Nightbirds on Nantucket

by Joan Aiken

  "Now, scarper, cullies—follow me!" Dido said. "We want to be well away from the rope after they fix it to old Rosie, or we're liable to have our feet scorched from under us. But keep low."

  Crouching under their sheepskins, they hurried over the scrubby ground as fast as they dared to the hollow where Dido had left the mule cart. Just as Nate was untying Mungo they were surprised by the report of a rocket, and its green light climbing up the sky illuminated their startled faces as they stared at one another.

  "D'you suppose that's them?"

  "Dunno, but whatever it is, we'd best hurry," Dido muttered. "Give Mungo a prod, Nate." They scrambled into the cart, and Mungo, who was not used to rockets, bolted away down the track towards Sankaty. They could see the lighthouse beam clear ahead of them.

  "Shouldn't be far now," Dido said. "Wonder when old Rosie will start? They seem to be taking a pesky long time tying the rope to her tail. Oh, Nate—s'pose she acts up and won't have it, and skaddles off out o' reach?"

  "Nonsense," he said more stoutly than he felt. "She'll do anything for Cap'n Casket—eat out o' his hand."

  Just before they reached the lighthouse they heard a choking, panting voice which called to them from the side of the road.

  "Dido! Nate! Is that you? Oh, stop, please stop, it's Pen!"

  "Why, Penny!" Dido jumped out of the cart and helped her in. "Are you all right, Pen? What's happened?"

  "She—Aunt Trib—she's started for the forest—" gasped Penitence. "I can't—couldn't—stop her—" She had run so far and fast that her chest was heaving painfully; she pressed both hands against it but could not speak for several moments. "Climbed down to tell you—" she got out presently, "rocket—meant—fire—"

  "Oh, poison," Dido said. "That rocket was their signal, you mean?"

  Pen nodded, gulping in air. The others exchanged glances of dismay at this confirmation of their fears. "So, any minute now—" said Dido. "Croopus, what in tarnation's Cap'n Casket—"

  But as she spoke, her words were drowned by a vast, prolonged, ear-shattering bellow that seemed to make even the lighthouse tremble to its foundations. They heard the rope twang like a banjo string as the slack was suddenly drawn up. They heard a shrill, whistling hiss, like the whine of wind in rigging, as the rope flew over the uneven ground, cutting through sand, slicing off shrubs and sea grass. They heard a wild shout of warning from the dory, which came in sight round the lighthouse at this moment, Captain Casket and Doctor Mayhew rowing frantically for land. The tide was full, and the waves struck at the very foot of the cliff.

  "Great candles!" cried Dido. "There she goes!"

  As they strained their eyes seaward they had an instant's glimpse of the pink whale flashing across the lighthouse beam, half out of the water, arrow-straight and wild-eyed, with her flukes streaming behind her like pennants. Then she was gone, into the dark, heading north.

  "Oh, dear!" said Pen. "I didn't think she'd like it! Supposing she don't forgive us and never comes back? Poor Papa will break his heart."

  "Don't let's worry about that yet," said Dido. "He can go arter her when things has calmed down and feed her some cream buns or corn dodgers—the main thing is, now, will the rope hold? And where's Auntie Trib?"

  Two minutes later her questions were to be dramatically answered.

  With a low rumbling, which increased as it approached to a clamorous clattering din, the huge gun rattled into sight, lurching over the rough ground on its innumerable pairs of wheels, tipping and swaying like a log in a torrent but, by a miracle, remaining upright. "Look, look!" gasped Penitence, "there's somebody on it!"

  The light from the rising moon showed a wild figure clinging to the gun carriage—Aunt Tribulation, astride the chassis, mad with rage, fiercely striking match after match on the breech in a last, relentless effort to fire the gun as it was dragged along. Not one of the wet matches would light.

  "She'll be over the cliff if she don't take care!" Nate exclaimed.

  Aunt Tribulation heard him. Observing for the first time how near to the sea the gun had been dragged in its headlong course, she abandoned the matches and flung them from her with a curse. Shaking her fist at the party on the cart, screaming imprecations, she leapt with frantic agility up onto the breech itself and ran, balancing like a tightrope walker, along the barrel of the gun.

  "She's got a knife!" cried Nate.

  "She's going to cut the rope!"

  "She'll never do it!"

  "Yes, she will, by thunder!"

