"It is getting worse," gasped the Good Wolf"It is getting worse," gasped the Good Wolf
"It is getting worse," gasped the Good Wolf
"N-no-not yet," Barty managed to shout back, almost without any breath at all. "I s-saida desert island."
"Y-y-you are a j-jolly little ch-chap!" the Good Wolf shouted back. "Y-you are a-a st-stayer. Hold on to me tighter—here's a b-big blow coming."
It was such a tremendous blow that they had to throw themselves flat on the ground and let it pass over them. But they were nearly at the top of the cliff by this time, and after a few more battles and gasping short runs they reached the place where the greenhollow was and threw themselves down into it and huddled close together.
They lay there for some time before they could get their breath again.
"The purple-black cloud looks as if it were dragging in the sea, and flashes are coming out of it," said Barty, when he could speak.
As soon as he could get breath again the Good Wolf sat up and scratched behind his earveryseriously.
"What has happened?" cried Barty suddenly. "It seems as if the wind had stopped all at once."
"I'm afraid it hasn't stopped for long," the Good Wolf answered. "I don't like the look of this at all."
A big drop fell on Barty's nose and made him jump.
"That was a 'mense drop of rain!" he cried out; "and it felt as heavy as a stone."
"That's what I don't like," the Good Wolf said. "When the rain comes down it will come in a deluge, and if the wind doesn't blow us over the cliff the deluge will half drown us."
Barty gave another jump, but this timeit was not because a raindrop had startled him. It was because he heard something a few yards away behind him. It was a squeaky, gibbering little voice, and it sounded as if it said something very much like this:
"Chatterdy-chatterdy-chat-chat-chatterdy. Chat-chatter-chat!"
Barty heard it because the wind had stopped blowing and everything seemed for a few moments to be quite still. He stood up to look.
"It's the black thing!" he cried out. "It's one of the black monkeys who hasfollowed us. He keeps popping his head in and out of a hole."
"I thought it was about time," the Good Wolf remarked. "Let us go and look at the hole."
"Chat-chat-chattery, chattery-chatterdy," said the black monkey, as if he were telling them to come.
They went to look, and as they drew near it the monkey kept darting in and out and chattering all the time.
The hole was in a piece of rock which stood out of the cliff. The opening was just big enough to crawl into.
"If we can get in it will keep the rain off us," cried Barty, and he went right down on his stomach and crawled in to see if there was room enough.
"Chattery-chattery-chat-chat-chatterdy," said the black monkey, running before him.
Almost as soon as Barty had crawled into the hole he gave a shout. He found he had crawled into an open place like a room, with walls of rock, and on one side there was actually an opening like a window, which looked out on the sea.
"It's a cave! It's a cave!" he calledback to the Good Wolf, and the Good Wolf came scrambling in after him.
"It's a cave in the cliff," he said, "and the storm may do what it likes; it can't touch us. We found it just in time."
They wereonlyjust in time, for at that very moment there came a great bellowing roar of thunder and a great rushing roar of rain. But it was all outside and they were safe and warm, and Barty danced for joy, and the black monkey danced too.
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FOUR
Running with Dog
CHAPTER FOUR
THE tropical storm went on. The thunder crashed and the lightning flashed and the rain poured down in torrents. Barty had never heard such a noise in his life, but inside the cave everything was dry and warm and comfortable. The floor was covered with fine whitesparkling sand, like a wonderful new kind of carpet. The walls and roof were made of white rock which sparkled also. The Good Wolf sat down on the white sand floor and smiled cheerfully. Barty sat down, too, and the black monkey sat down at the same time, because he was still perched on Barty's shoulder. He seemed an affectionate monkey, for he put one funny arm round the little boy's neck and leaned a black cheek against his curly hair.
"Come down and sit on my knee," Barty said to him, "I want to look atyou. I never had a monkey for a friend in all my life before."
The black monkey jumped down on to his knee as if he had learned boys' language in his cradle. He could only chatter monkey chatter himself, but it was quite plain that he understood Barty. Hewasfunny when he sat down and folded his tiny hands before him, as if he were waiting to hear what was going to be said to him.
