were going to throw me away like a worn-out spear."

"So you wish to come, Otter?" said Leonard.

"Wish to come!" he answered wonderingly. "Are you not my father and my
mother, and is not the place where you may be my place? Do you know what
I was going to do just now, Baas? I was going to climb to the top of
a tree and watch the Steam-fish till it vanished over the edge of the
world; then I would have taken this rope, which already has served me
well among the People of the Mist, and set it about my throat and hanged
myself there in the tree, for that is the best end for old dogs, Baas."

Leonard turned away to hide the tears which started to his eyes, for
the dwarf's fidelity touched him more than he cared to show. Seeing his
trouble, Juanna took up the talk to cover his confusion.

"I fear that you will find it cold over yonder, Otter," she said. "It is
a land of fog, they tell me, and there are none of your own people, no
wives or Kaffir beer. Also, we may be poor and have to live hardly."

"Of fog I have seen something lately, Shepherdess," answered the dwarf;
"and yet I was happy in the fog, because I was near the Baas. Of hard
living I have seen something also, and still I was happy, because I was
near the Baas. Once I had a wife and beer in plenty, more than a man
could want, and then I was unhappy, because they estranged me from the
Baas, and he knew that I had ceased to be Otter, his servant whom he
trusted, and had become a beast. Therefore, Shepherdess, I would see no
more of wives and beer."

"Otter, you idiot," broke in Leonard brusquely, "you had better stop
talking and get something to eat, for it will be the last meal that you
will wish to see for many a day."

"The Baas is right," replied the dwarf; "moreover, I am hungry, for
sorrow has kept me from food for these two days. Now I will fill myself
full, that I may have something to offer to the Black Water when he
shakes me in his anger."

ENVOI

THE END OF THE ADVENTURE

Six weeks or so had passed when a four-wheeled cab drew up at the door
of 2 Albert Court, London, E.C.

The progress of this vehicle had excited some remark among the more
youthful and lighter-minded denizens of the City, for on its box,
arrayed in an ill-fitting suit of dittoes and a brown hat some sizes to
small for him, sat a most strange object, whose coal-black countenance,
dwarfed frame, and enormous nose and shoulders attracted their ribald
observance.

"Look