“Blow it both loud and shrill like the man in the ballad,” said Titty.
Susan was still blowing.
“Let me blow it,” said Roger, and Susan, out of breath, gave it to the boy, who kept on blowing it till he nearly burst.
The two ships, the brown-sailed and the white, heeled over as their steersmen brought the wind on the beam to reach into the bay. For a minute or two the water foamed from under their bows. Then, as they came into the shelter of the point, the water quietened. Roger blew on, in gusts, whenever he had any breath to blow with. Suddenly a head in a huge white sun helmet appeared out of the fore-hatch of the houseboat. Another whistle, louder than Mate Susan’s, sounded over the water.
“Blow, blow, Roger!” said Titty.
The Swallow and the Amazon swept on towards the houseboat, the Amazon drawing a little ahead.
“Slacken away your mainsheet, Amazon ,” shouted Captain John. “Remember, I’m to board him on the port side. We ought to come alongside him at the same moment.”
Captain Nancy let out her mainsheet, spilling the wind, and Swallow shot ahead.
“All right now,” shouted Captain John.
The huge sun helmet rose higher out of the fore-hatch of the houseboat, and Captain Flint, in a shirt and a pair of flannel trousers, with a big red handkerchief tied round his middle like a belt, struggled up on deck. He had some difficulty in getting through the hatch.
“He’s rather a fat pirate,” said Titty critically.