And so, ninety-one people were brought safely to shore in the boatswain’s chair with the rope that Prince Jan had carried, and the baby that had ridden in the mail sack was kissed and hugged by all those who could get near her.

Then Prince Jan followed the captain, the pretty lady, and the man who walked beside her with the baby perched high on his shoulder, and who had his other arm around the waist of the baby’s mother.  A tiny paw reached out of the hamper Captain Smith was carrying, and the dog felt the tap of Hippity-Hop’s paw on his ear.  He turned at the touch and put his nose to the basket, and then he saw Cheepsie, fluttering in the cage that was gripped by the old captain’s other hand.

The little party reached the top of a bluff and turned around to look across the rough waves.  The deserted ship reeled sideways.  Water rose and hid it an instant.  When next they looked, there was nothing but the sky with threatening clouds and the wind-lashed sea.

No one spoke as they went up the pathway of a little house where the pretty lady lived.  The door was opened, they entered, and then the pretty lady knelt suddenly beside Jan and kissed his head.

“God bless you, Prince Jan!” she whispered.

And though the dog did not understand it, he was very happy because he knew they were all glad.

Chapter XIV

A FIRESIDE STORY

That evening, after supper, while Jan dozed in front of the fireplace with its cheerful, glowing logs, and Hippity-Hop curled in a tight ball between his paws, he did not know that the captain was telling how Jan had been brought to the pound, sick from neglect and vicious from abuse, to be killed.

The eyes of the young mother filled with tears, and she glanced from the sleeping dog to a door leading into another room, where her baby was lying, safe and warm.  But when she stooped, suddenly and stroked the dog’s head gently, his eyes opened, his tail thumped the floor, and then Jan went to sleep again, for he was very tired.

And while he took his second nap, the father of the baby explained to the captain that he was the doctor in the little town, and had it not been for Prince Jan, the pretty little mother and her child would never have come back to the home on the bluff, after their visit to friends in California.

“Prince Jan was born in the Hospice,” the old man told them.  “He was only a puppy when Mr. Pixley brought him to California.  To me, it never seemed just right, taking him away from the place where he belonged and where he could have been so useful, and then to treat him so cruelly.  Of course, the Pixleys didn’t know the truth, but that didn’t help poor Jan.”

The doctor turned and knelt down, studying the sleeping dog, then he rose and went back to his chair.