“Oh. I didn’t know.”
There was an awkward silence, while Otto wondered how to tackle the real problem.
“Had we better go and get ready?” asked Margaret.
“Now listen!” Otto interrupted her. “When you get on board, they’ll ask you all about everything. They’ll want to know how you got here.”
“Are we to tell them?”
Otto was astonished she took his point so readily.
“No,” he said. “The captain and me don’t want you to. We want you to keep it a secret, do you see?”
“What are we to say, then?” Emily asked.
“Tell them…you were captured by pirates, and then…they put you ashore at a little port in Cuba—”
“—Where the Fat Woman was?”
“—Yes. And then we came along, and took you on board our schooner, which was going to America, to save you from the pirates.”
“I see,” said Emily.
“You’ll say that, and keep the…other a secret?” Otto asked anxiously.
Emily gave him her peculiar, gentle stare.
“Of course!” she said.
Well, he had done his best: but Otto felt heavy at heart. That little cherub! He didn’t believe she could keep a secret for ten seconds.
“Now: do you think you can make the little ones understand?”
“Oh yes, I’ll tell them,” said Emily easily. She considered for a moment: “I don’t suppose they remember much anyway. Is that all?”
“That’s all,” said Otto: and they walked away.
“What was he saying?” Margaret asked. “What was it all about?”
“Oh shut up!” said Emily rudely. “It’s nothing to do with you!”
But inwardly she did not know whether she was on her head or her heels. Were they really going to let her escape? Weren’t they just tantalizing her, meaning to stop her at the last moment? Were they handing her over to strangers, who had come to hang her for murder? Was her mother perhaps on that steamer, come to save her? But she loved Jonsen and Otto: how could she bear to part with them? The dear, familiar schooner…. All these thoughts in her head at once! But she dealt firmly enough with the Liddlies:
“Come on!” she said. “We’re going on that steamer.”
“Are we to do the fighting?” Edward asked, timorously enough.
“There isn’t going to be any fighting,” said Emily.
“Will there be another circus?” asked Laura.
Then she told them they were to change ships again.
When Captain Jonsen came back, mopping the sweat from his polished forehead with a big cotton handkerchief, he seemed in a terrible hurry. As for the children, they were so excited they were ready to tumble into the boat: in such a flurry they nearly tumbled into the sea instead. Now they knew why they had been washed and combed.
It did not seem at first as if there was going to be any difficulty about getting them started. But it was Rachel who began the break-away.
“My babies! My babies!” she shrieked, and began running all over the ship, routing out bits of rag, fuzzy ropeends, paint-pots…her arms were soon full.
“Here, you can’t take all that junk!” dissuaded Otto.
“Oh but my darlings, I can’t leave you behind!” cried Rachel piteously. Out rushed the cook, just in time to retrieve his ladle — and a battle-royal began.
Naturally, Jonsen was on tenterhooks to be gone. But it was essential they should part on good terms.
José was lifting Laura over the side.
“ Darling José!” she burst out suddenly, and twined her arms tightly round his neck.
At that Harry and Edward, who were already in the boat, scrambled back on deck. They had forgotten to say good-bye. And so each child said good-bye to each pirate, kissing him and lavishing endearments on him.
“Go on! Go on!” muttered Jonsen impatiently.
Emily flung herself in his arms, sobbing as if her heart would break.
“Don’t make me go!” she begged. “Let me stay with you always, always!” She clung tight to the lapels of his coat, hiding her face in his chest: “Oh, I don’t want to go!”
Jonsen was strangely moved: for a moment, almost toyed with the idea.
But the others were already in the boat.
“Come on!” said Otto, “or they’ll go without you!”
“Wait! Wait!” shrieked Emily, and was over the side and in the boat in a flash.
Jonsen shook his head confusedly. For this last time, she had him puzzled.
But now, as they rowed across to the steamer, all the children stood up in the boat, in danger of tumbling out, and cried:
“Good-bye! Good-bye!”
“Adios!” cried the pirates, waving sentimental hands, and guffawing secretly to each other.
“C-c-come and see us in England!” came Edward’s clear treble.
“Yes!” cried Emily. “Come and stay with us! All of you! — Promise you’ll come and stay with us!”
“All right!” shouted Otto. “We’ll come!”
“Come soon !”
“My babies!” wailed Rachel. “I’ve lost ’most all my babies!”
But now they were alongside the steamer: and soon they were mounting a rope ladder to her deck.
What a long way up it was! But at last they were all on board.
The little boat returned to the schooner.
The children never once looked after it.
And well might they forget it. For exciting as it had been to go onto a ship of any kind for the first time, to find themselves on this steamer was infinitely more so. The luxury of it! The white paint! The doors! The windows! The stairs! The brass! — A fairy palace, no: but a mundane wonder of a quite unimagined kind.
But they had little time now to take in the details. All the passengers, wild with curiosity, were gathered round them in a ring. As the dirty, disheveled little mites were handed one by one on board, a gasp went up. The story of the capture of the Clorinda by as fiendish a set of buccaneers as any in the past that roamed the same Caribbean was well known: and how the little innocents on board her had been taken and tortured to death before the eyes of the impotent captain. To see now face to face the victims of so foul a murder was for them too a thrill of the first water.
The tension was first broken by a beautiful young lady in a muslin dress. She sank on her knees beside little Harry, and folded him in her delicate arms.
“The little angel!” she murmured. “You poor little man, what horrors you have been through! How will you ever forget them?”
As if that were the signal, all the lady passengers fell on the astonished children and pitied them: while the men, less demonstrative, stood around with lumps in their throats.
Bewildered at first, it was not long before they rose to the occasion — as children generally will, when they find themselves the butt of indiscriminate adoration. Bless you, they were kings and queens! They were so sleepy they could hardly keep their eyes open: but they were not going to bed, not they! They had never been treated like this before. Heaven alone knew how long it would last. Best not waste a minute of it.
It was not long before they ceased even to be surprised, became convinced that it was all their right and due. They were very important people — quite unique.
Only Emily stood apart, shy, answering questions uncomfortably. She did not seem to be able to throw herself into her importance with the same zest as the others.
Even the passengers’ children joined in the fuss and admiration: perhaps realizing the opportunity which the excitement gave of avoiding their own bed-time. They began to bring (probably not without suggestion) their toys, as offerings to these new gods: and vied with each other in their generosity.