"They look fiercer than ever, now that they are nearer," he whispered. "They have such crooked swords and such curly black mustaches. You would better come and peep yourself."
So Barty went and peeped. He did it very carefully so that only the least bit of his curly head was above the cave window-ledge and it only stayed there for a mite of a minute.
The pirates dragged their boat up on the beach with savage shouts and songs, and then they stood and looked all about them as if they were searching for something. They looked up the beach and down the beach, and then they began to look at the cliff and talk to each other about it. Barty could see they were talking to each other about it.
"I believe they know we are here and are trying to find out where we are hidden," he said. It certainly looked as if they were. They looked and looked and talked and talked. At last the Captain walked ahead a few dozen yards and climbed upon the rock and stood there staring up at the cliff-front as hard as ever he could; then he took a spy-glass out of his satchel and he looked through that.
"It seems as if he is looking right at the window," said Barty, rather shaking, "I'm sure he must see it."
He did see it that very minute, because he began to shout to the other pirates and to wave his hat and his sword.
"There's a cave!" he yelled. "There's a cave! They are hiding in there."
Then he jumped down from the rock and ran with the other pirates to the place where the green slope began. Barty and the Good Wolf and Saturday could hear their shouts as they ran, and they knew they were running fast though they could not see them from the cave window.
I will not say that Barty did not turn a little pale. A desert island is a most interesting place and adventures are most exciting, but pirates chasing up a green slope to your cave, waving swords and shouting and evidently intending to search for you, seems almost too dangerous.
"I can't help thinking of that thing I can't remember properly," he said to the Good Wolf. "I wonder what it is."