upted, it thought, too soon to have done
any good. At last it decided to run along the deck near Claggett
Chew's cabin. From there it hoped to reach the side of the ship
nearest to the _Mirabelle_.

As it slipped from its hiding place and began its run, it realized too
late its mistake, and panic almost overcame it. For a cat had been
crouched behind it and now gave a mighty pounce. One outstretched paw
came down on the mouse's tail, but the mouse wrenched it free and
desperate and panting, dashed into the first opening it saw.

[Illustration]

This proved to be no less than Claggett Chew's cabin, the door of
which had been left open so that Osterbridge Hawsey could watch the
fight with the least possible discomfort. He sat, somnolent, in a
comfortable chair, his long legs stretched out before him, smoking a
clay pipe. His attention wandering, as it so often did, he failed to
see the mouse who ran under his legs into the shadow beneath them.
The frantic mouse now determined, in the seconds left to it for
decision, to attempt a bold move. In a flash--in fact, as a black cat
with angry yellow-slitted eyes put its head around the door jamb--a
jade-green parakeet with red and yellow breast feathers hopped onto
Osterbridge Hawsey's ankle, and with a speed tempered by its most
engaging ways, sidled up Osterbridge Hawsey's outstretched leg.

The yellow-eyed cat made a dash with both clawing paws outstretched to
fall upon the bird, but the parakeet fluttered into the air out of
reach and came down higher up on Osterbridge Hawsey's knee.
Osterbridge, startled from his daydream, shooed away the cat and got
up precipitously enough to give it a kick which sent it miaowling from
the cabin. Osterbridge, vastly pleased to see his green parakeet
again, was wreathed in smiles.

"Ah, now!" he exclaimed, holding out a condescending finger, "Petit
Monsieur back again! How too simply enchanting! Just when poor
Osterbridge was _so_ bored and had no one to talk to! Well, my
pretty--" and both Osterbridge and the parakeet cocked their heads at
one another--"and where have _you_ been, I wonder?"

Osterbridge examined the little bird perched on his finger and his
eyes were thoughtful. "It is true, you have a tiny mark at the side of
your jaw--if parakeets have jaws, my friend. But there is no such
thing as magic. Not the kind of magic whereby a human can be something
else!"

He broke into peals of high laughter. "What a joke if it were