Part 4

Billy sniffed at the two big cables at a point where they were very near together. They had a peculiar odor and Billy tasted them. He scarcely knew whether he liked the taste or not, but he kept on nibbling to find out, nipping and tearing with his sharp teeth until he had got down to the big copper wire on both cables; then he decided that he did not care very much for that kind of food and walked away. It was not yet dark enough for the dynamo to be started, or Billy might have had a shock that would have killed him.

Hunting further, he found over in a dark corner a nice bed which belonged to the engineer, and it looked so inviting that Billy curled up there for a sleep. When he awoke it was nearly midnight and there was a blaze of light in the basement. There was a strange whir of machinery and he could hear anxious voices. Billy, of course, did not know that he had been the cause of it but this is what had happened:

When the electric current passes through a wire, the wire becomes slightly heated and stretches a little bit. In stretching, the two cables where he had chewed them bare, came near enough together to touch each other once in a while, and that made the lights all over the big building wink, that is, almost go out for a second, and the engineer was very much worried about it.

What interested Billy more, however, was a small, wire-screened room that stood near to him. Presently a big cage, brightly lighted, came down in it with a man and a boy. It stopped when it got down into the basement, when the man and the boy stepped out, going down into the engineer's room. They were the proprietor of the hotel and his elevator boy. Billy, as curious as any boy could have been, walked into the little cage to see what it was like. The sides of it were padded with leather, there were mirrors in it that made it a place of light, and there was a seat at the back end of it. At the front side near the door a big cable passed up through it, and to this the boy who ran it had left hanging a leather pad with which he gripped the cable. Billy could barely reach it with his teeth and he pulled sharply on it. It would not come away so he hung his weight on it, and immediately the cage began to go up. Billy was in an elevator and he was taking a ride all by himself. It never stopped until it reached the top floor where a safety catch caught it. Luckily the door on the top floor had not been carefully closed, and Billy was able to slide it open with his horns and walk out into a narrow hall which had a thick velvet carpet upon it and from which opened many doors and other halls.

Billy trotted along this hallway, liking the soft feel of the carpet underneath his feet. As he did so, all the lights about the building went out and everything was dark. The cables in the cellar had at last settled down so that they lay square across each other where Billy had chewed the covering off, thus making all the electric current which ran out of the machine on the one side come right back into it on the other, with the result of burning out the dynamo so that there could be no more lights from it that night. This did not worry Billy any. Light came in from the street at the far end of the hall where some white lace curtains fluttered in the breeze. It worried a great many people who were still awake in their rooms, however, and of course they opened their doors to see about it.

By this time Billy had reached the curtains and took a nibble at one of them, and, found that it was finished with the same starch, the taste of which he had liked so much in the laundry. He wanted it down where he could get a good bunch of it in his mouth, so he pulled hard, raising up on his hind feet and throwing his weight upon it. The curtain gave way at the top but it was not so convenient as he had expected, for the long, wide curtain came right down over his back. He tried to get out from under it and his horns ran through the open work. He tried to turn round and his hind feet ran through other open work places. He tried to back out of it and his forefeet got tangled in some more of it. The more he tried to get loose from his starched meal, the more tangled up he got, and at last, growing angry, he began to jump as high in the air as he could.

In the half darkness, he was a great white figure with a long trailing white robe behind him, and the first woman he met in the hall screamed like a steam calliope. Of course her screams brought others out into the hall and everybody, even the men, began to run when they saw this jumping white ghost coming toward them, every once in a while letting out a loud "baah!" Many ladies were so frightened that when they came to their doors, instead of running into their rooms, they started down the hall ahead of Billy, shrieking and screaming at the top of their voices.

The noise only confused Billy the more. The more confused he grew, the harder he jumped and struggled to get out of the curtain, until at the very end of the hall, he came to a stairway and went down it head over heels to the next floor.

Here things were even worse than they had been on the top floor, for by this time the hubbub above them had brought everybody out of their rooms, and the crowd was already there. As soon as Billy scampered to his feet after his tumble and made another jump high into the air, they too began running and screaming.

Billy now had gotten into a series of halls that ran the whole length of the building and had a stairway at each end, so now he jumped and struggled his way along until he came to a stairway, tumbled down it, jumped back through another hall full of screaming people to another stairway, and so on until he reached the ground floor. Here the stairway opened into the great, marble-paved, main corridor of the hotel. This was just now thronged with men, all wanting to know why the lights were out and what all the uproar was about. Through these men Billy dashed like a hurricane, having now torn the curtains enough to let his legs have some action. One big fellow whom he upset fell on the long trailing end of the curtain, and the shock nearly tore Billy's horns loose from his head, but the curtain pulled in two and at last Billy was free except for a few stray shreds and small pieces that still clung to his legs and horns.