"He has such nice eyes," said Barty. "I believe he is asking me to tell him to do something."
"Yes, that's what he wants," replied the Good Wolf. "That is what he came for. I knew he was coming. That was why I asked you if you had seen something black."
"Was it?" said Barty. "You know all about this desert island, don't you?"
"Yes," the Good Wolf answered. "Every single thing," and he said it with such a peculiar smile that Barty knew there was some secret in his mind and he wondered what it was, but he did not ask because he felt sure that the Good Wolf would tell him some time.
The black monkey was looking at him so eagerly and with such a funny expression that Barty could not help laughing.
"His face is so tiny and wrinkled that he looks like a baby a hundred years old—only babies never are a hundred years old," he said. "Will you stay with me?" he asked the monkey. "If I were really Robinson Crusoe and you were bigger you might be my Man Friday."
"Chat-chat—chattery-chatterdy-chatterdy," replied the little black creature, getting so excited that he quite jumped up and down as if he could not keep still.He chattered so hard and his chatter sounded so much as if he were talking that it made Barty laugh more than ever and put a queer new thought into his head.
"It seems as if he were trying to say Saturday," he cried out. "Perhaps he is saying it in monkey language. I'm going to call him that. If he isn't a Man Friday he can be a Man Saturday." And Man Saturday seemed so pleased and the Good Wolf thought it such a good idea, that Barty was delighted and hugged his new little black friend quite tight in his arms.
"Things get nicer and nicer," he chuckled. "I wouldn't have missed coming to this desert island for anything."
Tropical storms come very quickly and go very quickly. Suddenly this one seemed to end all at once. The thunder stopped and the lightning stopped and the rain was over and the huge black cloud disappeared and out came the blazing sun looking as if it were pretending that it had never been hidden at all.
Barty and the Good Wolf went to look out through the big hole in the wall of the cave which was like a window. Everythingwas sparkling and blue and green and splendid again.
The sea, and the sky, and the grass, and the trees all looked so beautiful that Barty stood and gazed out of the window for about five minutes, forgetting everything else. Then suddenly he turned and looked around the cave.
"Where is Saturday?" he cried out.
The Good Wolf turned and looked about too, and after he had done it he shook his ears in a mystified way.
"I don't see him anywhere," he said. "He is not in that corner and he is notinthatone, and he is not in that one, and he is not in theotherone. If he were in the middle we should see him, of course."
"I am sure he wouldn't run away," said Barty. "I feel quite sure he wouldn't. He had such a nice look in his eyes and I know he took me for his friend. And I took him for mine. When people are friends they don't run away."
"Oh no," answered the Good Wolf. "Certainly not. Let us walk slowly all round the cave and look very carefully. This cave is a queer shape and it may have corners we can't see just at first."
So they walked round side by side and looked very carefully indeed. Once they walked round, twice they walked round, three times they walked round, and then they stopped and looked at each other. The Good Wolf sat down and scratched his ear with his hind foot in a very careful manner, and Barty put his hands in his pockets and whistled a little, quite thoughtfully. But almost the very next minute he cheered up and his face beamed all over.
"Why," he exclaimed, "you see, if he is my Man Saturday, he has things to do for me! I've not lived on a desert islandlong enough to know what they are, but I daresay they are very important. I believe he has gone to do something for me which he knows is his duty."
The Good Wolf stopped scratching his ear with his hind foot and became as cheerful as Barty.
"Of course!" he exclaimed emphatically. "You are a very clever boy to think of that. You always think of the right things at the right time, instead of thinking of the right things at the wrong time or the wrong things at the right time, which is very confusing."
"Shall we go outside and see if he is anywhere about?" said Barty.
"That is a good idea, too," responded the Good Wolf. "You are full of good ideas, and they are the most useful things a person can have on a desert island."
