pped and lay quite still; seeming to forget he was there.

"And what then?"

"Nothing, only it keeps on sometimes the rest of that night. They
never mix the three kinds together. Even when they do them all in one
night, they are usually in this order as I am telling you. Sometimes
the baby is still for a few minutes; then it begins again and goes on."

Again she stopped a long time. Suddenly she flung up her hand and
spoke faster:

"No, there's nothing more about that little deserted native baby's cry,
excepting that I've started up in broad daylight afterward, with a cold
panic in my heart that it had really been a baby, a true baby and I had
failed to go and save it. And--the nights, the long nights I have
fastened my weight on Nels' neck to keep him inside of this door!"

She pointed to the opening by her couch.

"Why don't you chain him?"

"He goes on a leash perfectly, but he has never been taught to be
chained up. My husband has never permitted the servants to do it. I
tried it here myself, but he suffers and cries; and that keeps both the
children awake. It would jeopardise Baby's life to force him. On
account of the ceremony which occurred a few hours before her mother
died, the servants believe she belongs to Nels. They claim that he
acknowledges the ownership. I will admit that he behaves like it. She
has often kept him back. He goes from this tent door to her cot
yonder, to look at her. But always he comes back to the door. Some
night my weight will not be sufficient. That is my fear."

"The situation is clear and I think I can manage it, if you will leave
it to me for a night or two. These beasts must be kin to a big snake I
met in the Grass Jungle country. My friend Mr. Cadman shot him. That
was when I found fear--"

At that moment Skag heard the clear, treble tones of a child's voice:

"Nels-s, Nels-s, Nels-s!"

And the veriest fairy thing his eyes had ever looked upon came flying
in the tent door before him. Her head was a halo of gold made of the
finest kind of baby curls. She was unbelievable. She was like a
flame, beside the couch.

"This is Betty, our baby."

The child lifted intensely blue eyes and while Skag smiled into them,
he was without words before the vivid whiteness of her face. She was
sent with her ayah to the back of the tent for her nap. Then Nels came
in.

Skag had never seen such a dog. For size, for proportions, for power,
for dignity, he was