Now he could see where he was going, and, darting out of the side door, he ran back to where he remembered the cellar steps into the porter's room to be. The door was wide open and inside he found his friend, the porter, with a lantern, looking for him. The porter saw at once from the shreds of curtain that Billy had been into mischief again, but as before, he was afraid to say anything about it for fear somebody would find out that he had left the door of the store-room open, so he simply took the shreds of lace curtain off of Billy to carry away with him, and fixed Billy's bed nicely for the night.

"Bet you came from the Bad Place sure, goat-beast," said the porter, shaking his head.

*CHAPTER VI*

*A CELEBRATION WITH FIREWORKS*

The next morning, bright and early, the porter came down to Billy's room with a queer looking box made of heavy slats. One side of the box was off and the porter carried it in his hand. Setting the box down with the open side towards Billy, the porter put an extra bunch of carrots in it, and Billy, never having seen anything like this before, walked right in and began to eat his breakfast, upon which the porter quickly slapped on the side of the box and nailed it tight. Billy did not realize that he was trapped until the porter and another man whom he called lifted the box and began to carry it up the stairs. Then Billy was angry in earnest. He jumped and jerked as much as he could and nearly threw the men down-stairs by his bouncing. As soon as they got up on the level ground, however, the porter and the other man began to shake the crate as hard as they could, so that, in place of Billy doing the bouncing, he was being bounced until he had plenty of it and was glad to lie down on the floor of the crate and hold still, while he was being carried to a big dray that stood in waiting.

While it was being loaded on the dray, Mr. Brown and Frank came out in the courtyard to see him.

"Isn't he a beauty, papa?" said Frank. "And he behaves himself so nicely, too. I've been down to see him every other day and he's just as nice and quiet as he can be."

"I don't know," said his father, shaking his head. "I don't believe that a goat able to stir up as much trouble as he did back in the village where we bought him will be anything but a scamp goat to the end of his days. I'm really sorry that I bought him. It's going to cost a lot of money, too, to send him by express from here to Havre and to pay his passage over to America. I have a big notion to turn him loose."

When Billy heard that he was frightened, and, turning his solemn eyes around to Mr. Brown, he "baahed" as pitifully as he could.

"Just hear that, papa," said Frank, "he wants to go with us. He likes us."

"Oh, very well," said Mr. Brown. "But come, we must hurry up. We have only a few minutes to make our train."

As soon as Mr. Brown and Frank had walked away, the driver of the wagon cracked his whip, the horses started up, and Billy was rapidly taken to the depot. Here he was loaded into an express car, and in a few moments more was headed toward France at as swift a pace as the engine could pull the train. The express messenger in the car, as soon as his work was done, lit a short black pipe and commenced teasing Billy. Reaching his hand between the slats, he suddenly poked Billy in the ribs, and Billy, already nervous from the rapid motion, jumped straight up off his forefeet. Of course his horns hit the top of the box and pained him. The man laughed at the funny motion and poked the goat again. This time, Billy, afraid to jump up, merely danced, and the man laughed aloud. Again and again he repeated his trick until the goat was nearly frantic. Billy tried to burst out the side of his cage so that he could get at the man, but the crate was too stout for him to do it any damage and he only hurt himself by trying, so after a while he gave it up.

At the next stop they made, however, the express agent, while he was taking on the parcels, slammed a heavy box on top of the crate. Billy heard the timbers crack and felt the box giving end-wise a trifle. For a moment he was afraid that the heavy box would break down his crate and squeeze him flat underneath it, but as soon as the train had started again the messenger moved the box into the far end of the car and Billy was delighted to find that at last the boards on one side of his prison were loosened. The messenger had laid aside his glowing pipe at this stop, but now he took it up again, although smoking was against the rules, and came over to tease Billy. He had no more than thrust his hand through than Billy lurched his body sideways as hard as he could against the boards, and out he tumbled.

He was on his feet as quick as a cat and made a jump at the man. The express agent dodged him and ran to the far end of the car, hunting wildly for something with which he might strike the angry goat. Billy was up to him before he had time to find anything, however, and chased him from one end of the car to the other. At last the man stopped in front of the big box that he had taken on at the last station, and waited for Billy to jump for him. When Billy jumped, he sprang aside and let the goat plunge head first into the side of the box, breaking open one of the boards and hurting his head considerably. By this time the man was at the other end of the car and laughing. Billy ran after him again, but this time he knew the man's ways. When he started to dodge back from the other end of the car, Billy also turned like a flash and was right after him. This time he got him and gave him a bump that sent the man sprawling headlong on the floor. As the man went down, his arm gave a jerk and his lighted pipe went through the hole that Billy had butted in the big box.

