The Black Cat by William Jacobs

4.8

THE PARROT COMES ON BOARD

One day Captain Gibson came back on board his ship with a parrot. The parrot was grey and old and its name was Polly.

“I didn’t want to bring it,” he said to the mate, “but my old uncle asked me to take it to sea. He loves the bird very much and thinks that the sea air will be good for it.”

The mate looked at the parrot. He did not like the bird.

“What is the matter with it?” he asked. “Is the bird ill? Why does your uncle think that the sea air will be good for it?”

“I don’t know, and I did not ask him about it. My uncle is rich and I hope that he will leave me some money when he dies, so the parrot must feel well on board my ship,” said the captain. All the sailors on board the ship talked about the parrot and about the ship’s cat. It was a very big black cat, and its name was Satan. “Old Satan doesn’t like the parrot,” said the cook, “did you see how he looked at that bird?”

“What shall we do now?” asked old Sam, the sailor, who was Satan’s greatest friend. “He will kill the parrot,” said the cook, “you’ll see, he’ll kill it.” The mate’s wife had given the cat to the ship when it was a kitten, and it had grown up on board the ship and became a great friend of all the sailors. “We must watch Satan well and not let him see the parrot,” the sailors said.

THE GREAT FIGHT

For two days everything was all right. The sailors watched the cat and did not let him come even near the Captain’s cabin. But on the third day Satan ran away and got into the cabin. It stayed there only a few minutes but when the Captain came into his cabin soon after that, he shouted in such a voice that made everybody on board the ship jump up.

“Where is that black Satan?” shouted the captain.

“Has anything happened, sir?” asked old Sam.

“Happened! Come into the cabin and see.”

When old Sam came into the cabin, he saw that the mate and another man were already there. They were standing and looking at the parrot which had lost half of its feathers in its fight with the cat.

“Well, what do you think of that?” asked the captain angrily.

“It’s from the food, sir. The parrot’s food was not right,” began Sam.

“Food? What are you talking about?” shouted the captain.

“Bad food, sir,” said Sam again. “You see, if a grey parrot — and it always happens with parrots which have grey feathers, sir — if such a parrot does not get good food it begins to lose its feathers.”

“It is all nonsense,” cried the captain even more angrily, “you know very well that it was Satan that did it, and I shall throw the cat overboard.”

“Oh, no, sir,” cried the mate and another sailor at once, “it could not be the cat. Satan is too kind and good to do such a thing!!!”

“Satan is not even a cat but a kitten, sir,” said Sam, “and you could not throw a poor little kitten overboard.”

“Who asks you to tell me what I could do, and what I couldn’t! Come with me” shouted the captain and ran out of the cabin.

YOU CANNOT KILL A BLACK CAT

When they came on deck, the captain called the cat, but the clever animal understood everything and did not want to come up to him.

“You call it,” said the captain to Sam.

“Oh, no, sir. I shall never do it. I shall not kill a B-L-A-C-K cat, and I shall never help anybody to kill it. It is all right for you, sir. You have read many books and you know so much. You will not believe it, but I knew one man who had killed a B-L-A-C-K cat, and...” here Sam stopped and shut his eyes. “No, sir, I cannot do it.”

The captain did not speak for a moment. He did not want to show to his men that he was superstitious and was afraid of Sam’s words.

He turned to the cook and said, “Well, George, you tie something heavy to the cat and throw it overboard.”

“No, sir, not to the B-L-A-C-K cat. I shall not do it for a bag of gold. I do not want to see ghosts all my life.”

“Ghosts?!” asked the captain.

“Yes, sir. A man who kills a B-L-A-C-K cat sees the ghosts of this cat all his life.”

“The parrot feels much better now,” said the mate. “It has opened one eye.”

“Well,” said the captain, “I do not want to do anything bad to the cat so I shall let it stay on board my ship now. But if the parrot dies, then the cat will go overboard.”

THE COOK’S PLAN

Every day the cook had to bring dinner to the captain’s cabin so the sailors always knew everything about the parrot; and the parrot was getting weaker and weaker. By the time the ship came to London, everybody on board knew that the parrot was dying.

Late in the evening the sailors were sitting and planning what to do with the cat, when the parrot died. Suddenly, the cook, who had gone to the port to buy some bread for the sailors, came in. On his shoulder he carried a big bag. He put the bag on the deck, looked round and asked in a whisper.

“Where is the captain?”

“In his cabin, George.”

“Hush,” said the cook in a whisper and looked round again, “do you know what I have in this bag?”

“Bread,” whispered somebody.

“Bread is nothing,” said the cook, “there is something else in this bag that will help us to save1 the life of our Satan.”

“What is it? What is it?” asked everybody.

“As you know, I had to go to the port to buy some bread,” began the cook. “I had just bought the bread and left the shop when I suddenly saw a big black cat. It was sitting near the door of a house. The cat looked like our Satan, and I thought, “Let the captain throw this black cat overboard, instead of our Satan. So I caught the cat and quickly pushed it into the bag.”

“Good work, George,” said Sam, “but are you sure that your cat looks like Satan?”

“We shall see,” said the cook and pulled the cat out of the bag. Somebody brought Satan and the sailors saw that there was no difference between these two cats.

“Very well,” cried Sam. “I’ll make some holes in the boy’s sea-chest and we shall keep our Satan there.”

