re was little doubt in his mind, had
the drawer, in the midst of the squall of the previous night, fallen to
the floor, that no _Arangi_ and no soul of the eighty souls on board
would have been left. For the drawer was filled with a heterogeneous
mess of dynamite sticks, boxes of fulminating caps, coils of fuses, lead
sinkers, iron tools, and many boxes of rifle, revolver and pistol
cartridges. He sorted and arranged the varied contents, and with a
screwdriver and a longer screw reattached the button.

In the meantime, Jerry was encountering new adventure not of the
pleasantest. While waiting for Skipper to return, Jerry chanced to see
the wild-dog brazenly lying on deck a dozen feet from his lair in the
trade-boxes. Instantly stiffly crouching, Jerry began to stalk. Success
seemed assured, for the wild-dog, with closed eyes, was apparently
asleep.

And at this moment the mate, two-legging it along the deck from for'ard
in the direction of the bottle stored between the yam sacks, called,
"Jerry," in a remarkably husky voice. Jerry flattened his filbert-shaped
ears and wagged his tail in acknowledgment, but advertised his intention
of continuing to stalk his enemy. And at sound of the mate's voice the
wild-dog flung quick-opened eyes in Jerry's direction and flashed into
his burrow, where he immediately turned around, thrust his head out with
a show of teeth, and snarled triumphant defiance.

Baulked of his quarry by the inconsiderateness of the mate, Jerry trotted
back to the head of the companion to wait for Skipper. But Borckman,
whose brain was well a-crawl by virtue of the many nips, clung to a petty
idea after the fashion of drunken men. Twice again, imperatively, he
called Jerry to him, and twice again, with flattened ears of gentleness
and wagging tail, Jerry good-naturedly expressed his disinclination.
Next, he yearned his head over the coming and into the cabin after
Skipper.

Borckman remembered his first idea and continued to the bottle, which he
generously inverted skyward. But the second idea, petty as it was,
persisted; and, after swaying and mumbling to himself for a time, after
unseeingly making believe to study the crisp fresh breeze that filled the
_Arangi's_ sails and slanted her deck, and, after sillily attempting on
the helmsman to portray eagle-like vigilance in his drink-swimming eyes,
he lurched amidships toward Jerry.

Jerry's first intimation of Borckman's arrival was a cruel and