They walked down the cave—it was rather a long cave—towards the narrow passage which led from the hole outside to which Saturday had led Barty. As they came to the entrance to it they both drew back to look at something very queer which was coming towards them through the passage itself. It certainly was thequeerest thing Barty had ever beheld since he had been a boy, and the Good Wolf himself looked as if it seemed a queer thing even to him. It would have seemed queer to you, too. What it really was Barty could not possibly have told, but what itlookedlike was a bundle of dried leaves bound together by long grass andwalkingover the ground by itself as if it were alive.
"Itiswalking, isn't it?" asked Barty, too much astonished to be sure his eyes did not deceive him.
"It certainly is," the Good Wolf replied,"there is no mistake about that, and though I am Noah's Ark Wolf and have lived for ages and ages, I have never seen a bundle of dry leaves walk before. It is very interesting, indeed." He actually sat down to watch it and Barty leaned forward with his hands on his knees and gazed with all his might. On it came. It did not walk fast at all, but rather slowly as if it found it rather hard to get along—which seemed very natural, because no bundle of dried leaves could have had much practice in walking.
Barty leaned forward with his hands on his knees and gazed with all his might.Barty leaned forward with his hands on his knees and gazed with all his might.
Barty leaned forward with his hands on his knees and gazed with all his might.
It walked past them and it walked thefull length of the cave until it reached the corner nearest the window.
"It's stopping," called out Barty, and the next minute he called out again: "It's lying down."
It did lie down, almost as if it were tired, but it did not lie still more than a minute. It rolled over on its side and lay there, and there was a scuffling and a couple of black legs were to be seen kicking themselves loose, and a pair of black arms twisting themselves from under it, and a little black wrinkled face and head with cunning, bright eyes pushed themselvesout, and the minute Barty saw them he shouted aloud with glee:
"Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!" he cried out. "It was Man Saturday all the time. He was carrying the bundle of leaves himself and it was so big and he was so little and the leaves hung down so that we didn't see him."
Man Saturday came running across to his little master. It was plain to be be seen that he was so pleased about something that he did not know what to do. He caught hold of Barty's hand and chatterdy-chattered at himand tried to pull him towards the corner.
"He wants me to do something," said Barty. "He brought the leaves for something. He wants me to find out what they are for."
Man Saturday danced before him to the corner where the bundle of leaves lay. He began to pull at the twigs which tied them together, and Barty knelt down and helped him.
"I'm sure they are for something important," he said. "I am going to think very hard."
He stood up and put his hands in his pockets and he stood astride because boys can often think harder when they stand that way. Man Saturday tried to imitate him, but as he hadn't any pockets he put his hands on his hips and held his head on one side while he watched Barty with his sharp little eyes, all eagerness to see if he would find out what he meant. He looked so funny.
"You couldn'teatthem however loose your belt was," Barty said, looking at the leaves. "And you couldn'tdrinkthem even if you were dreadfully thirsty—andyou couldn'twearthem even if your clothes were worn out as Robinson Crusoe's were. Even if you had a needle and thread to stitch them together they would break to pieces because they are so dry and brittle."
"Yes, they are very dry," remarked the Good Wolf, quietly.
And then all in a minute Barty felt sure he knew.
"If there were enough of them you could lie down on them," he said in great excitement. "That'swhat they are for! Saturday knows where there are more ofthem and they are for a bed." When he said that, Man Saturday gave a squeak of delight and he immediately caught at Barty's hand and began to pull him towards the passage which was the way out of the cave.
"He has got a store of them somewhere," said the Good Wolf, "and it is a place where the rain could not reach it. Let us trot along and see."
Barty and Man Saturday were trotting along already, at least Man Saturday was trotting and Barty was creeping through the passage, and in two minutes he wasout on the side of the cliff again and standing upon the ledge outside the cave. It was a very convenient ledge, and you could walk nearly all round the cliff on it. It was the kind of ledge you would only find on a desert island like Barty's—a really nice desert island.
Man Saturday led the way, and after a few yards they came to a place where some trees and bushes hung over the edge, and beneath them was a hole in the rock, rather like a very little cave, and there were a great many leaves near the entrance to it. Anyone could see how they hadgot there. They were blown from the trees and bushes, and when Barty bent down and peeped into the hole he saw that it was full of leaves which had been blowing in there for years until the tiny cave seemed almost stuffed with them. No rain could reach them and so they were quite nice and dry.
