row the dog overboard, sir, yes, sir," the boatswain repeated, but
hesitated.

Dag Daughtry's face hardened unconsciously with the stiffening of his
will to dogged opposition, which, in its own slow quiet way, would go to
any length to have its way. But he answered respectfully enough, his
features, by a shrewd effort, relaxing into a seeming of his customary
good-nature.

"He's a good dog, sir, and an unoffending dog. I can't imagine what
could a-made 'm break loose this way. He must a-had cause, sir--"

"He had," one of the passengers, a coconut planter from the Shortlands,
interjected.

The steward threw him a grateful glance and continued.

"He's a good dog, sir, a most obedient dog, sir--look at the way he
minded me right in the thick of the scrap an' come 'n' lay down. He's
smart as chain-lightnin', sir; do anything I tell him. I'll make him
make friends. See. . . "

Stepping over to the two hysterical terriers, Daughtry called Michael to
him.

"He's all right, savvee, Killeny, he all right," he crooned, at the same
time resting one hand on a terrier and the other on Michael.

The terrier whimpered and backed solidly against Captain Duncan's legs,
but Michael, with a slow bob of tail and unbelligerent ears, advanced to
him, looked up to Steward to make sure, then sniffed his late antagonist,
and even ran out his tongue in a caress to the side of the other's ear.

"See, sir, no bad feelings," Daughtry exulted. "He plays the game, sir.
He's a proper dog, he's a man-dog.--Here, Killeny! The other one. He
all right. Kiss and make up. That's the stuff."

The other fox-terrier, the one with the injured foreleg, endured
Michael's sniff with no more than hysterical growls deep in the throat;
but the flipping out of Michael's tongue was too much. The wounded
terrier exploded in a futile snap at Michael's tongue and nose.

"He all right, Killeny, he all right, sure," Steward warned quickly.

With a bob of his tail in token of understanding, without a shade of
resentment, Michael lifted a paw and with a playful casual stroke, dab-
like, brought its weight on the other's neck and rolled him,
head-downward, over on the deck. Though he snarled wrathily, Michael
turned away composedly and looked up into Steward's face for approval.

A roar of laughter from the passengers greeted the capsizing of the fox-
terrier and the good-natured gravity of Michael. But not alone at this
did they laugh, for at the