THE TORTOISE AND THE COCKATOO
By Cecil Barker
CHAPTER ONE
(1) What Ann liked most about the cottage at Tarlaton was the tiled floor in the kitchen. David might be more interested in the mast of a sailing ship in the garden overlooking the sea; Father might like the quietness of the creek by which the cottage was built, and Mother the way the rooms were set out, but to Ann, the tiled floor was worth the rest put together. Yet it was an absurd kind of floor for a kitchen, and no one had been surprised to find it had been covered with layer upon layer of linoleum, the bottom one being so old it might have been the first linoleum made. The kitchen itself was damp and musty, giving out that smell which old leaves give as they turn to mold. Mother was too tired to bother about kitchen smells, and it was Ann, ferreting about inquisitively, who found out the floor was tiled.
(2) She had been playing farms and had got in the way of the others in the sitting room. “For goodness’ sake, keep quiet, Ann!” She had stamped off protesting, with her tractors, carts, sheep, and wells. She went to the kitchen because it was the only place unoccupied. As usual, she had found the farm, which had seemed so interesting a moment ago, gone dull. “I’ll teach them! I’ll be so useful they’ll be sorry they were angry!” She took up a broom and swept the floor furiously, then threw water on it and knelt down with a cloth and soap. She was not looking at what she was doing. David was tapping on the window to try and make her come outside when suddenly her hand caught in an old tear, and the linoleum ripped.
“You silly ass!” said David, now standing in the kitchen door.
“I couldn’t help it, really I couldn’t. What shall I do now?”
“Let’s turn it around so it doesn’t show.”
“Ann, I’ll come and help. Look, we’ll move out all the things first, then…”
(3) In a few minutes, tables, chairs, cupboards—everything—was outside in the garden, and the two children were puffing and blowing with one end of the top layer of linoleum in their hands. The smell rose in a cloud.
“This isn’t any use,” David said. “Let’s take the whole lot up and then put the top bit back again. Come on.”
It was lucky it was only just after lunch, or they would have been disturbed and stopped. As it was, they worked down lower and lower and picked up more and more rotting stuff. It was as if it would never stop. But it did, and the first they saw of the tiled floor itself was a dirty, greasy but quite definite picture of a tortoise.
CHAPTER TWO
(4) He was not a modern tortoise at all. He looked different from the ones that are sold in the streets of London. He was like the sort of tortoise a small child would draw or someone who had never had lessons in how to do it. He was in red on white, and the lines on his shell were like the lines of latitude and longitude in an atlas. Ann and David were so excited about him that they forgot what mess they had made of the kitchen. At first, they argued about whether they would clean the whole floor to show Mother and Father all of it or call them at once and make them excited too. The answer to that question was easy. They found Father working out business problems in an armchair with his eyes shut, and Mother was asleep on the sofa, but they soon woke up. Mother said, “Do go and see what damage they’ve done, John.” Father said, “I don’t know why I should go when I’m busy,” but he went, and after he had gotten over the awful mess, he became as interested as Ann and David were.
(5) He filled the bucket with hot water and sluiced it all over the floor so that it trickled into the passage outside. Then he sent David for a spade and lifted all the rest of the linoleum in great chunks. As he was working quickly, he put these into the sink, where they made a fine pile about three feet high. It was long past six o’clock by the time the tiles were clean, and they could see the whole floor properly. There was another red tortoise and two blue birds.
“I wonder what the meaning of those two lines is,” Father said, as he pointed at two smudges on the tiles.
“Are you sure you cleaned it properly, Ann?”
“Yes, of course I did. I rubbed like anything, and it wouldn’t come off.”
“Very well. They either mean that the men who put it in were careless or something we don’t know yet. I think we’ll leave it like that, don’t you?” he asked Mother.
“Yes, very pretty, dear, but it’s much too old to stand on.”
Ann listened for a little to them arguing about whether they could put coconut eating down, but she soon became tired of that.
(6) “What’s the parrot there for?” she asked.
“That isn’t a parrot, silly,” said David. “It’s a cockatoo.”
“What’s the cockatoo for then?”
“How should I know? Daddy, what’s it for?”
“Run upstairs and wash, children. You’re filthy. And change your dress, Ann.”
“Oh dear!” they said because they knew that when Mother started talking like that, they would not get any more sense out of anybody.
