Barty Crusoe and His Man Saturday

CHAPTER SEVEN

THEY went down to the seashore and all got into the boat. Barty sat at one end and the Good Wolf sat at his feet. Saturday took a seat on Barty's knee and Blue Crest sat on his shoulder. The boat was a pretty white one and the pirates rowed so well that it went up and down over the waves in a most agreeable manner, rather like a rocking-horse.

When they reached the ship the rest of the pirates crowded to the side to see who had been brought to the tea party.

"How they are all scowling," said Barty to the Captain.

"You must remember what I told you," the Captain said. "Those are smiles. They are really grinning from ear to ear with pleasure because they see you come without being chained and padlocked."

"Ah! I must remember," said Barty, "that when they look cross they are only trying to look perfectly delighted."

Two of the sailors let down a rope ladder. Blue Crest flew up it and Saturday ran up it in a minute. The pirates in the boat held it steady and the pirate Captain carried Barty up on his back. The Good Wolf looked serious for a second or so and then began to walk up as calmly as if he had used rope ladders all his life.

When Barty was once on board every pirate on the ship began to wave his hat and cheer. A few of them took out their swords and began to flourish them and then seemed suddenly to remember that sword waving might not seem polite, and very quickly put them back into their scabbards.

Barty looked all around him. The deck was very big and clean and the cannons were polished until the brass they were made of shone like gold. At one end there was a gay blue and white awning spread, and under it was a table which looked as if it were piled with the kind of good things you have at a tea party.

"Where is Baboo Bajorum?" asked Barty, because he was really very curious.

"If you will have the extreme goodness to please be so kind as to do me the honor to step this way I will show you," said the pirate Captain. So they went in a procession, the pirate Captain leading the way with his hat in his hand, Barty following, the Good Wolf following Barty, Saturday following the Good Wolf, Blue Crest hopping after Saturday, and the six pirates in a line behind them. The pirates made bows all the time and Barty took off his hat for politeness.

When they reached the awning a very big black person, who looked as if he were Saturday who had suddenly grown immense, rose from a chair and made a low bow. He was covered with shaggy hair and had strong long arms and strong long hands. "He is a Gorilla," said the Good Wolf in a low voice to Barty, "but I know him quite well, and though you would not think it, he has a delightful disposition."

At all events he knew how to manage pirates and make them give a beautiful tea party. Barty and the Good Wolf and Saturday and Blue Crest were all given comfortable seats under the blue and white awning, and the Captain and six pirates handed them things faster than they could eat. Blue Crest had a muffin with strawberry jam on it, and she perched on the end of her plate and pecked away in perfect delight. Saturday had sugared walnuts which he had never tasted before and which filled him with glee. Barty and the Good Wolf had everything you could imagine, only the Good Wolf did not care for tea.

Baboo Bajorum did not talk except to make a remark now and then to Saturday, who understood his language. The pirates seemed to understand him without any words. He just sat and watched them and they watched him to see if he were pleased with what they were doing. Once a pirate who was greedy stole a piece of cake before he handed the plate to Barty, and Baboo Bajorum stretched out his enormously long hairy arm and seized him by the seat of his trousers and threw him over the rail into the sea. The pirate could swim very well and in a few minutes came clambering over the side of the ship again, but he looked very wet and ashamed and sneaked down into the hold as if he knew better than to come back to the party.

"That is the way he teaches us," said the Captain to Barty, eagerly handing him a currant bun with one of his best bows. "It is a way that makes you improve very quickly. He never argues. If he hits you or throws you overboard you know you have made some mistake and you make haste to find out what it is."

"I dare say that does teach people quickly," answered Barty, "but I should not like it."

He glanced rather anxiously at Baboo Bajorum, but Baboo was looking at him with quite a nice expression. Barty thought it must be a Gorilla smile, and as he of course wished to be polite he got up and made a low bow. Then Baboo Bajorum got up and made a low bow also, and all the pirates made bows and the Good Wolf made a bow and Saturday made one and Blue Crest bobbled her head up and down most gracefully.

"He likes you," the Good Wolf said to Barty in a whisper; "he sees you are polite by nature. I saw it myself that first morning when we met at the edge of the deep forest."

