Michael’s Ark

“Launch the small boat, boy!” Wolf commanded. “Moose, Camel, cabin boy – head for shore and find fresh water!”

Moosie was not exactly dying of curiosity to set foot on the unfamiliar shore.

“Maybe there are wild animals there,” he said, “maybe they’ll eat me. Let me stay on the boat!”

“Palaver! And she’s a ship, not a boat!” wheezed Wolf, but looking at Moosie’s droopy horns, he changed his mind. “All right, Antlers, stay on board, keep a sharp eye on the ladder and don’t climb anywhere with those hooves of yours. Batten down the hatches73 and don’t start any fires!”

“Yes, yes!” Moosie said gratefully. “I won’t burn anything. I’ll close everything and not open up for anybody.”

Wolf, Camel and Mike climbed down into the boat and headed for shore. Soon the boat’s bow nosed into the coastal rocks. The voyagers jumped out onto the shore. The air on dry land carried aromas of cliffs in the sunshine, warm grass and other smells that they had never sniffed before. There was no smell of predators in the air.

“We’ll split into two groups!” Wolf ordered. “Boy and camel, you go right, and I’ll go left. If anybody finds water, start yelling, and if you run into any danger, start howling.”

“May I be so bold as to observe, Dreamer said, “that camels do not howl; they generate a sound like…”

Wolf started to get angry, and Mike hastened to calm him down.

“It’s okay,” he said, “I can howl almost like a wolf.”

He crouched down, lifted his face up and let loose a mournful, lingering howl. Camel unconsciously shrunk back to one side, and Wolf chuckled, pleased.

“Well done, boy, you’re making progress! We’ll make a real Sea Wolf out of you yet!”

Camel wanted to ask whether it was mandatory for Sea Wolves to howl so frighteningly, but he thought the better of it. They had to hurry; night was falling, and the shore was getting dark.

The friends split up each their own ways, expecting to find some spring or stream running into the ocean. Mike and Camel moved in silence, stepping around the boulders and avoiding the deep holes on the shore.

“My impression is that the topography74 of the area…” Camel began, but he didn’t manage to finish the sentence. They heard a blood-curdling, wild howl from behind them on the beach.

Mike felt goose bumps break out all over his body, from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet.

“What’s that? Who’s that?” he stammered.

But Dreamer didn’t even wince. He turned his head in the direction of the howl, sniffed the air and said:

“The noise appears to be coming from our most honourable captain. I believe that he is in need of help.”

“Let’s go!” Mike cried, and started running as fast as they could, stumbling and scraping feet and hooves on the rocks.

The howling stopped; it turned into a kind of deep-throated rumble.

“Maybe wild animals attacked Wolf?” Mike said, gasping.

“High-highly unlikely,” Camel managed to get out on the run, “He’s qu-quite inedible.”

They stopped. The howl came from somewhere below, as if it were underground.

“Be careful, my young friend!” Camel said, catching his breath, “it might be some kind of trap!”

He began carefully sniffing the rocks on the shore. Finally, Dreamer stopped.

“Come over here, my young friend,” Camel called to Mike, “mind that you step carefully!”

Mike could see a deep black crevice between the rocks. Hoarse bawling and curses were coming from it.

“It would appear that our captain has fallen into a wolf trap!” Camel stated. “Do you have a torch or matches?”

Mike regretted leaving his torch on the ship. But he had matches, of course, and he had wrapped them twice in a waterproof wrapper to boot.

Mike pulled out the box, crawled up on his stomach to the crevice and lit a match. He saw a narrow hole with sheer walls, and something pacing around and swearing down at the bottom.

“Wolf, Wolf!” Mike called into the darkness of the hole. “Are you alive?”

The grumbling stopped, but then Mike heard the saltiest expressions he’d ever heard from the captain.

“An albatross round me neck and thrash me with a thieves cat75 if I ever go ashore again without a light!”

“Are you okay, Wolf? Mike asked. “Where are you hurt?”