CHAPTER THREE
(7) The others, even David, grew tired of the tiled floor and soon only Ann ever thought of it. She became impatient because David never listened whenever she wanted to talk about it.
“Bill says he once saw an albatross,” he said when she mentioned the cockatoo, and she did not see that albatrosses and cockatoos had anything to do with each other.
“He was in a brig for Panama,” David went on, “fetching nitrates from Chile.”
Ann was not going to be as mean as he was. “What’s nitrates?” she said, but David took no notice.
“His grandfather was a pirate,” he said.
“Think of it, Ann. Bill Mercy’s grandfather a pirate.”
“He doesn’t look like a pirate,” Ann said, because she did not see why she should make David think he was interesting when he thought nothing of the cockatoo and tortoise.
“He wasn’t one, silly. His grandfather was. His captain’s name was Foxe.”
But Ann was not going to listen to him any longer. “You and your silly old pirates,” she said.
“Why’s nobody interested in my floor?” she asked herself miserably as she went into the kitchen and drew back the matting as she often did.
“I do wish those lines meant something.”
The more she thought of it, the more she decided it would be a good thing to see where they met, and she took two long pieces of stick and put one of them along each line. Then, very carefully, with her tongue wagging to and fro between her teeth, she put a knife into the corner of the tile they met on—it was difficult to make sure of choosing the right one. Luckily, the mortar had gone crumbly with age, and she gently pulled it out.
(8) She was very careful not to look at once because it was so nice to think there was something lovely there, like a real tortoise or a tame cockatoo. After a minute or so, she heard someone coming—it sounded like Father—and she opened her eyes quickly and dropped the tile with a clatter.
“Ann! What are you doing?”
“Oh, Daddy, I do wish you hadn’t come! I was wanting and wanting this old picture to mean something, and you came and frightened me.”
“Look at it! You’ve found something alright. Now, what on earth can that be?”
Ann looked down, and there underneath where the tile had been was another picture, this time of the tortoise and the cockatoo having a fight, and beside them was the letter X.
CHAPTER FOUR
(8) Mother said, “No, I won’t have you making any more mess in the kitchen, John. It’s bad enough having to stand on a cold floor without your turning it into a muddy one.” So Father had to sit down in his chair and think about it while Ann had her supper and went to bed. “Mind you do think about it, Daddy,” she said, “and don’t go to sleep.”
(9) “Bill Mercy says Captain Foxe made hundreds and hundreds of people walk the plank,” David said. “It didn’t matter if they were lords or ladies, or…”
(10) “Yes, dear,” said Mother. “Just eat your supper like a good boy.” There was no one to stop them talking when they were in bed, though, and David went on and on about Bill Mercy’s grandfather until Ann was sick of him and half asleep. “I must stay awake and tell him about my floor,” she said desperately, because it was very exciting to her, although David thought doubloons and skulls and crossbones were more interesting.
(11) “They never caught him, either,” David said. “They had all the fleet out after him, every single ship—ships of the line and frigates and cutters and admiral’s barges.”
(12) “Bill says his grandfather’s name was Lauxa Salvation,” Ann interrupted. “Have you ever heard a name like that, Ann?”
(13) “No,” David said, but he didn’t know that it was a name from a classic.
(14) “Don’t you think…?” and that was the last bit Ann heard that night, although she did seem to ordinarily fail to remember a sort of burble like fat spitting in a frying pan until she really did go to sleep. The next morning, David gobbled his breakfast as fast as he could, and Ann could not persuade him to stay home and help her with her new picture.
(15) “Did you find the answer, Daddy?” she asked as soon as he came down, but it was no good. He had not. “I’ll go and ask Mr. Daventry,” she said to console herself. “He’s sure to know.”
(16) “You’d better not,” her father said. “He’ll be working and give you what for. You’d much better stay at home and learn your nine times tables. What’s nine from ten, Ann?”
(17) “Bother nine from ten,” Ann said impatiently. “You tell me what a tortoise from a cockatoo is.”
(18) “That’s meant to be a joke, Puss. I always use the test.”
(19) “Clever Ann!” her father said. “A tortoise from a cockatoo is X. No, no, don’t talk to me; I think I know the answer now.”
CHAPTER FIVE
(12) Ann watched breathlessly as Father took pieces of paper and scribbled on them, tore them up, threw them away, and started again for what seemed like hours. At last, he said he was ready, and they went into the kitchen again where, very carefully (and looking around to see if Mother was not watching), he started lifting out more little tiles.
