The Pirates in the Deep Green Sea (8 page)

‘I hope Mrs. Matches won't hear them,' said Hew.

‘Even if their skin's as tough as sailcloth,' answered Timothy sleepily, ‘and their bones are like oak-trees, and their veins are full of Jamaica rum, Mrs. Matches wouldn't care. Mrs. Matches would be very, very angry with them.'

Sam had been right when he said that the wind would soon go down, for the following morning was calm and grey; but Sam himself was by no means so calm as the sea, though he looked almost as grey in consequence of sitting up too late with Gunner Boles. He was in a difficult mood, and would not tell the boys what he meant to do. The
Endeavour
came in to Inner Bay during the morning, and Sam had a long conversation with Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall, but the boys were not allowed to listen. There was nothing they could do but wait
until Sam should tell them his plans, and to wait and wait throughout a long morning, and do nothing, was very tiresome when they thought of the pirate ship that lay within a couple of miles of them, under the smooth water of North Bay. So tiresome and so trying, indeed, was their idle morning that presently they fell into a bad temper too, and going down to the beach they had a short fight in which neither was much hurt, and neither could say that he had won. After that they felt a little better.

In the early afternoon Sam said to them, ‘You'd better hurry if you want to come with us. We're starting right away, and we've got no time to wait for those that aren't ready.'

‘We've been ready since breakfast-time,' said Timothy indignantly.

‘You're too fond of talking,' said Sam, and set off for the pier without waiting for a reply. The boys followed him, and no one said another word until they were at sea. Sam's diving-suit and his big copper helmet lay on the forward deck of the
Endeavour,
with coils of rope and the little ladder that would be slung over the side for his descent. Everything was ready for him to go down and explore the wreck, and Sam became much more cheerful as soon as they put to sea. Inner Bay lay smooth and calm, but off the western cliffs of the Calf the
Endeavour
rolled in the long Atlantic swell, and danced a little where the tide ran strongly. When they turned into North Bay they were again in
calm water, and they headed inland until they were not far from the tall cliffs of Popinsay. Then they turned south at slow speed while Sam and Old Mattoo pored over a chart in the little deckhouse.

‘It's here, or hereabout,' said Sam at last, and Old Mattoo stopped the engine, and James William Cordiall let go the anchor.

‘Well, this is where I get dressed for the party,' said Sam, ‘and I hope I shan't be late.'

‘What do you mean?' asked Hew.

‘I hope no one's been there before me and gone off with the cake — that's what I mean.'

‘But nobody knows about the wreck except us.'

‘Let's hope not,' said Sam.

‘And we haven't exactly been invited to the party, have we?' asked Timothy.

‘So you needn't expect to find anyone at home,' said Hew.

‘Except the cake,' said Sam, and began to put on his heavy diving-suit.

They helped him into it, and Old Mattoo set the copper helmet in position and screwed it down. Then the little ladder was thrown over the side, the boys manned the pump, and when Sam was ready he climbed slowly down and gradually disappeared under the water while James William Cordiall paid out the rope that would guide him under the sea and help him aboard again. The water was dark and the sky was cloudy. They lost sight of his copper helmet when he was only a
fathom down and then for a long time they waited, and still James William Cordiall paid out more rope.

No one spoke very much, and there was nothing they could do to pass the time, but keep on pumping. They could only wait and wonder how Sam was getting on, and try to picture him moving to and fro on the bottom of the sea, or among the green timbers of the wreck. The minutes passed very slowly, and they all thought that Sam was staying under far too long when James William Cordiall felt two pulls on the breast-rope and exclaimed, ‘That's him now! Lend a hand and haul away.'

He and Old Mattoo hauled together, and presently James William muttered, ‘He's terrible heavy!'

‘He's heavier than he used to be,' Old Mattoo agreed.

‘Perhaps he has found something, and is bringing it up with him,' said Timothy.

‘The treasure-chest,' said Hew. ‘The cake!'

‘Maybe, maybe,' said Old Mattoo, and hauled away at the breast-rope. Timothy and Hew leant over the side to watch for the first appearance of Sam's copper helmet, and presently through the dark water they saw a little gleam of light, and below it a pale moving body.

