Chapter 9
Author's note: Just as the Lake and Wild Cat Island are composites with a few inventions to suit the story, so are "the Games". I think it's pretty obviously which characters are my own and which belong to Arthur Ransome!
"Here's your Holy Grail."
It clanged against the empty enamel plate in a very satisfying manner and glowed in the fire-light and the warm remains of the sunset-light that filtered through the trees.
"May we look." said Titty, but Roger had already picked it up and was turning it round. The brass gleamed and the alternating squares of mirror and blue glass discs in the rim caught the light and flicked it across the faces of the others.
"I like the mirrors." said Titty.
"I've seen them put in pottery and embroidered on to clothes too." Captain Flint said.
"That shawl you brought for Mother."
"Not that she ever got to wear it. I seem to remember that you two.."
Nancy gave her uncle a sharp prod in the arm. The last time the Blacketts had played dressing up had been a good few years ago, before they had been pirates. Still, there was no point in giving the Swallows the wrong idea. They had a reputation for ruthlessness to maintain.
One of the best things about Uncle Jim was how quick he was on the uptake.
John was turning the cup round in his hand now.
"From the East?" he asked doubtfully.
"From India."
"So what are the rules for this next bit?" Mate Susan asked.
"Is it tomorrow?" said Roger eagerly.
Captain Flint laughed. "No, the day after. Tomorrow is the Games. You wouldn't know, but I'm surprised at Nancy and Peggy forgetting."
"It still feels as if it's only the beginning of August." said Peggy, almost shamefaced.
"I feel that way a bit myself," Captain Flint admitted, "but it's the third week and tomorrow's Thursday. I thought the Swallows might want to go. There isn't anything quite like it really."
"Except at Grasmere." said Peggy.
"But what are they?" Titty asked.
"Westmorland wrestling and running races and fell running and some other competitions." Captain Flint said.
"And people you haven't seen for ages in their best hats and saying "Haven't you grown and aren't you like you're mother when she was your age?" " said Peggy.
"That's not going to bother the Swallows. Their mother was in Australia then! And we don't have to wear best hats or best anything." said Nancy.
"It is good fun." said Peggy
"It's only in the afternoon really. We can sail in the morning." said Nancy.
"It's in a field just this side of Rio, usually." said Peggy.
The Amazons looked hopefully at the Swallows. The Captain of the Swallow looked at the Mate, who said firmly, "Of course we'd love to go, if you think it's a good idea."
("It sounds a bit like a fete in aid of " said the captain of the Swallow to the mate later, when the pirates were out of earshot.
"You could see they really wanted to go." said Susan.
"You don't get wrestling at fetes- in-aid-of." said Roger.
"Explorers always do watch tribal celebrations." said Titty.
"Anyway, we've said we'll go now." said the mate firmly. John nodded. It didn't do to give the able-seaman and the boy ideas about arguing with the mate. The next step would be arguing with the captain.)
Once again they left the boats in the Holly Howe boathouse and walked the rest of the way into Rio.
There they found no-one at Holly Howe but Ringman, who greeted them with slightly more enthusiasm than usual and responded to John's tickle under the chin with a respectful lick. The dog followed them hopefully up to some boundary visible only to himself and whined a few times as they carried on without him.
"He knows he's getting left out of the fun." said Titty.
When they arrived at the field, there was so much to see that they found themselves splitting up naturally into pairs. There were so many other people about that it was difficult to all stick together anyway. John privately thought that Titty and Roger might be enjoying themselves more. Nancy seemed to know everyone local and most of them stopped to greet her, remark on her growth and resemblance to her mother, enquire how she was getting on at school and ask when she was going back. Nancy always introduced John and he found himself answering questions about Atalanta which he didn't mind, or the sinking of Swallow which he minded more than he expected. Nancy was jolly good about sweeping him away from even the most tenacious native when that happened.
"They will remind you about going back, just when you don't want to remember." was all she said.
The second time John was being pressed for an account of Swallow's shipwreck she had blandly announced that they had to win some coconuts before they all went. There was a coconut-shy and they decided they could afford one lot of five goes only.
"It's pretty good though – some places only let you have three goes for the same amount." said John.
John insisted that Nancy should have the first throw. She hit coconut that wobbled slightly on its stand, but did not actually fall. Her second throw was harder and brought down a coconut. John's first ball missed entirely and his second stuck a glancing blow and didn't actually fell the coconut. He insisted on Nancy having the last go. She won another coconut.