Barty's forehead wrinkled itself up in a puzzled way. "The morning we met on the edge of the deep forest," he said. "Now you have made me begin to think of that thing I can't remember. What is it, what is it, what is it?"

"Never mind," said the Good Wolf; "you will find out in time. Just now you must enjoy your adventures."

"Yes, I must," said Barty. "They are such splendid adventures. Just think, here I am on a pirate ship, having tea with pirates. What will come next?"

What came next was very interesting, but it was the thing that came next but one which was thrilling.

After tea was over Baboo Bajorum made a sign to the pirate Captain and he got up and bowed more deeply than ever and began to tell his story.

"This," he said, "is the story of how we were made into Polite Pirates. When first we were pirates we were a disgrace to the name. We chased ships and made them prisoners. We robbed them of their treasures and burned them and sank them in the sea. We made people walk the plank or chopped their heads off. Nobody would associate with us and we were never invited anywhere. I think I might even say that we were disliked. One day we dropped anchor near a small island in the Indian Ocean. We were very hot and tired because the sun was blazing and the sea was like a burning-glass and we had been having a busy day. We had chased a merchant vessel loaded with a rich cargo of gold and splendid stuff and ivory, and when we had caught it we had behaved in our usual rude and inconsiderate way. We had sliced any number of heads off, and after we had carried the rich cargo to our own ship we had blown up the merchant ship without a word of apology. We were so hot and tired when we dropped anchor near the little island that we all lay down in our hammocks and fell into a deep sleep.

"Just before I went down to my cabin one of the other pirates asked me to come with him to the side of the ship and look at something he had been noticing on the island.

"'Do you see those big creatures dodging in and out among the trees?' he said. 'Are they savages, or what are they?'

"I took my spy-glass and looked and saw that there really were some big creatures moving about among the cocoanut palm trees. They seemed to be peeping at us but trying to keep out of our sight and I could not see them plainly at all.

"'They look like savages dressed in skins of wild beasts,' I said; 'but they cannot do us any harm so long as we are on the sea and they are on the land. We will go to our cabins and sleep and leave one of the little cabin boys to watch.'

"So we went downstairs and left a little pirate whose name was Reginal Cyrel Adolphin Seymour to watch. He was a little boy who had run away from school to be a pirate, and very often he had been heard to remark that now he really was a pirate he would rather learn the multiplication table. He was as hot and tired as any of us that day, and what he did was to fall asleep the minute the rest of us had gone to lie down." The pirate Captain stopped and cleared his throat and mopped his forehead with his red handkerchief.

"What happened then?" asked Barty. He saw Baboo Bajorum leaning forward with his big hairy hands on his knees and listening attentively. The pirate Captain began again:

"The sun got hotter and hotter and we slept and slept and slept. You know how heavily one sleeps on a hot day and how hard it is to get awake when you try. We did not try, but suddenly we all wakened at once. We were wakened by a great roaring which we thought was a sudden storm. But it was not a storm. It was a Baboo Bajorum sound, which you have never heard and which I hope you will never hear. It is louder than lions and fiercer than tigers and more piercing than panthers and leopards. Baboo Bajorums never make it unless they are very angry indeed, and when you hear it you had better look out."

"Are there more Baboo Bajorums than one?" Barty asked. "I thought this gentleman was the only one in the world."

The pirate Captain opened his mouth very wide and drew a long breath. Then he said in a solemn voice:

"When we waked up there were forty-two Baboo Bajorums on our ship and one was sitting by each man's hammock and roaring the angry roar."

"Ah," said Barty, "how frightening!" and he felt quite alarmed.

"It was frightening," replied the pirate Captain, "but we deserved it – for our unpoliteness. We had disturbed the Captain of the merchant ship at his dinner when we cut his head off, and we had disturbed the whole crew when we blew the ship up. Books about politeness always say that you must have quiet and unassuming manners. We deserved all that happened. We had been loud and assuming."

"What did happen?" inquired Barty, and the Good Wolf leaned forward to listen, and Saturday leaned forward and Blue Crest nearly tilted over with eagerness.

