The Pirates in the Deep Green Sea (4 page)

‘Of course,' said Timothy. ‘We never have spoken about him.'

‘And we never will,' said Hew indignantly.

‘I was just reminding you,' said Sam in a milder tone.

Captain Spens was waiting for them at the very edge of the sea, with the cannon-ball in his hands. He was very excited, and his glass eye looked as though it might fall out at any moment.

‘Where did you find it?' he demanded. ‘Why didn't you come and tell me at once? Don't you realise how important it is? That gale last week, all that hard weather, Sam, may have exposed the wreck. It may be breaking up!'

‘Yes, sir,' said Sam, ‘it was a proper gale, there's no doubt about that. I wouldn't be surprised if it had moved things about on the bottom of the sea almost as much as it did on top.'

‘Have you searched the whole beach?'

‘We went along that bank of seaweed pretty carefully. I don't think there's anything else come ashore, sir, except that cannon-ball.'

‘But that's evidence, isn't it?' exclaimed the Captain, and gave the evidence to Timothy to carry. ‘You don't find cannon-balls coming out of nothing, do you? Cannon-balls come out of ships, and cannon-balls like that come out of old ships. I wish I had some of those long-winded, self-important, addle-pated so-called experts here, who won't admit that my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather ever wrecked his ship on Popinsay; or if he did, they say, he wasn't Aaron Spens the pirate, and so there was nothing of any value in it. —Experts, my wooden foot! A
lot of scoundrels and nincompoops, that's what they are.'

For a long time the Captain had corresponded with historians and learned people of that sort, telling them that he was a descendant of Aaron Spens, a famous pirate whose crew had been hanged at Execution Dock in 1712; and trying to convince them that Aaron Spens had wrecked his ship, and gone down with it, under the cliffs of Popinsay. All the historians, without exception, refused to believe his story, and the more firmly they denied it, the more strongly the Captain declared it to be true. Whoever opposed him—in this or any other matter—was in his opinion a scoundrel or a nincompoop. When he was in a bad mood, indeed, he appeared to think that nearly everybody in the world, except his own particular friends, was either one or the other; and sometimes, after he had been reading the newspapers and come to the conclusion that everything was being horribly mismanaged, and getting worse and worse, Timothy and Hew would hear him striding to and fro in his study, and exclaiming, ‘Scoundrels and nincompoops, that's what they are! A set of scoundrels and a pack of nincompoops!'

His voice would grow louder and louder until it thundered through the house like someone beating a big drum. He was not a big man—he was, indeed, quite small and thin, with a fierce red face and bright blue eyes—but when he was angry his voice was like that of a giant, and the walls of the
house would shake and tremble as he bellowed, ‘SCOUNDRELS AND NINCOMPOOPS!'

Now, however, though he shouted from time to time, he was in a very good humour as they walked up from the beach. Timothy and Hew had quickly dressed themselves, and calling them into his study he gave each of them half a crown for finding the cannon-ball. Then he unlocked a big black cupboard, and taking out a bottle of rum poured a large drink for Sam; who took it and said, ‘My best respects to you, sir, and very happy to be still under your command.'

Timothy and Hew were allowed to stay and listen while the Captain and Sam discussed diving operations. The Captain owned a fishing-boat called
Endeavour.
It was about thirty-five feet long, broadly built and deep in the keel, and very seaworthy. Before the war he had often used it for diving, and Sam in a diver's suit had gone down into the deep green sea to look for the pirate ship, while one of the crew pumped air to him, and another stood ready to haul him up again when he gave the signal that he was ready. But Sam's old diving-suit had worn out, and the Captain had found it difficult to get an up-to-date new one of the sort he wanted. —His difficulty, he said, was due to the fact that everybody in charge of anything was either a scoundrel or a nincompoop. —At last, however, the new suit had arrived, and the
Endeavour,
which had gone south to have its engine overhauled, was due back in Popinsay within a few
days. And then, said the Captain, they would waste no more time but quickly put Sam overboard, and wait above him until he had found pirate gold! He had discovered, he thought, the exact place where the wreck must be lying.