  But even as she sawed furiously at the tough five-inch Manila rope there came a last crazy lurch of the gun—the muzzle dropped, the breech reared up into the sky and remained poised for an instant on the edge of the cliff—then the gun and its wild rider plunged over and down, disappearing without a sound into the white foam below.

  11

  Mr. Jenkins returns. The civic banquet.

  The Thrush. Another Aunt Tribulation.

  Goodbye to the pink whale.

  Dido woke suddenly and lay blinking in astonishment, not quite sure where she was. The sun was blazing in at the window, and somebody was perched on her chest, repeating over and over again in a patient voice, "Your Ladyship's bath is growing cold."

  "Mr. Jenkins!" Dido exclaimed, coming to with a jerk. "Why, you funny old bird, how did you get here? Is the Sarah Casket in port, then?"

  "Your Grace's wig needs a little powder," Mr. Jenkins replied. Dido jumped out of bed and began dressing. "Wake up, Penny!" she said, thumping the mounds of quilts on the other side of the bed. "Look who's here! Wake up, we've got visitors to cook breakfast for!"

  But when they hurried downstairs they found that the visitors were already doing for themselves. Nate had been out milking, Professor Breadno wandered in with a hatful of eggs and a heron feather, while Doctor Mayhew was scientifically thumping away at a bowl of beaten-biscuit mixture.

  "Look who's come!" Dido cried. Mr. Jenkins left her shoulder, where he had been sitting, and launched himself like a loving rocket at Nate's head, crying, "Oh, Your Excellency, I am afraid your sword has got caught in the carriage door."

  Captain Casket's eyes lit up. He had been sitting in the rocker, looking a little sad and downcast, the only member of the party to do so; but now he brightened. "Why, Nate! Thy bird come back to thee! That must surely mean that the Sarah Casket has returned. We must set off for Nantucket town at once."

  "Ay, that we must," Doctor Mayhew said. "My patients will be wondering if I've gone underground. And there is much to organize—a service of thanksgiving for having been saved from New York, and a civic banquet for our noble preservers—" He chucked Pen under the chin, pulled Dido's ear, and tweaked a lock of Nate's red hair. "Then we must send a warning about the Dark Diamond to the British Navy. Those miscreants must be caught."

  "And I," Captain Casket said, "must find out the whereabouts of my sister Tribulation, in order that she may come and look after the children while I search for the pink whale."

  Penitence suddenly burst into tears.

  "Why, Penny!" Dido exclaimed in concern. "What's the matter, girl?"

  "What ails thee, Daughter?"

  "It's too unfair!" wept Penitence. "I tried so hard not to be afraid of Aunt Tribulation, and now it turns out she was the wrong one and I've got to start all over again."

  "Never mind," Dido comforted. "The real one couldn't be any worse."

  As soon as Nate had assured his mother of his safety, they all went in to Nantucket town together and made haste to the North Wharf, where the Sarah Casket was berthed. Great was the joy of the crew, particularly Uncle 'Lije, on seeing that Captain Casket and Nate were safe and not drowned, as had been thought.

  "We reckoned as we'd make it a plum-pudding voyage, Cap'n," Mr. Pardon said, "and come back with only half our barrels full, for, to tell truth, when we heard the pink 'un had been sighted off Nantucket I'd half a mind to wonder whether somehow you hadn't run aground here. I'm powerful glad we did come back. Hear there's be
en some everlastin' rum doin's in the old place since we left. Guess you'll be glad to put to sea again, Cap'n?"

  "Yes, Mr. Pardon," Captain Casket said rather mournfully.

  "He's pining for the pink 'un," Dido whispered to Nate, who nodded gloomily. However, they all cheered up during the civic banquet at the Grampus Inn, which was indeed a splendid affair. Professor Breadno, who had struck up a friendship with Doctor Mayhew, ate so many Nantucket Wonders that he was almost consoled for the loss of his gun, while Dido, Nate, and Penitence were toasted so often for their part in saving the island from disaster that they became quite bashful and retired out onto the balcony in order to recover their countenances. However, they had not been out there more than a few minutes when Dido came flying back to exclaim: "Doc Mayhew, do come and see. There's a British man-o'-war beyond the harbor bar and she's lowered a pinnace and the pinnace is a-coming into the harbor!"

  "If she's looking for the plotters she's come to the wrong shop," Doctor Mayhew said. But he slung his mayoral chain round his neck again (he had taken it off for the easier consumption of scallops) and went out to greet the captain of the English sloop Thrush, who now came ashore, saluted, introduced himself as Captain Osbaldeston, and asked permission to make some inquiries about a gang of English criminals who were thought to have been lurking on Nantucket.