(13) Under the first one was a line, and under the second one as well, and as soon as she saw the way the line was going, she fetched a kitchen knife (Father was using one of the good ones, of course) and helped.
(14) “How did you work it out, Daddy?” she asked as she started on the fifth tile.
(15) “It was easy,” he began, and then he suddenly shouted, “Good gracious! That’s more difficult!”
(16) Ann saw that under her tile was an extraordinary picture of four tortoises in a square, four cockatoos in a square, all of them cockatoo-tail, and beside them were two X’s and a V.
(17) “There’s something odd about the way they are arranged,” Father said, “and I’ll have to think about this one for longer than the last.”
(18) Mother said, “How can you expect me to cook your meals for you if you make the kitchen into a playroom? And put those bricks back again or I’ll catch my heels in the holes.”
(19) When she had done it, Father was not there to help because, of course, he was very busy working out what square tortoises and cockatoos were—Ann could find nothing to do, so she went to look for David.
(20) She found him sploshing in the water by the side of Bill Mercy, who was showing him how to use a shrimping net.
(21) “Let me help,” she said, dashing into the water too, and Bill Mercy very kindly gave up his place to her and sat on a rock and watched them. Shrimping was such fun that Ann forgot about her disappointment, and very soon she agreed with David that Bill was the nicest person she had ever met. When the tide came up too high, they gave up shrimping and sat down on the same rock as Bill and listened to his stories.
CHAPTER SIX
(22) They met Mr. Daventry when they were on their way home—Ann had talked with him on the first day after they had arrived in Tarlaton, so they were old friends by now, and she did not believe he would ever give her what for.
(23) “Has Mercy told you about his grandfather?” he asked them.
(24) “He never talks or anything else,” Ann said. “I think he was wonderful,” said David. “He was Captain Foxe’s cabin boy and he was captured in a barque he was going to the Spanish Main in, and his…”
(25) “And his Mother and Father were…”
(26) “Yes,” said Mr. Daventry, “but did he tell you his grandfather used to live in your cottage?”
(27) “He didn’t? Then I’ll tell you about it. Old Mercy came from Tarlaton and was taken to America when he was about as old as you are, Ann. The ship he was in was attacked by Captain Foxe when she was near Bermuda—that’s in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,” Mr. Daventry waved his hand westward. “Instead of staying below with his mother as he was told to do, he ran off and climbed the foremast to see the fight. Nobody had time to bother about him then, so he got into the Crow’s Nest, where he had a good view.”
(28) “But didn’t all the shots come near him, and wasn’t he very frightened?” David asked.
(29) “Very frightened indeed, I expect,” said Mr. Daventry, “but once he was up, it was difficult to come down. Anyhow, he stayed there all the time until…” Here he stopped and gazed at the children over the top of his glasses, looking as if he was not sure whether he should tell any more.
(30) “Go on,” said David. “Oh, do go on,” said Ann.
(31) “Until the mast was blown out of the ship and Lauxa went over the side.”
(32) “What happened then?”
(33) “Then,” said Mr. Daventry, “the barque was lucky because, of course, with the foremast gone, it was much slower than Foxe’s ship. She only had a few guns, not really as many as the ‘Scorching Fire’—that was the pirate’s name. Although…”
(34) “But she had a very good gunner, who was my great-great-grandfather, and he knocked down two of their masts.”
(35) “Ooh!” said David. “What happened then?”
(36) “Then, of course,” said Mr. Daventry, “the barque, with my great-great-grandfather on and Lauxa Mercy’s mother and father, sailed away.”
(37) “But what happened to Lauxa Mercy?” David asked.
(38) “He was in the water, silly!” said Ann.
CHAPTER SEVEN
(39) “Old Mercy was in the water—that’s right,” said Mr. Daventry, “but not for long. Captain Foxe happened to be looking for a cabin boy just then, and when he had done all he could to make the ‘Scorching Fire’ ship-shape again, he pulled him out.
(40) “Luckily,” he added, “the sea was warm. A housewife’s instinct—I couldn’t bear Lauxa to be in cold water.”
(41) “How long was he a cabin boy? When was he first allowed to use a cutlass? Did he ever become first mate?” asked David.
(42) “Did he see his father and mother again?”
(43) “My word, look at the time!” said Mr. Daventry. “You should both be home. If you want to hear the rest about Bill Mercy’s grandfather, I’ll tell it some other day.” No matter what they said or did, they could not persuade him to say any more.
