Chapter 7

"No luck at all – she knew exactly what I was doing. I wouldn't have been surprised if she had taken me on a little detour just to trail a red herring. We seemed to come back directly enough, though."

Titty, lying on top of one of the harbour rocks with her eyes fixed on the little white sail, said, " She probably realised that you'd realised that, so she realised it wouldn't be any good. That's the worst of her being so clever."

John from the top of the other rock spared a quick glance at his sister. "You're clever too. You won the war for us last year."

"That was just grabbing a chance." said Titty.

The thought of the might-have-beens when they were sailing around on the lake in the dark rose up in John's imagination again, blocking any reply he might have made.

"I think," said Titty, "that it's the one they call Tea Bay."

"Then it probably isn't too near there." Captain John said. "Although I doubt it's that far either. The Mate and the Ship's Boy should be ready by now."

"We should do it by tracking them." said Titty, "That's the proper way."


They had tried tracking. The trail petered out by a tarn above Dixon's farm. They had tried searching. They ate their sandwiches. They searched some more. They ate their apples. After more searching, Roger began to complain that his foot ached. The Mate served out a ration of chocolate, which seemed to alleviate the problem for half an hour.

"You were the one who decided to leave your crutch at Holly Howe." she said severely.

"Bridget wanted to show it to Joyce today." Roger replied. The crutch was really more of a nuisance than it was worth, even in entertainment. It had been rather satisfying to bestow it on Bridget as a plaything. None of the others could provide a crutch.

"I wonder if they really are here." Roger said aloud. "Why shouldn't they be somewhere else entirely, not where it said on the map? You said yourself that pirates weren't to be trusted."

"She wouldn't go back on her word." said John quickly, "Just keep it in a way we aren't expecting."

"We've been over everywhere. There isn't anywhere else for them to hide."

John said slowly, "Suppose the circle of rope is here, somewhere, but they aren't. Suppose they've just put it down somewhere inconspicuous within the area they've marked and sailed off for the day somewhere else. We've been looking for them, not a piece of rope."

The hearts of all four Swallows sank. It seemed so exactly the sort of plan that Captain Nancy would come up with. They would have to search the whole area again, much more carefully. John glanced at his watch. It was already three o'clock. They had precious little chance now.

"Didn't the agreement say you had to stay with the circle?" Titty asked.

John shook his head. He had thought of it and not mentioned it, hoping it gave him a possibility the Amazons had not thought of. In the end he had decided that it threw away the Swallows advantage in numbers. That just meant it would work better for the Amazons. The Swallows got to their feet, spread out in a line with Susan at one end and John at the other and carried on with their search, eyes fixed on the ground.

Half an hour later they heard excited barking. They all looked up. John at the end of the line nearest the barn saw a golden, bushy tail waving frantically by the Dixon's barn.

"It might be something else, not them." said Titty, who was next to him in the line.

"That's a dog who is happy to see someone. I don't imagine Humphrey has met Mr Dixon" John said. Roger and Susan came over to them.

"Look here, spread out and pretend you haven't noticed anything." John said urgently.

They continued searching.

"It is Humphrey, Susan says she can see Mr Tinsdale." Titty passed the report quietly along the line.

There was a whistle and Humphrey lolloped after Mr Tinsdale down a track towards the lake although he stopped and looked back at the barn a couple of times.

"Tell Roger to pretend to find something on the ground and we'll all look at it. We need to make a plan." John said quietly. Titty duly passed on the message.

Roger obligingly called out, "I say, come and look at this caterpillar."

They all clustered round him.

"We know they're in the barn and we know it's in the bottom bit and not the top bit, because of where Humphrey was." John said.

"They know we're here, but they don't know we've seen them." said Titty.

"There's probably a doorway or a narrow gap. If we have to push past them in single file, it won't matter that there's more of us, just that they're bigger." Susan said.

"Like Thermopylae." Roger put in.

"But the Greeks lost that." said Titty.

"So shall the Amazons – lose I mean." Roger grinned.

"We haven't got an Ephialtes to help us." Titty pointed out.

"Greek traitor who showed the Persians a hidden footpath through the mountains so they could outflank the Greeks." said John hastily seeing a question form in Susan's expression. The Ship's Boy would tease the Mate for days if she had to ask, which would be bad for the discipline of the crew.

"There might still be another entrance on the other side." Roger said.

