154 DAHLAK 



rocks. Here they shouted and searched for Gregory. No reply. 

 He had disappeared. His trail, that uninterrupted hopping 

 manner of his which revealed the untrained duckling, had 

 stopped abruptly. Cecco and Gigi tied a wooden board to 

 the snapped string and carved this epitaph on it: Gregory 

 lost S.N.S. (Spedizione Nazionale Subacquea). 



After producing five kittens. Cita the cat exhausted the 

 patience of the crew and they threw her out. Every night a 

 horde of disreputable cats gathered on the wharf at Massawa 

 waiting for the 'white Miss' to finish her sumptuous meal in 

 the ship's kitchen and come out for her evening promenade 

 to distribute her favours. Terrible scuffles often broke out, to 

 the sound of lacerating miaows and hissings that made our 

 hair stand on end. It all ended one night when our Mollo 

 flew into a rage and dropped on the group of wretches with 

 a big stick. The scrags melted into space. But one of the 

 smacks hit the back-end of the cause of the uproar — Cita — 

 and with a piercing howl she rocketed into the tropical night. 

 She was seen once again from a distance, under the escort of 

 four of her Massawan lovers. Just before the expedition left 

 a black boy turned up on the quay and who should be in 

 his arms but Cita. She was issued a pardon. 



Brick, the terrier, is still the good fellow he always was. He 

 probably does not remember a thing about Massawa and 

 the tropics, and he does not seem any the worse for it. 



Gandhi, almost an eagle, lives in the Baschieri's house by 

 the sea. He is still sulky and contemptuous, and keeps 

 strangers at a distance with his formidable beak. In all 

 probability he will finish up in glory — that is, in a cage in 

 the zoo. 



