Part 10 (2/2)
”Ah, I see!” said Barty. ”That's why you said all those things in the cave.”
”It was indeed,” answered the pirate Captain. ”The moment the Great Baboo saw the book he went and sat by the old gentleman and made signs to him to read aloud. The old gentleman read to him. In half an hour from that time I was chained to the mast and all the other pirates were chained on the deck round me and I was reading to them out of the 'Guide to Perfect Politeness.' The Great Baboo had thrown me into the sea in a very sharky place until I understood what he wanted. We all knew all the book by heart before breakfast next morning, and since then we have never broken a single rule. That was three years ago. The other Baboo Bajorums went back to their island in six months, but the Great Baboo has always sailed with us.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”It is another pirate vessel and it is going to attack us.”]
At that moment Barty heard the sound of many feet running on the deck and the shouting of many voices, as if something new and alarming was happening. The pirate sailors were all running about. Some came tumbling up the companion-way and some went screaming up the rigging and some went running to the side to look over the sea.
The pirate Captain stopped and clapped his spy-gla.s.s to his eye.
”h.e.l.lo!” he said. ”I beg your pardon, excuse me for disturbing you by mentioning it, but there is a large s.h.i.+p bearing down on us at full sail. It is another pirate vessel and is going to attack us.”
Barty jumped up and threw his cap in the air. ”Hooray! Hooray!
Hooray!” he said. ”There's going to be a pirate battle and I'm certain we shall win.”
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER EIGHT
The other pirate s.h.i.+p looked very big and grand. All its sails were filled with wind and it came cutting through the waves so fast that it looked as if it were alive. Barty stood and watched it and Sat.u.r.day came and took hold of his hand. Everybody on the polite pirates' s.h.i.+p was running about, dragging guns into place or pulling ropes or sharpening swords. There was a great clatter and noise and shouting of ”I beg your pardon,” or ”pray excuse me,” or ”may I ask you to be so kind,” when the pirates fell over each other, or got in each other's way, or wanted to be helped to lift or drag something. Blue Crest prudently went and hid in a coil of rope and Good Wolf walked up and down the deck and examined things. Baboo Bajorum walked up and down, too, with his big hands in his pockets. Suddenly there came a white puff of smoke from the chasing s.h.i.+p and a big ”boom,” and Barty and Sat.u.r.day both jumped at the same time because they knew the cannon had begun to fire.
The pirate captain shouted and waved his sword and then a puff of white smoke and a big ”boom” came from the side of his s.h.i.+p, and Barty knew they had fired back.
Then everything became so exciting that you could scarcely stand it.
As soon as the boom and puff of white smoke was sent from the polite pirates' s.h.i.+p, a boom and a puff of white smoke came from the impolite pirates' s.h.i.+p, and as soon as a boom came from the impolite pirates'
s.h.i.+p, a boom answered back from the polite pirates' s.h.i.+p.
It was like this:
”Boom!” from the impolite pirates.
”Boom----boom!” from the polite pirates.
”Boom!” from the impolite pirates.
”Boom, boom, boom!” from the polite pirates.
”Let us go and sit behind that big coil of rope and watch,” said the Good Wolf.
It was the coil of rope Blue Crest had hidden herself inside, and when Barty and the Good Wolf and Sat.u.r.day sat on the floor of the deck behind it, she was so glad that she whistled Barty's little song to let him know that she was quite near him. But Barty could scarcely hear her because there was so much noise. Pirates were shouting, gunners were ramming cannon b.a.l.l.s into cannons, and the polite pirate captain was yelling polite orders to his men. Barty was obliged to shout himself, just as he had been obliged to shout in the tropical storm.
”Do you think we shall win?” he called out, as loud as he could, to the Good Wolf.
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