By this time Andy was hobbling up on deck. All of the crowd, including the lanky sailor, surveyed the tiger carefully, but with great respect.
“He certainly was a beauty,” remarked Jack. “And see what a peculiar color.”
“I think the animals are all very fine,” answered Randy. “Perhaps this isn’t an ordinary menagerie ship. Maybe the people in charge were only picking up unusual specimens.”
“What are you going to do—heave that beast overboard?” asked Andy.
“No sense in doing that,” answered Jack, quickly. “We slaughtered one of the sheep to feed the other beasts; now I guess we can skin this and cut up the carcass for more food; and maybe we can even try a tiger steak—that is, if we can get the stove to working,” he went on.
It must be admitted that all of the crowd were rather nervous for the remainder of the night. While one was at the wheel trying to steer the water-logged yacht, another remained on guard at the entrance to the cabin, so that no wild beast might gain admittance.
When day dawned the first work of the boys and the old sailor was to make sure that the other animals and the snakes were well secured. Then the beasts, reptiles and birds were fed, after which, leaving Andy in charge of the wheel and on the lookout for a possible sail, the others went below, to make an effort to shift some of the cargo so that the water-logged steam yacht might ride on more of an even keel.
But they soon found this task almost impossible. The fire was out under the boilers, so that the engine of the yacht could not be started, and consequently they could not use any of the hoisting machinery.
“And we can’t do much with that cargo by hand,” declared Jack. “We’d only break our backs and maybe get our fingers smashed. It would take a gang of heavy laborers several days to make an impression down here.” So the task of shifting the cargo was abandoned.
They looked over the store of provisions and brought up a number of boxes and crates which contained things they thought they might use.