"That's the first thing to check." John agreed. "We can't help them knowing we're here, but we need to keep as much surprise as we can manage. We already know ourselves how difficult it is to keep alert for that long. Amazons do seem to get bored easily."

Roger opened his mouth to argue and then shut it again. He supposed it depended on your age. Both Nancy and Peggy seemed happy to talk to John and Susan for hours about nothing that seemed to matter very much when Roger would rather be up and doing. Still, since his brother and oldest sister seemed quite happy with their parts in the conversations, Roger supposed it must be part of this "getting older and slowing down" that he occasionally heard the natives talk about.

"We work our way round to the other side of the barn as if we are still just searching." said John. "We'll see if there is another door there and if there isn't, we snake our way quietly up to the barn and slip round to the entrance on this side. If they are standing just inside the door looking out they won't be able to see us until the last minute. With a bit of luck, we'll catch them with only one at the door."

"Suppose there is another entrance?" Susan asked.

"You and the ship's boy stay on the other side. The able seaman and I will come back to this one. When you think we've had enough time to get into position, attack. Anything that makes them split their forces is a good thing. Titty and Roger, remember that our objective is to get inside the circle. Winning a fight doesn't matter. Let the Mate and me take care of holding the Amazons off. One more thing." John had been thinking furiously since he saw Humphrey's waving tail. "They will be expecting us to push passed them. Try pulling them out of a doorway."

"But we need to get inside ourselves." said Roger.

"There are more of us. Suppose Susan pulled Nancy out of a doorway. You could just slip in behind." Titty explained.

"We haven't got time to plan anything more elaborate. We're cutting it fine as it is." said John. "No war cries or signals that we're in position or anything like that. If there are two doors, it really doesn't matter if we don't attack at the same time. In fact, it will be better. If we can slip through an undefended door it will be easy."

It went to plan – pretty much.

There was only one door. Nancy was lurking just inside it. John grabbed both her wrists and jerked her forward. Susan, lurking unseen on the other side of the doorway slipped past Nancy into the doorway with the others close on her heels. Nancy had already begun to react, leaning forward to push him back. Her momentum combined with his own carried them a couple of yards from the door. Her foot caught on something before she could regain her balance. John took another few paces backwards, pulling her as hard as he could, getting them as far away from the door as possible. Titty and Roger would need only a few seconds. He stumbled, tried to regain his balance, failed and felt himself falling backwards.

Nancy had fallen backwards off a high stile on a step slope once. It had felt like this. There was nothing to grab onto or push off from. The fall was inevitable, but you had time to think. All she could do was to try not to fall on John too heavily. She hoped he wouldn't hit his head on a stone. She twisted round as much as she could to her right. They hit the ground. It would hurt in a second. It did.

"Are you hurt?" she was asking. Was this the first time she had spoken, or the second? He moved his hands hastily. She was already wriggling to one side and rose to her knees.

"Did you hit your head? Have you landed on a rock? I'm sorry I'm so beastly heavy."

"You're cut." he observed.

"Just scratches. Gorse."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I didn't mean to hurt you, either, and I bet I did, thumping down on you like that. Did you bang your head?"

He didn't feel much like moving, but she was going to keep asking, so he sat up. He reached up to feel the back of his head, but she was before him.

"It's not really a bump. Yet." she said doubtfully and then added more cheerfully. "There don't seem to be any rocks and it rained the night before last, so the ground isn't as hard as it might be."

They could still hear yells of triumph from Titty and Roger. The Mates came out of the barn to find out what had happened to their Captains.

"You look like you've been fighting a cat." Peggy observed to her sister. "Why do you always have to find the only gorse bush?"

"Avast there." said Nancy, almost absent-mindedly. She let Peggy dab iodine from Susan's first aid kit on her face and arm while Susan checked John over. Susan did sound very professional with her questions. The Captains dusted themselves off and got to their feet.

"Are we going to call at Holly Howe before we go back?" Titty asked.

The Captains exchanged glances. Mother was bound to ask awkward questions. John thought the first of these was bound to be "What am I going to tell Mrs Blackett?" Some things would be easier if Nancy was a boy. He couldn't imagine her as anyone but herself, exactly as she was. Life would be unbearably dull without Nancy Blackett.

"The Ship's Boy has walked enough. Let's get back to Wild-Cat Island." Susan said firmly.