CHAPTER 9 Sea Legs for Tandy

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"If what Roger tells us is so, little Sauce Box yonder has had a pretty dull life," said Ato as he and the Captain sat finishing their breakfast next morning. "Lucky for him we happened along and anyway, the hippopotamus will be good company, eh, Samuel? She seems downright sensible and jolly. Reminds me of Pigasus and I suppose she does belong to the pig family when you come to think of it."

"Well, she's a pretty big pig if she does," laughed Samuel Salt, swallowing his coffee with gusty relish. "Pretty big any way you take her. Personally, I like the animal, but the King and son of a King's son! PAH! Reminds me of Peter, he's so different, and the sooner we reach Ozamaland and set him ashore, the better. Meals in his own cabin. Hoh!"

"Oh, give him time," drawled Ato, helping himself a second time to fried potatoes. "If there's any good in the lad, a sea voyage will bring it out, and what chance has he had shut up in a tower for ten years and in a cage for five months? Though how an aunt managed to have him carried so far and why she left him with those savages in the jungle I can't get through my head at all."

"Maybe it was a gi-ant," whistled Roger, swooping down on Ato's plump shoulder and flapping his wings cheerfully. "How far do you figure it is to Ozamaland, Master Salt?"

"Well, that I couldn't just say," answered Samuel in a milder voice. Pushing back his chair, he stepped over to the map on the west wall. "Maybe a thousand leagues or so from Patrippany Island, maybe more, in a line east by sou'east from Ev. If that is so, we're bound to bump into it sometime, as I've set my course east by sou'east, and anyway it's all in the year's sailing." Samuel bent over with pride to examine the newest island discovery he had marked on the chart the evening before. "And when we do come to it," he announced firmly, "we'll trade this useless young one for some of those flying snakes and creeping birds, eh, Mates?"

"If we bring any more animals aboard we might as well set up an ark and be done with it," warned Ato, shaking his fork at the Captain. "By the way, how's Sally this morning?'

"Tiptopsails!" grinned Samuel. "She eats nothing but hot air and water and is no more trouble than a hair in a flea's whisker. I can carry her round in my pipe when I want company. Now there's a lass for you!"

"Well, I'll just see to Nikobo, for she's the girl for me," retorted Ato, rolling briskly out of his seat. "I saved all the potato peelings from last night, and that, with a dozen cans of peas, corn, carrots and beets, should stay her appetite till lunch time."

"Forty cans at one swallow," groaned Roger, clapping a claw to his head in mock dismay. "She'll eat us out of ship and home at this rate. Can't you think of something else, King dear? A nice wind pudding or a tub of sea soup sprinkled with faggots."

"Oh, go along with you," roared Ato, and picking up his precious coffee pot, he waddled cheerfully off to his storeroom.

The day was bright and breezy and the Crescent Moon going free, breasted the waves like a white-winged sea witch. It was SUCH a morning that even Tandy, peering inquiringly from his cabin, felt an uncontrollable impulse to slide down the deck. So he did, coming up smartly by Roger, who was perched on the rail.

"That's it! That's it! Now you're catching on," approved the Read Bird, hopping cheerfully from one foot to the other. "Now match your step to the sea's roll, sonny, get into her rhythm. You've got to breathe with the ship to carry your rations on a voyage. Watch the Captain, there, and do as he does," finished Roger as Samuel Salt left his cabin and came striding aft.

"Rather watch you!" exclaimed Tandy, who sensed the Captain's dislike. Uneasily he moved a little nearer the Read Bird.

"All right, come on then!" shouted Roger, heading recklessly for the foremast. "Ever climb a tree?" Tandy shook his head, looking with deep misgiving into the maze of sail and rigging above. But Roger was already aloft and beckoning for him to follow. "Not that way, Brainless!" scolded Roger anxiously as Tandy, gritting his teeth, made a desperate leap upward. "See those rope ladders by the rail? Put your feet in the ratlins, boy, and come along hand over hand. It's easy as flying once you get the swing of it. There, that's better! Come on! Come on! Don't stop! Don't look down." So up—up and up the narrow rope ladders toiled Tandy, till Roger, growing impatient, seized his collar and helped him straddle the crosstree of the fore t'gallant mast. "Ahoy! And isn't this better than riding an elephant?" beamed Roger, winking a knowing eye. "Ahoy, this is fun and NO fooling." Seeing Tandy was too dizzy and breathless to talk for a moment, Roger cheerfully set himself to teach the young Ozamander a bit about ships and sailing. Soon Tandy was so interested he forgot the leap and plunge of the ship, the rattle and creak of the cordage and his own precarious perch in the foremast.