‘There he is,' cried Hew.

‘He's got something with him,' cried Timothy. ‘He's got — he's got— Oh, Mattoo, come here! He's got another man!'

Sam's head appeared above the water, and in his arms they could plainly see the half-naked form of a stranger. Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall were so startled that they let go the breast-rope, and Sam Sturgeon and his mysterious burden — whatever it might be — disappeared again in the darkness of the sea.

‘You are a stupid old man,' exclaimed James William Cordiall indignantly. ‘Why did you let go the rope?'

‘And you are a very feeble, useless kind of man,' retorted Old Mattoo. ‘For it was you who let go first, and a man who cannot hold on to a rope should never come to sea at all. He should stay at home among the women and the little children.

‘Oh, never mind whose fault it was,' cried Timothy. ‘Haul him up again as quickly as you can. Quickly! Quickly!'

‘The boy has more sense in him than you have,' said James William Cordiall.

‘It was his fault in the beginning,' grumbled Old Mattoo. ‘It was he that gave me a fright in the beginning, by shouting and saying that Sam had found another man in the sea.'

Again they hauled, and again the boys, looking over the side, could see the gleam of a copper helmet and the pale shape of a strange body moving beneath it.

‘He's still there,' whispered Timothy. ‘Sam's got him still.'

As Sam's helmet broke the surface, Hew quickly
made the rope fast with a couple of turns round a big cleat on the deck, and it was a good thing that he did so, because Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall were so frightened by the sight of Sam's burden that they would certainly have let the rope run out again if it had not been secured. But Sam's feet were now safely on the ladder, and with one hand he was holding the side of the boat while in his other arm he supported one of the strangest and ugliest men that any of them had ever seen.

Both Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall were very unwilling to touch the stranger, but through the glass front of Sam's helmet they could see him grimacing fiercely, and it was clear that he wanted them to relieve him of his curious burden. Timothy and Hew were as reluctant as the others to lay hands on the stranger, and at last it was Old Mattoo who leaned over and took him below the shoulders, and hauled him in.

‘Man and boy,' said Old Mattoo, ‘have I been taking fish from the sea, and many strange ones have I seen. I have seen the Great Sea Serpent itself, though no one ever believed me when I said so. But never have I seen the like of this before, and I hope I will never see it again!'

The stranger lay on the deck. He appeared to be unconscious, and he was dressed in much the same manner as Gunner Boles, though his vest was red and his trunks — that seemed to be made of shark-skin — were purple with ragged edges. He wore the same sort of curious slippers that Gunner
Boles had worn, and from the belt round his waist hung a little satchel at one side and a sheath-knife at the other. His shoulders were broad, his arms muscular, and his face looked as if it had been badly carved out of some rough grey stone.

Sam climbed in over the side, and Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall, still keeping an eye on the stranger, unscrewed his helmet. Then they all began asking him questions at once, but the first thing that Sam said was, ‘You'd better get a rope's end and tie him up. I hit him on the head and knocked him out, but when he comes to again he may be dangerous.'

Old Mattoo tied the stranger's wrists behind his back, and James William Cordiall lashed his ankles together, while the boys helped Sam out of his diving-suit. Then the questions began again, and everyone wanted to know who the stranger was, and what he was.

‘Who he is,' said Sam, ‘I don't know, but I'll tell you what happened. I didn't have much trouble finding the wreck. She's lying between us and the shore, not more than fifty yards away in a patch of sand under a long shelf of rock. There's part of her deck that's pretty clean, though the rest of her looks like a jungle, there's so much weed growing on her. I looked about me, and under the break of the poop, where the deck seemed to have been swept———'

‘That's where Gunner Boles said it had been swept,' interrupted Hew.

‘You keep your mouth shut,' said Sam angrily, and Hew remembered that no one knew of Gunner Boles's existence but Timothy and himself and Sam Sturgeon. Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall had never heard of him, and it would be as difficult to explain to them who he was as to account for the stranger on the deck. So Hew said no more, and felt ashamed of himself for having said so much.

