Night Birds On Nantucket

by Joan Aiken

  In a moment or two Pen appeared, looking very white and fatigued, with the empty bowl and plate.

  ‘Well, miss!’ Aunt Tribulation snapped. ‘I notice you make broth for your father but none for your poor old aunt who’s had charge of you all this time. Fine gratitude, I must say!’

  ‘I’m sorry, Aunt,’ Penitence said tiredly. She pushed the hair off her forehead. ‘There is plenty more broth in the pot if you would like it. I can heat it up in a moment.’

  ‘Very well. Make haste!’

  ‘Yes, Aunt,’ and Pen added gently, looking Aunt Tribulation straight in the face, ‘Poor Aunt, is your rheumatism very bad?’

  ‘Mind your own business, miss!’

  ‘Where’s Dido?’ Pen asked, as she put the broth pot on the stove.

  ‘The sow got loose again. Nate offered to help her search and they may not be back for a long time. You had best go to bed when you have washed up those dishes.’

  ‘I shall sit with Papa.’ Penitence poured broth into a bowl, adding a pinch of herbs and spices, and set it before Aunt Tribulation.

  Then she quietly said good night and went up to the captain’s room.

  Aunt Tribulation sat at the kitchen table, grim and erect; slowly, because it was so hot, she sipped at the steaming broth.

  Captain Casket suddenly woke up and looked about his room. The whale-oil lamp was still burning brightly, but daylight was beginning to creep past the curtains. He saw his daughter Penitence sitting at the foot of the bed. She was very pale.

  ‘How do you feel now, Papa?’ she asked in a low voice.

  ‘I am better, Daughter, I thank thee, after that excellent broth and the good sleep it brought. I feel myself again.’

  ‘Do you indeed, Papa? Truly? Well enough to get up and take a walk?’

  ‘Take a walk?’ he repeated in bewilderment. ‘Why, what o’clock is it, then?’

  ‘Not long after dawn.’

  ‘Strange time for a walk, Daughter.’

  ‘No, Papa, it is very urgent – it is dreadfully important. Can you, do you think? Can you try?’

  ‘What for, my child?’

  ‘I will tell you when we are on our way. Please, Papa! I would not ask you if it were not so important. But if you cannot come I shall have to go on my own, and I do not like to leave you.’

  Captain Casket sat up and found himself fairly strong. ‘I shall do well enough, I thank thee, child,’ he said, when Pen offered to help him dress, so she retreated to the kitchen and packed a bag of food.

  ‘Why, who is this?’ Captain Casket said when he came downstairs.

  ‘Hush!’

  Penitence laid her finger on her lips and dragged him to the door. ‘I will tell you outside.’ He followed her, puzzled but complying.

  When they were well away from the farm Pen turned to the right and took the track leading towards Sankaty.

  ‘Now!’ she said. ‘I will explain everything, Papa. But first, did you really not know that lady sleeping in the kitchen?’

  ‘Never saw her in my life before,’ declared Captain Casket.

  ‘She is not my Aunt Tribulation?’

  ‘That lady? No indeed, nor in the least like her! Tribulation is much shorter, with black hair and eyes.’

  ‘Is she? I had not remembered. Well, Papa, that lady has been calling herself Aunt Tribulation and living at the farm for the last month.’

  ‘I do not understand!’ he said, passing a hand over his forehead. ‘Passing herself off as my sister Tribulation? But that is infamous behaviour! Then where is my sister?’

  ‘I do not know, Papa.’

  ‘This is an outrage! We must go back at once and demand to know what she means by it, and where Tribulation is. Some harm may have come to her.’

  ‘Wait, Papa, listen. I have not told you all yet. That is not nearly the worst. Yesterday Dido and I helped a man who had fallen into the cranberry bog. He is Professor Breadno, a foreign scientist, and he has made a gun in the Hidden Forest which is going to shoot a shot right across to London and kill the king of England.’

  Captain Casket sat down abruptly in a clump of broom. ‘I am not better,’ he said mournfully. ‘I am having wild delusions. I think my own daughter is telling me about a gun which will fire across the Atlantic. Next I shall be seeing pink whales.’

  Pen pulled him to his feet.

  ‘Yes, you will, Papa, but please listen, this is true! It is a wicked plot by the English Hanoverians to get rid of King James.’