(44) “Bill Mercy’s grandfather used to live here, Daddy,” David shouted as soon as Ann and he went through the kitchen door.
(45) “Did he now?” said Father, who was sitting cross-legged on a piece of coconut matting. “The tortoise is X and the cockatoo is Y,” he muttered.
(46) “There! You’ve spoiled my train of thought!”
(47) “Why should the tortoise be A, silly old Daddy?” asked Ann.
(48) “Why shouldn’t he? You know you’re making your father use his brains, as he hasn’t had to do for years. If I take a sixteenth of a square tortoise and a ninth of a square cockatoo, what do I get?”
(49) “Is this an old sum?” Ann asked, dismayed. “Oh dear, how dull.”
(50) “Nonsense…”
(51) “Too many? Well…”
(52) “Not nonsense!” said Father. “Some people think square tortoises are fun. At least I think they must, or why did they draw one here?”
(53) “Now, David, tell me about Bill Mercy’s grandfather.”
(54) “No, it isn’t possible,” he said, half an hour later when David finally stopped talking. “Captain Foxe and a cabin boy. I don’t believe a word of it. How old’s Bill Mercy?”
(55) “He must be a hundred at least,” David said, almost in tears, because Father pretended not to believe him. “He’s fifty anyhow.”
(56) “We’ll say he’s seventy-five,” Father said. “That would mean, let me see now, his grandfather would have been born in… Oh, why did I start bothering about cockatoos?”
(57) This made Ann surprised because she did not see what cockatoos had to do with it, but she did not have to think about that long before Father gave a sudden shout.
(58) “I’ve got it!” he said. “Come on, David. Come on, Ann, it’s in the loft!”
(59) He was hurrying up the stairs before he had finished speaking, and the two children panted after him.
(60) Then, of course, he had to go down again for the stepladder, which was in the kitchen shed in the garden, but at last, they were all in the loft, where Father, fumbling in the dark, pulled out an old shell.
(61) It was a tortoise shell, and by the light of a match, they saw a silver plate on the inside of it and read:
“When the Fox ate the Cockatoo,
The tortoise went to ground,
He thought the Fox would never flow,
The Fox now will never know
How the treasures were found.”
MDCCLXXXIII
CHAPTER EIGHT
(62) Ann and David talked for hours that night, and David even began to be interested in the tiled floor again. The word “treasure” had done it.
(63) “We’ve simply got to find out who the tortoise was,” he said.
(64) “Do you think Daddy’s clever enough to do it?”
(65) “I don’t expect so,” said Ann. “Mummy’s always very kind to him, but I don’t think she thinks he’s brainy.”
(66) “We’ll ask Bill Mercy then,” David decided.
(67) “Or Mr. Daventry,” said Ann.
(68) “Bill Mercy’s cleverer than Mr. Daventry,” David said.
(69) Ann was much too sensible to argue about that sort of thing, but she didn’t think Bill Mercy would be nearly as good at making ginger biscuits as Mr. Daventry, and the ones Mr. Daventry made even had HP on them.
(70) “Alright,” she said, “You ask your silly old Bill, and I’ll ask Mr. Daventry, and we’ll see who finds out first.”
(71) The next morning, Ann went to Mr. Daventry’s house, where she found him in his study looking at a map.
(72) “It was here that Captain Foxe was last seen,” he said, pointing to an island called Madagascar. “He’d had to leave the Atlantic by then because there were so many people after him.”
(73) “But what about the tortoise?” Ann asked.
(74) “What tortoise?” Mr. Daventry asked angrily, as if he could not be bothered with tortoises just then. “Are you telling this story or am I? Very well then—”
(75) “Captain Foxe had boarded and sank an East Indiaman, which was one of the ships that used to sail between England and India, and he’d taken all the cargo, and, of course, made most of the men walk the plank.”
(76) “All except one, Ann,” he went on proudly. “That was my great-great-grandfather.”
(77) Ann supposed she had to listen to all this, but she did wish Mr. Daventry would hurry so that she could ask him the really important question.
(78) “My great-great-grandfather,” said Mr. Daventry, “as I told you, was a ship’s gunner. He was used to firing seventy-four guns at once in all directions and knew all there was to know about gunpowder, powder monkeys, grape shot, and the rest. He also knew where the magazine was.”