The man was just scrambling to his feet when a big, blue ball of fire shot out of the side of the box and scooted along his back. Billy had wheeled to give the man another dose of his medicine, but just then a big ball of red fire hit him in the side and he, too, tried to hunt a corner. The box was full of fireworks that was being shipped for a lawn fete, and for the next few minutes there was the most exciting time that ever happened inside of an express car going at full speed.

Skyrockets and Roman candles, whistling bombs and silver fountains, flower-pots and pin-wheels filled the air, spitting and spluttering, popping about from one end of the car to the other, bouncing first off of the man and then off the goat. No place was safe. The side of the box was soon burst open by the force of the explosions, and the fireworks came tumbling out at greater speed than ever.

Both Billy and the express agent were hit until they were bruised and burned and sore all over. Billy had a great deal of his hair singed off and the express agent's face was as black as a coal-miner's. The smoke became so thick that they could scarcely see, and it smarted and blinded their eyes until the express agent thought to open the side doors when the rapidly rushing wind swept in and carried away most of the smoke.

Luckily the car did not catch fire, though some of the goods that were being expressed did. The agent had a pail of drinking water in the car and as soon as the fireworks were nearly burned out he ran around from one place to another using his water sparingly and beating out the fire wherever he could.

Billy, too, seemed to know that burning things were dangerous, for when a bundle of rugs began to smoulder he jumped on the burning places and stamped them with his feet until the fire was beaten out. The express agent saw him at this and he at once forgot his anger at the goat. Billy went scampering around after that, stamping out fire wherever he could find a coal. After all danger was passed and the express man had tidied up his car, he sat down puffing and looked at Billy.

"Well, Mr. Goat," said he, "we've had a busy time of it and I guess we'd better be friends. Don't you tell on me and I won't tell on you. I don't want to let anybody know that I was smoking a pipe anyhow. It's against the rules of the company."

"Baah!" said Billy, and that's all the talk they had about it. After that they had no further trouble except that the express agent tried to coax Billy back into his crate, but had to give it up as a bad job.

It was night when the train bearing Billy Mischief drew into Paris. Billy could not be coaxed or driven back into his cage, so, when the train stopped, the express messenger had another man come in to help him. Between them they managed, after a hard struggle, to get Billy in the crate, but as they were trying to fasten the lid on he burst out of it, jumped out of the car door, ran as hard as he could and soon was safe from pursuit and alone in the streets of Paris.

With a natural instinct to hide from the men who wanted to put him in that close, uncomfortable box, he turned into the alley-ways and dark, narrow streets and for a long time ran on without meeting anyone. But this sort of thing was not very much to Billy's liking. He wanted to see all the excitement that there was, so by-and-by he turned into one of the broad, brilliantly lighted streets, where he trotted along sedately, minding his own business and looking around him curiously at the gayly dressed throngs. A great many people turned round to look after him and laugh, he trotted along so solemnly.

All this time there was great excitement at the railroad station. Mr. Brown had left word that his goat was to be held until the next night's train to Havre as he intended to spend a day in Paris, but the express department had no goat to hold, so the matter was reported to the police department, and within a few moments all the red-trousered gendarmes of Paris were looking for a mischievous white goat with freshly singed spots on his shiny coat.

One of these gendarmes, soon after he had received his instructions, found Billy and a big stray Tom cat eyeing each other with every intention of immediate war. Billy had never spoken to a cat before and so when he saw this strange animal on the street he walked straight up to it and said "baah!" He intended to mean something like our "Good evening. It's pleasant weather, isn't it?" but Billy's voice at best was not a very gentle one and his long horns looked threatening, so the big cat arched his back and bristled his hair and stuck his tail straight up. Billy did not know much about cats but he could easily see that this one meant fight, so he shook his head angrily. They were standing in front of one of the pleasant Paris sidewalk cafes and a great many ladies and gentlemen were seated at little round tables under the broad awning.

Just as the gendarme recognized Billy by his singed coat, the cat let out an ear-splitting "meow!" and, jumping up, scratched Billy's face with the sharp claws of both his forefeet; then it sprang up on one of the empty tables and down on the other side. Billy, smarting with the pain, jumped after him, upsetting the chairs on the other side with a crash. The express department had offered a good reward to whoever should find Billy, so the gendarme took after the goat, overturning some more chairs. The cat darted here and there and everywhere among the little round tables and Billy right after him. The cat ran under a table at which were sitting two gentlemen and two ladies, and Billy, now so angry that he did not notice where he was going, forced his way right after him, upsetting the table, spilling the glasses and bottles upon it into the laps of the ladies and making a tremendous noise. Table after table they overturned in this way.

