With a bound Clif reached the spot whence the sound seemed to come. He grasped the knob of a small trap-door in the wooden lining of the hull, and gave a quick wrench.
Something fluttered out and fell to the floor with a flapping of wings.
It was a parrot!
“Ha! ha! ha!”
“Ho! ho! This is rich!”
“Ha! ha! If I d-don’t stop laughing I’ll die!” gasped Clif. “Fancy being—ha! ha!—fooled by a pet parrot.”
The four boys were rolling upon the floor in an ecstasy of mirth. And over in the corner, eying them solemnly, was the parrot.
The poor bird was thin and its feathers hung down in a bedraggled manner. It looked as if it had undergone a siege with a cage full of monkeys.
“He! he!” it suddenly cackled. “Povre Juanito! Tengo sed. Ach, du lieber! Sacre!”
Clif moistened several sea biscuit in water and fed the starved bird. Then the boys enjoyed another fit of laughing and went on deck.