because you looked so frightening."
The Pirate Captain put his sword into its scabbard carefully, and took
out his pocket handkerchief to wipe away the tears which came into his
eyes.
"That is always the way," he said, looking quite overcome. "That is
what 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 to
them. 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 take
them prisoners. Sometimes we have to blindfold them and put chains on
them to get them on board, for they always think they are going to be
made to walk the plank. They are _so_ surprised when we take off the
chains and give them tea and muffins and strawberry jam."
Barty began to feel quite cheerful. This was a much nicer adventure
than he had thought it was going to be. To meet real pirates who were
perfectly polite, and to go on board a pirate ship to tea, was really
entertaining as well as exciting.
"Will you come?" inquired the Pirate Captain perfectly politely in
spite of his savage voice, which Barty was beginning not to mind. "You
will do us such an honor. And will this gentleman come?" he bowed to
the Good Wolf. "And these two?" he made a bow to Saturday and Blue
Crest.
"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 Barty
began to feel a little frightened again.
"Don't you want us to go?" he inquired. "You look as if something had
made 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 I
became polite that I can't untwist my face, and when I am perfectly
delighted I scowl as if I were going to bite people's heads off. It is
most inconvenient. _Don't_ let it disturb you."
"I will try not to," answered Barty, "but it startles me because I am
not used to it."
"Will you come to the ship now?" said the Captain. "Baboo Bajorum is
waiting."
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 he
does not always save the pieces. But he never does it if you are
polite. He is really very nice indeed."
"I always try to remember to say 'please,'" said Barty. "And I
believe 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 and
Saturday and Blue Crest.
So Barty crept through the passage and the Good Wolf crept after him
and Saturday crept after him and Blue Crest hopped after him, and then
the six pirates lay down on their stomachs and crept after them, and
when they all crawled out in a line through the entrance on to the
hill, they made such a long row that they reached yards and yards.
[Illustration]