Fritz danced and shouted but couldn't pry the baby monkey from his shoulders.
"Stand still," I said. "You're only upsetting him."
I pulled out a biscuit and offered a piece to the monkey, who was no bigger than a kitten.
Finally after some coaxing, I was able to take the monkey into my own arms.
"What a cute little fellow he is!" exclaimed Fritz.
"Do let me keep him, Father. I'll call him Knips."
The monkey settled himself on Fritz's shoulder—calmly this time—and I helped to carry Fritz's sugarcane.
But Knips soon scrambled into Fritz's arms, which were already full.
"Come, Turk!" Fritz called, and the dog came quickly to his side.
"Now I need you to be a good dog."
Fritz seated Knips on Turk's back and secured the monkey with a cord.
Then he put a second cord around Turk's neck so he could lead the dog.
At first neither animal was pleased with this arrangement, but they soon got used to it.
We made our way back to camp, where my wife was preparing supper.
"A monkey! A monkey!" cried Franz as he spied the new pet.
"Where did you find him?" asked Ernest.
"Why are you carrying a bundle of sticks?
What are those strange nuts?" said Jack as he caught sight of the sugarcane and coconuts.
Over our meal we answered all their questions.
Although Fritz tried to feed Knips, the monkey was not interested in our meal of fish and cheese.
But I persuaded Knips to suck liquid from a handkerchief that had been dipped in a coconut.
The next morning I decided that Fritz and I should return to the wreck.
Since the ship was meant to supply a colony, there were still many useful things onboard.
I wanted to retrieve them before a storm damaged the wreck, and I wanted to check on the animals.
Fritz insisted on taking Knips along.
When we boarded the ship, the animals seemed glad to see us.
We checked that they had enough food and then began examining the contents of the ship.
We loaded some food and supplies onto our tub boat, but I kept thinking about the animals.
"Fritz, I'm beginning to feel sorry for these poor creatures.
I wish there were some way we could get them all ashore."
"We could make a raft and take one or two at a time," he suggested.
"It's easy enough to say 'make a raft,' but it's quite another thing to actually make one," I pointed out.
"Well, I can't think of anything else." Fritz frowned.
"Unless we make them life preservers like we made for ourselves."
"That's a good idea!" I exclaimed.
Fritz started to laugh.
"Really, my boy, I'm not joking.
We could probably get all the animals ashore that way."
So I found a fat sheep and began to put our plan into action.
First I fastened a wide piece of linen around its belly.
Next I attached some corks and empty tins to the linen.
Then, with Fritz's help, I dropped the animal into the sea.
It sank! But a moment later, it rose to the surface and floated perfectly.
"Hurrah!" exclaimed Fritz. "We'll make life preservers for all the animals!"
We then quickly caught the other animals and provided them with similar devices.
The cow and the donkey gave us more trouble than the others because we needed something more buoyant than cork to help them float.
But at last we found some empty casks and fastened two to each animal.
The whole herd was now ready to start, and the donkey was the first to be launched.
After some maneuvering, we got him into a good position, and then heaved him into the water.
Like the sheep, he sank but immediately surfaced again.
The cow, sheep, and goats followed him, one after another, until only the pig remained.
But she seemed determined not to leave the ship.
She kicked and squealed so violently that I really thought we would have to abandon her.
Finally after much trouble, we succeeded in launching her.
We had fastened a rope to the neck or horns of each animal.
Ready to embark, we gathered up the ropes.
Then we set sail, pulling our herd behind us.
Delighted with the success of our plan, we got out some biscuits for lunch.
While Fritz amused himself with Knips, I took out my telescope.
I was trying to see what our loved ones were doing onshore when Fritz suddenly shouted.
"Shark!" he cried.
A huge shark was headed straight for one of our finest sheep.