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SHADI.

BY T. A. POWELL.

JUST how Shadi, the monkey, managed to join His Majesty's Ship Circe unobserved we were never able to discover.

about him till the first night at sea.

The First Lieutenant, duly complying with the King's Regulations, was inspecting the mess-decks and flats at 8.30 P.M., preceded by a boatswain's mate piping "attention for the rounds." He had just reached the seamen's mess-deck, when his keen eye noticed that the faces of the men, standing at attention by their mess-tables, bore, one and all, an expression of restrained amusement quite foreign to their usually placid countenances. He paused for a moment inside the watertight bulkhead, and in that moment his cap was gently removed by a small brown hand attached to a skinny arm stretched out over the ventila

The ship had been lying at Colombo, alongside a jetty, and her crew, with the sentimental abandon of their kind, had been buying tortoiseshell boxes, cheap jewellery, and other trash so much admired by their "loved ones far away," from the local bandits who had been allowed on board to trade during the dinner hour. In the ship's company was a certain Able Seaman Sloggett, a man with no female "commitments" at home, who was suffering from a long period of leave stoppage due to misdemeanours ashore. Owing to both the above reasons Sloggett was in a strong financial position trunk above his head.

tion, and it was rumoured that

he had made arrangements with one of the Cingalee traders to smuggle on board in a basket "one monkey complete with collar and lead" for the sum of fifteen rupees.

The transaction must have taken place on the day that the ship left Colombo and started on her 900-mile trip to Bombay, for Shadi (the devil) was not a person to allow his presence to remain unfelt for more than a few hours. The officers certainly knew nothing

Now the First Lieutenant was a brave man under ordinary circumstances, but there is something terrifying to the stoutest of hearts when the supernatural occurs as a man goes upon his lawful occasions. His jaw dropped, and a choked explosive titter went up from the seamen's mess. He looked up and saw Shadi, squatting on his haunches, carefully and with both hands trying on his cap; his face bore that rapt expression, oblivious of her surroundings, to be seen on a woman's countenance when trying on a new hat in front of a mirror. It was greatly to No. 1's credit that he did not give way to a paroxysm of wrath, which in some men always accompanies and, incidentally, adds to a sudden unexpected loss of dignity. He merely grinned and said quietly, "After you with my tile, old chap," then turning to the apologetic petty officer who, not without opposition, had retrieved the cap, he said, "Find out who brought that damned animal on board. I'll look into the case to-morrow."

Since the occasion when the ship's cat, a marvel of productivity, had last justified her existence, mammalian pets had been verboten aboard the Circe. The Captain was a man who liked animals well enough "in their proper place," as he expressed it, the proper place for a cat, in his opinion, being the bottom of a pool with half a brick secured to its neck. He may be excused, therefore, when he expressed resentment, after spending two days ashore at Aden, on discovering seven new-born blind kittens and a proud mamma-cat on his embroidered bed-cover. A few days previously he was paying a visit to the wardroom for his "sundowner," when the chameleon overbalanced in its efforts to secure a cockroach, fell into the electric fan, and was distributed all over the mess. He was thoroughly convinced that a small ship in the tropics is no place for pets, especially

when long voyages have to be made.

Needless to say, at the inquiry next day, none of the crew had the slightest idea who had brought the monkey on board. The Regulating Petty Officer, who thought that he, if anybody, ought to make some suggestion, “surmised as the creature 'ad come aboard on its own, kind of stowaway as it might be," while the rank and file, true to type, very wisely offered no suggestion at all for fear of being tied up under expert cross-examination. The First Lieutenant, in a final hopeless attempt to discover the offender, adopted the policy of Solomon in judgment, and hinted darkly that the monkey was to be destroyed. Sloggett had overheard the remark, but he knew his man, and having witnessed the episode of the cap he felt that the worst No. 1 would do would be to send Shadi ashore at Bombay.

This was all very well; but there were the Captain's orders in black and white, "No animals are to be allowed on board as pets." The matter was discussed in the wardroom; and the doctor, who, to promote argument professed to believe in the transmigration of souls, said that Shadi was probably the spiritual embodiment of the late Maltese messman, whom, facially, he greatly resembled. Officer's steward, first class, Antonio Tabona must, he said, have died of a surfeit of garlic on arrival in his native island, and the monkey had been sent to haunt his late messmates, who had never fully appreciated his good points. In that case there was no question of any one having brought him on board; he had just been evolved out of nothing.

Now the Captain had spent three years off and on in the Persian Gulf, and had a liver like the proverbial Strassburg goose. No. 1 knew full well that the old man was quite unapproachable before eleven o'clock in the forenoon, but after that he was often as docile and sweet-tempered as one could wish. Allowing an extra half-hour for luck, No. 1 went along to the Captain to report the presence of the hated mammal. "Please, sir, I found a monkey on board last night. I don't know how it arrived. I think it must have come in over the brow before the ship shoved off yesterday."

"Found a what?" howled the Captain. "Monkey? Wring its neck: d'you hear what I say?"

No. 1 certainly did, so did the wardroom officers through the bulkhead, and they listened attentively. No. 1, as I said before, was a brave man, and he stood his ground and said, "We'll be in Bombay on Wednesday, sir; could you give me leave to send it ashore then? It's a pity to kill it; besides, I think it's rather a rare kind of monkey."

"Pity be damned," said the Captain. "I don't care if it's as rare as Ben Jonson; I won't

have my ship turned into a blinkin' menagerie for homeless, anthropoid, bally apes. The brute will be having a litter in my bunk like that infernal cat at Aden."

