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 Sat.u.r.day, 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 sh.e.l.ls, instead of coffee, and the roasted eggs tasted _exactly_ like a picnic.
Man Sat.u.r.day 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 Sat.u.r.day 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 Sat.u.r.day 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 Sat.u.r.day!" he said the next minute. Man Sat.u.r.day 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 Sat.u.r.day 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 Sat.u.r.day 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 sh.o.r.e 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Pirates began to row towards the sh.o.r.e]
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 sh.o.r.e.
"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 sh.o.r.e, 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 Sat.u.r.day. Blue Crest sat on Barty"s shoulder and really hung her head and drooped her wings.
[Ill.u.s.tration]