“My name is John Walker,” he said, “master of the ship Swallow . This is Susan Walker, mate of the Swallow . This is Titty, able-seaman. This is Roger, ship’s boy. Who are you?”
The elder Amazon shook hands with him.
“I am Nancy Blackett, master and part owner of the Amazon , the terror of the seas. This is Peggy Blackett, mate and part owner of the same.”
“Her real name isn’t Nancy,” said Peggy. “Her name is Ruth, but Uncle Jim said that Amazons were ruthless, and as our ship is the Amazon , and we are Amazon pirates from the Amazon River, we had to change her name. Uncle Jim gave us the ship last year. We only had a rowing boat before that.”
Nancy Blackett scowled ferociously. “I’ll shiver your timbers for you if you don’t stop chattering, Peggy.”
“They must be in league with the houseboat pirate,” said Titty. “Didn’t you hear how she said he gave them their ship?”
“That was last year,” said Nancy. “He was friendly last year. This year he’s worse than the natives.”
“Hadn’t we better sit down?” said Susan. “Shall I put a stick or two on our fire and warm up the kettle? It’s still got some tea in it.”
“We don’t want any tea, thank you,” said Nancy. “But use our fireplace if you want to.”
“It’s our camp,” said Roger.
“Let’s sit down,” said Mate Susan.
The two parties sat on the ground by the fireplace where the fire was still smouldering. Susan was right. It is much more difficult to be fierce