set sail. His boat lay out on the azure water, the brown rocks of the coast behind it. There was not a ripple on the sea. There was not a breeze to stir as he took the tug which was to convey him. He was inclined to dip his fingers in the indigo ocean, sure that he would find them blue. He climbed up the ladder alongside of the vessel, was welcomed by the captain, who knew him, and turned to go below, for he had been suffering from an attack of fever which now and then laid hold of him, ever since his campaign in Morocco. 

 Therefore, as he went into his cabin, which he did not leave until the steamer touched Algiers, he failed to see the baggage tender pull up and failed to see a sailor climb to the deck with a wet bedraggled thing in his hand that looked like an old fur cap except that it wriggled and was alive. 

 "This, mon commandant," said the sailor to the captain, "is the pluckiest little beast I ever saw." 

 He dropped a small terrier on the deck, who proceeded to shake himself vigorously and bark with apparent delight. 

 "No sooner had we pushed out from the quay than this little beggar sprang from the pier and began to swim after us. He was so funny that we let him swim for a bit and then we hauled him in. It is evidently a mascot, mon commandant, evidently a sailor dog who has run away to sea." 

 The captain looked with interest at Pitchouné, who engaged himself in making his toilet and biting after a flea or two which had not been drowned. 

 "We sailors," said the man saluting, "would like to keep him for luck, mon commandant." 

 "Take him down then," his superior officer ordered, "and don't let him up among the passengers." 

 * * * * * * * 

 It was a rough voyage. Sabron passed his time saying good-by to France and trying to keep his mind away from the Château d'Esclignac, which persisted in haunting his uneasy slumber. In a blaze of sunlight, Algiers, the white city, shone upon them on the morning of the third day and Sabron tried to take a more cheerful view of a soldier's life and fortunes. 

 He was a soldierly figure and a handsome one as he walked down the gangplank to the shore to be welcomed by fellow officers who were eager to see him, and presently was lost in the little crowd that streamed away from the docks into the white city. 

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