ief, Zero found that two people--of
whom his master was one--had very little time to talk to him; but he was
not absolutely forgotten.

"What are we to do with Zero while we're away?" asked Richard.

"Could we take him with us?" asked Miss Murray.

"I don't think so," said Richard. "There would be bother at these
foreign hotels; and there's the quarantine to think about."

"Suppose I said that if Zero didn't go, I wouldn't go either?"

"Quite simple. In that case, I should go alone."

And then they both laughed, being somewhat easily pleased at that time.
Zero was offered to Mr Murray temporarily as an election mascot, but Mr
Murray was not taking any risks--one of his principal supporters had a
favourite collie. Finally, it was decided that Zero should pay a visit
to his former master, Smith, until his master returned. He made one
brief appearance at the wedding reception, where his supreme but honest
ugliness conquered the heart of every nice woman present. He refused
champagne, foie-gras sandwiches, and vanilla ices offered to him by the
enthusiastic and indiscreet. However, he managed to find Jane, and Jane
found bread-and-butter until word was brought that a person of the name
of Smith had called for the dog.

"Bit fat, you are," said Smith, as he ripped the white rosette off the
dog's collar. "Been doing yourself too well. Ah, now you're going to
live healthy!"

Smith was as good as his word. Zero was sufficiently and properly fed,
and given plenty of exercise. He mixed with some very aristocratic
canine society, where the sweetness of his temper was much commended and
imposed upon. After two months his master called for him, and Zero once
more behaved like an ecstatic bullock.

"Yes," said Smith, "he's in good condition, as you say. Otherwise, he's
not much changed. He's as big a fool as ever he was. If a toy Pom growls
at him, he runs away; and if a collie tries to get past him alive--well,
it can't. He'd tear the throat out of any man as struck you, and if the
cat next door spits at him he goes and hides in the rhubarb."

"Seen any more of that wonderful instinct of his?"

"No, sir, I have not. But I should have done if there had been any
occasion for it. It's a fact that I never feel so safe as I do when I've
got that dog here. Don't you believe in it yourself, sir?"

"Sometimes I do--Mrs Staines does absolutely. If there's nothing in it,
then there has been the most extraordinary lot of coinciden