The hole was too small for Barty to crawl into, but it was more than large enough for Man Saturday, and chattering to Barty as fast as he could he crawled in and began to put together another bundle. He got the twigs from a bush close byand he pushed leaves out to Barty, so that he might help him.
It was great fun for Barty. He knew he could carry quite a bundle, and so he made a big one and when it was done he carried it back to his cave and pushed it before him when he crawled through the passage. Man Saturday brought one suited to his own size, because he was determined to work, too. Then they went back and made more bundles and the Good Wolf carried a big one on his back. In about half an hour the corner of the cave had a beautiful soft, heaped up, dry leafbed in it, and Barty was rolling over and jumping and turning somersaults on it, and Man Saturday was jumping about with him. The leaves were piled so high and were so springy to jump on that it was like dancing in a hay stack, but rather nicer.
"Now," said Barty, stopping a minute to take breath after turning six somersaults on end, "we have a beautiful bath and we have a house and we have a bed and we have a Man Saturday—and we found something to eat when we looked, and I believe we shall find something more whenwe look again. I think just now I will lie down and have a sleep. Running very hard in storms does make you sleepy."
"That's a good idea, too," answered the Good Wolf. "I believe I should like to curl up and get a few thousand winks myself. Forty wouldn't be enough."
And he did curl up at the bottom of Barty's big bed of leaves, and almost before he had time to do it Barty had curled up, too, like a squirrel in a nest, and he was fast asleep—and so was little Man Saturday, who curled up close beside him.
CHAPTER FIVE
Pirates
CHAPTER FIVE
BARTY'S bed of leaves was so comfortable that he slept all night like a dormouse and never rolled over once. There is no knowing when he would have opened his eyes if he had been left to himself, but when the sun had risen and begun to make the blue sea look as if itwere sparkling with diamonds, he suddenly awakened and sat up to listen to something he had heard in his sleep.
What he had heard was Blue Crest. There she sat on the edge of the cave window, whistling the calling song she had learned from him the day before.
"Hello," said Barty, "I'm glad you've come back. I wondered where you were in the tropical storm." Blue Crest spread her wings and flew into the cave to perch on his wrist. She sang a little song of her own. She was saying "good morning" and letting him know she was glad he hadcome to the Desert Island. Barty whistled back to her and stroked her feathers with his fingers and lifted her up to put his cheek against her soft wing. Anyone would like to be wakened by a bird who was tame enough to sit on one's wrist and sing.
"But where is the Good Wolf? And I don't see Man Saturday," he said suddenly, looking round the cave.
Blue Crest spread her wings and flew to the cave window again. Barty scrambled down from his leaf bed and followed her. It was a very nice window to look through.You could see so much sea and sky, and the white beach seemed so far below; and when he looked down Barty saw where the Good Wolf and Man Saturday had gone. They were standing in the sands together and looked as if they were very much interested in something lying near them. Barty was just wondering what they were doing when he was so startled by something that he jumped. There was a sudden sound of the flapping of wings and a large white bird rushed past him quite close to his face. It flew out of a round hole in the front of the cliff, andthe sight of it made Barty think of something.
"If she were a hen I should know there were eggs there," he said, "and that would be convenient."
The truth was that getting up had made him think of breakfast, and breakfast made him think of eggs. Blue Crest put her head on one side and gave three cheerful chirps. Then she flew to the round hole and disappeared inside. In about a minute she appeared again standing at the entrance, and she whistled Barty's call.
The little boy scrambled out onto the ledge outside the cave window. He knew that she was calling him to come and look at something. By standing on tiptoe he could look into the hole, and when he looked he saw it was full of very white eggs, which was so exciting that he could not help calling out to the Good Wolf and Saturday.
"Hel-lo! Hel-lo!" he shouted. "I'm coming and I've got some eggs for breakfast."
