We took the phonograph onto the after deck and started her going and just sat and enjoyed ourselves. We were full of grub and our lungs were full of fine air, and everything was growing still and shadowy so that a fellow didn’t want to do much and was mighty well satisfied just to be there. After a while a ramshackle launch came alongside. It was loaded with vegetables and melons and such, but Rameses III shooed the man off and wouldn’t buy anything. After that things were quiet for a while, and the shadows sort of sprawled out from the high rocks toward us, and you couldn’t see any more what was rock and what was water—and then lights began to twinkle off on the shore, and a fellow started to tune up on a cornet. Our riding lights were lit, and the only way we could tell the black yacht was still there was by the light at her masthead. It looked kind of like a star that had got lost and settled down close to the water. Then a young fellow and a girl came sliding past in a canoe and Catty and I joked with them some.
“Well,” says Catty after a while, “guess my dinner’s settled. Let’s go in for a swim.”
We dropped off our clothes and stood up on the rail and dove in. Wow! I’ve been in some pretty cold water, but that water in the Thimbles was colder than I’d expect to find it at the North Pole. It wasn’t so bad after a minute though, and we swam around enjoying it to beat everything.
“Say,” Catty says after a minute, “let’s swim over and have a look at the pirate.”
“What pirate?” says I.
“Only pirate there is. Here we are, you and I. We’ve been sent in by a frigate that’s chasing pirates to spy out this hiding place. We don’t know anybody’s here, but we’ve got to find out, and go back and guide the cutters in to attack. They always had cutters, didn’t they? And they called it ‘cutting out.’ Well we’re going to cut out this pirate, and burn their stockade and rescue prisoners, and maybe find bales and boxes and heaps of rich merchandise that’ll make us wealthy. Come on.”
“All right,” says I, “but let’s not get lost.”
“Always can see the riding light,” he says. “Swim as still as you can.”
So we started off towards the pirate, swimming so quiet we could hardly hear ourselves. It wasn’t much of a swim, though there was quite a little current. We got to the pirate and all around her. There wasn’t a light except her riding light, and for a while we couldn’t hear a sound. It was just as if she was deserted. But when we got just under her tail we could hear a murmur of voices and Catty reached out and touched my shoulder and whispered, “Grab hold of her stern and listen.”