  ‘But why,’ asked the father doggedly, ‘not that I believe a word of this, mind thee, but why do they come all the way to Nantucket to fire at King James? Why not just do it across the Thames?’

  ‘Why,’ Pen said impatiently, ‘because nobody over here will bother to stop them. Whereas in London I suppose the king’s soldiers would grab them if they so much as showed their faces. But that is not the worst, Papa.’

  ‘Speak on then, Daughter.’

  ‘Last night,’ said Pen breathlessly, ‘I went out to the barn for some eggs and what do you think I saw? The woman who calls herself Aunt Tribulation was there, and she and Mr Slighcarp put a sack over poor Dido’s head and tied her hands up with rope, and I heard Aunt Tribulation say that Dido and Nate were to be thrown over Sankaty cliff.’

  ‘Why should they want to do that?’ asked Captain Casket in perplexity.

  ‘Because Dido and Nate had found out about their gun and were going to get Doctor Mayhew to stop them. And that woman who pretends to be Aunt Tribulation is really Mr Slighcarp’s sister. I heard her call him brother.’

  ‘Slighcarp? Is he, too, involved in this? I always thought him a sly, foxy-faced fellow. I was glad enough when he failed to turn up for this trip.’

  ‘Mr Slighcarp was helping get the gun ready in the Hidden Forest. Oh, Papa, I was so frightened when I heard the things they said! I nearly screamed out to them to let poor Dido and Nate go, but I knew they would only put my head in a bag too, and then there would be nobody to help them, or to look after you, Papa.’

  ‘So what did thee do then, Daughter?’

  ‘I crept away in the shadows – it is fortunate that I am not very big. And, then, luckily, Aunt Tribulation – I mean Miss Slighcarp – asked me for some of your broth. So I gave her some of the poppy juice that Doctor Mayhew had left for you in it, and she went off to sleep in the kitchen as you saw.’ Here Penitence could not help giggling at the thought of having successfully put Aunt Tribulation to sleep.

  ‘Dear me, Daughter. Was that judicious?’

  ‘But, Papa, what else could I do? They are going to throw Dido and Nate and Professor Breadno off Sankaty cliffs unless we do something to stop them. So as soon as Aunt Trib – Mr Slighcarp’s sister – was asleep and you were peaceful, Papa, I crept out of the house and went to the forest and warned the professor to take as long over his calculations as he possibly could. I do not think he precisely understood why I wished him to do so, but when I explained that the lives of my friends depended on it, and gave him some molasses candy, he agreed.’

  ‘Thee went to the camp of these villains in the forest? But, Daughter, was thee not afraid?’

  ‘Yes I was,’ Penitence said in a low tone. ‘I was dreadfully afraid.’

  ‘And did the others not stop thee speaking to this man?’

  ‘No, because they had left him alone in a little hut and were sitting outside round a fire. So I stole in very quietly and he was very surprised to see me.’

  ‘Alack!’ said Captain Casket. He had halted, leaning heavily on his daughter’s shoulder. ‘Child, I am not so well as I thought. I must sit and rest awhile. Perhaps thee had best go on to Sankaty without me. Yet what can one frail child do against such evil? I shall be in dread for thee.’ His legs failed him and he sank into a clump of bayberry.

  ‘Oh, Papa!’ cried Penitence in distress. ‘Can you really go no farther? Look, it is not much more than a mile now to Sankaty, you can see the white tower.’

  ‘Child, I h
ave outplayed my strength. The fever was a short one but sharp while it lasted.’

  ‘Oh, what shall I do?’ Penitence wrung her hands. ‘I shall have to go on, Papa. I must try to help Dido and Nate. They have been so good to me.’

  ‘Yes, thee must. I shall pray for thy safe return. Ask help of anyone thee may encounter – yet it is not likely that many will be abroad at this hour,’ he said doubtfully.

  ‘There may be some,’ said Pen with more optimism. ‘Because of the pi –’ She checked herself, gave her father a tender kiss, and hurried on towards the foot of the slope at the top of which Sankaty lighthouse stood on the cliff edge like a pointing finger.

  By great good luck Penitence had not gone far when she heard the thud of hoofs. Crossing her path ahead lay the road from Polpis to Sankaty; to her left she saw a cart proceeding at a smart pace. By running her fastest and waving a handkerchief she was able to attract the attention of the driver who slowed to a halt as she reached the road.