He was putting some into his blouse, which seemed a good place to carry them,when he saw the Good Wolf look up at him and then saw him turn towards the cliff and begin to run. He ran up the green slope so fast that he began to gallop, and he galloped until his tail and his hair streamed straight out behind him as they had done when he was running away from the tropical storm. He was excited.
Barty ran to meet him. He wanted to hear what had happened, so did Blue Crest; she flew after him. When they met the Good Wolf, he was quite out of breath and so was Barty. Blue Crest wasnot, but she fluttered down for a rest on Barty's shoulder.
"Have you a piece of glass in your pocket?" the Good Wolf panted out.
"Yes," answered Barty, beginning to fumble in his pockets. "At least I had yesterday a piece of grandma's old spectacles. Where is it?" fumbling deeper and deeper. "Oh! I must have lost it! It's gone!"
"I thought so," said the Good Wolf. "It fell out of your pocket onto the beach and something has happened. Come and see what it is." You may be sure Barty did not lose any time. He had to holdhis blouse tight so that the eggs would not break when he was running.
When he got to the beach he found Man Saturday standing as he had seen him from the cliff ledge. He was looking very hard at the small pile of something Barty had noticed that they were watching when he first saw them.
"What is it?" he cried out, feeling very much interested himself.
"Don't you see anything curious?" asked the Good Wolf.
Barty drew nearer and the next minute he gave a shout.
"Smoke is beginning to come out of it," he said. "It looks like real smoke. What set it on fire? What is that shining thing? Why, it's my piece of glass," and he made a jump towards it.
"Don't touch it," said the Good Wolf. "The sun has been shining through it onto the leaves and has made it into a burning-glass, and it has lighted a fire. That is what has happened. Now you can cook your eggs."
"Let us roast them," said Barty. "Roasted eggs make you feel just like a picnic."
Barty drew nearer and next moment gave a shoutBarty drew nearer and next moment gave a shout
Barty drew nearer and next moment gave a shout
Man Saturday gave him a cunning little look and then began to be very busy indeed. He ran and brought more sticks and leaves and Barty knelt down and blew the tiny flame until it grew into a bigger one, and then he fanned with his hat until the chips and twigs were snapping.
In a few minutes there was fire enough to cook anything and then began the breakfast making. Itwaslike a picnic. They put the eggs in the hot sand to roast and found some crystals of salt dried in the crannies of the rocks. Man Saturday brought some young cocoanuts and someof the roots that were like a potato, and they were roasted too. Man Saturday ran about chattering and imitated everything Barty did. He seemed quite delighted with the idea of roasting things in hot ashes, and when Barty and the Good Wolf went together to their swimming pool to have a bath while the breakfast was cooking, he sat beside the fire and watched it, with his arms hugging his knees and his eyes twinkling. "He always looks as if he were thinking very hard indeed," Barty said. "Perhaps he is thinking now how queer it is that a piece of glass can setthings on fire. I dare say he never saw fire before."
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 Saturday, 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 shells, instead of coffee,and the roasted eggs tastedexactlylike a picnic.
Man Saturday 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 Saturday 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 Saturday 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 thecave 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 theydocatch 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 Saturday!" he said the next minute. Man Saturday was dancingup 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 theGood 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 Saturday is beckoning to us to go to the cave," the Good Wolf said, "perhaps we would better go."
Barty thought so, too, so they hadanother 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 Saturday 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 shore 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. "Ithink 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.
The Pirates began to row towards the shoreThe Pirates began to row towards the shore
The Pirates began to row towards the shore
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 barecrooked sword across his knees. He waved his arm fiercely to the other pirates and they began to row towards the shore.
"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 shore, just at the foot of the cliff where your cave was.
"Well," said Barty, "thisisan 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 Saturday. Blue Crest sat on Barty's shoulder and really hung her head and drooped her wings.
CHAPTER SIX
"Oh!" said the captain, "I'm really smiling.""Oh!" said the captain, "I'm really smiling."
"Oh!" said the captain, "I'm really smiling."