  "You needn't bother, sir, you needn't bother!" Doctor Mayhew told him affably. "Mind you, so long as they'd left us alone, we'd 'a left them alone, and you could have saved your breath asking for them. But as we found 'em to be a nest of plaguy varmints we cleared them out ourselves. There's not one left on the island. Instead of losing time here you should be out chasing their schooner Dark Diamond—she's probably halfway to Land's End by now."

  "Oh, no, she's not," Captain Osbaldeston corrected him. "She's lying in a hundred fathom of water in Massachusetts Bay."

  "Eh?" exclaimed Doctor Mayhew, much startled by this information. "How did that happen, then? How did that come about?"

  Captain Osbaldeston explained. He had just abandoned his fruitless search for Dark Diamond on the previous evening, he said, and was about to up anchor and make for home when, shortly after moonrise, he saw a schooner scudding along the Nantucket Coast under full press of sail. He thought it was his quarry.

  "We were in the lee of the land at the time and she didn't appear to see us; she was coming up fairly fast when, suddenly, the strangest accident befell her that ever I witnessed in all my life at sea."

  "What happened?" Dido and Nate asked in one breath.

  "Why, a thing that looked in the moonshine like a great pink whale came tearing along, half out of the water, dragging behind it what seemed to be a rope. It cut clean across the schooner's course, and when this rope struck the Dark Diamond, such was the speed of the whale's progress, if you will believe me, sir, that this rope sliced the schooner clean in two, before breaking with a twang like the Last Trump. The schooner sank in a matter of moments. It was an awesome sight, sir, it was indeed! Of course, we searched the waters roundabout, but we were unable to find any survivors."

  "Then the world is well rid of a pack of troublemakers," Doctor Mayhew observed cheerfully. "But won't you join our celebration, sir, since your task is at an end? Come in and drink a toast to our young friends here, who succeeded in getting rid of this nest of serpents for us."

  Captain Osbaldeston observed that he would be very pleased to hear the whole story so that he could include it in his report to the First Lord of the Admiralty. He came in and drank a great many glasses of ginger-jub while the tale was told. All agreed that the whale must have dragged the gun some distance along the sea bottom before the encounter with Dark Diamond parted the rope.

  "So this young lady is a British citizen, is she?" Captain Osbaldeston presently inquired, looking at Dido. "Do you wish to be repatriated, madam?"

  "To be whiched?"

  "Would you like a passage back to England, my dear?"

  Dido choked over a pickled tamarind. The temptation was almost irresistible. But she saw Pen's imploring eyes fixed on her and summoned the resolution to say, gruffly, "That's mighty civil of you, mister, and I thank you kindly, but I guess I'd better stick in Nantucket yet a while. I made a promise I'd stay with a friend till they was fixed up right and tight, which they ain't yet. So thanks, but not this time."

  "In that case," Captain Osbaldeston said, "I'd best be on my way," and he bowed to the company and returned to his pinnace. Dido went out to watch it flit across the harbor and to take several deep breaths and rub a slight mistiness away from her eyes. As she stood on the balcony, slightly reluctant to go back to the gaiety of the banquet, she noticed the sails of another ship, a three-masted whaler, approaching Brant Point.

  "Sail-o!" she called. "There's a-plenty traffic today."

  The new ship, which presently revealed itself as the Topsy Turvey, came to anchor at length against the South Wharf, and everybody ran out to gaze at her in curiosity, for she was not a Nantucket vessel. The moment she was berthed, a stout lady who stood on deck had herself slung ashore in a barrel chair and came bustling along the wharf in a state of great excitement.

  "Can anybody give me news of Captain Jabez Casket?" she asked. "Is he 'live or drownded? Why, there he is, his own self! Jabez! Brother Jabez! I declare, I never thought to see you more. I'd heard you was swallowed up by a pink whale!"

  "Why, Sister Tribulation! I am amazed to see thee! Where has thee been?"

  "And there's Mr. Pardon! And my old friend Enoch Mayhew—ho, ho, do you remember when you pushed me in the creek, you wicked old fellow!"

  "Good gracious!" whispered Pen in Dido's ear. "Can she be Aunt Tribulation?"