"It can't do that, sir," said No. 1 mildly; "it's a Tommonkey. I'll see that he never comes near the quarter-deck."

The Skipper was a genial man by nature'; besides he had enjoyed a really good bark. So Shadi's life was spared, but he was to be sent ashore at Bombay when the postman landed with the mails.

The next day was Sunday. The Captain was inspecting the seamen's division, pausing here and there to point out a small error in the cut of a jumper or the "sit" of a collar. The left-hand man of the front rank was almost hidden by the man on his right. It was Shadi, rigged in his best "No. 6" suit, correct in every minute detail den anded by the uniform regulations. He stood at attention, and if one could judge by the expression of his sad little phiz, he appreciated the gravity of the occasion, and that his fate hung in the balance. After this there was no question of his leaving the ship at Bombay. The Captain told No. 1 that as long as the monkey behaved properly and didn't disgrace his uniform, he could remain in the ship for the present.

In a small ship like the Circe, fate always provides a man who is specially gifted as an odd-job expert. Such an one

was Able Seaman Sloggett. He conduct badges-blatant em

But

carried out the duties of butcher, lamp - trimmer, painter, sailmaker, and sanitary engineer of that tiny unit of the Navy. When the ship was at sea or anchored at some deserted spot, he performed his varied "chores" with the greatest skill and thoroughness, though his knowledge had all come to him by light of nature. when his ship arrived at a port where general leave was given, the effect on Sloggett was lamentable. Despite the most careful watching on the part of his devoted messmates, he would break away, and in less than an hour he would drink himself into a condition of complete paralysis, to be returned on board by a patrol or a squad of police. His invariable excuse at Captain's petty sessions, "I 'ad a couple of wets, sir, and don't remember no more," was probably a a fairly accurate description of the debauch. Sometimes forty-eight hours would elapse before the "body" arrived on board, but he never missed the ship. His life was spent in long leave-stopped periods punctuated by the most frightful blinds, when the affairs of the ship would gang all a'gley.

When Shadi had become an accepted member of the ship's company, Sloggett constituted himself sea-daddy to the little beast. It was he who made the uniform and cut down a sennethat to fit Shadi's small round head. He even took upon himself to award or remove good

blems of respectability which Sloggett had never been able to achieve for his own arm.

Shadi used to sleep in a wee navy-pattern hammock alongside his daddy. He was always ready to turn in at night, but, with the first grey light of dawn, a small black muzzle would appear over the edge of the canvas, and his twinkling, wideawake, boot-button eyes would search the upper deck for something of interest. He knew that he was not allowed to turn out before the hands; if he attempted to do so, the boatswain's mate would point at him and say sternly, " 'Ere, get back you. 'Oo said you could turn out?" and Shadi, chirruping pettishly, would snuggle down again into the depths of his flea-bag.

Several months had passed, and the old Captain had left the ship. The new officer, though holding extreme views on the subject of wine-bills and brass-work, had so far expressed no opinion, favourable or otherwise, about pets. To Shadi's great joy a gazelle and two wire-haired terrier puppies had been added to the Circe's complement. The ship was up the Persian Gulf, and the heat was intense. In the late afternoon, when the setting sun sank below the edge of the double awning, Shadi would stretch himself and glance over the edge of the wardroom hatchway-cover, where he had been having his siesta. His next move would be to collect the

two puppies, and then go and hunt the gazelle. If that longsuffering beast refused to play, the monkey would jump on his back and pull his ears till he started off. Then would ensue the most delightful chivvy all round the upper deck, the two panting puppies, well in the rear, falling over themselves and squealing with excitement. When the gazelle considered that the pack had taken enough exercise, he would leap on to the after capstan and point his horns at Shadi, who would then round on the puppies and throw them into the sea. The pups enjoyed the whole affair enormously, though, in a tideway, it often meant that the quartermaster had to go away in a skiff to rescue them. They both finished the commission, though how they escaped a violent death was always a mystery to me.

When up the Tigris the Circe generally secured to the Bund with her starboard side open to midstream. Big unwieldy Arab boats would work their way down-river with the stream, and, having unloaded, warp their way slowly back against the current. When they came to any natural hazard, such as a vessel moored to the Bund, they had to pass in the tow and claw their way along with boat-hooks. The Circe was one of the most aggravating obstacles to their passage, and they often used to rest, halfway along her side, after passing a hook rope through one of her eye-bolts. The Arabs

in these boats used to carry out a little mild pilfering through the Circe's scuttles, which were always left open to catch any stray puffs of fresh air which might be blowing about. To guard against this, the quartermaster used to have an ammunition dump of lumps of coal and odd pieces of wood with which to bombard the Arabs should they delay unduly. Shadi was on very bad terms with the Arabs, many of whom had never seen a monkey before, and were convinced that he was the Evil One-hence his name.

After a day or two secured to the Bund, the quartermaster found that he could safely leave the care of the Arab boats to Shadi, though he was almost too attentive to duty. As soon as a boat came within heaving distance the fun started; he didn't confine himself to coal rope's ends, scrapers, boats' crutches, books, in fact anything he could lift would be slung at the wretched boat. He was a very good shot. Once when the officers had just finished breakfast on the upper deck, and before the table was cleared, Shadi was found on the forecastle bombarding a white-bearded old prophet in flowing robes, who was frantically trying to haul clear against a three-knot current. Two cups and a cruet had gone west before Sloggett appeared with collar and chain.

The wardroom messing was of that bully-beef and tinnedvegetable variety which is one

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