“All right,” assented Tom. “I don’t care. He’ll make a good pirate, I guess.”
“Of course he will!” cried Rose promptly. “Charlie is great fun.”
“Well, I’ll tell you,” said Charlie modestly. “I’ll be captain first, so as to settle things easily. But after that we’ll take turns. Now let’s plan what we will do first.”
“All right!” they cried in chorus. Then they sat down on the grass and told Charlie about the adventure which they had planned before he came. And the new captain said it was a very good plan indeed, and that they would carry it out at the first chance.
So the tea-party ended happily after all, and a mutiny among the pirate band was averted.
CHAPTER VI
THE PIRATE CAVE
ONE morning, a week after the tea-party, Mr. and Mrs. Thornton and Aunt Clare went for a row on the water. They had two large baskets packed full to overflowing with something precious. They also took a stone jug and a coffee-pot. It looked like a picnic party. They were very merry, as if they expected to have a pleasant time; and yet, it may be that they had some idea of the danger into which they were about to run, for they did not take the baby with them.
There was no one in sight when they rowed away from the landing. This was strange; for usually there were half a dozen children, more or less, in that neighborhood. Quite recently stories had been told about a band of pirates who had been seen prowling about the coast. Was it possible that these ruffians had anything to do with the children’s disappearance? Mr. and Mrs. Thornton seemed, however, to have forgotten all about pirate stories, and they rowed merrily away.
“Why, this might indeed be a desert island,” said Aunt Clare, as they rounded point after point with no sign of a house or a human being. They passed several little coves and cliffs, the bathing beach and the chasm, and presently they came in sight of a larger cove with a flat, stony beach. Beyond this a rock extended out into the water like a platform. At the back rose a steep cliff, with a black cavity in the centre.
“There is the cave, up under that rock,” said Mr. Thornton, as the boat grated on the beach.