فصل 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Schooner

My heart jumped into my throat. I jerked round, put up a desperate struggle to tear myself away, and received a slap on the side of the head for my pains. It left me half-dazed and stupid. Through tears of pain I looked up at the man who held me.

He seemed as tall as a tree. He was a white man, though his face was deeply bronzed by sun and wind. He had a beaky nose that was bent downwards in a bow, and his beard and moustache were lightly touched with grey. He wore the usual dress of a sailor, but there was a thick belt slung round his waist in which he had stuck a brace of pistols and a heavy cutlass.

He shook me.

“Don’t try any tricks,” he warned, and gave a shrill whistle.

It was answered at once, and a second or two later I saw the pirate long-boat sweep into sight around a jutting neck of land. It came rapidly towards us.

The man pushed me from him and drew one of his pistols. He waved it at me.

“Walk down to the beach,” he said. “If you try to run away, I’ll send a bullet after you!”

I obeyed. The long-boat was aground when I reached the beach and a little knot of fierce-looking seamen stood on the sands and watched me approach.

“Get a fire going, one of you,” ordered the man who had captured me.

A man sprang to obey. In a few minutes he had a fire burning, with clouds of thick smoke climbing into the air. Suddenly I heard the boom of a gun rolling over the sea and in a flash I saw how I had been tricked. The fire was a signal to recall the schooner, which had only pretended to put out to sea.

As the ship veered her head again, the pirates crowded round me-a tough-looking bunch with shaggy beards and scowling brows, all of them armed to the teeth. When they spoke to the man who had captured me they called him captain.

“Where are the other cubs?” cried one of the men, with an oath that made me shudder.

“I’ll swear there were three of them.”

“You hear what he says, whelp: where are the other dogs?” the captain demanded.

“I won’t tell you,” I answered in a low voice. The whole crew roared with laughter, while their captain cocked his pistol and said:

“What’s you name?” he asked.

“Ralph Rover,” I replied.

“How did you come to be on that island?”

I told him. He sat frowning for a moment when I had finished.

“I could use a lad like you,” he said at last. “We might have treated you a little roughly, but that was because you gave us a bit of trouble. I’m no pirate, boy, but a lawful trader-a rough one, perhaps, but that can’t be helped in these seas, where there are so many murderous blackguards. I trade in sandal-wood-and if you choose to behave yourself I’ll take you along with me and give you a share in the profits. You can look after the cabin and keep the log, and superintend the traffic on shore sometimes. What do you say? Would you like to be a trader?”

What could I say? I agreed to become one of the crew until we reached some spot where I might be put ashore.

When I left the cabin and went on deck my heart was still heavy within me. Whatever the captain said, I was quite sure that he and his men were far from being honest traders.