o, whom he had dodged
on the run aft, was ready for him. It wasn't a fight. The lion was
dying, and the rhino simply hastened the job, goring him relentlessly
until the bleeding carcass lay still.

"Then the rhino, flushed with victory, went for the nearest brute, a
wild ass, and soon he had the whole of them--asses and zebras--kicking
the stomach out of him, or into him, perhaps, by the way he bellowed.

"It was funny, in a way, for they were all too quick for him; they
could dodge that plunging beast with his murderous horn, and turn for a
kick before he got by.

"But there was nothing funny about that water in the hold, nor in the
prospective job of stopping the leak, pumping her out, and bending new
canvas, in case we could get that rhinoceros out of the way. He was the
only thing we feared now, for the rest were not really dangerous unless
you got too close.

"We knew the wolf and the hyena would run from a man with a handspike,
and the zebras and asses would run from a man without one. To make
matters worse, darkness closed down. So, lashing ourselves to the
crosstrees, we slept more or less sweetly until daylight.

"When we took stock of things, we knew that all was up with that bark.
Her plank-sheer amidships was awash, and the water rolling in a green
body from starboard to port and back again.

"The crazy elephant stood under the hatch, squealing and trumpeting in
fright. He must have smashed the monkeys' cages during the night, for
the rigging was dotted with chimpanzees, orangs, and the small fellows.
The hyena and the wolf had gained the forecastle-deck, and stood, side
by side, looking aft, with no thought of quarreling in this emergency.

"The sleepy old hippo was lumbering round in the flooded waist as
though he enjoyed his salt-water bath; and the rhino was forward on the
main deck, looking at the water as it washed up to him and receded.
Amidships was a thick, black ring of about two feet diameter, sliding
round in the wash.

"It was the two big snakes, each a sheath for the other, but each dead
as a door-nail; either they had died from the strain, or the water had
drowned them. The zebras and wild asses were also forward, but mostly
out of sight behind the house. Not a cobra could be seen, however, and
the skipper displayed sudden energy.

"'Something must be done,' he said vehemently. 'You men stay here while
I make the attempt to get to the top of the forward house. If I can
make it witho