The deck grew hotter and hotter, and it was necessary for every one to dance about in order to keep his feet from blistering.
"Holy sufferin" mackerel!" exclaimed Capt. Noah, now realizing the seriousness of the situation. "Are we to be burned at sea?"
"Get the Elephants to squirt water down the hold," suggested Ham.
"Get busy," said Capt. Noah to the Elephants. "Your trunks are nearly as good as hose. Why don"t you help us?"
"What do you say, Ella?" said the Elephant. "If we don"t we may have to swim later."
Without answering, she went forward and commenced drawing up the salt water in her trunk and then sending it in a swift stream down into the hold. The fire, however, was gaining fast, and in spite of the efforts of the Elephants and the crew the danger increased to an alarming extent, and at last the flames leaped forth and crawled over the deck.
The animals howled and rushed to the stern of the Ark, which raised the bow high in the air, and thus added to the danger.
"If it would only rain!" said Mrs. Noah, who sat on a coil of rope, her sealskin coat on her arm and her jewel box in her hand.
"If it would only rain! This can"t be the forty-first day, can it? Time does go so fast."
Well, I guess something terrible would have happened if just then all of a sudden the Weatherc.o.c.k hadn"t seen the Whale, who had landed Mr. Jonah aboard, some two or three chapters ago.
"There"s the Whale!" shouted the Weatherc.o.c.k. "See him spout!"
"Run up a signal of distress!" commanded Capt. Noah. "He might save Mr.
Jonah for old times" sake!"
"If he"d only get up close and spout water over the Ark, he"d put out the fire pretty quick," said Ham.
"Good idea," said Capt. Noah. "Ship ahoy!" yelled Mr. Jonah, waving his red bandanna handkerchief in the air. "Ahoy! Ahoy!"
Then the Whale stopped spouting and made for the Ark.
"He"s coming! He"s coming!" shouted the Weatherc.o.c.k.
"Don"t stop squirting water," said Capt. Noah to the Elephants.
"On with the pail brigade!" screamed Ham. And then the monkeys slid down from the roof and grabbed hold of the pails and threw water down the hold.
But still the cruel flames crept nearer and nearer.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Mrs. Noah. "I"m afraid my sealskin coat will get singed, and after all the trouble I"ve had putting it up in camphor."
And then, all of a sudden, a tremendous stream of water fell upon the Ark, soaking every one to the skin. And soon the deck was a river, and the steam that came out of the hold almost suffocated everybody.
"Goodness me!" screamed Mrs. Noah. "We"ll be swamped!"
"Hold on, there," shouted Capt. Noah, leaning over the side of the Ark, where the Whale lay like a fire patrol boat in action. "Hold on! Turn off the hose, or you"ll drown us!"
So the good-natured Whale shut off the water, while Capt. Noah added: "A Turkish bath has nothing on this!"
"It was awfully kind of you to come to our rescue," said Mrs. Noah, smiling sweetly at the Whale as she leaned over the railing.
"Well, if you hadn"t come just when you did," said Capt. Noah, "I guess we"d all have gone down to Davey Jones" locker."
"Don"t mention it," said the Whale. "Glad to have been able to do you a little favor. You see," he added in a low voice, "Mr. Jonah was never satisfied when he was my guest. He was always complaining about the dampness. So when you came along and I had a chance to put him aboard the Ark I was tickled to death. In fact, I was so glad to get rid of my pa.s.senger that I made up this little poem," and then the Whale began to spout:
"It"s not so very pleasant, when sailing on the sea, To have a pa.s.senger aboard who"s sulky as can be; And that"s the reason, after dark, I landed him aboard the Ark."
And after that he swam away, and the Ark began once more to skim over the dark blue sea. And by and by, after a while, Capt. Noah said:
"We"ll have to make new bunks and berths for the animals, I guess, for the fire has burned up everything."
And, oh, dear me! When he went below he saw that everything was burned to a cinder.
"We"ll have to land somewhere and make repairs," said Mr. Jonah.
"I guess we will," said Capt. Noah, and all the animals began to howl and make dreadful noises, for they didn"t want to go down in the smoky hold, you see.
And just then all of a sudden the Weatherc.o.c.k called out:
"Land to starboard!"
And, sure enough, looming up in the dim distance was a mountainous sh.o.r.e line.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Squirrel came aboard with a bag of nuts.]
REPAIRS
Ahoy, ahoy, Mount Ararat, Now we know where we are at.
Run the Ark up high and dry, Close against the bright blue sky.
"Not a bit of it!" shouted Capt. Noah, looking up at the Weatherc.o.c.k, "I don"t propose to take any chances running up that mountain side. Suppose our motor gave out? We"d be in a nice fix. We"ll run up on the sh.o.r.e and heave to."
The Ark, obeying Capt. Noah"s guiding hand, swept up on the beach and came to a standstill some 200 feet from the water.
"We can cut all the timber we need for repairs now," said j.a.pheth, looking over toward a big forest that lay back from the beach. "The animals, too, can have a nice frolic on the sand. It will do them good after being cooped up on board ship for so long."
And in a short time the Ark was empty and all the animals were having a fine time making castles in the sand and picking up pretty sea sh.e.l.ls.
And after a while Capt. Noah got out his axe and saw, and calling to Mr.
Jonah, and his three boys, started off for the forest, and as soon as he cut down a tree, Mr. Jonah and the three boys sawed it up into logs.
"I guess we have enough now," said Capt. Noah. "Guess we"d better start and split them into planks."
This was not such easy work, but after a while, they had quite a pile of lumber on hand.
"If we only had a wagon to haul the logs to the Ark," said Capt. Noah, wiping his forehead with his red bordered handkerchief.