sitting-room door, leaving Finn free
to plunge forward into the dark interior, which he did on the
instant. In the next instant he was out again, and pawing at the
opposite door, leading to the bedroom. This, too, was opened for
him, and in another moment he had satisfied himself that neither
room had been occupied by the Master or the Mistress for a
considerable time. This was a grievous blow to Finn, and as he
returned to the little landing between the two rooms, he sniffed
despairingly at the landlady's skirt, and even nuzzled her rough
hand, with a vague feeling that she might be able to produce his
friends. Not that he had any serious purpose in this, however, for
it was strongly borne in upon Finn now that he had lost his friends
for good and all.

"Well, what jer think of 'im?" the landlady asked of her son.

Sam was a tall, loosely built, rather slouching fellow; a typical
young Australian of a certain class; not unintelligent, rather
lazy, given to drawl in his speech, and extremely self-centred. He
had been eyeing Finn all this while with growing interest, and now
he said--

"Is he savage?"

"Wouldn't hurt a sheep," replied the mother. "Wouldn't yer like to
know where I got such a beauty?"

"No kid. He's not yours," said Sam.

"Well, I reckon he could be, if I wanted sech a great elephant. 'Is
Master lodged 'ere these two months an' more, but 'e went off to
the mountins yesterday with his sick Missis. Why, come to think of
it, er course, that's what it is. 'Is Master's sole him, that's
what 'e's done; and that's why 'e was able to pay me, an' the
doctor, an' go off to the mountins yesterday. An' now the bloomin'
dog's run away an' come back to look for 'im; that's what that is,
you can take yer oath."

Sam spat reflectively on the little coloured door-mat. "Well, the
dog's no use to you, mother," he said. "You can't do nothin' with
him."

"I'm not so sure about that, Sam," replied the landlady
thoughtfully. As a matter of fact, the idea of keeping Finn had not
occurred to her for a moment, up till then. But hers was not an
easy life; she was always short of money, and found it extremely
difficult to worm anything out of this big son of hers during his
rare visits to her. In fact, of late she had given up the attempt,
so that his visits represented only an additional expense for her.
"I don' know about that, Sam. I might keep 'im, an' watch out fer
the reward. A dawg like that's worth money."

"T