Swimming
CHAPTER SIX
BARTY and the Good Wolf and Saturday and Blue Crest sat very quiet indeed. It is always best to sit very quiet when pirates are landing on the beach just below your cave. You never can tell what will happen if you do something that attracts their attention.
But after a few minutes Barty could not help whispering a little.
"I have only read one book about pirates," he whispered, "and they blindfolded prisoners and made them walk out on a plank until they tumbled into the sea. They slashed heads off, too. Will they take us prisoners?"
"If they take us at all they will take us as prisoners," said the Good Wolf.
Barty looked round the cave and thought what a nice place it was and how comfortable the leaf bed had been.
"I can't help thinking about that thingwhich I can't remember," he said to the Good Wolf. "I'm thinking very hard about it just now. I wonder what it is."
The Good Wolf had no time to answer because they heard the pirates shouting so loudly as they tried to pull their boat upon the beach that hehadto go to the window and peep to see what they were doing.
"They look fiercer than ever, now that they are nearer," he whispered. "They have such crooked swords and such curly black mustaches. You would better come and peep yourself."
So Barty went and peeped. He did it very carefully so that only the least bit of his curly head was above the cave window-ledge and it only stayed there for a mite of a minute.
The pirates dragged their boat up on the beach with savage shouts and songs, and then they stood and looked all about them as if they were searching for something. They looked up the beach and down the beach, and then they began to look at the cliff and talk to each other about it. Barty couldseethey were talking to each other about it.
"I believe they know we are here and are trying to find out where we are hidden," he said. It certainly looked as if they were. They looked and looked and talked and talked. At last the Captain walked ahead a few dozen yards and climbed upon the rock and stood there staring up at the cliff-front as hard as ever he could; then he took a spy-glass out of his satchel and he looked through that.
"It seems as if he is looking right at the window," said Barty, rather shaking, "I'm sure he must see it."
He did see it that very minute, becausehe began to shout to the other pirates and to wave his hat and his sword.
"There's a cave!" he yelled. "There's a cave! They are hiding in there."
Then he jumped down from the rock and ran with the other pirates to the place where the green slope began. Barty and the Good Wolf and Saturday could hear their shouts as they ran, and they knew they were running fast though they could not see them from the cave window.
I will not say that Barty did not turn a little pale. A desert island is a most interesting place and adventures are mostexciting, but pirates chasing up a green slope to your cave, waving swords and shouting and evidently intending to search for you, seems almost too dangerous.
"I can't help thinking of that thing I can't remember properly," he said to the Good Wolf. "I wonder what it is."
"Come and stand by me," said the Good Wolf. "Whatever happens we ought to stand by one another."
Barty went and stood by him and put his arm tight round his furry neck. There was something about the Good Wolf which comforted you even when pirates were coming.
They were coming nearer and nearer, and louder and louder their shouts sounded. They had come up the green slope very fast indeed, and Barty and the Good Wolf could even hear what they were saying.
"A little boy and a wolf," they heard. "They ran up the hill. They must have hidden somewhere." Then after a few minutes they heard the pirate crew on the ledge not far from the window.
"There must be a way in," the Captain called out. "Swords and blood and daggers! We must find it. Daggers and blood and swords! Where can it be?"
Barty stood by the Good Wolf and Saturday stood by Barty and Blue Crest stood by Saturday, so they were all in a row prepared to meet their fate.
Suddenly there was a great big savage shout and there stood the pirates, all in a row, too, six of them staring in at the window. It was enough to frighten any one just to look at them, with their dark-skinned faces and white, sharp teeth gleaming, and their black eyes and beards, and their hats on one side.
"Swords and blood and daggers!" said the Captain, when he saw Barty and theGood Wolf and Saturday and Blue Crest standing in a row looking at him. "Blood and daggers and swords!" and he jumped over the window ledge right into the cave and all the other five jumped after him. After they were all inside, there was just one minute in which both rows stood and stared at each other. Barty wondered, of course, what would happen next. No one could help wondering. Would they begin to chop with the crooked swords? But they did not. They did something quite different. This is what they did: