The Pirates in the Deep Green Sea (22 page)

He led the way out of the cavern to where a platform had been erected in the park, and beckoned Timothy and Hew to follow him. A large crowd had gathered by now, of sailors who attended Davy Jones in his summer court, of mermaids who milked the whales and did the housework, and of fishes of all kinds from dolphins to sprats. They lined one side of the route along which the sailors would
march, and opposite them was the platform for Davy Jones and his Councillors.

He made Timothy and Hew stand beside him, for they had done him great service, he said, in bringing the news from Popinsay; and they had doubled and redoubled its value by discovering, on their way through the sea, the pirates' plans.

‘We should never have found our way here if it hadn't been for William Button and Henry String,' said Timothy.

‘The Powder Monkeys? Where are they now?'

‘Over there in the crowd,' said Hew.

‘Let them stand beside us too,' said Davy Jones, and Hew went to fetch them; which made all the fishes and the mermaids and the old sailors wonder who they were, and what they had done, to entitle them to such an honour.

Davy Jones told the boys that it was his custom, every year, to celebrate the Fourth of June with a parade and feasting and games; but before he had said very much the crowd began to grow excited, and to lean forward, and to break out of line, for now in the distance the sailors could be seen marching towards them. Everyone on the platform stopped talking and stood at attention; and Davy Jones blew his nose on a large red pocket-handkerchief.

The sailors were marching six abreast in six companies of about a hundred each, and every man carried a cutlass stiffly upright in his right hand. Two officers marched in front of each company,
and two behind; and the officer who led the whole parade was a little good-looking man with dark hair and a short pointed beard, whose appearance seemed oddly familiar to Timothy and Hew. But they had no time to think about that, for as the little officer came abreast of the platform, and swept down the point of his sword in salute, the sailors broke into their marching song:

‘Out of Pompey and Plymouth we sailed, and our flag to the mast-head we nailed

When the enemy's topsails were hailed, and we mustered to quarters in haste;

From Wapping and Chatham we came, for rum we were thirsty and fame,

Seafaring was our native game, and prize-money much to our taste;

From the Solway to Pentland's rough firth we look back at the lands of our birth,

But we scorned the green comforts of earth, and the desolate ocean we faced!

‘When Drake, our good Captain of old, brought home round the world a full hold

Of pearls and of ingots of gold, he raised up our hearts and ambition —

So we fought with the French and the Dutch from the Skaw to the Channel of Cutch,

Though we never knew why, but the touch of a cutlass compelled the decision

To close them and grapple and board, in the smoke of a broadside that roared

Like the ultimate wrath of the Lord, when their bulwarks we rubbed in collision;

And after we'd practised our trade, and our seamen were perfectly made,

Lord Nelson appeared on parade, and stopped Boney from being so clever.

‘So we steer by the light of his star to whatever new ventures there are,

And ouf hands are callous'd with tar, but our spirits are quick with endeavour;

And our guns are loaded again, with grape and with round-shot and chain—

As we brought down the tall masts of Spain, we shall bring down all tyrants for ever!'

They made a gallant and a splendid sight, for they were all lively and stalwart men, though some were old and bearded; and some were bald, and some wore short thick pigtails. They marched with a slow rolling stride, but perfectly in time, and bold good humour kept company with broad shoulders and swinging arms. They wore on their vests the names of their old ships, and as they came marching past, rank after rank—bearded faces and brown faces, faces carved out of old oak and proud impatient faces—Timothy and Hew forgot they should be standing at attention, and in their excitement leaned forward to read the names of the ships and remember, if they could, the battles they had fought in.
Barfleur, Royal Sovereign,
and
Audacious,
they read.
Thunderer, Bellerophon, Invincible,
and
Agamemnon. ‘Agamemnon
was Nelson's ship,' whispered Timothy. ‘I know,' said Hew, ‘and
Barfleur
was Collingwood's, and there's a
Speedy!'

‘That was Cochrane's brig when he boarded the Spanish frigate,' said Timothy,' and look, there's a
Victory,
and a
Revenge
— he must be very old!' ‘And an
Ark Raleigh,
said Hew, ‘he's just as old.' ‘And the
Triumph
was Frobisher's.' ‘The
Jesus of Lubeck
was Hawkins'!' ‘
Breda
was Benbow's.' ‘
Shannon
was Broke's—and who had
Orion?'

