Pirates a League of Brothers by H, J, Macey (phonics books TXT) 📖

from the rocks lying all around.

 

Matto was calling him, and Dorian followed him down to the cove, and round to where the beach turned into a rocky shore. Out on the rocks, Matto located a length of what looked like a rope. Pulling on it Matto pulled a bamboo cage from the water, in it was crabs and lobsters. Matto quickly captured them, putting them into a fishing net bag he had brought with him. Replacing the cage, he pulled on another rope, and Dorian saw large blackish-blue shellfish attached to it.

 

Matto selected the largest of them and returned the rest to the water. Smiling Matto climbed off the rocks with his bag, then led Dorian to a long smooth black rock laying alongside the other rocks. Putting down his bag, Dorian was surprised to see Matto turn the rock over. It turned out to be a small one-man black canoe, that blended in with the black volcanic rocks. In the canoe were ores and a fishing net, the net was made from thin vines that were the same as Matto's bag. 

 

The canoe would not be safe beyond the reef in the wide-open seas, but in the quieter waters within it, it could be used for fishing. Dorian wondered if he could get Matto to show him how he made it, so he could build a bigger one, one he could sail away in and back to civilisation. It was not made of rock although it looked like the volcanic rocks around them, it was too light to be and felt slippery when he touched it and lifted it off the beach.

 

Matto thought Dorian wanted to take it on the water when he saw how interested Dorian was in it. Dorian shook his head and put the canoe down, "how you make"? Dorian asked to no avail. Matto looked bewildered at Dorian's words, Dorian would have to find another way of finding out. The inside of the canoe was as smooth as the outside, but as Dorian rubbed his hands over it he was sure he felt ridges in long straight lines. On the way back to the plateau, he pondered what it could be.

 

Dorian's first full day of freedom had been fulfilling and tiring, in the evening air as dusk fell they sat and ate their bounty from the sea. The fire they cooked from was fired by wood, the illumination was by big black candles that gave off a great glow and a plume of smelly smoke. When Dorian inspected one, he saw they burnt like white wax candles with a pool of melted wax at the middle. Only this black candle looked like and felt like the canoe on the beach. When they went to bed later, the old couple climbed onto the large bed with Dorian.

 

Chapter five

When Dorian awoke, Matto and Seeua were already up. Matto was nowhere to be seen whereas Seeua was around the side of the hut, washing vegetables in an upturned turtle shell. The water running from a bamboo pipe, Seeua pulled a plug from when she wanted water. The bamboo pipe ran elevated off the ground by supporting bamboo poles towards the river at the end of the plateau. "Where Matto?" Dorian asked, and a smiling Seeua pointed in the direction of the river.

 

Dorian saw him in the distance beside the bamboo pipeline when Dorian caught up with Matto; he seemed to be inspecting the pipes. It was only then Dorian realised how the pipeline had been made. Matto had shaved the outer layer off the bamboo pipe, at one end and shaved the inside of the other. A tight fit when pushed together made sure of no leaks, this was what Matto was checking on at the moment. When he had finished, he led Dorian over the lower peek of the hill.

 

Down they climbed through the wooded slopes towards the other side of the island. Leaving the wooded hillside behind them, they walked over slowly sloping grown. Dorian saw the sea before him, and the reef with waves crashing over it. The water between the reef and the island was a charm shallow lagoon, hardly ruffled by waves. One thing Dorian did notice, the ground he was walking on was getting hotter the nearer they got to where Matto was leading them.

 

With the ground hotter still Dorian smelt an acrid smell, then before them he saw a black bubbling pool of what looked like tar. The edges of the pool where the tar had cooled, was hard and shiny just like the canoe and candies. In a row stood some bamboo pieces tide around with a crude string, a thin piece of bamboo resting on top had a length of string tied to it that hung down the centre of the bamboo tube. Untying the string, and pulling the bamboo halves apart, Matto revealed the candles he had back at the hut.

 

That revelation revealed to Dorian the construction of the canoe, the straight lines and the tiny bumps was a cage of bamboo covered with this hardened tar. The shoreline was over half a league away from the tar pool, the tar would harden too fast to build a boat that far away. It would have to be built here by the pool and then transported down the sloping ground to the beach. It was where Matto must have made his canoe, and then paddled it around the island to the cove.

