*CHAPTER X*
*THE GOATS BECOME A FIERY DRAGON*
Not stopping on the lower deck, they went on up until they reached themain saloon deck. It was ever so much wider and nicer than the deck ofthe cattle ship, and just now it was crowded with passengers who hadhastily dressed themselves and had come out on deck to see what was thematter with the ship and its queer actions.
"Oh, there's my goat!" said a boy who was standing at the rail just atthe head of the stairway.
It was Frank Brown and, walking up to Billy, he patted him on the neck.A bright faced young man who was with Frank also stooped over and pattedBilly.
"Whose goat is this other one?" he asked, turning to pat Billy's mother,who, being jealous like most animals, crowded up to get her share of theattention.
"I don't know," said Frank. "It was picked up from a wreck; but the twogoats seem to be very chummy."
Frank was looking along the deck at the long row of excitablepassengers, and suddenly he began to laugh.
"I wish we could play some sort of a trick on all these people," hesaid.
The young man's face lit up with a smile as he gazed at the nervous andworried looking passengers, then all at once he laughed aloud.
"I've got it!" he cried. "Bring your goats and come into my cabinquickly. It's just inside here."
So Billy, willingly enough, was led by the horns into the young man'scabin, and his mother followed after. As soon as they had reached thecabin the young man rang the bell, and when the waiter came to him theyoung man gave him a check and sent him after a trunk which was soonbrought up. Opening it, the young man took out an enormous dragon'shead made of papier mache and painted in bright colors. It was a fiercelooking head and almost filled the trunk. It had a great, double row ofgleaming white teeth, red lips, a red tongue that worked out and in,immense saucer-like eyes and winged ears, while a "scary" looking spinestarted from the top of its nose and arched high over its neck. Thebalance of the trunk was filled with a long, thin, sack-like arrangementwhich was painted green and red and yellow, and which was to representthe dragon's body.
"You know I told you," said the young man, "that I am the property manof a big spectacular show company, and this is a new dragon that I havejust had made. It is intended for men to get inside of to walk itacross the stage. We'll put the goats in it and start them along thedeck, and then we'll see some fun."
Neither Billy nor his mother wanted to get inside that strange lookingthing, but the two boys suddenly slipped the big head over Billy andthere was no way for him to get out. Then, catching Billy's mother bythe horns, they dragged her to the second slit and put her inside. Theyoung man quickly straightened up the ridges and the long, scalloped,folding side fins of the body, while Frank held the head tightly and letthe goats prance inside. The young man opened the door and looked out.The passageway was clear and they soon gained the deck. The young manlit a match and stooped down for a moment. Instantly the big eyes werelit up with red. Red flames came out of the tip of the tongue and smokerolled out of the nostrils.
They headed the dragon up the deck before anybody noticed it, and assoon as the goats were let go they started to run in their efforts toget away from this heavy, dark thing that surrounded them. The youngman put his hands to his mouth, and making a megaphone of them, gave atremendous roar. Instantly everybody looked, and when they saw thisgreat, red-eyed and fire-breathing monster coming toward them there wasa grand scamper. A great many of the passengers thought that a seaserpent had got aboard and they did not care to see it any closer. Awaythey went, making as much noise as a Sunday school picnic, with thefiery dragon right after them. Around and around the deck they chasedand the two poor goats were as scared as any of the women on board.
It had been twice around the deck when the red powder that the young manhad lighted in its tongue began to die out, so the young man grabbed itjust as it passed the place where they had started it off and, quicklyturning it in toward his cabin, was struggling with the now thoroughlyfrightened goats. He got the dragon safely into his room, but, as soonas it was lifted off of Billy and his mother, those frightened goatsmade a dash for the door and out on deck. Their only idea was to run asfast as they could to get away from that dreadful thing, so when thepassengers saw them coming, they thought that some other sort of amonster was loose and they began to run again. Some of the men stoppedto see what it was, however, and more than one of them had his revolverin his hand ready to shoot. One of them, in fact, had his finger on thetrigger and was going to pull it when another man suddenly called out:
"Wait a minute! They're only goats."
The men caught the goats as they were struggling to get through and thecaptain, who had been everywhere trying to stop the panic, now came up.The second mate came up also, and when he saw the two goats he was veryangry and called one of his men.
