“Would you like to see the champion of the recent New York dog show? He is a gentleman. An English bull terrier.”
“There isn’t any such animal aboard,” returned the captain.
“Yes, there is,” replied the doctor. “If you have a few minutes, come with me and I will show him to you.”
The captain followed, incredulous and excited. If there really was a blue ribbon English bull terrier aboard, he wanted to know it. It would never do to risk such a prize with his present mate, the dog hater.
They found Pep waiting for them and straining at his leash. The doctor picked him up that the captain might better admire him. For several seconds he looked him over in silence, then put out his hand and stroked his sleek head.
“He’s a blue ribbon dog sure enough,” he said at last. “I’ll speak to the mate about him. We don’t want him swimming for his life in the Atlantic. That mate is a strange man. There is something wrong about him, but he is a good officer. Pep is to be a regular passenger with all the privileges of the ship, sir.”
Pep became a prime favorite with several of the passengers, once he was permitted to come out of hiding. Although the first mate glowered at him and muttered ominously, he did not dare lay hands on him since the old man had said he was a regular passenger, with all the privileges of the ship.
One little girl in particular, Hilda Converse, the daughter of an importer who was going across in the interests of his firm, fairly worshiped Pep. Hilda had just lost her mother and that was why her father was taking her with him under such dangerous circumstances.
Hilda and Pep were inseparable, once she had found her way to his warm dog heart.
The morning of the fifth day out dawned dark and stormy. The wind had kicked up a great sea and the mighty swells rolled mountain high.