And Michael, spilling over with unused vitality from the cramped space of the _Eugenie's_ deck, scampered down the beach in a hurly-burly of joy, scenting a thousand intimate land-scents as he ran, and describing a jerky and eccentric course as he made short dashes and good-natured snaps at the coconut crabs that scuttled across his path to the safety of the water or reared up and menaced him with formidable claws and a spluttering and foaming of the shell-lids of their mouths.
The beach was only so long.

The end of it reached where rose the rugged wall of a headland, and while the Commissioner introduced Captain Kellar to Mr.and Mrs.Kennan, Michael came tearing back across the wet-hard sand.

So interested was he in everything that he failed to notice the small rear-end portion of Jerry that was visible above the level surface of the beach.

Jerry's ears had given him warning, and, the precise instant that he backed hurriedly up and out of the hole, Michael collided with him.

As Jerry was rolled, and as Michael fell clear over him, both erupted into ferocious snarls and growls.