He unstrapped a large portfolio and spread a chart on the floor. Stiffly, because of his artificial leg, he knelt down, and Sam, breathing heavily, knelt beside him. The two boys leaned over their shoulders.

‘There!' said the Captain. ‘That's where she lies, I'll bet a fortune on it!'

He pointed to a spot in North Bay, under the west cliffs of Popinsay and about two cables north of the Hen. He began to explain why that must be the exact place where the wreck lay, and Timothy and Hew listened eagerly, though they could not understand all he said.

In an attic of the house, in a sea-chest full of old papers, he had lately discovered a tattered manuscript in which there was a story about Aaron Spens the pirate; and on another page of the manuscript, more than half of which had been torn away, there was a rough drawing of what, he felt sure, was North Bay and the Hen. He spoke also about the set of the tide, which he had studied very carefully, and said that the cannon-balls and the skull with the gold coins in it, which had been washed ashore in Inner Bay, could only have come from that part of the coast which he now marked, on the chart, with a pencilled cross.

It was this part of the argument that Timothy and Hew could not follow, and they grew rather tired of listening; but Sam understood everything the Captain said, and seemed much impressed by it.

They were twice interrupted by Mrs. Matches the housekeeper, who came in to say that lunch was ready. ‘Go away!' said the Captain. ‘Go away, Mrs. Matches, we're busy.'

When she came in for the third time she merely beckoned to the boys with a long skinny forefinger, and they, because by now they were very hungry,
got up quickly, and tiptoed out, and had lunch with her in the kitchen.

Mrs. Matches was six feet tall and very thin; and she was the only woman on the island who could put up with the Captain's bad temper. Fourteen other women had tried to be his housekeeper, but all had left him because they could not bear to be shouted at. No one, they said, could bear being shouted at in such a terrible way. So Mrs. Matches became the Captain's housekeeper just to prove they were wrong and show that she could bear it. ‘Faith!' she said, ‘there's not a man alive that can daunt me with his shouting!' And for ten years she had put up with the Captain, and quite often shouted back at him. The Captain still treated her badly, and never came to a meal in time if he was busy with anything else; but he always expected his meals to be hot when he did come. He often said, however, that Mrs. Matches was a fine woman; and so she was.

She was not a very good cook, but she always cooked twice as much as anyone could eat, and whenever the boys had lunch with her in the kitchen they ate too much. So now, after lunch, they felt rather tired, and went outside to sleep in the sun under a dyke.

But before they went to sleep Timothy said to Hew, ‘I understood nearly everything that Father said about the ship, and it was very interesting, and if we discover a cargo of gold—well, that will be most exciting. But what I can't understand is
what Gunner Boles has got to do with it. Why has he come here, just at this very moment?'

‘And Cully too,' said Hew. ‘I wonder what Cully's doing, and why he had to be punished?'

Timothy tried to think of an answer, but yawned instead; and Hew followed suit. So they lay down in the warm grass and went to sleep.

The island of Popinsay was twelve miles long and nearly eight miles broad at its broadest part. Its population numbered about three hundred and fifty people, and nearly all the men were either fishermen or farmers or shopkeepers in the little village of Fishing Hope at the south end. Captain Spens owned the northern half of Popinsay, and the small islands that were called the Calf and the Hen; but all the best land was in the south. There were several farms on the Captain's property, but none of them was worth very much, and that was why he was so anxious to find the pirate's treasure; because his barns and byres and stables were in danger of falling down, and he could not afford to repair them.

Popinsay House, where he lived, was the largest house on the island. A little wood grew behind it, and from a distance it looked very handsome. But the roof leaked, the chimneys smoked, the bedroom floors had holes in them, and bees nested in the roof and could not be driven out. If he found a treasure-chest full of gold, he could make it a very fine house indeed; but otherwise it would become more and more uncomfortable to live in, and
already it was quite uncomfortable enough, especially in winter-time. That was why Mrs. Spens preferred to live in South Africa.

