time over time. Why, a single glass of beer would give me heartburn and
spoil my next good meal. But he flourishes on it. Look at him! Look at
him!"

And so, knowing his captain's speech, swollen with pride in his own
prowess, Dag Daughtry would continue his ship-work with extra vigour and
punish a seventh quart for the day in advertisement of his remarkable
constitution. It was a queer sort of fame, as queer as some men are; and
Dag Daughtry found in it his justification of existence.

Wherefore he devoted his energy and the soul of him to the maintenance of
his reputation as a six-quart man. That was why he made, in odd moments
of off-duty, turtle-shell combs and hair ornaments for profit, and was
prettily crooked in such a matter as stealing another man's dog. Somebody
had to pay for the six quarts, which, multiplied by thirty, amounted to a
tidy sum in the course of the month; and, since that man was Dag
Daughtry, he found it necessary to pass Michael inboard on the _Makambo_
through a starboard port-hole.

On the beach, that night at Tulagi, vainly wondering what had become of
the whaleboat, Michael had met the squat, thick, hair-grizzled ship's
steward. The friendship between them was established almost instantly,
for Michael, from a merry puppy, had matured into a merry dog. Far
beyond Jerry, was he a sociable good fellow, and this, despite the fact
that he had known very few white men. First, there had been Mister
Haggin, Derby and Bob, of Meringe; next, Captain Kellar and Captain
Kellar's mate of the _Eugenie_; and, finally, Harley Kennan and the
officers of the _Ariel_. Without exception, he had found them all
different, and delightfully different, from the hordes of blacks he had
been taught to despise and to lord it over.