Barty Crusoe and His Man Saturday Part 11

"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 Sat.u.r.day 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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "We've won! we've won!" cried Barty, dancing]

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 b.a.l.l.s 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. n.o.body 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.

"What did you say?" he shouted.

"Come back," Barty shouted in answer. "Mr. Bajorum will not let anyone hurt you. This," waving his hand towards the Baboo to introduce him, "is Mr. Bajorum."

The Impolite Pirates were so astonished that their faces dropped and they sat with their mouths wide open. Then they took off their hats and mopped their foreheads with their red bandanna handkerchiefs. Then they took up their oars and began to row towards the ship.

They were in five boats, and they all stopped in a line by the ship's side and looked up at the row of Polite Pirates who were looking down.

They were so amazed that their mouths were still wide open, and when the Impolite Pirate captain spoke he stammered.

"D-d-did you s-s-say we m-might c-c-come on b-b-b-board?" he said. And when all the Polite Pirates bowed at once and the Captain answered him he was so overcome that he fainted quite away into the bottom of his boat. Because this was what the Captain said:

"If you will do us the honor and the kindness and will be so good as to oblige us, we shall be more delighted than we have words to express."

Then they let down a rope ladder and a bottle of smelling salts and some eau de cologne to restore the Impolite Captain, and by the time he was restored and a.s.sisted up the rope ladder all the Polite Pirates were standing lined up on deck ready to receive him and his crew with low sweeping bows. Barty and the Good Wolf came forward together and Barty explained.