The Captain and Sam Sturgeon and the boys all waited with growing impatience for the return of the fishing-boat
Endeavour,
and every afternoon Timothy and Hew walked round Inner Bay, and swam over to the Hen—or walked across, if the tide was out—and searched the cliffs there, hoping to find some new treasure or to meet Cully. But they found nothing, and met no one except people whom they knew very well, until the third afternoon. Then, when they were walking up from the beach of the Hen to the cliffs on the north side, they heard a strange, thin, reedy voice singing a little song. They stopped in surprise, and listened for a few seconds. Then they got down on their hands and knees, and cautiously, but as quickly as they could, crawled towards the cliffs.

Not far away there was a narrow cleft in the rock, as though the cliff had been split in two. From either side the turf sloped down to it, and then there were ledges of bare rock, like great stone steps. In some places the cleft was no more than a yard across, but, thirty or forty feet below the ledges, the green sea rose and fell, and grumbled in little caves.

Crawling down the nearer slope, Timothy and Hew looked into the cleft and saw a curious sight. Cully—they recognised him at once—was hanging over the sea as if he lay in a hammock, and
swinging to and fro. With four of his long thin arms he held on to a ledge on the near side of the cleft, and with the other four to a ledge on the far side. He looked very comfortable, and as he swung out and in, he began to sing again:

‘The Captain of the
Saucy Kate

Gave these instructions to the Mate:

“We're sailing through the Downs to Deal,

So have a good man at the wheel;

And to avoid a total wreck,

Please keep the Starboard Watch on deck;

Let a sailor go to the masthead,

And let another heave the lead;

And do remember, Mr. White,

To see your lamps are burning bright!”

‘But Mr. White, he shook his head,

“Dear Captain, I am tired,” he said,

“We've worked your ship from Port o' Spain,

And I'm never going to work again!”

‘Lazy, lazy! Let's have a holiday!

It's quite crazy to work all your strength away!

You'll lose your breath if you hurry,

There's nothing to win from worry,

But take your ease, and do as you please —

I want to go out and play!'

‘I've heard that tune before,' said Hew.

‘It's not all the same,' said Timothy, ‘but part of it is just like
A Bicycle Built for Two.
— Listen! He's going to sing some more.'

Cully cleared his throat, and sang some more verses:

‘The Captain of the
Saucy Kate

To the Bo'sun did ejaculate:

“We do not want to have a wreck,

So keep the Starboard Watch on deck;

Let a sailor go to the masthead,

And let another heave the lead;

And do remember, Bo'sun Kite,

To see your lamps are burning bright!”

‘But Bo'sun Kite, he shook his head,

“Dear Captain, I am tired,” he said,

We've worked your ship from Elsinore,

And I'm never going to work no more!”

‘The Captain of the
Saucy Kate

With a Seaman then had some debate:

“Let a sailor go to the masthead,

And let another heave the lead;

And do remember, Seaman Twite,

To see your lamps are burning bright!”

‘But Seaman Twite, he shook his head,

“Dear Captain, I am tired,” he said,

“We've worked your ship from Portland, Maine,

And I'm never going to work again!”

‘The Captain of the
Saucy Kate

To the Cabin Boy his case did state:

“Now do remember, Boy McKnight,

To see your lamps are burning bright!”

‘But Boy McKnight, he shook his head,

“Dear Captain, I am tired,” he said,

“We've worked your ship from Singapore,

And I'm never going to work no more!”

‘The
Saucy Kate,
she ran aground,

And all the sailormen were drowned;

And the Captain and the Bo'sun too,

And Mr. White, and all the crew,

No longer work, no longer care—

And here's a song with a pleasant air…'

Then, swinging to and fro like a swing-boat at a fair, he repeated the chorus:

‘Lazy, lazy! Let's have a holiday!

It's quite crazy to work all your strength away!

You'll lose your breath if you hurry,

There's nothing to win from worry,

But take your ease, and do as you please —