“Right in me pride!” the captain howled. “How can an old Sea Wolf like me fall in this blasted HOLE?”

“Pride is hardly the most serious trauma under such circumstances!” Camel observed. “What’s more, a Sea Wolf is not necessarily well-versed in terrestrial ways.”

The response from the crevice was a more mournful “oooh”.

“Don’t cry, Wolf,” Mike said, “we’ll get you out of there right now!”

“The task at hand is clearly defined,” Camel said, “all that remains is to effectuate its completion. And that is never a simple affair.”

“Dreamer,” Mike begged, “you’re smart! Figure out how we can get Wolf out of the hole!”

“I have been considering this problem for a minute and a half, but all this hue and cry is impeding my thought processes.”

“We’ll keep quiet,” Mike promised, although vouching for Wolf was a somewhat unreliable promise to make under the circumstances.

“We need rope,” Camel said profoundly, “but it’s on the ship. To make the circuit there and back in total darkness is risky. I propose that we make a fire and wait until morning.”

“But what about Wolf?” Mike asked. “Do you mean that he’ll be sitting in that hole all night?”

“That is hardly the most fearful prospect in life, my young friend!” Dreamer said. “In any case, the operation for his extraction should take place in daylight.”

Camel lowered his nose to the ground, sniffed around the area, disappeared and a little while later appeared with a big piece of rotten bark in his teeth. Then he disappeared again and returned with a dried out bramble bush.

Mike pulled his Swiss Army knife from his pocket, cut some kindling, collected it in a pile and carefully lit it with a match. The flame took, and it lit up the shore. The smell of the camp fire filled the air, making things comfortable and pleasant. Camel broke up the rotten bark with his hooves. Mike laid the pieces around the fire so that they would dry out.

The ship’s boat, tied to the rocks, was visible in the light of the fire. Mike dug around in the box in the stern and found their Emergency Supplies there: three cans of potted meat and half a jerry can of water. Mike dragged the items over to the fire.

“I’m sorry, Dreamer,” Mike said, “there’s nothing for you to eat!”

“No matter,” Camel said, “I can go without food and water for over a month. A short fast would only do me good. Better to consider our captain and how to raise his fighting spirit.”

“What can we feed him with? Mike asked.

“You should open a can and throw the meat into the hole,” Camel said.

“But Wolf doesn’t eat meat, he’s a vegetarian,” Mike fretted.

“We shall test that right now,” Camel answered.

Mike went up to the crevice, where hoarse growling could be heard.

“Wolf, ah, how are you doing?” Mike inquired.

“Grrrr! Aah! Grrr!” came from below.

“You’re probably hungry, do you want to eat?” Mike asked.

“Aah! Yeees!” Came the voice from the hold.

“Will you eat meat?”

“Yeeeeesssss!” Wolf howled again.

Mike threw half a can of meat into the hole. A juicy “plop” was heard, followed by hearty munching.

“As I assumed,” Camel pronounced, “the rumours of lupine76 vegetarian tendencies were somewhat exaggerated77. As camel proverbial wisdom would have it, “No matter how much cabbage you feed a wolf, he still wants meat!”

“I don’t think we should tell Moosie about this,” Mike observed.

“I suppose not,” Dreamer agreed.

Chapter 9. Low Tide

The cold woke Mike up; the fire had gone out. A crimson dawn broke over the sea. Dreamer peacefully dreamed on, all four legs tucked up under himself. Mike snuggled against Camel’s warm side and tried to warm up. But he was still cold.

“Dreamer! Dreamer! Wake up!” Mike said, poking Camel in the side, “it’s time to get Wolf out!”

Camel smacked his lips and answered in a calm, peaceful voice, as if he wasn’t asleep at all.

“It is my impression that the weather favours our plans. Return to the ship for a longer rope. And I will check on our captain and inquire into his physical and mental well-being.”

Mike looked toward the sea and was dumbfounded. The sea had disappeared! Instead of the gulf, there stretched a field of dirt, mud and rocks sticking up. Seaweed glistened greenly in between them. Michael’s Ark sat lonely on the bottom, listing slightly to port. The anchor chains sagged limply, and the masts tilted dejectedly.