Another gendarme, attracted by the hubbub, came up and saw Billy. He, too, gave chase, adding to the confusion. Everybody began to shove back their chairs. All of the people were either talking or laughing or screaming at the top of their voices. Waiters came running, and one of them, a little excitable man with a funny little black mustache, tried to head Billy off. All he got for it was a good bump right in the middle of his big white apron and he landed back against another waiter who was bringing a big tray full of glasses. The two of them went to the floor together in a noisy pile of tables and chairs, and Billy dashed right on over them. This time, the cat, which was bewildered by the crowd and had scarcely known which way to run, found an opening to the street. Having a clear track, he would easily have gotten away from Billy except that just at that moment a third gendarme saw the cat and the goat coming and jumped square in the road of them.

The cat had tried to dart around him but the gendarme's legs came right in his road, so the cat began to climb the gendarme, and Billy, coming up just then, made a dive head first at the cat, catching it just as the animal reached the gendarme's lower vest button. The gendarme sat right down with a grunt to think things over, while the cat sprang for the top of a high fence and was over with a whisk of his tail. Billy could not climb the fence so he ran back a piece and tried to butt it down, but he could not do it. By this time the gendarme he had knocked down was on his feet again, and two others came running up.

There were now five of the red-trousered little police soldiers after him, and things began to look very lively for Billy. They tried to surround him but he ran through them, and all five of them chased after him up the street. At nearly every block they were joined by another gendarme, so that before he had gone very far Billy was heading quite an army of French soldiers. To escape he turned down a dark street. They were digging a wide ditch across this dark street and the lights they had placed there as danger signals had been taken away by some mischievous boys. Billy, who could see well in the dark, perceived this ditch as he came to it and leaped lightly over it, but the excited gendarmes who were following him could not see it, and the whole crowd of them fell headlong in the ditch, which, fortunately, was not yet deep enough to hurt them much.

Billy turned now into another well-lighted street. Here again he found a gendarme who, as soon as he saw and recognized Billy, started out to stop him. He went like a streak between this fellow's legs. Now he began to wonder why all of these little fellows in the red trousers were such enemies of his, and when, at the end of the block, he saw three of them standing in a row, he got angry. Shaking his head, he determined to give the big one in the middle the hardest bump he had ever given to anyone in his life. Lowering his head and shaking it, he went on as if he had been shot out of a cannon, and, as he drew near, gave a mighty jump and butted the big gendarme right in the stomach.

Alas for Billy! In place of the soft human figure that he thought he was butting, it turned out that the gendarme in the middle was printed in glowing colors on paper and pasted against a solid brick wall, as an advertisement for a play then performing at one of the theatres. The two gendarmes who had happened to stand alongside of it were real, however, so when Billy dropped back stunned from his hard jolt the two real gendarmes promptly arrested him, and it was a very sick and sorry goat that was shortly afterwards returned to the Express Department to be held for the Havre train.

*CHAPTER VII*

*BILLY FINDS HIS MOTHER*

Poor Billy, forced back into his crate and nailed up again, began to think he did not like traveling very well. So far he had been in two cities and so far he had seen neither one of them by daylight, while everywhere he went he got hurt. All that night and all the next day, he moped in his crate with a sore head. On the following night he was bundled into an express car, and giving up in despair, lay down and went to sleep.

When he awoke it was daylight and he was being taken off the train in Havre where the Browns were to take the boat for Cherbourg and then for America. This was the first time that Frank had seen Billy since they left Bern and when he and Mr. Brown walked up to the crate after it had been taken off the train, Frank's heart was filled with pity. There were raw places on Billy's head, his fine shiny coat had the black marks of fire on it, and altogether he was as woe-begone and miserable a looking goat as ever was seen. Of course the Browns did not know anything of the adventures that Billy had been through, but Frank was a boy who did not like to see animals suffer and he was very angry.

"Just see, papa," he cried, "how they have abused my poor goat, shut up in that tight crate all this time! I'm sure he's not so bad a goat as you thought. He has been imposed upon. Please let me take him out of that crate and lead him by a rope. I know that he will come along nicely."

Billy "baahed" gratefully at this, and with some reluctance Mr. Brown allowed the goat to be taken out of the crate, let Frank secure a rope and tie him on behind the carriage which was to take them to their steamer.