Just then a voice shouted,--
"What ho, Dick Deadeye!"
It was the Toyman, who had been standing in the doorway watching them.
"Dick Deadeye--whew!" Marmaduke rolled the name under his tongue like something that tasted very nice. He was completely satisfied now.
Then something still nicer happened, for, when their backs were turned, something whistled through the air and fell at their feet. Real swords! One for each of them! Now we said they were real swords, and they were, though they were made of wood. They could do a lot of damage. The pirates would find that out soon enough. And there was a flag, too, with bones and a skull on it, just as Jehosophat had said.
"Why, it's the Jolly Roger," he told his brother, "that's what they call this flag."
But where did they come from? Marmaduke sort of suspected the Toyman, but he had disappeared, and Jehosophat said,--
"They must have dropped from Heaven an' were sent us to 'venge the people the pirates have killed. It's a sign. Guess we're not pirates after all, but just good sailors an' we'll scrunch those pirates."
Then he thought for a moment.
"But I guess we'll keep this flag anyway, even if it is the pirates'."