thing grief and woe very much akin to the grief and woe his
mother, Biddy, had mouthed in the long ago, on the beach of Meringe, when
he had sailed away with Skipper.

For Jerry had learned partings, and beyond all peradventure this was a
parting, though little he dreamed that he would again meet Michael across
the years and across the world, in a fabled valley of far California,
where they would live out their days in the hearts and arms of the
beloved gods.

Michael, his forefeet on the gunwale, barked to him in a puzzled,
questioning sort of way, and Jerry whimpered back incommunicable
understanding. The lady-god pressed his two flanks together
reassuringly, and he turned to her, his cool nose touched questioningly
to her cheek. She gathered his body close against her breast in one
encircling arm, her free hand resting on the rail, half-closed, a pink-
and-white heart of flower, fragrant and seducing. Jerry's nose quested
the way of it. The aperture invited. With snuggling, budging, and
nudging-movements he spread the fingers slightly wider as his nose
penetrated into the sheer delight and loveliness of her hand.

He came to rest, his golden muzzle soft-enfolded to the eyes, and was
very still, all forgetful of the _Ariel_ showing her copper to the sun
under the press of the wind, all forgetful of Michael growing small in
the distance as the whaleboat grew small astern. No less still was
Villa. Both were playing the game, although to her it was new.

As long as he could possibly contain himself, Jerry maintained his
stiffness. And then, his love bursting beyond the control of him, he
gave a sniff--as prodigious a one as he had sniffed into the tunnel of
Skipper's hand in the long ago on the deck of the _Arangi_. And, as
Skipper had relaxed into the laughter of love, so did the lady-god now.
She gurgled gleefully. Her fingers tightened, in a caress that almost
hurt, on Jerry's muzzle. Her other hand and arm crushed him against her
till he gasped. Yet all the while his stump of tail valiantly bobbed
back and forth, and, when released from such blissful contact, his silky
ears flattened back and down as, with first a scarlet slash of tongue to
cheek, he seized her hand between his teeth and dented the soft skin with
a love bite that did not hurt.

And so, for Jerry, vanished Tulagi, its Commissioner's bungalow on top of
the hill, its vessels riding to anchor in the harbour, and Michael, his
full blood-b