"The Crescent Moon," began Roger with an impressive jerk of his head, "is a square rigged three-masted sailing vessel. Normally 'twould take from sixty to eighty men in a crew to set and make sail and bring her about in a blow. But Samuel Salt has magic sail controls, so we three manage quite easily, and now that YOU are here and the handy hippopotamus below 'twill be easier still. The mast we're riding is the foremast. The mast second from the bow, as we call the front of the ship, is the mainmast, and the mast at the back or, as we salt water birds say, the stern of the boat, is the mizzenmast. And now for the sails." Roger took a deep breath. "Those below, beginning from the bottom up, are the course, the topsail, the topgallant sail, the royal and the sky sail. And don't forget!" Roger wagged his claw sternly. "Before each sail you must put the name of the mast to which it is attached. As, for instance, this ahead of us is the fore-topgallant sail. SEE? And everything to the left of the ship's center we say is on the port side and anything to the right is on the starboard."

"Then tell me why is the water on the port side bluer than the water on the starboard?" asked Tandy, who had been listening very solemnly as he tried to fix all of these strange sea terms in his head.

"Bravo!" cried Roger. "Right the first time, Mate. And the water is bluer on the port side of the vessel because it is saltier. The bluer the saltier," declared Roger, who, besides his first voyage with the Crescent Moon, had read all the sea books in Ato's library and was simply crammed with deep sea facts and information. "And what is more," he continued, pursing his bill mysteriously, "we're sailing in a magic circle never knowing what may pop up over the edge. A ship? An island? A hurricane? Or even a fabulous monster! That's what makes sea voyaging so glorious, and sailing so much fun!"

Tandy, staring at the empty circle of blue falling away from the ship on all sides, nodded dreamily. The White City—Patrippany Island—all his former life and existence seemed unreal and far away and he hoped in his heart of hearts the Crescent Moon would not reach his native shores for many a long gay day. As Roger said, being a person was fun.

"M—mm!" Roger sniffed suddenly. "Wonder what Ato's cooking? Smells like taffy. I'll bet a ship's biscuit we're going to have a candy pull."

"A candy pull!" exclaimed Tandy, taking a furious sniff himself. "What is that?" As Roger started in to explain about candy pulls, a large green column shot up on the skyline, a column so surprising and shocking in appearance Tandy felt positively stunned.

"Oh, look! LOOK!" he screamed, grabbing Roger's wing. "There's something now. Oh, Roger, what fun! What terrible fun!"

"Fun?" Roger spun round like a weather cock in a gale. "Fun?" he repeated, stretching out his neck as far as it would go and a few inches besides. "Oh, my best bill and feathers. That's not fun—that's a SEA-Serpent. Help! Help! Deck ahoy! 'Hoy! 'Hoy! Below! King! Captain! Ato! SAMMY! SAMU-EL!" As if calling them not only by their titles but by their names would increase the number of the ship's officers and crew, Roger tugged wildly at Tandy's arm. "Below! Below! All hands below," shrilled the Read Bird. "Cover all ports and batten the hatches!"

Urged on by Roger, Tandy, still more interested than frightened, descended rapidly to the main deck. At Roger's cries, Ato had run out with a pan of bubbling molasses in one hand and his trusty bread knife in the other. Right behind him stood Samuel Salt, his eye pressed to his largest spyglass.

"Well, tar and tarry barrels!" exclaimed the Captain exultantly. "Why, this is a sea serpent second to none, the finest example of a marine ophidian I've ever met in all my voyages!"

"Oh, fiddlesticks!" blustered Ato, shaking him angrily by the arm. "Are you a Captain or a Collector? Quick, now, make up your mind before your ship is crunched down like a cracker and we're all swallowed up with the crumbs. Quick, Sammy! For the love of salt mackerel, DO something!" Squeezing himself between the cook and the Captain, Tandy saw that there were now three immense shiny curves showing above the water, and with scarcely a splash the tremendous monster was moving toward the ship. Then suddenly it was upon them, and its huge horrid unbelievable head came curling far over the bow of the Crescent Moon.

