Night Birds On Nantucket (20 page)

‘And I,' Captain Casket said, ‘must find out the whereabouts of my sister Tribulation, in order that she may come and look after the children while I search for the pink whale.'

Penitence suddenly burst into tears.

‘Why, Penny!' Dido exclaimed in concern. ‘What's the matter, girl?'

‘What ails thee, Daughter?'

‘It's too unfair!' wept Penitence. ‘I tried so hard not to be afraid of Aunt Tribulation, and now it turns out she was the wrong one and I've got to start all over again.'

‘Never mind,' Dido comforted. ‘The real one
couldn't
be any worse.'

After breakfast Nate hurried home to assure his mother of his safety. He found his pony straying in the forest; there was little other sign of the conspirators there, except for some broken bushes, for the gun had smashed their hut to fragments on its rush to the sea.

As soon as Nate returned they all went in to Nantucket town together and made haste to the North Wharf where the
Sarah Casket
was berthed. Great was the joy of the crew, particularly Uncle 'Lije, on seeing that Captain Casket and Nate were safe and not drowned, as had been thought.

‘We reckoned as we'd make it a plum-pudding voyage, Cap'n,' Mr Pardon said, ‘and come back with only half our barrels full, for, to tell truth, when we heard the pink 'un had been sighted off Nantucket I'd half a mind to wonder whether somehow you hadn't run aground here. I'm powerful glad we did come back. Hear there's been some everlasting rum doin's in the old place since we left. Guess you'll be glad to put to sea again, Cap'n?'

‘Yes, Mr Pardon,' Captain Casket said rather mournfully.

‘He's pining for the pink 'un,' Dido whispered to Nate, who nodded gloomily. However they all cheered up during the civic banquet, which was indeed a splendid affair. Professor Breadno, who had struck up a friendship with Doctor Mayhew, ate so many Nantucket Wonders that he was almost consoled for the loss of his gun, while Dido, Nate and Penitence were toasted so often for their part in saving the island from
disaster that they became quite bashful and retired out on to the balcony of the Grampus Inn (where the banquet was held) in order to recover their countenances. However they had not been out there more than a few minutes when Dido came flying in to exclaim:

‘Doc Mayhew, do come and see, there's a British man o' war beyond the harbour bar and she's lowered a pinnace and the pinnace is a-coming into the harbour!'

‘If she's looking for the plotters she's come to the wrong shop,' Doctor Mayhew said. But he slung his mayoral chain round his neck again (he had taken it off for the easier consumption of scallops) and went out to greet the captain of the English sloop
Thrush
who now came ashore, saluted, introduced himself as Captain Osbaldeston, and asked permission to make some inquiries about a gang of English criminals who were thought to be lurking on Nantucket.

‘You needn't bother, sir, you needn't bother!' Doctor Mayhew told him affably. ‘Mind you, so long as they'd left us alone, we'd ‘a left
them
alone, and you could have saved your breath asking for them. But as we found 'em to be a nest of plaguy varmints we cleared them out ourselves, there's not one left in the island. Instead of losing time here you should be out chasing their schooner
Dark Diamond
– she's probably halfway to Land's End by now.'

‘Oh no she's not,' Captain Osbaldeston corrected him. ‘She's lying in a hundred fathom of water in Massachusetts Bay.'

‘Eh?' exclaimed Doctor Mayhew, much startled by this information. ‘How did that happen, then? How did that come about?'

Captain Osbaldeston explained. He had just abandoned his fruitless search for
Dark Diamond
on the previous evening, he said, and was about to up anchor and make for home when, shortly after moonrise, he saw a schooner scudding along the Nantucket coast under full press of sail. He thought it was his quarry.

‘We were in the lee of the land at the time and she didn't appear to see us; she was coming up fairly fast when suddenly the strangest accident befell her that ever I witnessed in all my life at sea.'

‘What happened?' Dido and Nate asked in one breath.

