"You can't all have him," said the Third Hand, "so I think I'll take him along with me. I knows a bit about dawgs."
There was instant and clamant disapproval, each one of us urging an unquestionable claim to the guardianship of the orphan Menace. The Steward said he was the only one with the ghost of a right to the dog; had it not always been the Menace's custom to help him wash up the plates and dishes? A Deck Hand, however, protested that as he had eaten one of his mittens the Silent Menace was already in part his property. The Mate and the Second-Engineer nearly came to blows about it.
The question was still unsettled when the warrants arrived. As time was short it was finally decided that whomsoever he should follow was to be adjudged his future owner. We climbed ashore and spread out fanwise, looking back and uttering those noises best calculated to incline the unyielding heart of the Menace towards us. He himself rose from the deck and strolled on to the wharf, where he stood coolly regarding us. Without emotion his Cyclopean orb directed its gaze from one to another till, midway between the Third Hand and the Second-Engineer, it was observed to irradiate a sudden and unaccustomed luminosity.
"Come along then, Menace," wheedled the Second.
"Yoicks, old dawg!" exclaimed the Third Hand, patting his knee encouragingly.
But they had misinterpreted their Menace, for in the middle distance, on a pile of timber directly behind the expectant twain, had appeared the sleek person of a sandy cat which proved to be the attraction. For an instant the Menace stood motionless, his spine bristling and his tail growing stiff; then with a short sharp bark he sprang forward like an arrow from a bow in the direction of the feline objective. We saw a streak of yellow as she fled for safety and life; a cloud of dust, and the Menace and his quarry disappeared from view. Faintly from afar floated an eager yelp, telling that the chase was still in full cry.
"Well, sink me," said the Second-Engineer, "that settles it."
There were trains to be caught, and so, slowly and sadly, we turned away.
Thus did the Silent Menace, with the rest of his shipmates, bid good-bye to the Auxiliary Patrol.