  ‘Well, bless my soul if it isn’t little Penitence Casket!’ cried a cheerful voice. ‘What are you doing out so early? Like all the rest of Nantucket, come for a sight of the pink whale? She’s a bit farther up the coast, child, towards Squam, but heading this way. How’s my patient this morning?’

  It was Doctor Mayhew, driving Mungo.

  ‘Oh, Doctor Mayhew!’ cried Pen thankfully. ‘I was never so glad to see anybody in all my life, never! Will you help me, please?’

  ‘Of course I will, child. I was just on my way to visit your father, soon as I’ve seen a patient in ‘Sconset. I spent the night at Polpis and then, thought I, I’ll just have another look at this famous pink whale and, if she’s still there and old Jabez Casket is able, I’ll take him to see her; a sight like that might be just the thing to put him on his legs again.’

  ‘Oh yes!’ cried Pen. ‘It was what I thought, too! But when I told Papa that she had been seen he would not believe me.’

  ‘He’ll believe the evidence of his own eyes, I suppose. And ears. Listen!’

  They both stood silent. Above the hushing of the sea beyond the cliff could be heard a strange noise – a most mournful bellow, rising sometimes to a whistle, then sinking again to a kind of discontented mutter.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Why, it’s the old pink ’un, grizzling away out there in the ocean. It’s my belief,’ continued the Doctor, ‘that she misses your pa and is a-calling for him. And the sooner he sees her the better, in my opinion.’

  ‘Will you help me fetch him?’ Pen said eagerly. ‘He is not far from here. We started to walk to Sankaty but Papa’s strength failed him.’

  ‘Walk to Sankaty? Child, are you out of your wits? What possessed you to do such a thing?’

  ‘Oh, sir, there are wicked men on Nantucket who are going to throw Dido and Nate into the sea off Sankaty cliff. They have shut them up in the lighthouse till this evening. Will you help me let them out?’

  ‘Eh, bless my soul,’ the doctor said in astonishment. ‘What imaginations you young ’uns do have. Only yesterday that friend of yours was telling me about some gun in the forest. Says I, that’s no gun, child, but the biggest telescope between here and California.’

  ‘But it is a gun! They are in the lighthouse! If you come with me you will see!’

  ‘Dear, dear,’ said the doctor. ‘Ah, well, I always say it does no harm to humour people in their fancies. What shall we do first, then, pick your father up or go to the lighthouse?’

  ‘Oh, the lighthouse, please!’ Pen said, clutching his arm in her anxiety. ‘Every moment may be important.’

  ‘Very well, we’ll see how fast this canny old mule of yours can go if he’s pushed.’

  Mungo was co-operative and it took them only another five minutes to gallop up the hill to the lighthouse. The place seemed totally deserted. A chill wind blew the grasses and straggling shrubs which covered the sandhills round about; beyond the low cliff the ocean growled and whispered. The desolate bellow of the pink whale could still be heard farther north.

  ‘Oh, quick!’ whispered Pen, as the doctor tied Mungo to a railing. ‘Suppose we are too late!’

  ‘What about the key, child?’

  ‘I heard Mr Slighcarp say that it was kept under a rock.’

  ‘It’ll be close by the door, I reckon,’ grunted the doctor, and soon found it. ‘Well, now, where’s these poor castaway captives of yours?’ He thrust the big key into the lock, turned it, and pushed open the heavy door. ‘Anybody about?’ he called, and walked in, with Pen close at his heels.

  The round room was empty.

  ‘You see,’ Dr Mayhew said indulgently. ‘All imagination, as I was say –’

  Pen had darted in horror to a pile of flour-sacks and bits of rope. ‘Look!’ White as a sheet she held up a length of rope. ‘There’s blood on this! Doctor Mayhew! Do you think they’ve thrown them over already?’

  ‘Thrown – hey! Let’s have a look at that rope. Yes, that’s blood sure enough,’ he muttered, inspecting it. ‘And recent, too, it’s hardly dry. What in tarnation’s name has been going on around here? Can there be some truth in the child’s story?’ He stared at her in doubt.

  ‘Hush!’ whispered Pen with terrified eyes. ‘What’s that sound?’

  They listened and both heard it: a step on the winding stair overhead.

  Then all of a sudden a voice burst into song:

  ‘As I was a-walking down Wauwinet way

  I met a young maiden and this she did say:

  Oh, Pocomo’s pretty and Quidnet is quaint

  But the swimming on Surfside is fit for a saint!

