appened to glance up and there clinging to the curtain pole he saw
a big, black cat staring back at him with wide open yellow eyes. This
was too much for that waiter. He dropped the tray of silver and fled
to the kitchen, but as the swinging door flew open to let him through,
he bumped into the cook, who was in turn fleeing from the ball of
string or worsted that was rolling around his kitchen floor, giving
forth yelps like a dog. The two men clung to each other, their hair
standing straight on end, and their knees knocking together.

[Illustration]

As they stood thus, one of the officers of the dirigible having heard
the racket as the silver fell to the floor, came in the saloon from
the other end to discover what the trouble might be. Just then the
craft gave a lurch which sent the folds of the tablecloth swinging out
so that it disclosed Billy hiding underneath. The officer stared,
wiped his eyes, and then stared some more. At this moment Billy
decided to come out and go through the door the officer was holding
open.

When the officer saw a big, white goat rising from under the table he
was so frightened that his legs shook together and he pulled the door
shut. By this time Billy had up too much speed to slow down, so when
his head hit the door he simply went through it as if it had been made
of paper.

The noise of the splintering door brought the officer to his senses,
and he called for help, but no one heard him. He was about to go to
see where everybody was when the swinging door to the kitchen flew
open and in rolled a yelping ball of string. At the same moment he
spied Button staring down at him. He simply turned and fled to his
berth, where he covered up his head so he could not see things, for he
was fully convinced he was seeing things not of flesh and blood.

When Stubby in his mad rolling came to the door Billy had butted
through, he bounded through the hole as a rubber ball might, and went
bounding down the long narrow passage until he came up against a wall
in a dark closet, as he supposed. But in reality he had rolled through
an open door into the stateroom of the officer who had fled from
Button and Billy, and had Stubby only known it at that very moment he
was under his berth.

While all this had been taking place, the dirigible was fast
descending toward its home hangar and in a few minutes they would be
down to the earth again. And it was a good thing for the Chums that
they were for when B