only critter aboard he
seemed to cotton to. Nothin' was too good for the dog, and the only
way I got Bill to sign on was by agreeing to take the Newfoundland
along.

"Well, we got around the Horn much as us'al. Windjammers all have
their troubles there. And then, not far from the western end o' the
Straits we got into a belt of light airs--short, gusty winds that blew
every which way. It kept the men in the tops most of the time. Some
of 'em vowed they was goin' to swing their hammocks up there.

"Come one o' those days, with the old _Sally_ just loafin' along,"
pursued Cap'n Amazon, sucking hard on his pipe, "when I spied a flicker
o' wind comin', and the mate he sent the men gallopin' up the shrouds.
I'd forgot the dog. So had Nigger Bill, I reckon.

"Bill was one o' the best topmen aboard. He was up there at work
before the dog woke up and started ki-yi-ing. He bayed Bill like a
beagle hound at the foot of a coon tree. Then, jumping, he caught the
lower shrouds with his forepaws.

"The new slant of the wind struck us at the same moment. The old
_Sally S._ heeled to larboard and that Newfoundland was jerked over the
rail."

"The poor thing!" Louise cried.

"You'd ha' thought so. I wouldn't have felt no worse if one of the men
had gone over. Owner's business, or not, I sung out to the second to
get his boat out and I kicked off my shoes, grabbed a life-ring, and
jumped myself."

"You! Uncle Amazon?" gasped his niece.

"Yep. The mate had the deck and I was the only man free. There wasn't
much of a sea runnin', anyway. No pertic'lar danger. That is, not
commonly.

"But the minute I come up to the surface and rose breast-high, dashin'
the water out o' my eyes so's to look around for the dog, I seen I'd
been a leetle mite too previous, as the feller said. I hadn't taken
into consideration one pertic'lar chance--like the feller't married one
o' twins an' then couldn't tell which from t'other.

"I see Snowball the dog, all right; but headin' for him like a streak
o' greased lightin' was the triandicular fin of a shark. I'd forgot
all about those fellers; and we hadn't see one for weeks, anyway. In
warmer waters than them the _Sally S. Stern_ was then in, the sharks
will come right up and stand with their noses out o' the sea begging
like a dog for scraps. They'd bark, if they knew how, by gravy!

"Well," went on Cap'n Amazon while Louise listened spellbound, "that
dog Snowball was in a ba