  The stout lady was cheerfully, even fashionably, dressed in pink-and-gray-striped sarcenet, with flounces, and a pink satin parasol, and cherries on her bonnet. She had black curls and gay black eyes, and her face was round and rosy and soft, like a pink frosted cake. She smelt strongly of lavender.

  "Oh, don't call me Tribulation, please, Jabez—I have quite got out of that habit," she said laughing. "Sam always calls me 'Topsy.' Only fancy! I am married, Jabez! Here's my husband, coming ashore, Captain Sam Turvey. We got wed all of a sudden last fall, and I went off to sea with him. That was why I wrote my second letter saying that I should not, after all, be able to take care of Penitence in Nantucket. But, of course, when I heard you had been swallowed by the whale—"

  "Second letter? But I had no second letter," he said, bewildered.

  "Did you not? I sent it to Galapagos with Captain Bilger; I made sure you'd have had it by now. But where is Pen, then? How have you managed?"

  She turned gaily round, exclaiming, "Now, which is my niece? Let me see if I can pick her out!"

  "Here I am, Aunt Tribulation," Pen said shyly.

  "'Topsy,' love, 'Topsy!' Never call me 'Aunt Tribulation!'" cried Aunt Topsy, enveloping Pen in a warm hug. "Yes, and I can see your mother in every inch of you. But how you've grown, bless you! I'd not have known you."

  "I'd never have known you," Pen murmured.

  "No, that you wouldn't," Dido muttered to herself, amazed at the difference between Pen's three-year-old memory of her aunt and this cheerful, pink-cheeked, sweet-scented, bustling reality. Oh, dear, she thought, why did this Auntie Trib have to go to sea? If only she'd stayed on shore, everything would have been all hunky-dory. Pen's taken a right fancy to her—anyone can see that with half an eye.

  It was true. Penitence was leaning happily in the circle of Aunt Topsy's arm, her eyes shining like stars.

  "...so, as I've decided that a life at sea doesn't suit me," Aunt Topsy was saying, "I'm going to stay right here in Nantucket and build me a house out at 'Sconset, for Sam to come back to between trips. And you'll keep me company there, won't you, Penny, when your papa's at sea?"

  "Oh, yes!" Pen cried joyfully. "Oh, yes, Aunt Topsy!"

  "Oh, no!" groaned Dido involuntarily. "Oh, why the blazes couldn't you have sailed in an hour ago instea
d of now? Then I coulda been snug aboard the Thrush at this very minute, a-sailing back to London River."

  "Oh, Dido!" cried Pen remorsefully. "What a shame! But you can stay with me and Aunt Topsy till we find you another ship."

  "It's all right—never mind." But Dido bit her lip.

  Suddenly Captain Casket shook himself out of his sad reverie.

  "Nay!" he exclaimed, "but we'll up anchor with the Sarah Casket! A Nantucket whaler can soon overhaul that lumbering English craft. We'll put thee aboard!"

  "Oh!" cried Dido, "Could you?"

  Captain Casket was already rattling out orders: sails were shaken loose and the anchor was whisked up; half Nantucket town crowded on board to see Dido on her way.

  The Thrush had a considerable start but was still in view, and the Sarah Casket rapidly began to gain on her as they crossed the Gulf of Maine. Then it could be seen that the Thrush was hauling her wind and bringing to; soon they saw the reason for this. Out of the northeast, arrowing through the ocean in a shower of spray like a broad piece of sunrise-colored ribbon, came something that could only be the pink whale herself.

  "It's Rosie!" Dido cried. "It's Rosie come back to look for the Cap'n!"

  "Come back to see you off," said Nate.

  "Come back to forgive us," said Pen softly.

  Rosie frolicked round the Sarah Casket like a flying fish, and the bluejackets on board the Thrush crowded the rail to gaze in astonishment at this phenomenon.

  Captain Casket hailed the Thrush.

  "Hey, there! Cap'n Osbaldeston! Miss Twite would like to sail to England, after all."

  "And welcome!" the Thrush replied; the captain's gig was sent across for Dido. She hugged everybody on the Sarah Casket goodbye. Now that she was really leaving, she found herself sorry to say farewell; but just the same, she was happy—very, very happy—to be homeward bound at last.

  "Come back soon, dear Dido!" said Pen. "Come and stay with me and Aunt Topsy next summer."

  "Forvandel, blisschild," said Professor Breadno, who had accepted an invitation to stay with Doctor Mayhew on Nantucket and study snowy owls.