Page:Dapples of the Circus (1943).pdf/199

 which is little known, yet it is the most beautiful tribute to the horse ever phrased.

Tom's oldest rider gave a graphic history of the noble horse. Then, amid a hush that was broken only by the sobs of Tom's two drivers, the faithful steed was lowered into the Caribbean, where he sank to his long sleep.

But he was not the only animal to find a watery grave on that memorable trip, for the monkeys began having pneumonia shortly after they left New York, and it was a quiet day when they did not fling one or more of them into the Atlantic.

This opening storm on the night that old Tom died seemed to be a precursor of many stormy, nasty days. Each day they thought the weather would clear, but there finally developed a series of November gales so much feared by seamen. These were occasionally interspersed with Central American hurricanes, which, in spite of all the sailors could do, blew the ships far out of their course.