y dropped
down the cabin and forecastle companionways, ran out the bowsprit, and
sprang into the rigging till they were perched everywhere in the air like
monstrous birds. In the end, the deck belonged to Jerry, save for the
boat's crew; for he had already learned to differentiate. Captain Van
Horn was hilariously vocal of his praise, calling Jerry to him and giving
him man-thumps of joyful admiration. Next, the captain turned to his
many passengers and orated in _beche_-_de_-_mer_ English.

"Hey! You fella boy! I make 'm big fella talk. This fella dog he
belong along me. One fella boy hurt 'm that fella dog--my word!--me
cross too much along that fella boy. I knock 'm seven bells outa that
fella boy. You take 'm care leg belong you. I take 'm care dog belong
me. Savve?"

And the passengers, still perched in the air, with gleaming black eyes
and with querulerus chirpings one to another, accepted the white man's
law. Even Lerumie, variously lacerated by the barbed wire, did not scowl
nor mutter threats. Instead, and bringing a roar of laughter from his
fellows and a twinkle into the skipper's eyes, he rubbed questing fingers
over his scratches and murmured: "My word! Some big fella dog that
fella!"

It was not that Jerry was unkindly. Like Biddy and Terrence, he was
fierce and unafraid; which attributes were wrapped up in his heredity.
And, like Biddy and Terrence, he delighted in nigger-chasing, which, in
turn, was a matter of training. From his earliest puppyhood he had been
so trained. Niggers were niggers, but white men were gods, and it was
the white-gods who had trained him to chase niggers and keep them in
their proper lesser place in the world. All the world was held in the
hollow of the white man's hands. The niggers--well, had not he seen them
always compelled to remain in their lesser place? Had he not seen them,
on occasion, triced up to the palm-trees of the Meringe compound and
their backs lashed to ribbons by the white-gods? Small wonder that a
high-born Irish terrier, in the arms of love of the white-god, should
look at niggers through white-god's eyes, and act toward niggers in the
way that earned the white-god's reward of praise.

It was a busy day for Jerry. Everything about the _Arangi_ was new and
strange, and so crowded was she that exciting things were continually
happening. He had another encounter with the wild-dog, who treacherously
attacked him in flank from ambuscade