Chapter one
"Look here, Nancy, why don't you sleep in my tent and I'll sleep outside. Roger and Bridgie are the ones who wished Robin and Vicky on us."
It was no use asking her in front of the others, John knew his fellow captain well enough to know that by now.
"Honestly, it alright John." She looked up from checking that Amazon was secure for the night, while he did the same for Swallow. For John, these were some of the best moments of the day, talking with his fellow captain in the relative privacy of the harbour, or just checking their vessels in the companionable silence. Now, of course, with Scarab safely next to Swallow, Dick had joined them in this routine. John liked Dick well enough and approved of his determination to do his best by Scarab, but this evening, John wanted to speak to Nancy alone. He had hit on the idea of asking Dick to talk him through what he was checking, and had been impressed by the thoroughness which the younger boy had brought to the task.
At the end of Dick's explanation, John had said, "Not bad, not bad at all."
Nancy had added, "He means "Jolly good."
It had seemed easy enough for John to add, "You've checked all you can here." and perhaps it was that last "here" which made Dick head back to the camp and leave the two captains – the two senior captains - together.
John doubted that Nancy would ever have given the explanation she did if Dick had been there.
"I'd like to sleep outside tonight. Really. I'm not just saying it to be polite. It was rotten for the D's of course, having to hide and feeling they were in the way, but it was pretty awful for us too - frilly frocks and petticoats and being on view all the time and - not know if she would have a go at Mother anyway."
No need to explain who "she" was. No need to explain why that made Nancy determined to sleep outside. John was only surprised that Nancy had not already embroiled them all in some wild and complicated plan, instead of the comparatively staid project of teaching the Ds to sail properly. Perhaps deceiving the great aunt had satisfied her love of intrigue for the time being. Perhaps she was still more worried about her mother than she would admit.
"Fair enough, Captain Nancy." was all he actually said.
After the first night, John usually found it easy enough to sleep on Wild Cat Island. The first mate's misgivings about how Robin and Vicky would cope during their first night under canvas had unsettled him perhaps. If he was going to lie awake he might as well think of something interesting.
So after they had escaped on Shining Moon and Miss Lee had had to return to her duty, what had happened then? Sailing a junk, even a small one must have been a challenge when they didn't really know what they were doing. John sighed and rolled over in his sleeping bag. If he started trying to work that out, sleep would be more elusive than ever. He knew he would not be happy with the details he made up until he found out if he was right – impossible on Wild Cat Island.
He would have to go back to a time before their adventure on the coast of China, when the little green schooner Wild Cat, in immaculate condition and looking as though she would live the next hundred years at least had just sailed across the Atlantic. (Once Titty had stated firmly that they would already have visited Tahiti before the loss of the Wild Cat, it became as impossible to change as a fact. John was privately very proud of his little sister's imagination, and sometimes uneasy about where it might take her.) So – somewhere warm – blue water- sailing- he remembered how much Titty had like the phrase when they had used it in Peter Duck. The Caribbean? Somewhere on the Gulf of Mexico?
Without Peter Duck, Susan had to admit that that Titty and Roger would not always be able to go to bed at the correct time. Besides, Titty was older now than Susan and Peggy had been on that first voyage. As ship's engineer, Roger was generally awake during the day and woken as needed at night, but Captain Flint had divided the night into three watches. He had one, with Peggy to assist him; Nancy took the second, with Titty as her assistant and John took the third with Susan to help. Susan was somewhat mollified by Peggy's suggestion that the assistant could, when not needed, sleep or at least lie down fully clothed in the bunk that had once been occupied by Mr Duck. Like many plans it did not always work out exactly as originally suggested. After they had left the busy shipping of the Channel, a second person was not always required on watch and the three captains agreed that it was sometimes as well to leave the sleeping member of one watch to her sleep in the deck house bunk while the mate or able seaman who should relieve her to slept on in her own bunk. When they were in port, of course, only one person was needed for the anchor watch.
The entire crew had enjoyed their visit to Madeira. The highlight for Roger had been hurtling down the streets on Funchal in a basket. (Gibber had been so terrified that Titty and Susan had walked down the hill with him in the end.) They had stayed for a few days, and although Captain Flint had not wished to leave Wild Cat for more than a few hours at a time, the rest of them had, in various combinations, made trips to other parts of the island. It was Nancy who found out about walking along the levadas, and led them alongside spectacular and sometimes precipitous drops. Titty and Nancy were the most enthusiastic about the wild volcanic mountain scenery and Titty was also much taken with the Agapanthus which grew as roadside plants. They had all been surprised to discover that rather dull cake that the Swallows and Amazons thought of as Madeira cake was seen in much the same light by many of the Madeirans they met. The entire ship's company were impressed by the local honey cake, and the mates bought several of them for future provisions as well as immediate consumption.
"We shan't be able to do anything about the fish though." Peggy said, and although they had all enjoyed espada when they tried it, only Roger had espada cooked with bananas every time they ate at a café.
"Don't you want to try something different?" Peggy had asked him.
"But I know I'll probably never have it again after we leave here. I think the waiter said it only lived in deep water."
And Peggy had bought extra bananas and served them with tinned tuna and rice a week later. Roger was suitably grateful for the effort without John and Susan having to nudge him, but they all, even Peggy, realised that the experiment had not been especially successful. That was the last of the bananas anyway, although they bought more in the Canaries and more again at Nassau. It was here that they encountered the first of Captain Flint's old friends and his wife. The entire ship's company were invited to their house. John was left on anchor watch, with a textbook on navigation for company. He was rather pleased that, clever though she was in general, he making faster progress than Nancy.