 

Now Dorian had to convey his plans to Matto, he would need his help to make his plan succeed. From where they stood, Dorian could see bamboo growing in thick patches on the lower slopes. They would have to cut them down and bring them to the pool of tar, build the boat then get it to the water. He again knew he could not build it himself, Matto would have to help him. 

 

He had to take Matto back to the canoe and try to explain he wanted to build a canoe for himself. Only, one that was much bigger, one he could sail away in and get back to the people in England. His grandparents would love him as his parents had, he had seen them often as he had grown up. They were kind and loved their daughters baby, and had taken him on outings. He would find a way of getting home to them, and tell them of his mother's death.

 

Matto had started to reassemble the bamboo halves and the strings down the middle of them. Picking up a long bamboo pole that had a large round bamboo-section attached to it, he dipped it into the molten tar and filled the standing bamboo sections he had assembled. When he had finished he gathered up two of the already made candles and handed them to Dorian, then picking two up himself, he turned to walk in the direction of home.

 

The candles were not heavy, but their size meant you couldn't carry more than two comfortably. By the time, they got back to the hut Dorian's arms ached, and he was glad to put them down. The old lady fussed over him when she saw him rubbing his aching arms, and produced more of her green gel to smooth away his pains. She also had food for them to eat, and bright tasty fruit drinks to fill their bellies.

 

Dorian thanked her by kissing her hand, a thing he had done with his mother, after seeing men kiss her hand in greeting. Seeua patted his head, Matto slapped his shoulder pointing to the cove and saying 'et platoa.' Then led Dorian towards the wooded slope, that led down to the inlet the pirates had entered. Dorian eagerly followed as he saw Matto heading for the rocks, Matto kept the canoe.

 

On the beach, Dorian smiling started to lead the way to the rocks and the canoe. When he reached the canoe, he turned it over and smiling lifted the ore from inside it. Standing at one end, he took two giant paces along the length of the canoe, six feet maybe he calculated. Matto looked at him inquisitively, as Dorian took another eight paces.

 

Thirty-feet should be big enough for one to handle. With the ore, Dorian draw a line in the sand where he stood then moved back to the canoe, looking at Matto he felt the canoe then tapped himself. He did it twice, then with the canoe ore, he drew a line either side of the canoe and onward to where he drew the end line.

 

Then he sat in the make-believe canoe and using the ore, he pointed to the entrance to the bay and paddled with the ore. Matto had watched intently but in silence, now he moved towards Dorian shaking his head. It seemed he understood what Dorian was trying to tell him but he didn't agree with Dorian. Matto took the ore from Dorian and took two paces away from him, then with the ore, he drew another make-believe canoe with joining lines between them.

 

He was telling Dorian he needed a twin canoe to sail the seas beyond the reef, Dorian now knew he understood him but would he help him build the boat. Matto looked at Dorian as he put the ore back into the canoe, and took out a bamboo staff. The end of which had been split into four, and sharpened to make it into a spear. Then walking into the water he repeated the word's he had said back on the plateau, 'et platoa.'

 

Holding the spear in both hands across his body, Matto walked into the water to his waist and looked into its depths. In a short time, he had made several thrusts with the spear. Until he finally raised it from the water, with a flapping fish impaled upon it. Two more fish were caught before Matto put the spear away, and Dorian lifting one fish to say to a nodding smiling Matto, 'et platoa.' That night they eat, et platoa that Seeua cooked.

 

As she cooked Dorian sat with Matto and drew twin canoe's in the dust on the floor. Only to have Matto take over, and add masts and sails and bigger hulls with platforms between them. Dorian recognized the boats Matto had drawn, they were similar to the boats the Islanders had in the islands, the pirates had sailed through. As they raided and pillaged the villages among the islands, but why didn't Matto have such a boat, he was surely from the same place.

 

Matto seemed to understand Dorian's needs, as he sat beside Dorian drawing plans of a boat capable of open water sailing. There was still the language barrier, but Dorian was sure he had Matto's cooperation. As they sat and eat the fish Matto had caught, then laid their heads down to sleep. Not that Dorian slept much, with his mind mulling over the things he had seen on the island so far. There was a lot more of the island to explore, Matto had only shown him a small part of it so far.

 

In the morning after a meal of fruits, Matto took Dorian out into his growing field and gave him a tool to hoe between the