(79) “So,” he went on, “while he was waiting his turn for the plank—you know what walking the plank is, Ann?—Good, I thought you did. While he was waiting his turn, he knocked down the pirate who was guarding him and bolted down below.”
CHAPTER NINE
(80) “He snatched a cutlass from a rack just inside the hatch and tore down the companionways and through sail lockers until he reached the door of the powder magazine.”
(81) “All the crew were chasing after him, of course, but they only seemed to be doing it for fun, so my great-great-grandfather said afterwards, because he could hear them singing ‘Tear him limb from limb.’”
(82) “As soon as he was at the magazine, my great-great-grandfather took out a powder flask he had in the pocket of his leather breeches. It was full of gunpowder,” Mr. Daventry explained, “not face or talcum powder, and he emptied it on the floor so that some of it went under the door as well.”
(83) “Then what do you think he did?” he asked, gazing at Ann as if she were Captain Foxe herself.
(84) “I don’t know,” Ann said, very meekly, because he looked so fierce.
(85) “My great-great-grandfather,” said Mr. Daventry very slowly and solemnly, “lit a match and shouted (Mr. Daventry did so too), ‘One more move and up she goes!’”
(86) “Up what goes?” Ann asked, hoping Mr. Daventry would answer quietly because he was making such a noise.
(87) “The ship, of course!” Mr. Daventry yelled. “Lock, stock, and barrel! Poop, mizzen mast, and stem waist, rudder bar, and thingummy! And,” he almost whispered, “Captain Foxe, Lauxa Mercy, and the crew!”
(88) “Wouldn’t he have gone too? Your great-grandfather, I mean?”
(89) “Naturally…”
(90) “Naturally,” said Mr. Daventry. “Certainly. But he was like that—generous to a fault. He thought nothing of it so long as he could take a few dozen more with him.”
(91) “Oh,” said Ann.
(92) “Then,” Mr. Daventry went on, “Acting Petty Officer Atoo was a Javanese with a touch of mulatto (Captain Foxe had to hire his crew where and when he could get them, you see). This Acting Petty Officer Atoo said, ‘Pass the word along to Captain, the prisoner is about to blow up the ship.’”
(93) “My great-great-grandfather said he hoped the Captain would give his orders quickly because his match was only a short one, and he hadn’t got another. He said it only had one minute, fifty-three and a half seconds left to burn when the message started back.”
CHAPTER TEN
(94) “And,” said Mr. Daventry, “one minute and thirty-two seconds of that had gone before the answer came.”
(95) “What did he say?” Ann asked.
(96) “Captain Foxe didn’t say anything,” said Mr. Daventry, “but his crew did,” and he shook his head angrily from side to side before he went on.
(97) “‘Captain’s in the longboat, pulling for the shore,’ they said, and my great-great-grandfather heard a faint shout of ‘Out oars! Give way aft! Give way for’ard!’”
(98) “For a moment, no one said anything and it looked as if he’d have to drop the match. But, with only one and a half seconds to go, there was a stampede and the whole crew made a dash for the deck.”
(99) “Petty Officer Atoo got there first; he was a big man, you see, and he wasn’t particular about how he used his knife (my great-great-grandfather said he counted five wounded pirates afterwards who all blamed Atoo for their cuts).”
(100) “Then there were a lot of splashes, like lumps of sugar being dropped into a cup from a long way up, and my great-great-grandfather found himself alone, sucking his fingers where they had been burnt by the match.”
(101) “What happened then?” Ann asked. She had forgotten all about the tortoise by now.
(102) “My great-great-grandfather called the crew together,” said Mr. Daventry, “and he talked to them like a Dutch uncle. What he said was:
‘What ho, my bullies! You nasty pack of men! You thought you’d make me walk the plank, did you? Ahem! What ho, my bullies! If you do that again, I’ll make you whack stone on the deck from ten to ten. What ho, my bullies! You’ll let me be, you come along with me and sail this ship to England if you want to be free! The country of the free.’”
(103) “He said a lot more, of course,” said Mr. Daventry, “but it would take too long to go into that. When he’d finished, though, he remembered Bill Mercy’s grandfather and he asked where he was.
(104) “In the galley,” said a man with a red handkerchief over his left eye.
(105) “Call him here,” said my great-great-grandfather. “Pass the word for Tortoise,” said the bosun.”
(106) “Tortoise?!” said Ann excitedly.
