Anton and Cecil Read Online Free Page B

ship.”
    Billy, the harbormaster’s cat, came shambling up from alongside the gangplank. “Brand-new, she is,” he said, “just out of the yard in Gloucester. She’s called the Mary Anne . You see that figurehead?”
    The brothers regarded the brightly painted figure just under the flying bridge. Two young girls in blue dresses with golden hair and golden shoes held hands and seemed to dance on the air. “That’s Mary and Anne, the owner’s daughters,” Billy said. “He’s a shipbuilder himself and this is the biggest vessel ever built on this side.”
    â€œThis side of what?” Cecil asked.
    â€œThe ocean,” said Billy pompously. “The great sea.”
    Cecil bowed his head and allowed the words to flow over him like a wave breaking over a ship’s prow. He thought of the whale, its wondrous eye rolling up from the receding waters to look at him, so wise, so at ease in his element, the sea.
    â€œThe ocean,” Anton growled. “Even this great monster of a boat is no match for that.”
    â€œCats have gone out; a few come back,” said Billy solemnly. “There’s other lands they say, all sorts of wonders.”

    â€œBut you’ve never gone?” Cecil asked.
    â€œI never leave this harbor. Why would I? This is the best life a cat can find in all the wide world and across all the seas. Those as come back say it’s so.”
    â€œThat’s what Mother says,” Anton agreed.
    â€œWell, she’s right,” said Billy. “Best be off home now. Dangerous out here this time of night, as you boys well know.” He cast them a sidelong look and waddled off, his belly rolling from side to side like a seaman’s hammock in a storm.
    Anton looked up at the soaring masts of the big ship, with its crossbars on all four, the square sails rolled up tight and the dark basket of the crow’s nest brooding atop the mizzenmast. Up and down the gangplank the sailors made their way, bandy-legged and crouched beneath the heavy crates and barrels, all bound, he thought, for where? A place like here? Or a land made entirely of sand? Or one where the humans had fur and swung from the trees? Too frightening even to imagine.
    â€œIt’s a grand ship,” Cecil said. “When I look at a ship like this, I can’t deny I’d like to see where they go.”
    â€œDon’t think about it,” Anton cautioned. “Come and hear the singing and you’ll never want to leave again.”
    Somewhere nearby they heard the snap of a dry twig, or it could have been the crackle of a torch, or the creak of a stacked barrel. Whatever it was, in an instant the brothers vanished, and they didn’t stop running until they reached the town.

CHAPTER 4
    Impressment
    W hy is it, Anton wondered, that when you’ve been to a place you love, and you try to share it with a friend, it’s suddenly a different place?
    Anton slipped into the saloon storeroom quickly, scarcely ruffling his smooth gray fur. Cecil got his big head through the opening but then he was stuck. “It’s fine,” he said. “I can hear quite well from here.”
    â€œBut you can squeeze in if you try,” Anton urged him. “Just push in one shoulder at a time.”
    â€œEasy for you to say; you’re as slim as an eel.”
    â€œJust try. I’m sure you can squeeze in.”
    Cecil pulled his head out, and for a moment, Anton thought he had given up, but then one white paw came through the narrow space, followed by a black shoulder. Then Cecil’s head, pressed tight against the other shoulder, shoved through. “Now you’ve got it,” Anton encouraged him. The back half of Cecil glided in. He sat up, looking dazed.
    â€œI squashed my head,” he said, passing a paw over one ear. “This had better be good.”
    The door was pushed to the wall with a barrel holding it in place so there