PAGE 7
Noah’s Ark
by
“But the rhino saw him coming down the stay and lumbered aft into the washing-water to investigate, rounding the port corner of the house just as the skipper reached the starboard. From there he charged; and you cannot imagine the velocity of a rhino’s charge. It is like that of a locomotive. The skipper scrambled on top of a water-tank alongside the house just in time to escape that tusk, and from there he got to the top, where he sat down to recover himself.
“He was a badly scared man. The rhino grunted and snorted at him and tried to climb the tank, but failed to get a grip on the smooth-painted staves. So he stood guard abaft the house, looking up.
“There were two other roads to the deck–the port and starboard mizzen rigging, I still had in mind that rifle of the skipper’s, and as the second mate, a young fellow just out of the forecastle, made no objections, I slid down the after-swifter of the port rigging and got into the cabin before the skipper or the rhino noticed me.
“I found the cabin flooded, and waded waist-deep to the skipper’s room, where I found his Winchester hanging to the bulkhead. Making sure that the magazine was full, I scrambled to the forward companion, where there was a window that gave me a good view of the deck. The skipper was calling the men on the main to come down by the maintopmast stay to the top of the house, and to those on the fore to come down by the backstays to the rail, and then to jump to the water-tanks; and the men were coming down, one by one, even though the rigging swarmed with big monkeys and the corners and hollow spots possibly held poisonous snakes.
“A yell from the mizzen called my attention to one of these, a big fellow of four feet in length whom the skipper had frightened out of his hiding-place on the fife-rail, and he was climbing the mizzen-stay. He rested about six feet up, but completely blocked this path to the deck for the men in the mizzen. However, when I had cleared the deck of the rhino, they could come down my way. I cocked the gun, took careful aim at the big brute’s left eye, and let go.
“I missed the eye, but attracted his attention, and he came charging aft through the water. I ducked, knowing that he couldn’t climb the flimsy steps to the short length of poop forward of the house without breaking them down with his weight, and, after a moment, peeped out.
“He was just turning to go forward, and, as I knew that a Winchester bullet wouldn’t puncture his hide, I saved my shots.
“Meanwhile, all hands but the boys in the mizzen-crosstrees had gained the forward house and were clearing away the two boats, lashed in their chocks, right side up–one to starboard, the other to port. I could see the work going on–saw them smash the skylight over the galley for a man to go down to pass up grub, and saw a man dive down.
“Then I saw another fellow take a beaker from the starboard boat, and, watching his chance when the rhino wasn’t looking, drop over and into the starboard forecastle, to fill it from the water-barrel. He passed it up and also the bread-barge. There was some of the cabin stores in the galley, and these they secured easily through the skylight; but I noticed they packed it all in the starboard-boat, though they had cleared away the other.
“I knew I had just fifteen shots in that rifle; but I hadn’t looked for further ammunition, and I thought that fifteen would finish the rhino, somehow; so, when the boys above shinned down and joined me, I neglected to ask them to hunt for more, but just peppered away when I thought I saw a good chance, but never hit the one vulnerable spot.