‘Well, as I was telling you,' Sam went on, ‘the deck looked as if it had been swept, and there was a little door leading off it into the after quarters. I tried to open it, but it seemed to be made fast on the inner side. So I took a turn forward, to see if I could find some sort of hatch or opening under the weed, and then I happened to look back. And there was the door, that I thought was shut from the inside, beginning to open! Well, that gave me a bit of a surprise, as you can well imagine. But moving as quickly as I could, I got back to the break of the poop and stood there, waiting quietly, on the blind side of the door. If there was anyone behind the door, he was moving slowly, and very cautiously. But by and by I saw a head coming out, as though it might be the head of a turtle coming out of its shell, and a very nice chance he gave me to tap him on the napper with the back of the axe I was carrying. Which I did, and down he fell. Then I took a quick look through the door, and found an alley-way that led to a sort of saloon and a fair-sized after-cabin. There was no one else there — at least, as far as I could see — but both
those rooms looked as though they had been cleaned up and made tidy. There was weed growing from the deck above, but there wasn't any weed on the floor, and a big table in the saloon was so clean you could have eaten your dinner off it; except, of course, that it was under water. Well, I didn't want to stay too long, because I thought it best to get rid of this chap here. So I came out again and picked him up, and gave you the signal to haul away. And except for the nasty drop you gave me when I was half out of the water, that's all that happened.'

Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall looked very much ashamed of themselves, and Old Mattoo began to explain that they had naturally been a little surprised when Sam returned from the depths of the sea with a stranger in his arms. But his apology was interrupted by Timothy, who suddenly pointed to the man who lay on the deck. They looked and saw that his eyes were open, and he was watching them with a cold and horrid glance. He did not seem to be upset by the plight he was in, or in any way afraid. Sam pulled him up into a sitting position, and set him fairly comfortably with his back against the foreward hatch.

‘And now,' he said, ‘perhaps you'll be so good as to tell us who you are, and what your business is in these parts?'

The stranger made no reply. He looked at them coldly, and his lips moved a little as if he were muttering to himself. But he said nothing that they could hear.

‘Perhaps he can't speak,' said Hew.

‘He could speak if he wanted to,' said Sam, and stared thoughtfully at his prisoner.

Timothy came close to Sam and whispered in his left ear, ‘He's wearing the same sort of shoes that Gunner Boles wears.'

‘Keep quiet,' murmured Sam. ‘We don't want to say anything about him. Not yet, at any rate, though we may have to some day.'

Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall had by no means recovered from the fright which the stranger's first appearance had given them. Their sunburnt faces were a little pale, and they stood side by side looking down at Sam's prisoner as if they could not quite believe what they saw. James William Cordiall, indeed, was rubbing his eyes and groaning as if he had had a nightmare, and was trying to wake up and forget it.

‘I saw the Great Sea Serpent once,' said Old Mattoo again, ‘but nobody believed me when I told them. And nobody will believe me when I tell them about this man here.'

‘You don't want to tell anyone about him,' said Sam sharply. ‘There's something going on that we don't know about, and maybe we couldn't understand it if we did. But you won't do any good by talking about it, and frightening other people. So keep your mouth shut when you go ashore, and don't say nothing. Not a word, do you understand that?'

‘We should only be called liars if we did talk,'
said Old Mattoo with a sigh, ‘so maybe it is best to say nothing, and save our breath.'

‘Take him below,' said Sam, ‘and put him in the fish-hold.'

Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall picked up the stranger — they handled him as though he might bite, or as if his flesh was poisonous, but he made no attempt to resist them — and carried him below. Sam began to put on his diving-suit again.

‘What are you going to do?' asked Timothy.

‘I'm going down to have another look at the wreck,' said Sam.

Both Timothy and Hew thought that was a very dangerous thing to do, and looked rather worried. Old Mattoo and James William Cordiall, when they came on deck again and saw what Sam's intention was, were much more upset; and Old Mattoo told him he was mad to think of such a thing. They begged him to be reasonable, they pleaded with him to come back to harbour. But Sam had made up his mind. Sam was not easily frightened, and having found the wreck he wanted to see what was in it. So in spite of all they could say he put on his diving-suit again, and presently climbed over the side and disappeared into the sea.