"When they stopped roaring they took us all prisoners. They had swum over from the little island and climbed up the ship's side as soon as they were sure we were asleep. This gentleman," and he made a bow to Baboo Bajorum, "is the Great Baboo of all. He made me get out of my hammock and fastened a chain round my waist so that he could lead me about. The other Baboos did the same with the other pirates. The first place he led me to was to a black corner down in the hold. I had taken captive a sick old gentleman on the merchant ship and I had loaded him with chains and put him down in the darkest corner of the bottom of the ship. I was going to try and make him sign a paper to give me the money he had left on land. Baboo Bajorum made me take the chains off him and take him on deck and wait on him and make bows to him until my back was almost broken."

"He must have been very glad," said Barty, quite relieved.

"He was gladder than I was," said the pirate Captain. "It was through him that we found out what the Baboo Bajorum really intended to teach us. We were so frightened that we could not understand their signs, and as they always knocked us down or threw us overboard when we did not obey at once, we should very soon have been black and blue all over. The sea was very full of sharks near the island and when you were thrown overboard you never knew whether you would get back or not."

"That was dangerous enough to make any one polite," said Barty.

"But," said the Captain, "we did not know it was politeness they wanted until we brought the old gentleman out of the hold. He was very polite himself and made the most beautiful bows to all the Baboos. They had never seen bows before and they were very much pleased and began to practice bowing themselves. When the old gentleman was bowing a book fell out of his pocket. The Great Baboo kicked me until I picked it up. This is it. I never go anywhere without it." He took a book from his pocket and handed it to Barty, who opened it.

"'A Guide to Perfect Politeness, With Rules for Entertaining Royal Families, the Nobility and Gentry.' That is the name of it," said Barty. "Are there any adventures in it?"

"Not exactly adventures," said the pirate Captain. "It tells you how to converse brilliantly and how to fill up awkward pauses and how to begin a letter to a duke when you are writing to one, besides about never eating with your knife and always saying 'please' and 'I thank you' and 'pray excuse me' and 'I beg your pardon.'"

"Ah, I see!" said Barty. "That's why you said all those things in the cave."

"It was indeed," answered the pirate Captain. "The moment the Great Baboo saw the book he went and sat by the old gentleman and made signs to him to read aloud. The old gentleman read to him. In half an hour from that time I was chained to the mast and all the other pirates were chained on the deck round me and I was reading to them out of the 'Guide to Perfect Politeness.' The Great Baboo had thrown me into the sea in a very sharky place until I understood what he wanted. We all knew all the book by heart before breakfast next morning, and since then we have never broken a single rule. That was three years ago. The other Baboo Bajorums went back to their island in six months, but the Great Baboo has always sailed with us."

At that moment Barty heard the sound of many feet running on the deck and the shouting of many voices, as if something new and alarming was happening. The pirate sailors were all running about. Some came tumbling up the companion-way and some went screaming up the rigging and some went running to the side to look over the sea.

The pirate Captain stopped and clapped his spy-glass to his eye.

"Hello!" he said. "I beg your pardon, excuse me for disturbing you by mentioning it, but there is a large ship bearing down on us at full sail. It is another pirate vessel and is going to attack us."

Barty jumped up and threw his cap in the air. "Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!" he said. "There's going to be a pirate battle and I'm certain we shall win."

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE other pirate ship looked very big and grand. All its sails were filled with wind and it came cutting through the waves so fast that it looked as if it were alive. Barty stood and watched it and Saturday came and took hold of his hand. Everybody on the polite pirates' ship was running about, dragging guns into place or pulling ropes or sharpening swords. There was a great clatter and noise and shouting of "I beg your pardon," or "pray excuse me," or "may I ask you to be so kind," when the pirates fell over each other, or got in each other's way, or wanted to be helped to lift or drag something. Blue Crest prudently went and hid in a coil of rope and Good Wolf walked up and down the deck and examined things. Baboo Bajorum walked up and down, too, with his big hands in his pockets. Suddenly there came a white puff of smoke from the chasing ship and a big "boom," and Barty and Saturday both jumped at the same time because they knew the cannon had begun to fire.