“Dreamer!” Mike cried. “The sea is gone!”

Camel turned his head back and forth, sniffed the air and thoughtfully pronounced:

“It is my impression, my young friend, that we are experiencing a classic example of a neap tide, which reaches significant proportions in this part of the world. It is surprising, however, that our highly experienced captain failed to take that factor into account78.”

“What kind of tide?” Mike asked. “A leap tide?”

“Neap tide, my young friend,” Dreamer replied. “You are of course familiar with the fact that high and low tides are related to the gravitational pull of the sun and moon. When their effects are combined, unusually strong high and low tides occur, which are called spring and neap tides.”

“I understand,” Mike said, but how will we get out of here now?”

“Seeing as high tide occurred last evening, the water should regain its previous level by evening today. The most important thing is that our ship’s hull should not sustain any puncture by sharp rocks, or else there is a chance that it will remain on the bottom when the tide comes in, just as it did when the tide went out.”

“So we’ll have no tide until this evening?” Mike clarified.

“Quite likely,” Camel responded, “but then, now you can walk out to the ship.”

Mike had no desire whatsoever to walk out over the soggy bottom. He remembered that his daddy told him that in any dilemma there are at least two solutions. And one of them immediately came to his mind.

“Dreamer,” Mike said carefully, “Could you help me?”

Camel raised his left eyebrow and studied Mike.

“How can I help you, my young friend?” Camel asked.

“Are you the ship of the desert?” Mike obliquely suggested.

“That is how our proud tribe is sometimes described!” Camel agreed.

“And the bottom here looks like the desert, doesn’t it?” Mike said.

Camel laid back his ears, chewed his lip and wiggled his brows, grumbling:

“I have laid aside the labours of a beast of burden79 in order to devote my life to intellectual pursuits for some time now.”

“Please carry me to the ship and back, please!” Mike asked.

Camel sighed deeply and dropped to his knees.

“All right, climb on!” he said. “But remember, my young friend, that I am a dromedary, not a Bactrian camel80, so try not to slide down on my head!”

Camel worked his way across the ocean bottom toward the ship. Mike had never ridden on the back of a camel, and it wasn’t comfortable. He laid his stomach on the hump so as not to slide down on Camel’s neck, and he started looking down. The exposed ocean floor was teeming with life. Bug-eyed little crabs swarmed around in the mud and fish swam in the puddles, and on the rocks seagulls were perched, springing up right under Camel’s hooves.

Camel plodded on silently, only grunting when Mike fidgeted on his back.

After five minutes they made it to the ship.

“Let’s check to see if there are any holes in the hull,” Mike suggested.

They walked around the ship. Fortunately, the sea bottom at that spot was fairly even, without any stones. The starboard side was fully visible, but the port side was sunk in sea mud.

“The likelihood of penetration appears to me to be minimal!81” Camel said. “However, my young friend, enough riding on my hump. Climb aboard the ship!”

Mike looked around and noticed that the rope ladder had disappeared. Apparently Moosie had pulled it up.

“Moosie!” Mike called, “let down the ladder for me!”

He waited a bit, but Moosie didn’t appear on deck.

“He’s probably asleep,” Mike thought, pulling a pistol from his pocket and tapping on the hull with the handle.

The sound echoed around the gulf. And then there was silence. Not a rustle or a murmur was heard on the Ark.

“It would appear that our antlered friend has hoofed it!” Camel said.

Mike cried as loud as he could:

“Moose, I know you’re in there! Drop the ladder or else we’re sailing away!”

The clopping of hooves was heard from the depths of the ship. Slipping along the listing deck, Moosie managed with great difficulty to reach the edge and hold on to the railing with his nose. He was terrified. His horns and ears hung at different angles, while the crest on his head was all knotted and twisted. “H-how can you sail away?” Moosie stammered. We can’t sail anywhere! The sea is all dried up, and the boat is gone all sideways.”

