Great Northern?. Arthur Ransome

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СКАЧАТЬ to go aboard the Pterodactyl and talk with a real bird-man who was doing all the things that he, Dick, would like to do. The others had laughed at him (all except Roger, who liked engines) and had said that she was only a motor boat anyway, and that you could go to look for birds in a sailing vessel and have all the fun of sailing as well. Every time they had seen a motor boat after that, someone had said, “There’s a ship for Dick,” but he had not minded their teasing. The Pterodactyl, even if she was moved by a motor, belonged to a bird-man who was using her just as Dick would like to use a vessel of his own, big enough to live in, as a travelling observation post. With a boat like that, you could migrate with the birds.

      The Pterodactyl crossed the bows of the Sea Bear with twenty or thirty yards to spare.

      “Beastly rude,” said Nancy.

      “Quite within his rights,” said Captain Flint. “Going at that lick, he’ll be thinking of us as practically standing still. All the same it would have been better manners not to rub it in. “

      Dick, with the glasses, was trying to catch a glimpse of the bird-man himself. But the Pterodactyl was steered from inside a deckhouse and he could not see who was at the wheel. There was no one on deck as the big motor yacht drove on her way, foam flying from her bows.

      “He’s probably seen lots of them,” said Dick to himself

      “Seen what?” said Peggy.

      “Dick’s thinking about birds,” said Dorothea.

      “Divers,” said Dick.

      “An hour’s time and that boat’ll be in port,” said Captain Flint, glancing into the companion at the clock that was screwed to a beam so as to be easily seen from on deck. “That is, if she’s going back to …” (For a very good reason the name of the harbour where they had first seen the Pterodactyl will not be mentioned in this book.)

      “If we’re going in there to get petrol before starting across you’ll be able to see her again,” said Dorothea to her brother.

      “Of course she may be going somewhere else,” said Dick.

      “Let’s start our engine,” said Roger, who had come aft and had very much disliked seeing the Pterodactyl moving so much faster than the Sea Bear.

      “Shiver my timbers,” said Nancy. “What are you doing here? You’re on the look out. Get away forrard and shut up about engines.”

      “You’ll be calling for engines yourself pretty soon,” said Roger, and scrambled forward again. “The wind’s getting weaker and weaker.”

      Captain Flint looked about him. “Roger’s about right,” he said. “Looks like a change coming. It’s a paltry wind. But there’s no petrol to spare, except just for getting in. With that calm yesterday we ran the tanks pretty nearly dry. Never mind. We haven’t got far to go. We ought to be getting a sight of that hill any time now.”

      Roger was back on the foredeck. Susan was once more in the fo’c’sle watching a kettle that had begun to steam. Dick was trying not to lose the vanishing speck of the bird-man’s boat. Nancy was glancing now at the compass, now at the sails, keeping them full but not too full, intent on getting the very best out of the old cutter. All the others, Captain Hint, Peggy, Titty, Dorothea and John, were looking at the blue hills ahead of them.

      “Square Top,” Roger suddenly shouted, pointing along the bowsprit.

      “I can’t see it,” said Titty.

      “Where?” asked Dorothea.

      “Might be it,” said John. “Just coming up now.”

      The skyline ahead of them was changing. Hills near the coasts were lifting to hide the bigger hills beyond them. John gave the little chart to Peggy and went up the port shrouds to the cross-trees to get a view from higher up.

      “Square Top all right,” he shouted.

      Captain Flint took the chart from Peggy.

      “Fine on the starboard bow,” called John, and came quickly down to have another look at the chart.

      “Looks like it,” Captain Flint was saying. “That little sketch must have been made from just about where we are now. How’s she heading, Nancy?”

      “West and a half north,” said Nancy.

      “And we’re coming in on the right bearing. Couldn’t have struck it luckier.”

      “Good for the Sea Bear,” said Titty.

      “Carry on just as we’re going,” said Captain Flint, “and this tack will bring us close off the entrance.”

      A hand, Susan’s, showed in the companion way and took hold of the rose knot worked in the end of the bit of rope that dangled from the clapper of a small ship’s bell.

      “Ting … ting …”

      “Two bells! Five o’clock. Tea!” called Nancy, almost as if she wanted to hurry the others off the deck.

      “We’ll get it over,” said Captain Flint. “We’ll be in in no time if only the wind lasts out.”

      Roger, at the first “ting” of the bell, had opened the fore-hatch and was already disappearing below. Susan’s hand came up again through the companion, this time carrying a mug for the steersman. Peggy took the mug and put it on the leeward side in a corner of the cockpit where it could not slide about. Susan passed up a huge rock bun. Peggy handed it on.

      “Shall I have mine on deck too?” she asked.

      “No need,” said Nancy.

      Titty and Dorothea went down and Peggy after them.

      “Go on, John,” said Nancy. “You’ll get a better view when we’re a bit nearer … Get along down, Dick. Your Pppppppterodactyl’s out of sight.”

      Dick took a last look towards that long lump sticking out from the coast-line away to the south. It looked almost like an island, but he knew it was really a cape, the Head, that hid the harbour where they had first seen the bird-man’s boat. He could not see the motor yacht any longer. He followed John down the companion.

      Nancy, at the tiller, was alone on deck. The clink of mugs and plates sounded from below. She took a gulp of tea and then a mighty bite of the rock bun. This was better than going into any harbour with buoys and lighthouses and shops and quays. Sailing towards an unknown coast, watching for a tiny break in the coast-line, she had the ship to herself and wished that tea in the cabin would last for ever.

      Sitting at the cabin table, Dick saw two tea-leaves floating in his mug. He dipped them out.

      “Strangers,” said Titty.

      “Perhaps your Divers,” said Dorothea. “Perhaps you’re going to see them after all.”

      Dick, as a scientist, did not believe in tea-leaf prophecies. “There’s not much hope left,” he said.

      “You never know,” said Dorothea.

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