"What ho, Dick Deadeye!"
It was the Toyman, who had been standing in the doorway watching them.
"Dick Deadeye--whew!" Marmaduke rolled the name under his tongue like
something that tasted very nice. He was completely satisfied now.
Then something still nicer happened, for, when their backs were
turned, something whistled through the air and fell at their feet.
Real swords! One for each of them! Now we said they were _real_
swords, and they were, though they were made of wood. They could do a
lot of damage. The pirates would find that out soon enough. And there
was a flag, too, with bones and a skull on it, just as Jehosophat had
said.
"Why, it's the Jolly Roger," he told his brother, "that's what they
call this flag."
But where did they come from? Marmaduke sort of suspected the Toyman,
but he had disappeared, and Jehosophat said,--
"They must have dropped from Heaven an' were sent us to 'venge the
people the pirates have killed. It's a sign. Guess we're not pirates
after all, but just good sailors an' we'll scrunch those pirates."
Then he thought for a moment.
"But I guess we'll keep this flag anyway, even if it is the pirates'."
And they kept their names as well. They were far too fine to give up.
But just as they were about to go aboard, the Toyman came to the
shore.
"What ho!" he said, then again, "what ho!"
That sounded exciting--not like a game at all, but like real life! And
he was "saying some more,"--
"Avast, me hearties, what's in the wind?"
This last was a very odd question, for whatever could be in the wind,
when you can see right through it and it can't hold anything at all.
Strange talk it was, to be sure, and the neighbors would never have
understood it. Still, folks never understood the Toyman and his
language anyway, but _they_ did, and Marmaduke called,--"Come 'n,
Toyman," when Captain Kidd corrected him.
"Pshaw! That's not the way to say it. You just listen to me."