"If we're on a deserted island we ought to be eating coconuts." she said.
"Living on nothing else, like Peter Duck." John agreed.
"Do you think Mr Jackson has a saw that he'll lend us until tomorrow? Nothing else seems to work properly on coconuts. I've tried every year."
"….and this is my friend, Susan Walker." said Peggy for what was probably the fifth or sixth time.
Again, Susan shook hands, and replied that, yes, she did like school, but holidays were better; yes, Father was in the Navy; yes, she had two brothers and two sisters; and yes, she did like the Lake and hoped they would come again next year. This elderly lady eyed her somewhat more beadily than the others, before bidding them a good afternoon and turning to greet a pale, wispy and somewhat deaf woman to whom Peggy had already introduced Susan. Susan hurried them away as quickly as possible, but could not help over-hearing.
"Well I don't know what Maria Turner's holding her nose up about. The child's courteous enough and you can see the mother must have taste. A simple dress is far better than dressing girls as if they are guests at a wedding every day. I don't wonder Molly's little girls go to the opposite extreme – Maria will probably finish by giving them one of these new-fangled complexes and I couldn't blame them – although I can't say I approve of complexes, too much like showing off to my mind. Still, I expect fresh air counts for a lot."
Susan glanced rather sheepishly at Peggy, who grinned back cheerfully.
"You can't help overhearing when people are talking to Miss Tomlinson. She has a rather magnificent painted metal ear-trumpet, but it's rather heavy, so she doesn't always bring it out with her.
Roger and Titty came running up.
"Mother's over there with Mrs Tinsdale and Joyce and Bridget. There's going to be some races for little kids – under-eights it says on the notice - before anything proper starts. Joyce and Bridget are going in for the three-legged race, so we had better watch it. And we're to tell John and Nancy if we see them first. Mother says she'll give us all some money for ices." said Roger.
"We met Mary Swainson and her friend Jack, you know, the woodman, and they said to tell you that old Mr and Mrs Swainson were asking if we would come and visit again before we have go back again to get ready for school." said Titty, and they went off to find Nancy and John.
Susan and Peggy went to find Mrs Walker. By the time they did, Mrs Blackett had joined them. Bridget and Joyce were practising. Susan helped them tie the scarf around their legs more securely. Peggy noticed her own mother gazing across the field and followed the direction of the gaze. Their housemaid, Ada, in her very best summer outfit, was walking on the arm of a slightly older man, whom Peggy did not recognise.
"That's one problem which might solve itself, given a little time." Her mother murmured. Peggy did not know what her mother meant by a problem. Ada and the man certainly did not look as though they were arguing. In fact, the looks they gave each other were a bit soppy, although they were walking in a very dignified manner. Mrs Tinsdale was asking a question and Peggy pushed the matter out of her mind to answer it.
Nancy hoped that John had not seen her jump when a cold, wet nose was applied to the back of her knee. She turned around quickly and thought that she sounded quite composed as she said,
"Hullo, Mr Tinsdale, Hullo Humphrey!"
Titty and Roger saw Hugh and a man who looked so like him that he must surely be his father. The field was becoming more crowded. Left to himself, the ship's boy would have wriggled his way through. Nancy or John or Peggy or Captain Flint would have "excused me"-ed their way through fairly briskly. The able seaman was even more tentative in this sort of situation that the mate. They still had not quite reached Hugh and his father, who was now talking to another man, when Titty grabbed Roger by the shoulder and said fiercely, "Let's go back to Mother. Now."
She seemed angry rather than upset. Roger didn't know why, and it seemed best not to ask. They were the last of the group to arrive at the roped-off ring.
They cheered Bridget and Joyce on.
"We came second to last." said Bridget.
"You came third." said Mrs Tinsdale firmly.
There was a commotion at the far end of the field.
"That'll be the first of the fell runners back." said Peggy.
"Boys under 14 went off first." said Nancy.
"Well it won't be Jacky. His legs are still too short to win." said Mrs Blackett.
"He'll do well though. There aren't that many people our age, after all." said Peggy.
They all walked up to the top end of the field to see. Mrs Blackett and Peggy were both right. Jacky hadn't won but he came fourth and had beaten two boys who were older, or at least taller, than him.
"Titty's upset about something, but she won't tell me what." John said to Susan as quietly as he could in the fuss of congratulations and more introductions and further remarks about foxes and Jacky's mother telling him that he was not going to sleep out on the mountain by himself. Only Nancy and Humphrey were near enough to hear.
