ll the time you speak 'm this fella dog, you speak 'm
Killeny Boy. Savvee? Suppose 'm you no savvee, I knock 'm block off
belong you. Killeny Boy, savvee! Killeny Boy. Killeny Boy."

As Kwaque removed his shoes and helped him undress, Daughtry regarded
Michael with sleepy eyes.

"I've got you, laddy," he announced, as he stood up and swayed toward
bed. "I've got your name, an' here's your number--I got that, too: _high-
strung but reasonable_. It fits you like the paper on the wall.

"High-strung but reasonable, that's what you are, Killeny Boy,
high-strung but reasonable," he continued to mumble as Kwaque helped to
roll him into his bunk.

Kwaque returned to his polishing. His lips stammered and halted in the
making of noiseless whispers, as, with corrugated brows of puzzlement, he
addressed the steward:

"Marster, what name stop 'm along that fella dog?"

"Killeny Boy, you kinky-head man-eater, Killeny Boy, Killeny Boy," Dag
Daughtry murmured drowsily. "Kwaque, you black blood-drinker, run n'
fetch 'm one fella bottle stop 'm along icey-chestis."

"No stop 'm, marster," the black quavered, with eyes alert for something
to be thrown at him. "Six fella bottle he finish altogether."

The steward's sole reply was a snore.

The black, with the twisted hand of leprosy and with a barely perceptible
infiltration of the same disease thickening the skin of the forehead
between the eyes, bent over his polishing, and ever his lips moved,
repeating over and over, "Killeny Boy."

CHAPTER V

For a number of days Michael saw only Steward and Kwaque. This was
because he was confined to the steward's stateroom. Nobody else knew
that he was on board, and Dag Daughtry, thoroughly aware that he had
stolen a white man's dog, hoped to keep his presence secret and smuggle
him ashore when the _Makambo_ docked in Sydney.

Quickly the steward learned Michael's pre-eminent teachableness. In the
course of his careful feeding of him, he gave him an occasional chicken
bone. Two lessons, which would scarcely be called lessons, since both of
them occurred within five minutes and each was not over half a minute in
duration, sufficed to teach Michael that only on the floor of the room in
the corner nearest the door could he chew chicken bones. Thereafter,
without prompting, as a matter of course when handed a bone, he carried
it to the corner.

And why not? He had the wit to grasp what Steward desired of him; he h