ot stopping on the lower deck, they went on up until they reached the main saloon deck. It was ever so much wider and nicer than the deck of the cattle ship, and just now it was crowded with passengers who had hastily dressed themselves and had come out on deck to see what was the matter with the ship and its queer actions.
"Oh, there's my goat!" said a boy who was standing at the rail just at the head of the stairway.
It was Frank Brown and, walking up to Billy, he patted him on the neck. A bright faced young man who was with Frank also stooped over and patted Billy.
"Whose goat is this other one?" he asked, turning to pat Billy's mother, who, being jealous like most animals, crowded up to get her share of the attention.
"I don't know," said Frank. "It was picked up from a wreck; but the two goats seem to be very chummy."
Frank was looking along the deck at the long row of excitable passengers, and suddenly he began to laugh.
"I wish we could play some sort of a trick on all these people," he said.
The young man's face lit up with a smile as he gazed at the nervous and worried looking passengers, then all at once he laughed aloud.
"I've got it!" he cried. "Bring your goats and come into my cabin quickly. It's just inside here."
So Billy, willingly enough, was led by the horns into the young man's cabin, and his mother followed after. As soon as they had reached the cabin the young man rang the bell, and when the waiter came to him the young man gave him a check and sent him after a trunk which was soon brought up. Opening it, the young man took out an enormous dragon's head made of papier maché and painted in bright colors. It was a fierce looking head and almost filled the trunk. It had a great, double row of gleaming white teeth, red lips, a red tongue that worked out and in, immense saucer-like eyes and winged ears, while a "scary" looking spine started from the top of its nose and arched high over its neck. The balance of the trunk was filled with a long, thin, sack-like arrangement which was painted green and red and yellow, and which was to represent the dragon's body.