After some persuasion from Captain Jeb, who declared he could trust matey Dan's navigation now against any wind and tide, Brother Bart consented to Freddy's morning sail with his sturdy chum.

"Sure I know Dan loves laddie better than his own life," said the good old man anxiously, as he watched Neb's ragged sail flitting off with the two young fishermen. "But it's only a boy he is, after all."

"Mebby," said Captain Jeb, briefly. "But thar's boys wuth half a dozen good-sized men, and matey is that kind. You needn't scare about any little chap that ships with him. And what's to hurt him, anyhow, Padre? You've got to let all young critters try their legs and wings."

And Freddy was trying his triumphantly this morning. It was one of Dan's lucky days, and the lines were drawn in again and again, until the college girls' breakfast and many more silvery shiners were fluttering and gasping in old Neb's fish basket. Then Dan proceeded to deliver his wares at neighborly island shores, where summer campers were taking brief holidays. Some of these islands, more sheltered than Killykinick, were fringed with a thick growth of hardy evergreens, hollowed into coves and inlets, where the waves, broken in their wild, free sweep, lapped low-shelving shores and invited gentle adventure.

On one of these pleasant outposts was the college camp; and half a dozen pretty girl graduates, in "middies" and khaki skirts, came down to meet Dan. One of them led a big, tawny dog, who made a sudden break for the boat, nearly overturning Freddy in his leap, and crouching by Dan's side, whining and shivering.

"Oh, he's yours! We said he was yours!" went up the girlish chorus. "Then take him away, please. And don't let him come back; for he howled all night, and nearly set us crazy. Nellie Morris says dogs never howl that way unless somebody is dead or dying; and she left her mother sick, and is almost frantic. Please take him away, and don't ever bring him near us again!"

"But--but he isn't mine at all," replied Dan, staring at the big dog, who, shivering and wretched as he seemed, awoke some vague memory.

"Then whose is he?" asked a pretty spokesman, severely. "He could not have dropped from the clouds, and yours was the only boat that came here yesterday."

"Oh, I know,--I know, Dan!" broke in Freddy, eagerly. "He belongs to that big man who came with us on the steamboat. He had two dogs in leashes, and this is one of them, I know, because I saw his brown spot on his head when I gave him a cracker."

"Mr. Wirt?" Dan's vague memory leaped into vivid light: Mr. John Wirt's big, tawny dog indeed, who perhaps, with some dim dog-sense, remembered Freddy. "I do know him now," said Dan. "He belongs to a gentleman named Wirt--"

"Well, take him where he belongs," interrupted the young lady. "We don't care where it is. We simply can't have him howling here."

"Oh, take him, Dan!" said Freddy. "Let us take him home with us."

"Mr. Wirt must be around somewhere," reflected Dan. "He said perhaps he would come to Killykinick. We'll take him," he agreed cheerfully, as he handed out his basket of fish to the pretty, young campers. "And I think his master will come along to look him up."

And the boys started on their homeward way, with Rex (which was the name on their new companion's collar) seated between them, still restless and quivering, in spite of all Freddy's efforts to make friends.

"He wasn't this way on the boat," said Freddy as, after all his stroking and soothing, Rex only lifted his head and emitted a long, mournful howl. "I went down on the lower deck where the big man had left his dogs, and they played with me fine,--shook paws and wagged their tails and were real nice."

"I guess he knows he is lost and wants to get back to his master," said Dan. "Dogs have a lot of sense generally, so what took him over to that girls' camp puzzles me."

"He didn't like the girls,--did you, Rex?" asked Freddy, as he patted his new friend's nose. "My, he is a beauty,--isn't he, Dan? Just the kind of a dog I'd like to have; and, if nobody comes for him, he will be ours for keeps. Do you think Brother Andrew will let us have him out in the stable at St. Andrew's? Dick Walton kept his rabbits there--"

"Until a weasel came and gobbled them up," laughed Dan, as he steered away from a line of rocks that jutted out like sharp teeth from a low-lying, heavily wooded shore.

"They couldn't gobble Rex,--could they, old fellow!" said Freddy, with another friendly pat.

But, regardless of all these kindly overtures, Rex sprang to his feet, barked in wild excitement for a moment, made a plunge from the boat and struck out for shore.

"Oh, he's gone,--he's gone!" cried Freddy, desperately.

"Rex! Rex!" called Dan. "There's nothing or nobody there. Come back,--come back! Well, he must be a durned fool of a dog to be jumping off at every island he sees.--Rex! Rex!--He'll starve to death if we leave him here."

"Oh, he will,--he will!" said Freddy, wofully. "Come back, Rex, old fellow, nice dog,--come back!"

Freddy whistled and called in vain: Rex had vanished into the thick undergrowth.

"Oh, let's go for him,--let's go for him, Dan!" pleaded Freddy. "Maybe he is after a wild duck or something. We ought not to let a fine dog like that get lost and starve to death. One of the deck hands on the steamboat told me those dogs were worth a hundred dollars a piece, and that they had more sense than some humans."

"Well, he isn't showing it this morning, sure; and he didn't yesterday either," said Dan, gruffly. "He isn't the kind of dog to leave around here for any tramp to pick up, I'll agree; but how are we to haul him back, unless he chooses to come? And I know nothing about this shore, anyhow. Neb told me they called it Last Island, and there was once a light here that the old whalers could see fifty miles out--why, halloo!" Dan paused in his survey of the doubtful situation. "He's coming back!"

"Rex! Rex!" shouted Freddy, gleefully; for it was Rex indeed,--Rex coming through the dense low growth, in long leaps, with quick, sharp barks that were like calls; Rex plunging into the water and swimming with swift strokes to the waiting boat; but Rex refusing absolutely to be pulled aboard. He only splashed and shook himself, scattering a very geyser of salt water............