“Gone all sideways…” Mike taunted. “Throw down the ladder!”

Moosie looked around, but didn’t go for the ladder.

“Where’s Wolf?” Moosie asked, hiding behind the railing. “Was he the one howling all night on the shore?”

“My antlered friend”, Camel said to Moosie, “May we please postpone this narrative for a more opportune time?82 If you please, help my young friend climb aboard!”

Moosie took the end of the rope ladder in his teeth and threw it over the side. The ladder fell on Mike’s head and painfully whipped his face.

“Moosie! Can’t you watch what you’re doing?” Mike cried.

There was no response, and Mike climbed up.

When he finally was on deck, he saw that Moosie had disappeared again.

“I hurt his feelings!” Mike thought, immediately regretting that he had yelled at his friend.

However, there was no time for apologies. Walking along the listing deck turned out to be very difficult; you could fall down and go over the side at any time. Grabbing on to the railing, Mike got hold of a mooring line, worked it into a circle and hung it around his neck. Going back with the line looped around his neck was even harder. Fortunately, Camel was standing under the rope ladder, just as before.

“Well, Dreamer, shall we go back? You’re not too tired?” Mike tried to cheer up his means of transportation.

“That is of no significance!” Camel dignifiedly observed. “As the great commanders would say, ‘Gaudet patientia duris!’ which in the Latin means ‘Patience rejoices in adversity!’ Let’s be off!”

They were back on the shore next to Wolf’s hole in twenty minutes.

Wolf had recovered somewhat; he didn’t howl any more, he just cursed.

“We’ll get you out now, Wolfie!” Mike cried happily. “We brought a rope.”

“It’s not a rope, it’s a line!83” Wolf growled.

It was time to start the rescue operation. Mike tied one end of the line to Camel, and dropped the other carefully into the crevice.

“Okay, Wolf, wrap the line around you!” Mike cried. “We’ll pull you out now.”

Wolf tied the line around his waist, and then took it in his teeth.

“Okay!” Mike called to Camel. “Pull!”

Camel walked along the shore, moving away from the hole. The line took a strain, but immediately hung up by a rock on the edge of the hole and got stuck. Mike tried to work it loose, but he wasn’t strong enough.

“Halt!” Mike cried. “This won’t work.”

Camel took a step back, and Wolf plopped down on the bottom of the hole.

The friction is preventing any movement,” Camel observed. “We need to somehow enhance the lubricity of the line.”

“What?” Mike asked. “Just tell me simply, what do we have to do?”

“We need to place something slippery, right here,” Camel explained, pointing with his hoof at the edge of the hole, as for example a piece of wood soaked in water.”

“We need to find one.” Mike said.

“That is a reasonable conclusion, my young friend,” said Camel, “but I advise you to be careful. If you should fall into a hole as well, it would be necessary to extract you both, which would significantly complicate the task.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t fall in!” Mike said and went off to search along the shore.

Chapter 10. Buffalo

Mike walked rather far, but he couldn’t find a suitable piece of wood. He had already decided to turn back, when all at once he saw something like a copse84 in the distance, stretching from far away inland to the shoreline. Mike picked up his pace.

It took Mike about ten minutes to reach the copse. He heard water flowing behind the trees. Pushing aside the branches, he saw a stream trickling along the stones and flowing into the sea.

“Fresh water!” Mike thought.

He worked his way through the bushes, jumped across the stones among the sedge85 and got to the edge of the stream. Mike crouched down and scooped up some water in his hands. The water was very tasty and smelled of fresh grass.

Mike turned back to find some piece of wood, made a step and…froze in his tracks.

Some unknown animal with sharp, curved horns stood where Mike was standing a minute before, staring at him with a steady gaze. From a distance, the animal looked like a bull, but his foreparts were covered with thick curly wool, while his hind parts were normal, like a cow.

“Hello,” Mike said cautiously, not expecting anything good to result from the meeting.

The animal said nothing, just flicking its tail.