"Avast and belay! Avast and belay, you villain!" yelled Samuel Salt, dropping his spyglass and grasping his blunderbuss while Roger beat his wings together like castanets and screamed like a fire siren.

Tandy, rather frightened himself, and not knowing what else to do, fell flat on his stomach and pulling a pad from his blouse, began making a quick and frantic sketch of the dreadful sea beast. Its body was leagues long and yards through, the head was large as a whole elephant with a long curling silver tongue and darting green fangs. But it was the teeth that made even the stout heart of Ato hammer against his ribs. Each tooth of this singular sea serpent was a live white goblin brandishing a long spear. Leaning far out of the yawning mouth, they screamed, hissed and yelled at the defenseless company below. The next forward thrust of the monster brought its head curling right down among them. This so startled Tandy he could neither move nor scream. Samuel fired his blunderbuss so fast and furiously it sounded like a dozen guns, but it was Ato who really saved the day and his shipmates.

With calm and deadly precision, the ship's cook flung the pan of still bubbling molasses straight into the cavernous mouth. Screaming with surprise, pain and fury, the monster clamped its jaws together, and finding them stuck fast on the taffy, fell writhing back into the sea, dashing and slashing its head under water to ease the burn and setting the Crescent Moon to dancing like a cocklebur. But the taffy, hardened by contact with the cold water, stuck faster than ever, and unable to bite and scarcely able to breathe, the discomfited sea monster backed away from the ship and went slithering and thrashing away toward the skyline.

"Well, there goes our candy pull!" sighed Roger, falling in a limp heap to Ato's shoulder. "Nice work! Nice work, King dear. There's a certain touch about your fighting that is well nigh irresistible."

"Mains'ls and tops'ls! You certainly pulled a trick THAT time!" puffed Samuel Salt, picking up his spyglass to have a last look at his lovely specimen. "You saved us and the ship, that time, Mate. My bullets rattled off its hide like hailstones off a roof."

"Pooh! Just happened to have the taffy handy," answered Ato, looking rather regretfully into the empty pot. "Here, child, run back and tell Kobo everything's all right." The ship's cook pulled Tandy quickly to his feet. "Just listen to her squealing. The poor lass is probably frightened out of her skin." As Tandy started aft on a run, Ato picked up the sketch he had made of the monster. "Ahoy and what's this?" he panted. "What did I tell you, Sammy? Look, the boy's drawn as lively a picture of that varmint as you'd ever hope to paste in a scrap book. Here it is—tail, teeth and everything!"

"Mean to say he drew that while we were all standing here ready to perish and go down with the ship? Hah! That's what I call bravery in action!" exclaimed Samuel. "And goosewing my topsails! If the young lubber can draw like this he'll be a monstrous help to us, Mates. Why, I'll make him cabin boy and Royal Artist of the Expedition with extra rations and pay."

"Hurray! And I'll tell him," puffed Roger, spreading his wings gleefully. "Hi, King! Hi, Tandy! Ho, Tandy! You've been promoted from King to cabin boy and Royal Drawer of Animals and Islands and extry rations and pay!"

Nikobo was as pleased as Tandy at her little charge's rise to favor, and after they had both listened in rapt silence to Roger's news, Tandy told her how Ato had routed the sea serpent. Meanwhile, Roger had carried all the sketches Tandy had made of the Leopard Men and Patrippany Island to the main cabin. Samuel's delight and enthusiasm at having such spirited and authentic records of the lost tribe and strange animals on Patrippany Island knew no bounds. He beamed on Tandy so kindly and approvingly next time they met, the little boy felt warm and jolly all the way down to his heels. Roger had already explained his new duties to him and when Ato sounded the gong for dinner Tandy was the first to answer. But when he started to pass the vegetables and wait on the table, the Captain gruffly pushed him into a chair.

"All equals here," roared Samuel, slapping him affectionately on the shoulder. "You've earned your place and your salt, sonny, and we'll all help ourselves and each other." Tilting back his chair and keeping time with his teacup, Samuel began to sing lustily:

"Blow high—blow low—
'Tis a salt sea life for me—
With a good ship's crew I'll sail the blue
With a good ship going free—eeeh—eeeh!
With a good ship going free!"

Almost before he knew it, Tandy was singing, too.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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