"Here," said he, "take these animals down where they belong and tie themup with wires or chains so that they can't gnaw themselves loose. If Isee them again before we get to New York there's going to be trouble forsomebody."
So Billy and his mother, their fun all over, were taken back down in thehold and tied up tightly, and it was the last time they got loose untilthey landed in America.
"At any rate," said Billy's mother, "we are together."
"I don't know how we can stay together, though," said Billy, shaking hishead. "I belong to Frank Brown and, so far as I can tell, you don'tbelong to anybody. If you only did, maybe Mr. Brown would buy you,although I don't believe he wants any more."
And Billy was right about Mr. Brown's not wanting any more goats.
The day they landed Frank Brown went to claim his goat. Billy and hismother were still together, but as Frank was about to take Billy away awoe-begone looking little fat man came rushing up.
"Those should been my goats yet!" he exclaimed.
"Your goats?" said Mr. Brown, rather angrily. "Why, man, that one withthe singed spots on his back we have just brought over with us fromFrance."
"It makes me nothing out!" exclaimed the man. "They should been mygoats! I know them both like it was mine own brother and sister, yes!I know the biggest one by such a black spot on her forehead and theother one by such singed places like vat iss on his back. So! I shouldbring them both over from Havre, and our ship got such a wreckness inthe big thunder weather, and Ach, I could cry mit weeping. My name isHans Zug and I am a poor man. Yes! I had more as two hundred goats andthese two is all what I got now, and if you take them away I don't gotany. No!"
One of the sailors from the cattleship who had been taken on board withBilly's mother came up just then and said that Hans was telling thetruth. Mr. Brown looked perplexed.
"It's true," he said, "that we got this goat out of the ocean. It isscarcely possible that two goats should be burned exactly alike and thisone either slipped loose from our carriage in Havre or was taken awayfrom us there by this man. I have already paid twice for it; once inEurope, once on the ocean, and now I am expected to pay for him a thirdtime in America. Frank, get your goat and come on!"
Poor Hans did not know what to say or do. Mr. Brown was evidently richand powerful and Hans was afraid he might get himself into trouble. Helooked so miserable, however, that Mr. Brown relented, and taking outhis pocket-book, handed Hans some money.
"Here," he said, "I'll buy this goat again and then I'll be tempted tohire somebody to hang it, only I'm afraid some butcher would sell it tome a fourth time for mutton."
Frank giggled at this and his father, too, cleared up his anger in alaugh. Then Billy, in spite of all his mother's bleatings, was led awayfrom her. Within an hour he was put in a baggage car of a train for theWest where the Browns lived. This time he was not crated, but was tiedto a ring with a stout rope.
Up to the time that the train began to start he struggled and pulled,hoping to get away and run back to join his mother, but it was no use.The train pu
lled out, and every minute Billy was carried farther andfarther away from the one goat in the world that was dear to him. Hewas a very sad goat and he would have been sadder still if he had knownthat his real misfortunes had only begun. All through that afternoon hechewed at the stout rope, trying to get it loose, and all that nightwhenever he woke up he began to gnaw at it, not knowing, of course, howfar he was being carried away, nor how impossible it would be for himever to get back to New York, over hundreds of miles of ground, acrossrivers, through tunnels and over ferries, or even find his mother if heever did reach New York City.
By morning he had his rope nearly gnawed through. Not long afterdaylight the train stopped at a little station and the baggage doors onboth sides of the car were standing open when the train pulled out.Billy gave a tug at his rope and then another one. It came loose, and,giving a short run, he jumped out of the door. The train by this timewas going at a good speed, and Billy landed in the gravel of a steepembankment, rolling over and over. After the train went on he lay quitestill, for he had fainted. Poor Billy had broken a leg.
Poor Billy had broken a leg.]
After a long time he crawled painfully up to the country road thatcrossed the railroad track and led into the village they had justpassed. He dragged himself along this road quite a way toward thevillage, but the pain was too great for him to continue very far, sopresently he crawled to the side of the road and lay down in the coolgrass. He tried to nibble a bit at this but he was too sick, andfinally he stretched himself out and closed his eyes. More and more,now, he missed his mother, and felt that if she could only be there tolick his wounds his leg would get well again, but now he felt that therewas no hope for him. All he could do was to close his eyes and die.
Billy Whiskers' Travels Page 10
