Page:Toilers of the Trails.djvu/74

 Then the Cree, taking the massive head in his arms, whispered the words that had aroused the husky during the day.

"Home!" he said. "Go Home, Loup! Home! Out dere!"

Though the husky trembled with excitement, every nerve alive, the intelligent animal seemed to sense the necessity for silence as the fingers of the Cree closed again on his nostrils.

"Home! Home!" Laroque repeated again and again, whispering the familiar names of his wife and the four-year-old boy with whom the dog had grown up from puppyhood and whom next to his master he loved above all others.

Then he lifted the excited Loup to the rail, while his voice broke in a farewell, "Bojo, Loup! Home!" and sent the dog he loved down into the black waters of the bay.

The heavy body of the husky struck the flat surface with a loud splash. To the eager ears of the Cree, who hung over the rail, peering into the blackness, came a smothered whine of farewell as the dog rose to the surface; then silence.

Aroused by the noise, the sleepy watch gave the alarm. Shots were fired blindly into the mist. Half-wakened sailors tumbled out of the forecastle-hatch; officers hurried forward from the after-cabin. From the bridge the search-light played around the ship against the impenetrable wall of fog. But the dauntless cause of the uproar, swept struggling past the bilges by the strong current, had turned with the tide,