The ship left London and was soon on the open sea. The new cat was sitting on the deck and was looking sadly at the sea waves.

“What is the matter with Satan, captain?” asked the mate, who knew the sailors plans. “Do you see how sadly it looks at the sea waves?”

“It will soon be IN the sea waves if the parrot dies,” answered the captain angrily.

THE CAPTAIN SEES A GHOST

Few hours later the captain came out of his cabin with the body of the dead parrot in his hands. The cat, who thought that the dead bird was for its dinner, walked behind the captain. Without a word, the captain threw the dead bird overboard, caught the poor cat and threw it overboard too. The sailors pretended to shout in protest and old Sam said,

“Black cat, black cat. You have killed a black cat, something bad will happen to the ship now.”

The captain did not answer anything and went back to his cabin.

Next day it was raining and a strong cold wind began to blow. The captain came up on deck, looked at the angry sea, and suddenly thought of old Sam’s words.

At that moment Satan, who had run away from the sea-chest, came up on deck and was slowly walking towards the captain.

The sailors who were on deck thought that Satan was lost, but old Sam quickly caught the cat and put it under his coat. The captain heard the mewing of the cat and asked the mate, “Did you hear the mewing of a cat Dick?”

“A cat, sir?” asked the mate.

“Y-yes, I think I have heard a cat.”

“No, sir, I did not hear anything,” said the mate, and at the same moment the cat under Sam’s coat mewed again.

“Do you hear it, Sam,” asked the captain.

“Hear what, sir?” asked Sam who was afraid to turn to the captain.

“Did you hear mewing, Dick?” asked the captain again.

“No, sir, I didn’t. And do you think that you have heard it, sir?”

“Yes, I am sure that I have heard mewing.”

“Well, sir, some sailors say that if somebody kills a black cat on board a ship, the cat may come back again as a ghost. But I don’t believe it, of course,” laughed Dick.

The captain did not answer and went away.

THE GHOST AGAIN

The next day the captain did not hear the mewing of the cat and began to feel better.

“It is all nonsense about the ghosts of black cats,” he thought. But, still, when night came, the captain was very glad that he was not alone on deck and was glad to talk with the sailor on duty.

It was two o’clock at night. The rain stopped, and the moon came out from behind the clouds. Satan, who had run away from the sea-chest again, came up on deck and sat down looking at the moon. Satan mewed.

“Ted,” shouted the captain, “did you mew?”

“Did I what, sir?” asked the sailor.

“Did you mew like a cat?”

“No, sir, I did not.”

The captain did not say anything; he was frightened. He was sadly looking at the moon and thought how sorry he was that he had killed a black cat.

At this moment Satan was slowly coming up to the captain. For the last few days everybody on board the ship tried to keep the poor animal in the dark sea-chest. As the captain never did so, the cat thought that the captain was its friend. Satan came up to the captain and rubbed its back against the captain’s leg.

The captain jumped high up into the air and gave such a shout that Ted thought that somebody was killing him.

“What is the matter, sir?” asked Ted.

“Oh, Ted, you will not believe it but the ghost of the poor cat I had killed came up to me and rubbed its back against my leg.”

“Right or left leg, sir?” asked Ted who always liked to know the details.

“What difference does it make which leg?” shouted the captain.

“Look, look! There is the cat!” he cried. Ted looked up at the cat and said, “I do not see any cat, sir.”

“Of course, only I can see it. It is the ghost of Satan whom I killed two days ago,” said the captain sadly and went away to the mate’s cabin.

In the cabin he woke up the mate and said, "Dick, please go up on deck. I am not quite well and I want to go to bed.”

The captain looked so sad that the mate was sorry for him.

"All right,” said he, "you go to bed and sleep well, and I think you will never see the ghost of that cat again”.

THE END OF THE GHOST

Early next morning the mate went on deck and said to the sailors. "Watch Satan well or I shall throw him overboard.”

That day the weather was very bad; a strong wind was blowing, and the sailors were working hard trying to tie up the cargo to their deck. Suddenly two big boxes broke the strings and slid along the deck. Old Sam picked up one of the boxes, and at the same moment the sea-chest in which the sailors kept Satan turned over. The cat jumped out of it and ran up on deck. Old Sam wanted to catch the animal and dropped the box. The box fell down on Satan’s tail. The cat mewed terribly, the captain turned round and saw a black cat with a box on its tail.

“Sam,” shouted the captain, “do you see anything under the box?”

“No, sir, there is nothing under it,” he answered.

“There is Satan’s ghost and the box has fallen on its tail,” said the captain.

Satan was trying to pull its tail from under the box and was mewing terribly, but the sailors tried to show by their faces that they did not see or hear the cat. At that moment the mate came on deck. When he saw the mewing cat with a big box on its tail, he forgot the sailors’ story about the ghost, and shouted,

“Why doesn’t somebody take the box off this poor cat’s tail?”

“Dick, do you see and hear the cat too?” cried the captain.

“Heavens, anybody could hear the poor cat even from the cabin, I... I...”

The mate looked at the sailors and remembered everything. But it was too late. The captain came up to the cat and took the box off its tail. Then he turned to the sailors, looked at the cook and said, “Well?”

And the cook told him everything.

The captain did not say a word and went away to his cabin. He never touched old Satan again.