“This fight never would have happened if that lazy yellow cat of ours had done his duty and caught that rat.”
“But if he had, none of us would ever have witnessed the most desperate bloody battle any of us ever saw between a cat and a rat.”
“I wonder to whom these animals belong and when they came on board,” mused the Captain’s wife.
“They must have come on board the night we forgot and left the gangplank out,” said the Captain.
“That is just when it must have happened,” agreed the sailors.
“They probably belong to some one person as they are all together, and I should judge from their appearance that they are very valuable. See,” said the Captain’s wife, “they all have medals around their necks, and one dog wears a Red Cross badge sewed on his body.”
The Captain stooped down in front of Billy and began to read what was on his badge.
“Wife, come here! Come here!” he called in excited tones. “What do you think I find engraved on this badge? This goat is the celebrated Billy Whiskers, the Mascot of the —th New York Regiment!”
“You don’t mean it? Not the goat that the big reward is offered for? You don’t mean that, do you?”
“Yes, I do! The very same!”