Yo! Ho! Hoi:

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22468, 11 July 1936, Page 8 (Supplement)

Yo! Ho! Hoi:

THE wind was getting up and it was very dark. Deep in thought with his tail trailing along the iloor behind, Captain Mouse strode up and down the bridge. His one eye glared fiercely from beneath a gaudy handkerchief tied round his head. Large gold ear-rings swung from his ears, and he wore a faded green suit with tarnished gold embroidery and red sash strung across from shoulder to waist; an elegant sword with hilt studded with rubies hung at his waist. "Cap'en, sir," came a diffident voice from the gloom below the bridge. The captain whirled. "Well?" he snarled. A be whiskered form appeared. Rather a miserable pirate this. One eye looked to starboard and the other to port. Half of his tail was missing. A dirty red sash in which reposed two large pistols was tied round his waist. Standing on one leg while both eyes gazed earnestly in opposite directions, Albert addressed the captain. "Cap'en!" he said in a hoarse whisper, speaking stealthily behind one paw: "The boys is torkin' of mutiny. They say there hasn't been any sport with prisoners walkin' the plank for a long time." "Ho! they does, does they?" sneered the Captain, and savagely chewing his whiskers. "That's my business." Then calming clown again, he thought intently. He certainly didn't want a mutiny aboard his ship just as he was planning to raid a cat fishing fleet. Turning to the other pirate lie said harshly: "Send some of them later and 1 will talk to them. lie off with you." "Yes, sir," quavered Albert, and tripping over a bit of rope, he withdrew in confusion. The Captain leaned over the side of the ship biting his nails and thinking deeply. A small fish showed up for a

moment in the light of the ship. Catching the Captain's eye he pulled a face, rolled a derisive eye, anil then disappeared, while the Captain scowled horribly. There was a lot of subdued muttering going on deep down in the filthy hold where the cat prisoners were kept. Their fishing smack had been wrecked and they had been forced to take to the one remaining boat. Four days they had drifted and the last drop of milk had been drunk when Tompkins had started up and, shading his eyes with a paw, had gazed intently in the direction of the hoizon. Suddenly capering wildly he had yodelled at the top of his voice: "A ship! a ship!" The rest thought Tompkins had gone mad and George, making a grab, had laid him on the floor, and then the rest had sat on him. But a ship it was! Little did they dream it was a pirate, and indeed were in no condition to mind what it was. Albert Mouse had been told off to attend to them and, being goodnatured, was as kind to them as he dared. He had warned them they would have to walk the plank and the cats were plunged in the direst gloom. George, a large tomcat, with paws thrust in his trousers' pockets, was striding to and fro desperately thinking of some plan to capture the ship from the pirates. "Dash my whiskers," suddenly exclaimed Henry, a moth-eaten ginger cat: "I've thought of something. Let's get Albert to bring us a net—there must bo plenty aboard for unloading purposes—and we will thrust it out 011 a pole from the side of the ship under the plank. Then as each one falls off the plank above into the net, the rest can haul him in. Albert won't tell oil us. I've promised him anything he does for us now, will bo rewarded with a certificate to wear round his neck, promising him freedom from being chased by cats for the rest of his life." "That's not a bad idea," said George thoughtfully, as ho absent-mindedly chewed the end of his tail. As soon as Albert arrived with their tea they told him of their scheme. He was a bit dubious about it at first.

By M. E. Kelsey

"The ole" —alluding to the Captain —"will cut my 'ead orf if 1 am found out," he said gloomily. However, they promised him all sorts of good things when they captured the ship and so finally jiersuaded him. Captain Mouse was playing Patience in his cabin when a deputation from the other pirates came requesting that the cat prisoners should be compelled to walk the plank that night. Scowling villainously, the Captain agreed, and an old mouse with greying whiskers was told off to take command and see that it was done. With hoarse cries they rushed to Albert and bade him bring up six of the cats. A large plank was run out from the side, and presently George, Henry, Grandpa, and three others were brought up and blindfolded. Down below in the sea there was a large shark, with a wicked eye, gazing up at the plank. As George tremblingly walked out, the shark opened wide bis mouth. Splash! George had fallen off, and although he was caught in the not below, his weight had brought him to the sea and almost into the shark's mouth. With wonderful presence of mind, George stuck a claw right into the shark's eve. A mighty heave, just in time, and the other cats dragged George to safety through a porthole. With a sob of mingled pain and bitter disappointment, the shark plunged below. When Grandpa's turn came he strutted insolently down the plank, doing a sort of cake-walk as he went. He wasn't going to !et a lot of miserable mice think he was afraid, not he! The pirates celebrated the event in a drunken orgy while George and the others, safely in the ship again, talked hard and long. They finally decided to ask Albert for some swords, pistols and ammunition, and when Albert appeared once more, these he agreed to get for them. When Albert returned laden with pistols, and so on, they stealthily set forth for the upper regions of the ship. Arrived on deck, Henry made a spriug, and climbing to the back of the bridge, stalked the steersman. Bang! wollop! went the butt end of his pistol on the bead of the pirate. With eyes

staring vacantly the pirate wobbled backward and forward once or twice and then slowly subsided to the ground. There was a lively skirmish going on down in the cabin. Snarls, hissing, shrieks and groans rent the air. Grandpa had his paws wrapped round a mouse and was chewing his ear off. What a scene! bits of fur and mangled tails —battered bodies with here and there a stiffening corpse! Soon, it was all up with the pirates. The cats put the mice in their recently vacated dungeon and Grandpa was told off to do the cooking. He was in his clement! Yodelling at the top of his voice and balancing a pot on his head, ho did a hornpipe round the galley. Then the ship's head was turned for home.