The pirate captain shouted and waved his sword and then a puff of white smoke and a big "boom" came from the side of his ship, and Barty knew they had fired back.

Then everything became so exciting that you could scarcely stand it.

As soon as the boom and puff of white smoke was sent from the polite pirates' ship, a boom and a puff of white smoke came from the impolite pirates' ship, and as soon as a boom came from the impolite pirates' ship, a boom answered back from the polite pirates' ship.

It was like this:

"Boom!" from the impolite pirates.

"Boom – boom!" from the polite pirates.

"Boom!" from the impolite pirates.

"Boom, boom, boom!" from the polite pirates.

"Let us go and sit behind that big coil of rope and watch," said the Good Wolf.

It was the coil of rope Blue Crest had hidden herself inside, and when Barty and the Good Wolf and Saturday sat on the floor of the deck behind it, she was so glad that she whistled Barty's little song to let him know that she was quite near him. But Barty could scarcely hear her because there was so much noise. Pirates were shouting, gunners were ramming cannon balls into cannons, and the polite pirate captain was yelling polite orders to his men. Barty was obliged to shout himself, just as he had been obliged to shout in the tropical storm.

"Do you think we shall win?" he called out, as loud as he could, to the Good Wolf.

"We have the best guns," the Good Wolf called back. "The polite pirates have taken good care of their guns instead of quarreling about who should clean them. Listen!"

"Boom! Boom!" came from the impolite pirates' ship.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Bang! Crash!" answered the polite pirates' ship.

The crash was the splitting and tearing open of the side of the other ship. Barty jumped up at the sound of it.

"We've hit them! We've hit them!" he shouted.

"We have the best gunners!" called out the Good Wolf.

"Boom!" said the impolite pirates' ship.

"Boom! Bang! Crash! Bang! Bang! Boom!" said the polite pirates.

Barty could not help jumping up and down, and Saturday simply stood on his head for joy and waved his little black legs in the air. Then came another roar and crash and bang, and the polite pirates raised a great loud cheer of victory and threw their hats in the air. The impolite pirates' ship was rapidly filling with water, and toppling over on one side.

"We've won! We've won!" cried Barty, dancing. "Look at the pirates running to launch their life-boats."

The impolite pirates were indeed running and skurrying about like mad things. They had left their guns altogether. The sea was pouring in at the big holes in the side of their ship and the ship was tilting more and more every second.

"If they don't get into the boats in a few minutes, their ship will turn over and they will be drowned," said the Good Wolf.

"They are the quickest pirates I ever saw," said Barty – "though, of course, I haven't seen many."

They were quick. They skurried and scuffled and darted. They undid knots and loosened ropes like lightning, and in two minutes their life boats swung out and they scrambled into them and were dropped down into the water.

"If Baboo Bajorum was to fire a broadside into them now," said the Good Wolf, "he would blow them and their boats into smithereens."

"Oh, I should not like him to do that," said Barty. "I'll go and ask him not to do it."

He ran to the end of the ship where Baboo Bajorum was standing watching the other ship sinking, and he took off his hat and made his deepest and politest bow.

"I beg your pardon," he said, "excuse me for interrupting. I know it is not polite but would you be so kind as to do me the great favor of not blowing the Impolite Pirates into smithereens. If they hadn't come I should never have seen a pirate battle on the high seas and I always wanted to see one."

And he made another bow which was really a most beautiful one.

Baboo Bajorum listened to him with the greatest politeness. He made a bow each time Barty made one. In fact Barty thought he looked like a very nice gorilla indeed. He did something with his face that looked rather like smiling and then he put out his big hairy hand and patted Barty's head.

"Thank you, Mr. Bajorum," Barty said, feeling much relieved. "It's very kind of you, because, of course, they have given you a good deal of trouble."

Then he went back to the Good Wolf. He was rather hot and out of breath with excitement and he fanned himself with his hat.

"Even Robinson Crusoe never went to a pirate's battle," he said. "This is the biggest adventure of all. Let's go and look over the side and see what the other pirates are doing."

