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“In what way rum?”

“I’ll tell you. He’s a dog that sees dangers ahead. He knows when things are going to happen. I had him as a puppy, and when I found I could teach him nothing, I made up my mind to get quit of him. I was going off by train that day to a village fifteen miles away, and I knew a man there who I thought might take a fancy to Zero.”

“Zero, you call him?”

“Yes; that was a bit of my fun. As a performing dog he was just absolutely last–number naught, see? Well, as I was saying, there was I on the platform with the dog at my heel and the ticket in my hand. Just as I was going to get into the train, he made a jump for that ticket, caught it in his mouth and bolted with it, nipping in among a lot of milk-cans. I called him, and he wouldn’t come out. Then I went in after him, and he bolted again. By the time I did get him I had missed my train, and I didn’t give him half a jolly good hiding for it, I don’t think! If I’d gone by that train I shouldn’t have been talking to you now. Collision three miles from the station. Well, you don’t apologise to a dog. All I could do was to keep him. But that wasn’t the only instance. The beggar knows things.”

“Apparently he didn’t know that you were going to drown yourself this morning.”

“If he knew anything about it, he knew that I wasn’t.”

“Good-tempered dog?”

“Oh, all bulldogs are safe! You want to look after him with collies. He doesn’t like ’em. If he gets hold of one, it’s bad for the collie. Otherwise a baby could handle him.”

Zero had crossed over to them, and the young man stooped down and patted him. The dog expressed delight.

“I can send him round to your hotel,” said Smith; “or, for that matter, he’d follow you. He’s taken a fancy to you, he has.”

“Look here,” said the young man, “let me buy him. I’m not a millionaire, but I can afford to buy a dog. I’d like to have this one, and there’s no reason on earth why you should give him to me.”

“You’d like to have him, and I can afford to give him to you, and I want to give him to you. You must let a man indulge his sense of gratitude. It’s only fair.”

“Very well, if you say so. Many thanks. I’ll step over to the Hippodrome and see your show to-night.”

“Do. You’ll be surprised.”

The two men talked for a few moments longer, and then Zero’s new owner said that he must be getting back to lunch.

“You really think the dog will follow me?” he said. “I don’t want to take a lead?”

“I know he’ll follow you. I tell you I know dogs. They take fancies sometimes. You can take that dog out, and if I call him back myself he wouldn’t come.”

“I bet you a sovereign he would.”

“I’ll take that,” said Smith. “You go on with him, and I’ll wait here.”

The young man walked a few yards away with the dog at his heels, and then Smith called the dog back, loudly and insistently. The dog did not give the slightest sign that he had heard anything at all. When his master stood still, he remained standing patiently at his heel, and never once looked back.

The young man laughed as he took out his sovereign-case.

“Queer chap, Zero. Well, you’ve won, Mr Smith. Catch!”

Mr Smith caught the sovereign adroitly, and went back into the stable.

“Yes,” he said to the cleverest of the black poodles, “I don’t know that I wouldn’t sooner he’d taken you.”

It was seldom that Smith addressed any of his dogs, except to give an order. The poodle did not know what to make of it. He whined faintly.