finally got hold of something soft that reminded him of the hood on Moosie’s coat. He grabbed onto it tight and started working his legs with all his might, tugging the hood to the surface. Judging from how heavy the coat was, his horned friend was still in it.
“Aah!” Mike’s head popped up between the waves, and he gratefully gulped the salty sea air.
“Grab the line!” Wolf’s voice called out from somewhere up above.
There was a splash next to him, and a red donut was tossing around on the waves. Mike grabbed the life saver with one hand.
“Hold on! We’ll pull you out!” Wolf wheezed.
“I’ve got the moose under water,” Mike yelled.
Just at that moment a wave hit him in the face. Mike coughed, but he didn’t let go of either the moose or the life saver.
“Pull him up and stick him in the life saver!” Wolf ordered.
Mike pulled the hood inside the life saver and yanked Moosie up. First his horns popped up, then his ears, and finally his terrified, bulging eyes. But that is where matters ground to a halt. Moosie’s long nose just refused to fit inside the life saver. Mike pressed down on Moosie’s nose and pushed it through the hole. His nose squeezed through and popped back into its normal shape, and his antlered friend was securely ensconced in the life saver.
“Pull!” Mike yelled.
“We can’t pull both of you!” Wolf growled. That moose has taken on a bilgeful of water!”
“Okay,” Mike agreed, “I’ll let go!”
Wolf and Camel hauled on the line with the life saver, and Moosie crawled up alongside the ship, sea water cascading off of him in torrents. Finally he got his waterlogged body over the railing and plopped himself down on the ship.
“Hooray!” Mike wanted to say, but he felt unexpectedly that his mouth, neck, legs and arms were getting numb and didn’t obey him. Mike looked up, but he couldn’t see Wolf or Camel at the edge of the deck.
“Heeeeeelp!” Mike weakly whispered.
And as if in answer to that weak, unheeded sound amid the stormy ocean, Captain Wolf appeared on the pitching deck. With a short motion of his paw, the life saver flew out and almost hit Mike in the head. Mike reached out for the life saver and just barely managed to stick his head and arms in it…
He came around because he felt something warm in his face. Mike opened his eyes and saw a big shaggy nose in front of him.
“Apparently our young friend has regained consciousness,” Camel pronounced.
“Let’s get our cabin boy below right away, change his clothes, warm him up, get him some tea and lay him in his bunk!” Wolf ordered.
“A most opportune idea,” Camel replied, “but what shall we do with the moose?”
“Hang the moose!” the Captain said dismissively.
“I beg your pardon! I don’t think I quite heard you correctly,” Dreamer said, “are you proposing that we hang our antlered friend?”
“I said, hang him out to dry!” Wolf growled.
“Don’t hang me!” whined Moosie, who had also come around and was now lying on the deck, rivulets of salt water running off of him. “I’m little white Seamoosie, my handlers are all wet, and if you hang me out to dry they’ll get all droopy.”
“I fully support the apprehensions64 of our antlered friend,” Came said, “a moose must be washed down with fresh water, and then hung out to dry with its hooves upward.
“Well, scrub me down with a holystone!65” Captain Wolf said, “All right, we’ll hang him to dry on the yardarm, hooves up. The rain’s almost stopped.”
“One may observe with some satisfaction that meteorological conditions are noticeably improving,” Dreamer said, “we have successfully braved our first ordeal66.”
Chapter 8. The Pitfall
“If you will permit me the observation, it appears that there is land on the horizon. In my opinion, it is the mainland. However, I may be mistaken.”
“Mainland?” growled Wolf. “Blow me down! It can’t be the mainland! By my calculations we should be somewhere between Trinidad and Tobago67.”
“All the same, I suggest that you glance through your long glass,” insisted Camel, “two humps are better than one’, as the wisdom of my people would have it.”
“Don’t tell me what to do! I know where I should be looking!” Wolf snapped, all the same pulling his long glass from his belt and training it on the horizon.
“Well, call me Captain Bligh68 and throw me overboard! It is the mainland! It looks like we were badly set west during the storm, and we’re off course.”
“That is a totally logical explanation,” Camel said, “however, I would not rule out…”
“Avast yer palaver69!” barked Wolf, “helmsman, come two points to starboard! We’ll head for that bay and drop anchor there.”
Mike obediently turned the helm right.
After the business with Moosie, Captain Wolf assigned Mike to the helm. When Mike needed to go aloft to furl or unfurl the sails, Wolf took the helm himself. Deep down, Mike was glad for the promotion, even though he felt sorry for Moosie being demoted.
“Reef the mainsail70!” Wolf ordered. “Dead slow. Three points to starboard. Look alive up forward, watch out for reefs!71”
Camel hung his nose over the ship’s prow, diligently scrutinizing the calm water of the gulf, but he didn’t see any reefs.
When the shore didn’t look more than a cable length72 away, Wolf ordered all sails lowered and then dropped anchor. The anchor hit bottom in a few seconds; the gulf wasn’t deep.
“Launch the small boat, boy!” Wolf commanded. “Moose, Camel, cabin boy – head for shore and find fresh water!”
Moosie was not exactly dying of curiosity to set foot on the unfamiliar shore.
“Maybe there are wild animals there,” he said, “maybe they’ll eat me. Let me stay on the boat!”
“Palaver! And she’s a ship, not a boat!” wheezed Wolf, but looking at Moosie’s droopy horns, he changed his mind. “All right, Antlers, stay on board, keep a sharp eye on the ladder and
Fears.
A special stone shaped like a brick that was used to scrub wooden decks on old ships.
Trial.
Islands in the southern Caribbean Sea.
The captain of the British ship
Stop your useless talk.
Tie up the mainsail so only half of it is open.
Rocks under the water level that the ship may hit.
100 fathoms, or about 600 yards.
