So he ran to Baboo Bajorum, and after saluting in the usual manner he made three bows, one after the other.
"I hope I am not intruding and that you will please to be so kind as to excuse me for troubling you, Mr. Bajorum," he said, "but might I ask you another very great favor. The Impolite Pirates are very frightened, and they were in such a hurry that they had not time to put any food or water in their boats, and if they try to row out to sea they will perish. Do you think, sir, if you forgave them and let them come on board and you took a good deal of pains with them you might improve them into Polite Pirates, just as you did the others. You see, it would make your crew much bigger, and it might be much wiser for everybody when you were all intimate friends. Do you think you could oblige me by doing it?—excuse the liberty I am taking."
Mr. Baboo Bajorum listened as attentively as he had done before, and almost as soon as he began to speak Barty saw him do that thing with his face which made him look as if he were smiling, and even before Barty had finished he put out his big hairy hand and patted him again on the head.
"Thank you very kindly, Mr. Bajorum," said Barty. "I am extremely obliged and grateful and—and 'preciative. Could you call them back now? They are very tired, but they are rowing as fast as they can."
He forgot that Baboo Bajorum did not speak in the ordinary way and so could not call out "Come back, I won't hurt you."
Perhaps Baboo Bajorum forgot, too. He leaned over the side and waved his long, huge, hairy arm and gave a kind of awful roar. The pirates did not understand him at all and were so frightened that several of them tumbled backwards off their seats, and one or two of them dropped their oars and tried to hide themselves in the bottom of their boats.
"They are so frightened they can't understand," said Barty. "Would you mind lifting me up and letting me stand on the side and wave my handkerchief at them?—if it won't inconvenience you, please."
Baboo Bajorum lifted him up in a minute. His long arms were so strong that he lifted him as easily as if he were a pin. Barty stood on the rail and took out his pocket handkerchief and waved and waved it, and then he made a trumpet of his hands and shouted as loud as ever he could.
"Come back! Come back! We won't hurt you. Come back! Come back!"
A nice, fat, curly-headed little boy, standing on a ship's side, waving a white handkerchief and shouting in a loud and friendly manner, is a very different thing from a Baboo Bajorum shaking a long, black, hairy arm and roaring, so the Impolite Pirates stopped rowing and began to listen. The captain leaned over and put his hand behind his ear. Then he gave orders to his sailors and they began to row cautiously towards the ship.