gone since I had last seen them years before.

We had some mild adventures. The first occurred in Mombasa, and concerns
the strange conduct of two little white dogs that flashed in and out of
our lives.

One day when I returned to my room in the hotel at Mombasa I was
surprised to find that two small dogs had established themselves
therein. The room boy knew nothing about them; the people around the
hotel did not remember having ever seen them before. No clue to their
owner was obtainable, and we regarded their advent as something of a
mild kind of miracle. They played about the room as if they had long
been there. When we went out they were at our heels and in the course of
our wanderings through the old streets of the town the two dogs were
always close at hand, or, rather, close at feet. When I worked in the
room at the hotel they lay on the floor or played near my table and made
no effort to rush away to the many temptations of the warm sunshine
outside. I became much attached to them. Such steadfast devotion from
strange dogs is always flattering.

Then our ship, the _Umzumbi_, South Africa to Bombay, came into the
harbor and anchored a quarter of a mile out from the custom-house dock.
We decided to go out and visit her and accordingly shut the door to
prevent the two little dogs from joining us. Before we reached the dock
they were with us, however, having escaped some way or other. And when
we got into the rowboat to go out they looked appealingly after us from
the dripping steps of the boat landing. We were sorry, but really we
couldn't take them to the ship.

[Drawing: _The Two Dogs of Mombasa_]

Suddenly there was a splash, and one of the little dogs was bravely
swimming after us. He wasn't built for swimming, but he was making a
gallant effort. We stopped and picked him up, a drippy but grateful
little creature. Then we had to row back to get the other one. By much
strategy we succeeded in getting on board the _Umzumbi_ without taking
them with us, but as we were not sailing until the afternoon we stayed
on board only long enough to see that our state-room arrangements were
satisfactory and to meet the chief steward.

On our way back through the town the dogs got lost from us, but when we
reached the room at the hotel they were comfortably installed in the
square of sunshine that streamed through the window. They refused to
break home ties. Several more times that day we executed elaborate
manoeuvers t