Memory stirred in their minds, and as, when a great tree is shaken by the wind, the sunlight sprinkles the grass below, so a light seemed to fall, quite suddenly and clearly, on all they had heard or read about the admirals who sailed with Nelson, and Queen Elizabeth's seamen, and frigates and line-of-battleships, and voyages to the northern ice, and voyages to the Spice Islands, and capes and channels of the sea where battles had been fought; and history, which they had learnt from books, became a living thing as the sailors who had helped to make it marched past them with their swinging arms, and strong brown faces, and good humour in their eyes. And still they came —
Marlborough, Neptune, Euryalus
— with their rolling stride and cutlasses in their sturdy fists —
Arethusa, Thetis,
and
Blake
— chanting their song in voices like the north-east trades —
Boreas
and
Foudroyant, Goliath
and
Leander,
and last of all a sailor from the schooner
Pickle,
which had brought to England the news of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson.

And now, when the sailors all had passed, Davy Jones blew his nose again; and his twelve Councillors
took out their handkerchiefs, and blew their noses with a noise like a bugle-band. For they had all been very deeply moved by the march-past, and the memories it awakened; and some of them, while they stood so straightly at attention, had been crying a little. And after they had blown their noses they all exclaimed, rather gruffly, ‘A good show, wasn't it? They marched very well, I thought. Most creditable.' — So they congratulated Davy Jones on the parade, and he answered, ‘Let us hope the dinner will be as good, and we must try to make it so. For we are the mess-men, Councillors, and the mariners are our guests.'

The sailors were already seated at the tables which had been set up, some little distance away, under the ocean trees; and as soon as Davy Jones and his Councillors, assisted by some fifty or sixty mermaids, had served everyone with a great helping of sea-pie — which had been specially made by an old mermaid who was the best cook in the whole Atlantic — and filled all their drinking-shells brim-full, the feast began. Always, on these occasions, Davy Jones and his Councillors waited on the sailors, and the sailors kept them busy; for they emptied their plates almost as quickly as they were filled, and waved their drinking-shells about and shouted for more.

The dinner went on for a long time, and one or two of the Councillors, thinking about Inky Poops, began to grow impatient. They suggested that Davy Jones should tell the sailors to hurry up,
because they had to fight as well as eat. But Davy Jones said, ‘They have time to eat their dinner and beat Inky Poops too. I will not hurry them.'

But when they had all finished, he stood up in the midst of them and made a speech. He said he was very glad to see them again, and they all cheered. He said he hoped they had had a good dinner, and they cheered again. He told them there would be no games that afternoon, as there usually were, because he had just learnt that a pirate fleet was on its way to attack them, and so instead of games they would have to fight a battle — and then the sailors all jumped to their feet, and climbed on to the tables, and cheered again and again.

They listened in a quiet and orderly fashion while he described what had happened, but when he told them of the manner in which he proposed to engage Inky Poops in battle, they laughed uproariously and cheered once more; and then they began to clear away the remains of the feast.

Half an hour later there was nothing to be seen in the great park in front of the cavern but two long tables, well supplied with food and drink, at which sat forty sailors eating and drinking. They had strict orders to go on eating and drinking — or pretend to — until Inky Poops and his three hundred mutineers should arrive. The rest of the sailors lay hidden in the cavern, or in the thickets of weed that surrounded the park.

Timothy and Hew, who had eaten their dinner
with William Button and Henry String at a small table beside the sailors, now waited in the cavern, and one of the Councillors sat beside them to make sure that they kept out of the coming battle. They had to wait a long time, growing more and more restless and impatient. It was evening before Inky Poops arrived.

The light was beginning to go when one of the sailors, who were still sitting at the tables in the park, looked up and saw a dark shape overhead. ‘That's them!' he said. ‘That's their scouts, coming to see if we're all at home. Pass the rum, boys, and keep your cutlasses between your knees.'