Nancy, with Humphrey in close attendance, drifted over to Titty. Titty bent over to fuss Humphrey and Nancy squatted down next to her.
"Look here, Titty, did you run into Hugh's father by any chance?"
Titty bit her lip and nodded.
"Going on and on about how Atalanta would have done better with Hugh and saying John was useless?"
Another nod from Titty.
"We ran into them, too, with him holding forth to his chum. I was going to introduce ourselves and watch him squirm. John wouldn't let me. I suppose it would have been a bit mean to Hugh. You could see he just wanted to curl up and be anywhere else." said Nancy, adding, "He's a lot more decent than I am."
"Hugh?"
"No, you tame galoot, John of course." Nancy would have been hard pushed to say why her cheeks were so pink. Probably a mixture is indignation and sunburn. "Anyway, don't worry about it. Mr Morris will get his comeuppance, I promise you. Honest pirate."
Titty gave a rather weak smile and hugged Humphrey, whose tail sped up in appreciation.
They all trooped back to the roped off ring to watch the first of the wrestling bouts.
"It's like a mixture of winter underwear and Morris dancers." remarked Roger, fortunately not too loudly.
"It looks as if they're about to begin." said Mr Tinsdale.
They were. Peggy explained that it was the best of three bouts.
"I can see how he lost the first bout." said John who was watching carefully. "The other chap definitely had him down, but what about the second?"
"If they break other man's hold but keep their hold on him, that's a win as well." said Nancy.
After watching a few bouts Bridget, Joyce and Eric all became fractious and Mrs Blackett said she had better be rowing back to Beckfoot, too.
"Don't be too late back, will you, Nancy?" she said, slipping something into her hand.
You might almost have thought that Nancy was waiting for the mothers to depart before she turned to the others and said "Mother gave me money for ices. Who wants one?"
Everyone did. Roger went back to watch the wrestling with Mr Tinsdale. Susan thought she had better go back to keep an eye on him, and Peggy accompanied her. Rather to John's surprise, Nancy said that she would really prefer to sit down and they sat at one of the little tables by the refreshment tent. Nancy's expression looked vaguely familiar to John. He had seen it before, and not long ago. She said nothing but ate her ice cream very slowly. Sitting in the carriage, opposite the great aunt – that's where he had seen that demure expression. Titty ate her strawberry ice in silence, glaring at Hugh Morris's father sitting at a table nearer the refreshment tent. John gave up any attempt at talking and applied himself to own ice- cream.
Nancy sat up straighter, smiled and beckoned. Miss Hetty came and joined them.
"Let me get you an ice-cream." Nancy said and jumped to her feet; it was almost as if she was afraid Miss Hetty might say "No" and was giving her no chance to reply. She was already a few paces on her way to the refreshment tent before she turned round and asked "What flavour?"
Nancy was still holding her own ice-cream. She had been eating it so slowly that perhaps it had melted and no longer clung to its cone. Perhaps she had turned round too quickly. Perhaps….. but no, surely not even Nancy would or could flick an ice-cream two or three yards and have it land so exactly on the trousers of Mr Morris's immaculate fawn linen suit.
The fuss was immediate and immense. Nancy was apologising profusely and repeatedly offering to pay for the suit's cleaning. Mr Morris was red with fury as he yelled at Nancy and refused to accept her apologies. His friend was trying to calm him down and looking rather embarrassed. This only served to infuriate Mr Morris further. Humphrey came racing up and growled at the person who was being so aggressive to his idol, although he took good care to do so from behind her legs.
"Nancy Blackett has always been a most delightful girl and I'm very fond of her." said Miss Hetty to no-one in particular.
Mr Morris called Nancy a name which….well there was no use hoping Titty hadn't heard it. John leapt to his feet. Miss Hetty's hand on his arm, surprisingly strong, restrained him.
"Better let Mr Turner handle this."
And Captain Flint was approaching, accordion in his hand, closely followed by Mr Tinsdale who grabbed Humphrey by his scruff and put him back on his lead. Nancy came back to the table.
"Uncle Jim says we're to go home at once. I'm sorry about your ice, Miss Hetty."
"I'd already had one." Miss Hetty shook Nancy warmly by the hand.
"October." Said Nancy suddenly.
Peggy was steering the Amazon and gave her sister only the briefest of glances.
"What about October?"
"First time I'll have any pocket money after I've paid for the cleaning. Sooner if I get birthday money of course." Nancy glanced across at Swallow and sighed happily. "Worth every penny."
