Creamy had spotted the sofa, too, and he liked what he saw: the colour was right; the size was right; even the place by the porthole was right. He sprinted past Lennie and threw himself into the soft leather. The cushions folded around him with a soft sigh.

‘I say, Lennie, you must try this,’ he cried, snuggling down.

‘How can I?’ asked Lennie looking at Creamy's bulk filling the sofa end to end.

‘Sorry?’ mumbled Creamy, his voice muffled by the cushions around his head. ‘You need to speak louder, Lennie. I can't hear you at all!’

Lennie raised his eyes to the ceiling and murmured: ‘Ah, what's the use!’ Then he shrugged his shoulders and sat down where he stood, resting his back against the sofa where Creamy was lying. Happy to have taken the load off his aching foot, he leaned back and closed his eyes.

For a while, the only sound to be heard was Creamy's heavy breathing. Lennie shifted a little on the hard floor, trying to find a comfortable spot. Then he opened his eyes and stretched his paw up, towards a cushion at Creamy's feet.

‘Ah, that'll do nicely,’ he murmured. He was just about to pull it off the sofa, when a sudden blast of the foghorn rolled over the ship again.

‘Oooooooo! Oooooooo! Oooooooo!’

Lennie jerked his paw back and struck his head with it. ‘Goodness me!’ he shouted, ‘I clean forgot! What am I thinking of sitting here! The ship's probably on fire with all that racket going on!’ and holding onto the arm of the sofa for support, he dragged himself up, putting all his weight on his uninjured paw.

‘Come on, Creamy! Let's get out of here!’ he shouted, and reached for the cushion covering Creamy's head.

There was not much of Creamy to see, for he had wriggled deep into the sofa. Lennie leant over the edge of the sofa, and stuck his paw under Creamy's head.

‘Hey, stop it!’ whined Creamy, ‘leave my cushion alone, can't you! Give it back!’

‘But listen…’

‘Not listening to anything till you give me my cushion back - so there!’

‘Oh, all right, all right! Have it back then,’ cried Lennie exasperated. ‘Go on, take it, here it comes!’ and he threw the cushion back at Creamy.