dog.
Several bush dogs he had tried, but they had shown little appreciation of
his kindness and had invariably run away. The last had remained longest
because he had treated it with the greatest kindness, but run away it had
before he had trained it to his purpose. But the white master's dog, he
had heard, was different. It never ran away in fear, while it was said
to be more intelligent than the dogs of Somo.

The invention Lamai had made of tying Jerry with a stick had been noised
abroad in the village, and by a stick, in Nalasu's house, Jerry found
himself again tied. But with a difference. Never once was the blind man
impatient, while he spent hours each day in squatting on his hams and
petting Jerry. Yet, had he not done this, Jerry, who ate his food and
who was growing accustomed to changing his masters, would have accepted
Nalasu for master. Further, it was fairly definite in Jerry's mind,
after the devil devil doctor's tying him and flinging him amongst the
other helpless dogs on the killing-ground, that all mastership of Agno
had ceased. And Jerry, who had never been without a master since his
first days in the world, felt the imperative need of a master.

So it was, when the day came that the stick was untied from him, that
Jerry remained, voluntarily in Nalasu's house. When the old man was
satisfied there would be no running away, he began Jerry's training. By
slow degrees he advanced the training until hours a day were devoted to
it.

First of all Jerry learned a new name for himself, which was Bao, and he
was taught to respond to it from an ever-increasing distance no matter
how softly it was uttered, and Nalasu continued to utter it more softly
until it no longer was a spoken word, but a whisper. Jerry's ears were
keen, but Nalasu's, from long use, were almost as keen.

Further, Jerry's own hearing was trained to still greater acuteness.
Hours at a time, sitting by Nalasu or standing apart from him, he was
taught to catch the slightest sounds or rustlings from the bush. Still
further, he was taught to differentiate between the bush noises and
between the ways he growled warnings to Nalasu. If a rustle took place
that Jerry identified as a pig or a chicken, he did not growl at all. If
he did not identify the noise, he growled fairly softly. But if the
noise were made by a man or boy who moved softly and therefore
suspiciously, Jerry learned to growl loudly; if the noise were loud and
car