During the ten days which elapsed between the collision and the moment when the “Pilgrim” arrived in sight of the shipwrecked vessel the five blacks were sustained by some food which they had found in the office of the landing-place.  But, not being able to penetrate into the steward’s room, which the water entirely covered, they had had no spirits to quench their thirst, and they had suffered cruelly, the water casks fastened to the deck having been stove in by the collision.  Since the night before, Tom and his companions, tortured by thirst, had become unconscious.

Such was the recital which Tom gave, in a few words, to Captain Hull.  There was no reason to doubt the veracity of the old black.  His companions confirmed all that he had said; besides, the facts pleaded for the poor men.

Another living being, saved on the wreck, would doubtless have spoken with the same sincerity if it had been gifted with speech.

It was that dog, that the sight of Negoro seemed to affect in such a disagreeable manner.  There was in that some truly inexplicable antipathy.

Dingo—­that was the name of the dog—­belonged to that race of mastiffs which is peculiar to New Holland.  It was not in Australia, however, that the captain of the “Waldeck” had found it.  Two years before Dingo, wandering half dead of hunger, had been met on the western coast of Africa, near the mouth of the Congo.  The captain of the “Waldeck” had picked up this fine animal, who, being not very sociable, seemed to be always regretting some old master, from whom he had been violently separated, and whom it would be impossible to find again in that desert country.  S. V.—­those two letters engraved on his collar—­were all that linked this animal to a past, whose mystery one would seek in vain to solve.

Dingo, a magnificent and robust beast, larger than the dogs of the Pyrenees, was then a superb specimen of the New Holland variety of mastiffs.  When it stood up, throwing its head back, it equaled the height of a man.  Its agility—­its muscular strength, would be sufficient for one of those animals which without hesitation attack jaguars and panthers, and do not fear to face a bear.  Its long tail of thick hair, well stocked and stiff like a lion’s tail, its general hue dark fawn-color, was only varied at the nose by some whitish streaks.  This animal, under the influence of anger, might become formidable, and it will be understood that Negoro was not satisfied with the reception given him by this vigorous specimen of the canine race.

Meanwhile, Dingo, if it was not sociable, was not bad.  It seemed rather to be sad.  An observation which had been made by old Tom on board the “Waldeck” was that this dog did not seem to like blacks.  It did not seek to harm them, but certainly it shunned them.  May be, on that African coast where it wandered, it had suffered some bad treatment from the natives.  So, though Tom and his companions were honest men, Dingo was never drawn toward them.  During the ten days that the shipwrecked dog had passed on the “Waldeck,” it had kept at a distance, feeding itself, they knew not how, but having also suffered cruelly from thirst.