"I beg your pardon," said a voice which none of them had ever heard before. "Are you pirates?"
"Ain't you pirates yourselves?" cried Aunt Amanda.
"What?" said the voice. "Is there a lady here? In that case, you are probably not pirates. Perhaps we have been too hasty. I beg your pardon."
"Who are you?" said Aunt Amanda.
"Do you admit that you are not pirates?" said the voice.
"Admit it!" said Aunt Amanda. "We vow and declare it! The very idea!"
"I am sorry to hear it," said the voice. "We are deeply disappointed. We of course cannot doubt the word of a lady, but we were almost sure we had found them. We have been searching for pirates for a long time, and we were advised that they lived somewhere near here. We must have missed our way. Could
you perhaps direct us? It is a place called High Dudgeon."
"You bet we could," said Toby, "but we won't. We are running away from there, and you had better run too."
"Then perhaps you happen to know the whereabouts of a place called Low Dudgeon, where the pirates formerly lived?"