"Stop being such donkeys!" The sentence would be characteristic of Peggy, but the whisper came from Dick's tent for all it held an unaccustomed note of fierceness. John rolled out of his sleeping bag and picked up his torch. He should not let his exasperating brother and the rather irritating Robin rag Dick.
Dick was giving quite a good account of himself, but was very much hampered by the fact that Roger had his hold of his spectacles and the need to avoid waking the others. John was amazed that they weren't all awake.
"That's a pretty low trick, grabbing Dick's goggles like that." John observed. "You know better than that Roger, even if our guest doesn't." He didn't whisper, but kept his voice very low. Robin hadn't missed the slight emphasis on the word guest nor the dismissive note. Apparently chastened, the younger boys handed back Dick's glasses and pillow and crawled back into Roger's tent.
"Sorry about that, Dick." John murmured.
"Not your fault." Dick replied in a similar tone before scrambling into his own tent.
John wasn't at all sure Roger and Robin would settle down to sleep.
Captain Flint seemed to have old friends everywhere. It had seemed a pity not to see something of the United States while they were so close and, Captain Flint's friend in Nassau having mentioned a mutual acquaintance in Louisiana, they ended up going there.
The town with its small port was sufficiently small that even John had to look it up on a map – none of the crew of Wild Cat had heard of it. The town wasn't too small to have noticeably wealthier and poorer areas – and the area Captain Flint's friend lived in definitely seemed to be one of the wealthier ones.
"Make sure you keep tight hold of Gibber." John muttered as they walked up the broad and immaculately kept path, with a well-tended lawn on either side, up to the neo-Classical front door. Captain Flint had brought only John and Roger with him this time. John understood why Captain Flint thought he should bring no more than two of them, but wondered why he had not brought his own nieces. Surely his old friend would be more interested in seeing them?
"You don't need to mention my name if you can avoid it." Captain Flint murmured quietly as the three of them approached the well-painted front door.
"So what are we to call you?" Roger asked somewhat startled.
"Sir?" John suggested. "He is the skipper."
"Captain Flint will do very well."
Captain Flint's old friend was charmed with Gibber. Roger was charmed with the ice-cream she offered them, which had nuts and little pieces of chocolate sprinkled on it. John thought it very good too.
It seemed they had arrived at the right time – according to Mrs Parr. "We're having a costume ball tomorrow – I'm sure the young people will enjoy it."
John was fairly sure he wouldn't enjoy dancing and making small talk with a succession of strange girls. On the other hand, he quite liked the idea of dancing with Nancy (if she would consent to dance at all – you never quite knew with an Amazon pirate) and a party supper at this house where such sumptuous ice-cream was produced at a moment's notice as a snack would be well worth the eating.
He glanced across a Captain Flint, who nodded very slightly, and then back at Roger who was letting Gibber eat the little wafer that had come with his ice-cream. John didn't think his mother would be happy if he allowed Roger to bring Gibber to a party and Roger let Gibber escape to wreak havoc. Gibber's eventual escape over the course of an evening was a forgone conclusion. And of course some people would be afraid he might bite. Come to that, this evidently completely grown-up party would be sure to go on later than Mate Susan would approve of for Titty and Roger. Staying up late or getting up early when it was matter of sailing Wild Cat was one thing; Susan was sailor and appreciated the need. She was likely to take a different view about parties.
"It's very kind." John said, "And we'd love to come of course, but I'm afraid we haven't got any costumes and I think my sister will feel it's too late for the Roger and Titty to be out."
Their hostess laughed. John wonder it that was what people meant by a silvery laugh in stories. It sounded just a little bit too perfect. He decided he liked Nancy's jolly and altogether unladylike laugh a lot better.
"As to that," Mrs Parr said, "I store the costumes for our little musical society. Perhaps you could choose some costumes for yourself and your sisters and friends."
"But I'm afraid John is quite right about Titty and Roger being a little young for dances yet." Captain Flint added. John thought he was carefully not meeting Roger's eyes.
John and Roger were escorted up the rather grand staircase by a maid and shown a room with several rails and some shelving. John picked up one of the hats. It seemed the musical society had done HMS Pinafore in the not too distant past. The maid suggested that they pick out a couple of costumes each for the girls.
John picked out a couple of the shorter sailor costumes for the Amazons. It looked the sort of thing they were most likely to wear. There was a "shepherdess" costume, more like little Bo-Peep than something you would wear to round up sheep, that looked about the right size for Susan. There were a couple more dresses that looked about the right size for Nancy and Peggy, long but not as frilly as most of them hanging on the rails. John picked up a red one and an olive green one. There was nothing he could see to object to in the colours. They would most likely want to wear the sailor costumes anyway. John looked around for another costume for Susan. Here was one which looked vaguely like one of the illustrations in Grimm's fairy tales. It would probably do, he decided.
Gibber leapt from the top on one of the rails to John's shoulder. John looked round to see what Roger was doing. Roger waved a costume on a hanger. It was just what you might expect an American theatre group to imagine a nineteenth century Royal Navy officer to look like. Actually, it wasn't too bad as a fancy dress costume.
"Try this one on." Roger urged. "The maid's gone outside and it's got a sword."
"Not a real one." said John.
"It's metal." Roger said. "Not very sharp." he added, testing the blade.
"Lucky for you." John said, but tried the costume on anyway. It wasn't too bad.