Mike thought it would be best to run from the beast, but the stream was behind him, and his path to Wolf and Camel was cut off. He had to resort to discussion.

“I’m Mike,” Mike said, loudly and clearly pronouncing each word, “I’m travelling through here. My friend got in trouble, and I’m trying to help him.”

It was hard to know whether the animal understood Mike. He stood silently, just flicking his tufted tail.

Mike carefully moved toward the beast, but the animal dipped his head, pointing his sharp curved horns forward.

“I…” Mike began, but he didn’t manage to finish.

“Do you butt heads?” the animal asked unexpectedly.

“Butt heads?” Mike said, dumbfounded. “I can’t butt heads, I’m not a bull, I’m a boy. My name is Mike.”

“And I’m a buffalo – a bison,” the animal said, “my name is Bruiser.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Mike replied, although so far it hadn’t been much of a pleasure.

“Butting is a pleasure,” said the buffalo Bruiser, “nothing else matters! I’m looking for somebody that I can butt with. Have you met anybody I can butt with?”

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Примечания

1

Pay no attention to your idea

2

Familiar with difficult words

3

Being too friendly when we don’t know each other very well.

4

Make sure everybody likes you

5

Fussy

6

You shouldn’t do it with somebody you don’t know well

7

Means that we think we’re friends

8

It seems too early

9

It makes me happy. 11 Beginning

10

The study of how language is used.

11

The biggest University in Africa

12

With highest honours (Latin)

13

A famous scientist that lived 150 years ago.

14

I still don’t know everybody that lives here.

15

Living

16

Plant-eating

17

aware

18

not worry about because it’s not important

19

assume that it’s true

20

Asleep.

21

Mammalian – related to mammals, animals that feed their young with milk like camels, horses, moose and many others do.

22

Can’t do it.

23

Think about it.

24

Ability to float

25

A little bit of intelligence.

26

“Square rigged’ means that the spars make a right angle with the masts. “Gaff rigged’ means the main sail angles away from the main mast.

27

Where the sails are square shaped, or rectangular shaped.

28

I don’t want to be blamed if there’s a problem.

29

Argument

30

A yardarm is a horizontal pole on a mast that the sail hangs from.

31

Study of the earth, and how to know where you are by looking at the earth or the sky.

32

Tools you use to check the position of the sun, moon and stars.

33

How to maneuver sails on a ship to best use the force of the wind.

34

Little balls with a strong smell that people put in cupboards to keep moths away.

35

The sailors’ name for the devil.

36

Different types of rigging on a ship.

37

A device to pull things up using ropes that can be opened on the side.

38

A big spike used to work lines on a ship.

39

What the wolf likes to eat.

40

Make sure that he doesn’t have to worry.

41

Famous naval battles that took place very many years ago.

42

Wolf confused top French award “Legion of Honor”. But it’s unlikely that he ever got it

43

Wolf doesn’t eat meat.

44

Sailors say that whistling on board ship is bad luck, except when there’s no wind; then you have to whistle to make the wind come up.

45

Like when a black cat crosses your path, or walking under a ladder.

46

Like an animal that preys on other animals.

47

Let it be! I have spoken!

48

A “point” is 1/32 of the distance around a circle. “Port” means left. Turning “two points to port” means turning left 22.5%.

49

A “jib” is a triangular sail that is attached to the bow of a brig.

50

“Starboard” is the right side of the ship, just like “port” is the left side.

51

To steer the ship.

52

Up in the sails.

53

The lines between the sails and the deck.

54

The assistant captain on sailing ships in the old days.

55

A wise comment.

56

The kitchen on a ship.

57

The “mainsail’ is the largest sail. The “mainbrace’ is a big line used to move the mainsail into the wind.

58

The bottom of the sea, where drowned sailors go.

59

A triangle-shaped sail in the front of the ship.

60

Turn around the ship

61

The “boom’ is a mast connected to the bottom of a sail. It can swing around and knock you over if you change course suddenly.

62

A weatherman.

63

We need to do things before something bad happens.

64

Fears.