“Oh, bother that old reward!” from Billy. “I don’t want to be shut in out of the air in that stuffy cabin. I want to be out here where I can stretch my legs and breathe good fresh air.”
Just the same, Billy with the others was shut in a stuffy little cabin scarcely large enough to hold them. There the four of them fretted and grumbled and pouted, but to no purpose.
They had been there about two hours when they felt the boat scrape along the side of a dock, and they found their porthole looked out on the wharf side of the boat. Button soon took advantage of his powers of climbing and sat in the porthole, from which place he could look out and tell the others what he saw.
The boat had come to dock right opposite the Eiffel Tower and on that side of the river. By sticking his head out of the hole he could also see the big Hippodrome with its grassy lawn and flower beds and benches for tired pedestrians to rest on.
“Gee!” exclaimed Billy, “but I would like to get out of this and kick my legs on that lawn and eat some of the grass, for I am awfully tired of the food on this boat. It is all right for people, cats and dogs, but rather dry for goats.”
The next morning the Captain appeared at their door and said, “Now, Chums, here is a good breakfast for you, and a drink of water. Awfully sorry to shut you in, but I have to under the circumstances. Ta-ta until night! We are going up into the city to do some shopping, but One-Eyed Dick is going to stay aboard to look after things. Again ta-ta!” and he slammed the door and was gone.
“Drat him!” exclaimed Billy. “I want to go walking in the park!”
The four ate their breakfast in silence, then lay down to sulk the day away, when all of a sudden Button jumped up and climbed into the porthole again.
“Heigho, fellows! The way this boat lies now I can jump from this porthole onto the dock. And if I don’t leap as far as I mean to do, I will only fall back on deck and not go into the river. I am going to try it anyway. So here goes!”