‘Why, a thing that looked in the moonshine like a great pink whale came tearing along the coast, dragging behind it what seemed to be a rope. It cut clean across the schooner's course and when this rope struck the
Dark Diamond
, such was the speed of the whale's progress, if you will believe me, sir, that this rope sliced the schooner clean in two, and she sank in a matter of moments. It was an awesome sight, sir, it was indeed! Of course we searched the waters round about, but we were unable to find any survivors.'

‘Then the world is well rid of a pack of troublemakers,' Doctor Mayhew observed cheerfully. ‘But won't you join our celebration, sir, since your task is at an end? Come in and drink a toast to our young friends here, who succeeded in getting rid of this nest of cockatrices for us.'

Captain Osbaldeston observed that he would be very pleased to hear the whole story leading up to the mysterious destruction of the
Dark Diamond
, so that he could include it in his report to the First Lord of the
Admiralty. He came in and drank a great many glasses of ginger-jub while the tale was told.

‘So this young lady is a British citizen, is she?' he inquired, looking at Dido when he had heard it all. ‘Do you wish to be repatriated, madam?'

‘To be whiched?'

‘Would you like a passage back to England, my dear?'

Dido choked over a pickled tamarind. The temptation was almost irresistible. But she saw Pen's imploring eyes fixed on her and summoned the resolution to say, gruffly:

‘That's mighty civil of you, mister, and I thank you kindly, but I guess I'd better stick in Nantucket yet awhile. I made a promise I'd stay with a friend till they were fixed up right and tight, which they ain't yet. So thanks, but not this time.'

‘In that case,' Captain Osbaldeston said, ‘I'd best be on my way.' And he bowed to the company and returned to his pinnace. Dido went out to watch it flit across the harbour, and to take several deep breaths and rub a slight mistiness away from her eyes. As she stood on the balcony, reluctant to go back to the gaiety of the banquet, she noticed the sails of another ship, a three-masted whaler, approaching Brant Point.

‘Sail-o!' she called. ‘There's a-plenty traffic today.'

The new ship, which presently revealed itself as the
Topsy Turvey
, came to anchor at length against the South Wharf, and everybody ran out to gaze at her in curiosity, for she was not a Nantucket vessel. The moment she was berthed a stout lady who stood on deck had herself slung ashore in a barrel-chair and came bustling along the wharf in a state of great excitement.

‘Can anybody give me news of Captain Jabez Casket?' she asked. ‘Is he ‘live or drownded? – Why, there he
is
, his own self! Jabez! Brother Jabez! I declare, I never thought to see you more. I'd heard you was swallowed up by a pink whale!'

‘Why, Sister Tribulation! I am amazed to see thee! Where has thee been?'

‘And there's Mr Pardon! And my old friend Enoch Mayhew – ho, ho, do you remember when you pushed me in the creek, you wicked old fellow!'

‘Good gracious!' whispered Pen in Dido's ear. ‘Can
she
be Aunt Tribulation?'

The stout lady was cheerfully, even fashionably dressed in pink-and-grey striped sarsenet, with flounces, and a pink satin parasol, and cherries on her bonnet. She had black curls and gay black eyes, and her face was round and rosy and soft, like a pink frosted cake. She smelt strongly of lavender.

‘Oh, don't call me Tribulation please, Jabez, I have quite got out of
that
habit,' she said laughing. ‘Sam always calls me Topsy. Only fancy! I am married, Jabez! This is my husband, Captain Sam Turvey. We got married all of a sudden last fall, and I went off to sea with him. That was why I wrote my second letter saying that I should not, after all, be able to take care of Penitence in Nantucket. But of course when I heard you had been swallowed by the whale –'

‘Second letter? But I had no second letter,' he said, bewildered.

‘Did you not? I sent it to Galapagos with Captain Bilger; I made sure you'd have had it by now. But where
is
Pen, then? How have you managed?'

She turned gaily round, exclaiming, ‘Now, which is my niece? Let me see if I can pick her out!'

‘Here I am, Aunt Tribulation,' Pen said shyly.

‘Topsy, love, Topsy! Never call me Aunt Tribulation!' cried Aunt Topsy, enveloping Pen in a warm hug. ‘Yes, and I can see your mother in every inch of you but how you've grown, bless you! I'd not have known you.'

‘I'd never have known
you,'
Pen murmured.