(107) “Why not?” said Mr. Daventry. “He’d always been known as that since he was a little boy. What’s funny about Tortoise?”
(108) “But, but, but…” said Ann, and then, before Mr. Daventry had to hit her on the back to cure her hiccups, she took a deep breath by herself and told him why she was interested.
(109) “That’s different,” said Mr. Daventry. “I’d better come and see. And,” he added, “we’d better bring Bill Mercy along too. Perhaps he knows something that will help us.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
(110) Ann left Mr. Daventry with Father and went to look for David and Bill Mercy, and as she passed the kitchen window, she saw that Father had moved up and let Mr. Daventry have half the coconut matting to sit on.
(111) David and Bill Mercy were in their usual place by the creek, and David was shrimping.
(112) “Shush!” he said loudly. “Don't wake him up. I'm giving him a surprise and catching enough shrimp to fill that basket.”
(113) “We've got to hurry,” Ann answered. “Mr. Daventry knows who Tortoise is and he wants him at once. Do you hear? At once!” she said, because all the time she had noticed Bill Mercy was not asleep at all but pretending.
(114) “Aye, aye, Miss,” said Bill. “Show a leg?”
(115) “Fran on my trousers,” he added as he saw how many shrimps David had caught. “That'll give 'em a treat,” and he licked his lips and jingled some coppers in his pocket.
(116) They walked slowly back to the cottage because, although Ann wanted to go faster, Bill said his poor old bones were so old he could not hurry and carry the bucket as well. When Ann and David carried it for him, he found he had cut his toe on a rock, so they had to walk even more gently.
(117) “Shush!” said Mr. Daventry as they went into the kitchen. “We're thinking. Mercy! Was your grandfather good at sums?”
(118) “Aah!” said Bill Mercy.
(119) “Do you mean ‘Aah, yes’ or ‘Aah, no’?” asked Mr. Daventry. “It's very important.”
(120) “Aah don't know,” said Bill, after which Mr. Daventry only glared at him and went on talking to Father.
(121) At last, he gave Father a piece of paper with some writing on it and said a lot of gibberish which Ann could not understand at all, about conic sections and eclipses. “Work out the coordinates?” he said, “and we'll put the curve.”
(122) Ann looked over Father's shoulder and read the silly thing Mr. Daventry had written down, which was:
Tortoise² + Cockatoo² = 25
(123) “Nonsense!” she said.
CHAPTER TWELVE
(124) “What was Captain Foxe's Petty Officer's full name, Mercy?” Mr. Daventry asked, as Father started muttering such silly sentences as, “If tortoise is not right, Cockatoo squared equals nine times twenty-five, and therefore…”
(125) “Atoo,” said Bill Mercy.
(126) “Peekaboo to you!” said Mr. Daventry. “Now think, was he John Atoo or Jeremiah Atoo or Bob Atoo? Take your time and hurry up!”
(127) Ann felt quite sorry for poor Bill as he stood hopping from leg to leg and chewing his sou’wester. At last, Mr. Daventry gave it up and let Bill sit down on the chair and bury his head in his hands while he thought.
(128) “While he's trying to remember,” said Mr. Daventry to Ann and David, “I'll tell you the rest of the story of the 'Scorching Fire.'”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
(129) “My great-great-grandfather set sail at once with his pirate crew, but,” Mr. Daventry shook his head sadly, “I told you he was a gunner, and so, of course, he knew nothing about azimuths and sextants, shooting the sun at noon, or any of the other things sailors should know.
(130) “Nor,” he went on, “did he know the difference between a top-gallant and a royal, and when he tried to hang the spinnaker on the mainmast, all the crew laughed at him and said it looked like last week's washing.”
(131) David looked very serious at this and said, “Are you sure the 'Scorching Fire' used a spinnaker, Mr. Daventry?”
(132) “I'm only telling you the story as I heard it,” said Mr. Daventry. “It's clear, at least, that my great-great-grandfather didn't know one sail from another. So what did he do?”
(133) Ann did not try to answer this question because she was fairly sure Mr. Daventry would answer it himself, which he soon did.
(134) “He made himself the non-playing captain,” he said. “Mercy's grandfather did the work, and my great-great-grandfather only kept a lookout for pack ice, knowing, as he did, that if they met any, Lauxa Mercy had either forgotten to go around the Cape of Good Hope or they were getting near the North Pole.
(135) No such thing happened, though, and the 'Scorching Fire' was gradually sailing into warmer and warmer waters when my great-great-grandfather became ill.