None of the others looked up, but passed the rum from one to another, and pretended to be eating and drinking with as good an appetite as when they first sat down. Darby Kelly, who was on the shark overhead with five other pirates, swam slowly round and round, and counted the sailors who were having their supper, and satisfied himself that there was no one else in the park. Very cautiously he came down a little lower, and still could see no sign of life in the cavern. Then he returned to where Inky Poops and his fleet were waiting, and told them that, so far as he could make out, they had no more than forty sailors to deal with; though there might be some more inside, he said, who were probably sleeping.

‘Well, isn't that splendid!' exclaimed Inky Poops, rubbing his hands together. ‘Isn't that the nicest arrangement for a battle you could think of!
And it's just what I expected! Well, Darby, my dear, you shall have the honour of leading my fleet into action. I'm not so young as I used to be, so I'll bring up the rear. Don't wait for me, Darby, but go ahead and start the battle as soon as you like.'

Darby Kelly, who was no coward, gave orders to the fleet to attack in close formation, and placing himself in the centre and forefront of it, led the pirates in a long swift descent upon the forty sailormen at the supper-tables. The sailors made no move until the pirates were within fifty yards of them, when they leapt to their feet and stood on guard. At the same time Davy Jones led a hundred others from the cavern, in a headlong charge against the pirate fleet, while from the thickets on three sides of the park came the sailors, who had lain in ambush there, to join the battle or rise above it and cut off the enemy's retreat.

Some fifty or sixty of the pirates fought well, but the remainder, seeing themselves attacked from all sides, quickly lost heart and fled. Above and about the supper-tables there was some fierce fighting, but elsewhere the battle quickly became a chase through the darkening sea; and after Darby Kelly was made prisoner there was no more resistance. Darby Kelly had leapt from his shark on to one of the tables, and stood there waving his cutlass as if he were ready to engage a dozen enemies at least. But two of the sailors overturned the table, by pulling the legs from under it, and
when Darby fell off, two others sat on him. Darby, in his own way, was an honest man, and truly devoted to Inky Poops. He looked so miserable, when he realised how overwhelmingly they had been defeated, that the sailor sitting on his chest felt sorry for him and gave him a shell of rum before taking him off to the stables behind the cavern, where prisoners were being collected and shut up.

More and more prisoners were brought in, and when they were counted, an hour later, they numbered a hundred and eighty-six. But Inky Poops was not among them. Inky Poops had not joined the attack. He had four well-armed pirates' with him on his own shark, and two other sharks, fully manned, in attendance. They had waited above and behind the fleet to see how Darby Kelly fared, and when they saw that Darby had swum into an ambush they had not tried to help him, but turned and fled with all possible speed to the north.

Davy Jones wasted no time on celebrating his easy victory over Inky Poops, and by daybreak on the following morning he had made all preparation for a voyage to the north and battle against Dan Scumbril. His expeditionary force consisted of about five hundred men, well mounted on great finback-whales, which were faster by far than basking-sharks. The fleet was to move in five divisions and a supply-column, each under command of a Councillor. Each division would follow a given course, and in this way the whole fleet would cover a wide expanse of sea, and, it was hoped, pick up many stragglers from Inky Poops's army. All divisions had orders to assemble on the evening of the third day at North Rona, a small uninhabited island about fifty miles north of the Butt of Lewis. The supply-column carried a large quantity of rum and included a small flock of milk-whales; it would move more slowly than the others.

Timothy and Hew, and William Button and Henry String, were to travel in the same division, but the basking-sharks they had previously ridden were now added to the supply-column.

The boys stood together while the sailors were mounting, and the captains of each division went
busily about to give their final orders, and those who were to remain behind to guard the cavern looked enviously at their more fortunate comrades. There was a good deal of noisy talking—especially from the mermaids, who were swimming to and fro and telling the sailors to be sure and remember them—and everything appeared to be in a state of great confusion. But quite suddenly, as it seemed, confusion vanished, and there was the fleet all trimly disposed and ready to move. Davy Jones, accompanied by several of his Councillors, inspected each division in turn while the mermaids, and the sailors who had to stay behind, and a great multitude of fishes, of all sorts and shapes and sizes, crowded together and watched in silence.