  ‘And Madaket’s modish and ‘Sconset’s sedate

  And Shimmo is sheltered and Great Point is great –’

  ‘Nate!’ cried Pen. ‘Nate, is that you?’

  ‘It’s never Penitence?’ He came clattering down the stair and into sight. ‘And Doc Mayhew too! Well, of all the luck! Chop me into chowder, how ever did you get here?’

  ‘Where’s the others? Where’s Dido? And Professor Breadno?’

  ‘Just a-coming down,’ he said grinning. ‘It’s a powerful long stair. We’d been up top, trying to work out whether, if we tied all the bits of rope together, they’d be long enough to let one of us down to unlock the door from the outside. Dido thought yes. Professor Breadno thought not. I’m glad we didn’t have to try. Hey!’ he yelled up the stair. ‘Pen’s here with the doc. Come on down!’

  ‘Penny!’

  Dido shot down the last round of the spiral stair like a whirlwind, threw herself at Pen, and hugged her. ‘How did you do it? How did you know we was here? You clever little girl, Pen!’

  Doctor Mayhew was staring at Nate’s wrists. ‘So that’s where the blood came from! Hey, boy, who’s been gnawing at you?’

  ‘Well, you see, sir, we was tied up. Dido and I managed to shuffle the sacks off each other’s heads – that took a plaguy long time, I can tell you – but we couldn’t get our ropes undone, not nohow. So I rubbed through mine on the edge of the bottom stair, but it left my wrists kind of chawed-up.’

  ‘And then he undid me and the professor,’ Dido explained.

  ‘I’ll put something on those wrists for you right away, my boy. But where are the miscreants now?’

  ‘They sighted their schooner, the Dark Diamond. I heard them talking outside. They were planning to go out to her in a dory, as if they was after fish. Guess that’s the dory you can see about a mile to south’ards now. We kept out of view in case it was them. You can get a famous view of the old pink ’un from the top of the tower; she’s running down this way like a Saratoga winner – hear her bellow?’

  ‘Ja – hwalnn!’ exclaimed Professor Breadno enthusiastically. ‘Ismistibiggn hwalln!’ He had been more than a little subdued since his recent experience, but the sight of Rosie appeared to have cheered him up.

  ‘Oh, this is Professor Breadno,’ Nate told the doctor. ‘He was going to let off the gun for the Hanoverians, but he told Dido
and Pen about it, so his friends fixed to chuck him over the cliff in case he told anyone else. Nice lot, ain’t they?’

  ‘So there really is a gun, my boy? It is not a telescope, not a fairy-tale of the young ladies?’

  ‘Oh no, it’s there right enough, sir. And the Professor says it’s capable of firing across to London.’

  ‘Konigsbang, monstershoot,’ the professor put in proudly.

  ‘So we’ve got to stop them, haven’t we?’ Dido said.

  ‘Well, but that ain’t so easy, my dear,’ Doctor Mayhew objected. ‘For one thing, it’s none of our affair if the English choose to blow each other up. For another, there’s precious few able-bodied men on the island – every man-jack of them is off whaling and we’ve nothing but young children and old crocks like myself, and whale-widows.’

  ‘But Doctor!’ exclaimed Pen. ‘You haven’t heard the worst yet! When those wicked men let off the gun it will blow Nantucket right back against the mainland – right back to Atlantic City!’

  Doctor Mayhew slowly turned purple. It was a fearsome sight.

  ‘What did you say?’ he bellowed. ‘Just repeat that, will you?’

  ‘It’s true, Doc!’

  There were maps and charts on the wall. Professor Breadno was pleased to demonstrate how, when the shot was fired across Nova Scotia, the back-thrust would send the island of Nantucket sliding south-west-wards to bump against the New Jersey coast.

  ‘She ain’t so tight on her moorings, I guess,’ Nate said. ‘Being mostly sand.’

  ‘Great guns! Why didn’t you tell me that before? Push our island over against that crowd of money-grabbing roustabouts and frauds at Atlantic City? Why, we’d have a lawsuit from here to doomsday before we ever got it out of their clutches again. What would all the whaling captains say to me when they came back from their voyages and found Nantucket had moved? This puts a different complexion on the whole matter!’

  ‘What’ll we do, then?’

  ‘We’ll have to go into it very thoroughly,’ Doctor Mayhew said, taking deep breaths to calm himself down.