‘No,
that
you wouldn't,' Dido muttered to herself, amazed at the difference between Pen's five-year-old memory of her aunt and this cheerful, pink-cheeked, sweet-scented, bustling reality. Pen's ma must have had some right silly ideas, she thought, to call her a dragon. Oh dear, why did this Auntie Trib have to go to sea? If only she'd stayed on shore, everything would have been all hunky-dory. Pen's taken a fair fancy to her, anyone can see that with half an eye.

It was true. Penitence was leaning happily in the circle of Aunt Topsy's arm, her eyes shining like stars.

‘. . . so as I've decided that a life at sea doesn't suit me,' Aunt Topsy was saying, ‘I'm going to stay right here in Nantucket and build me a house out at 'Sconset, for Sam to come back to between trips. And you'll keep me company there, won't you, Penny, when your Papa's at sea?'

‘Oh yes!' Pen cried joyfully. ‘Oh yes, Aunt Topsy!'

‘Oh no!' groaned Dido involuntarily. ‘Oh, why the blazes couldn't you have sailed in an hour ago instead of
now
? Then I coulda been snug aboard the
Thrush
at this very minute, a-sailing back to London River.'

‘Oh, Dido!' cried Pen remorsefully. ‘What a shame! But you can stay with me and Aunt Topsy till we find you another ship.'

‘It's all right – never mind.' But Dido bit her lip.

Suddenly Captain Casket shook himself out of his sad reverie.

‘Nay!' he exclaimed. ‘But we'll up anchor with the
Sarah Casket
! A Nantucket whaler can soon overhaul that lumbering English craft. We'll put thee aboard!'

‘Oh!' cried Dido. ‘
Could
you?'

Captain Casket was already rattling out orders: sails were shaken loose and the anchor was whisked up; half Nantucket town crowded on board to see Dido on her way.

The
Thrush
had a considerable start but was still in view, and the
Sarah Casket
rapidly began to gain on her as they crossed the Gulf of Maine. Then it could be seen that the
Thrush
was hauling her wind and bringing to; soon they saw the reason for this. Out of the north-east, arrowing through the ocean in a shower of spray like a broad piece of sunrise-coloured ribbon, came something that could only be the pink whale herself.

‘It's Rosie!' Dido cried. ‘It's Rosie come back to look for the cap'n!'

‘Come back to see you off,' said Nate.

‘Come back to forgive us,' said Pen softly.

Rosie frolicked round the
Sarah Casket
like a flying-fish, and the blue-jackets on board the
Thrush
crowded the rail to gaze in astonishment at this phenomenon.

Captain Casket hailed the
Thrush
.

‘Hey, there! Can you take a passenger? Miss Twite would like to sail to England after all.'

‘And welcome!' the
Thrush
replied. The captain's gig
was sent across for Dido. She hugged everybody on the
Sarah Casket
goodbye. Now that she was really leaving she found herself sad, but just the same she was happy – very, very happy – to be homeward bound at last.

‘Come back soon,
dear
Dido!' said Pen. ‘Come and stay with me and Aunt Topsy next summer.'

‘Forvandel, blisschild,' said Professor Breadno, who had accepted an invitation to stay with Doctor Mayhew and study snowy owls.

‘So long!' said Nate.

‘You'll always be welcome in Nantucket,' said Doctor Mayhew. ‘You saved it from a fate, far, far worse than death.'

‘Thee is a good child,' said Captain Casket.

‘Your ladyship's carriage stops the way,' said Mr Jenkins.

Dido jumped down into the gig and was rowed across. When she reached the
Thrush
they piped her on board as if she had been the Queen herself, and the captain invited her to sit at his table. But she waited on deck, watching and waving until the
Sarah Casket
, escorted most joyfully by the pink whale, had started back to Nantucket and was out of sight.

When Dido went back next year to visit Pen she found that Captain Casket had given up seafaring. Since the pink whale had returned, his only wish was to live on Nantucket and watch her every day as she sported and frolicked off its shores.

And, as whales and sea-captains are both notoriously long-lived, it is possible that if you go to Nantucket today you may still have a sight of them.