Evidently Baboo Bajorum had given his gunners orders to stop firing, because they had left their cannons and with the rest of the crew had run to the side and were leaning over watching their conquered enemies just as Barty wanted to do. The Impolite Pirates, all black with smoke and powder, were looking very much frightened. They had got into their boats and were rowing away from their sinking ship, but they plainly did not know which way to go, because they realized that if Baboo Bajorum began to fire his cannons at them he would blow them to smithereens. In fact, they could not understand why he did not blow them to smithereens immediately, and it made them feel very nervous. Of course they had not the least idea that Barty and the Good Wolf were on board, or perhaps they would have known that Barty was the kind of little boy who would not like to see pieces of pirates flying about in the air, even though he had felt that a pirates' battle was a sort of accommodation to him.

Their ship tilted more and more and at last sank down and down into the water, until it was out of sight. The cannon balls had smashed such big holes in it that the sea filled it directly. And the Impolite Pirates bent over their oars and rowed and looked back over their shoulders at Baboo Bajorum's ship in a frightened manner. They were saying to each other, "What is he going to do next?"

You see the trouble was, that however fast they rowed, they could not get away because Baboo Bajorum's ship was quietly sailing after them and they were so tired with fighting that they could scarcely row at all.

"And where do they think they are going to row to?" said the Polite Pirate captain. "They have neither food nor water in their boats and of course they are afraid to row towards the Desert Island, because we can stop them. They will simply perish if they row out on the high seas."

"Perish," said Barty.

He had once read a story about shipwrecked sailors perishing on the high seas, and it had made him cry. "I don't believe I want them to perish. I should not like to perish myself and neither would you. Now, would you?"

"No," answered the captain, "I should not. Nobody would. Perishing is about as unpleasant a thing as could happen to any man."

"I will go," said Barty, determinedly, "and speak to Mr. Bajorum."

So he ran to Baboo Bajorum, and after saluting in the usual manner he made three bows, one after the other.

"I hope I am not intruding and that you will please to be so kind as to excuse me for troubling you, Mr. Bajorum," he said, "but might I ask you another very great favor. The Impolite Pirates are very frightened, and they were in such a hurry that they had not time to put any food or water in their boats, and if they try to row out to sea they will perish. Do you think, sir, if you forgave them and let them come on board and you took a good deal of pains with them you might improve them into Polite Pirates, just as you did the others. You see, it would make your crew much bigger, and it might be much wiser for everybody when you were all intimate friends. Do you think you could oblige me by doing it? – excuse the liberty I am taking."

Mr. Baboo Bajorum listened as attentively as he had done before, and almost as soon as he began to speak Barty saw him do that thing with his face which made him look as if he were smiling, and even before Barty had finished he put out his big hairy hand and patted him again on the head.

"Thank you very kindly, Mr. Bajorum," said Barty. "I am extremely obliged and grateful and – and 'preciative. Could you call them back now? They are very tired, but they are rowing as fast as they can."

He forgot that Baboo Bajorum did not speak in the ordinary way and so could not call out "Come back, I won't hurt you."

Perhaps Baboo Bajorum forgot, too. He leaned over the side and waved his long, huge, hairy arm and gave a kind of awful roar. The pirates did not understand him at all and were so frightened that several of them tumbled backwards off their seats, and one or two of them dropped their oars and tried to hide themselves in the bottom of their boats.

"They are so frightened they can't understand," said Barty. "Would you mind lifting me up and letting me stand on the side and wave my handkerchief at them? – if it won't inconvenience you, please."

Baboo Bajorum lifted him up in a minute. His long arms were so strong that he lifted him as easily as if he were a pin. Barty stood on the rail and took out his pocket handkerchief and waved and waved it, and then he made a trumpet of his hands and shouted as loud as ever he could.

"Come back! Come back! We won't hurt you. Come back! Come back!"

A nice, fat, curly-headed little boy, standing on a ship's side, waving a white handkerchief and shouting in a loud and friendly manner, is a very different thing from a Baboo Bajorum shaking a long, black, hairy arm and roaring, so the Impolite Pirates stopped rowing and began to listen. The captain leaned over and put his hand behind his ear. Then he gave orders to his sailors and they began to row cautiously towards the ship.