(136) “He was very seriously ill, and he said afterwards that only two things kept him alive. The first was Mercy's grandfather, who nursed him night and day, and the second, which he only took as a medicine, was rum.
(137) “One day when he was at his worst, he felt the ship bump gently into something, and his heart went into his mouth. He quickly took a double dose of medicine and struggled up to the deck. They were aground.
(138) “He was about to jump overboard when he heard a soothing voice behind him. It was Mercy.
(139) “It's all right, Mr. Savoy,” he said (that was my great-great-grandfather's name). “I'm careening her, the barnacles being so awful.”
(140) “I'm telling you this,” said Mr. Daventry, “as I think it may be important. My great-great-grandfather wasn't afraid the crew would do anything against him while he was ill because he had promised them a full pardon if they brought the 'Scorching Fire' safely to England.”
(141) “C. Atoo!” said Bill Mercy suddenly.
(142) “Bless you!” said Ann, who thought he was sneezing.
(143) “What do you mean, Mercy?” asked Mr. Daventry.
(144) “Petty Officer C. Atoo,” said Bill.
(145) “And what did C. stand for?” asked Mr. Daventry.
(146) “Cockaliddledorum Atoo,” said Bill.
(147) “I thought so,” said Mr. Daventry. “A mulatto name. Cock Atoo, for short.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
(148) Mr. Daventry paused to sip from his mug, as if to give the listeners a moment to think.
(149) “The ‘Scorching Fire’ sailed on, and my great-great-grandfather slowly regained his strength. Mercy’s grandfather handled the ship, navigating through storms and calm alike.”
(150) “Were there more pirates?” Ann asked eagerly.
(151) “Indeed,” said Mr. Daventry. “A few minor encounters with scallywags, but nothing like before. One particularly clever trick involved a riddle left on the deck, and my great-great-grandfather had to solve it to prevent the crew from mutinying.”
(152) Math Puzzle: If a pirate crew has 36 members and one-third decide to mutiny, how many remain loyal?
(153) Ann quickly did the calculation in her head: 36 ÷ 3 = 12 mutineers. 36 – 12 = 24 loyal crew.
(154) “Very good!” said Mr. Daventry. “You are quick with numbers. My great-great-grandfather was not so lucky; he nearly missed the solution, but Mercy’s grandfather whispered the answer just in time.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
(155) “Finally, after weeks at sea, they sighted the English coast. My great-great-grandfather had grown strong again, but he knew he had to act carefully. Pirates never forgive easily.”
(156) “What did he do?” asked David.
(157) “He devised a clever ruse,” said Mr. Daventry. “He pretended to be a merchant ship, flying no colors but the Union Jack at the very last moment. The remaining pirates, fooled by the disguise, did not attack.”
(158) Math Puzzle: A merchant ship carries 128 barrels of goods. If each pirate takes 1/8 of the barrels during the ruse, how many barrels remain?
(159) Ann counted: 128 ÷ 8 = 16 barrels taken. 128 – 16 = 112 barrels remain.
(160) “Correct!” said Mr. Daventry. “And thus, my great-great-grandfather returned safely, with all but a few scallywags taught a lesson they would not soon forget.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
(161) “Once in England,” Mr. Daventry continued, “my great-great-grandfather presented himself to the authorities and explained all that had happened, including the mutiny, the fire, and the trick with the barrels.”
(162) “Were they grateful?” asked Ann.
(163) “Extremely,” said Mr. Daventry. “They commended him for bravery and cleverness and gave Mercy’s grandfather a special medal for loyalty.”
(164) “And what happened to the Tortoise?” David asked.
(165) “Ah!” said Mr. Daventry. “Tortoise, of course, had grown into a fine young man. He inherited some of his grandfather’s wits and was offered a position on the Navy, but he chose to travel the world instead.”
(166) Math Puzzle: If Tortoise sails to 7 different countries and spends 12 days in each, how many days is he traveling?
(167) Ann quickly multiplied: 7 × 12 = 84 days traveling.
(168) “Indeed,” said Mr. Daventry. “Eighty-four days of adventure and counting. And that, my dear children, is the story of the ‘Scorching Fire’ and its fearless crew.”
(169) Ann and David clapped their hands. “I wish we could meet them!” Ann exclaimed.
(170) “Perhaps, in stories,” said Mr. Daventry, “you already have.”
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