CHAPTER XII
BUTTON HAS A FIGHT WITH A WHARF RAT
ALL day long the four of them kept hidden. At noon Stubby, Duke and Button ate what the cats left, and Billy ran ashore and ate a little grass by the river bank, where the boat had tied up for noon.
The Captain and his crew seemed in no hurry to get to Paris or anywhere else, for that matter. All they seemed to do was to eat, sleep, tell stories and smoke.
It was getting to be about half past nine, and the dogs and Button were growing hungry for their supper which they could see on the plate by the gangway, but could not go to get it as the sailors were still lounging on deck talking and smoking.
“Will they never stop their silly talk and go to bed?” sighed Button.
He could not hear a word of what they said, but he called it silly because he was so cross at them for not going to bed. And as they talked, a big black wharf rat sneaked up behind them and began to help himself to the meat on the plate. It was too much for the hungry Button to lie there and see his supper or what he considered his, eaten up before his eyes by a nasty old rat. Forgetting that he might be caught by the sailors, he sneaked off the pile of hops and crept to within jumping distance of the rat. Then with one long flying leap, he landed on the rat’s back and buried his teeth in his neck and his claws in his sides. It was a powerful rat, as I said before, and gave fight. Soon the two of them were rolling around on the deck, with first one on top and then the other. The scuffle they made added to the squeal of the rat brought all the sailors to their feet and there they stood watching the fight and wondering where the big black cat came from.
All of a sudden the rat let go of Button’s ear and buried its teeth in his neck, causing the blood to flow freely. On seeing this Stubby forgot all caution and came running to Button’s assistance.
“Holy Moses! And where did this dog come from?” asked the Captain. “He must have dropped from the sky.”
Stubby tried to grab the rat by the back of its neck as it clung to Button’s throat, but he could not as they kept rolling over and over each other so that first one was on top and then the other. At last in trying to stoop and get a grip he turned his broken leg the wrong way and the pain was so intense that he fainted dead away and the sailors thought he was dead. So did Duke, who was watching the struggle from the top of the hop pile with Billy. When they saw Stubby roll over and stretch out they both bounded off the hops and appeared on the scene.
“Jumping Jupiter! What have we here? A menagerie?” exclaimed the Captain. The sailors all stared at Duke and Billy as if an elephant had appeared in their midst, while from the other end of the boat came the yellow cat and Mouser. And still the fight went on, with the Captain, three sailors, two cats, one dog and a goat watching, all having formed a ring around the fighters.
Billy saw that Button was growing weak from loss of blood and though he did not wish to interfere in Button’s fight, still he felt it best under the circumstances to do so. So he watched his chance and ran one long horn right through the rat, killing him instantly. Then with the rat still sticking to his horns, he walked to the side of the boat and scraped it off, and it fell into the water.
This was such a smart thing for a goat to do that the Captain clapped his hands and cried, “Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!” in which all the sailors joined him. Their clapping and cheering brought the Captain’s wife on deck to see what all the commotion was about, and when she saw the strange animals on board, she said,
“When did you buy this menagerie? I never laid eyes on them before.”
“Nor any of us,” answered the Captain, “until two or three minutes ago,” and he related to her what had taken place.
“This fight never would have happened if that lazy yellow cat of ours had done his duty and caught that rat.”
“But if he had, none of us would ever have witnessed the most desperate bloody battle any of us ever saw between a cat and a rat.”
“I wonder to whom these animals belong and when they came on board,” mused the Captain’s wife.
“They must have come on board the night we forgot and left the gangplank out,” said the Captain.
“That is just when it must have happened,” agreed the sailors.
“They probably belong to some one person as they are all together, and I should judge from their appearance that they are very valuable. See,” said the Captain’s wife, “they all have medals around their necks, and one dog wears a Red Cross badge sewed on his body.”
The Captain stooped down in front of Billy and began to read what was on his badge.
“Wife, come here! Come here!” he called in excited tones. “What do you think I find engraved on this badge? This goat is the celebrated Billy Whiskers, the Mascot of the —th New York Regiment!”
“You don’t mean it? Not the goat that the big reward is offered for? You don’t mean that, do you?”
“Yes, I do! The very same!”
“And this little dog and the black cat are mascots, too, other regiments offering a big reward for their return. I read about these very animals in one of the Paris papers this morning. I’ll go get the paper and read it to you,” she said.
In a jiffy she disappeared inside the boat but came out again, waving the paper. “Here it is! Now listen while I read to you all what it says:
LOST, STRAYED OR STOLEN
One large white goat, belonging to the —th Regiment of New York
One small yellow dog, belonging to the —th Regiment of Pennsylvania
One big black cat, belonging to the —th Regiment of Illinois.
Any person or persons returning the same to their respective Headquarters will receive $1,000 reward for each animal alive and well.”
She jumped up and went springing and dancing around the deck.
“Here we have all three of them right here on our boat! Ho for the reward! I see where we get it when we return from this trip. We will take the best of care of them, but keep them hidden from others until our return trip. Then we will take them to Headquarters and claim the reward.”
“Well, you won’t get any reward for either the cat or the dog if you don’t fix up the wounds where that rat bit them, for they are losing so much blood it will kill them,” said the Captain.
“Here, some of you give me a hand and help me dress their wounds,” said the Captain’s wife, who was as good as any trained nurse when it came to dressing wounds and looking after the sick. “I’ll go ahead and get warm water, witch hazel and bandages ready, while you carry them down to my stateroom and lay them on the bunk.”
When Stubby came out of his fainting spell, he found himself lying on a bunk beside Button, who had a bandage wrapped around his neck, and smelling strong of witch hazel, besides having several crosses of adhesive plaster on his sides and on the tip of his nose.
“How did we get here and what has happened to us?” he asked.
“What a fool thing for me to faint just when you needed me most!” said Stubby.
“How did you happen to do it?” asked Button.
“I turned my broken leg the wrong way, and over I went.”
“But who helped you in the end? Did some of those men come to your rescue? I should think they would have helped you before and not stood there and see that monster rat biting you with its poisonous teeth.”
“No, Billy came to my help as usual. He forgot he was in hiding and jumped in and ran his horn straight through the rat, which made it let go my throat, as he had killed it instantly. I never met such a big rat before or one with such long, sharp teeth. When it cried, its voice sounded like a baby’s. I shall be all right soon as the Captain’s wife has fixed me up fine so the poison from the rat’s teeth won’t hurt me. As it turned out, this fight was the best thing that could have happened, for since they read our medals, every one is as keen on keeping us on board as we are in staying. They have found out who we are, and are now looking out for the reward. But they intend to take us along with them to the coast and on their return will hand us over to our respective regiments and claim the money.”
“How did they know there is a reward offered for us?”
“Why, the Captain’s wife had just finished reading about us in one of the Paris papers.”
“We certainly are in luck! Here we shall have the best of care and get clear through to Havre without walking one step. And when there we can give them the slip as we did the farmer and his wife.”
“I know; but it does seem a shame that we always have to run off and appear so ungrateful to our kind friends, doesn’t it?” said Stubby.
“Yes, it does; but it really can’t be helped,” replied Button. “Where are Billy and Duke now?”
“Oh, they are having the time of their lives being petted and fed by all on board. You see we will fare like princes for the rest of our journey.”
Button was right. Nothing was too good for them and the way they were fed, watered, combed and brushed would have satisfied a king.
“My, don’t they all look fat, sleek and shiny!” said the Captain’s wife after they had bathed and curried all four of them. She had taken off the dirty bandage that was around Duke’s body and put on a nice clean white one with a lovely Red Cross embroidered on it.