And I 'fixed up,' too!" The Harvester grinned a queer little twist of a grin that pulled and distorted his strained face.

"Might as well have gone with a week's beard, a soiled shirt, and a leer! And I've always been as decent as I knew! What's the reward for clean living anyway, if the girl you love strikes you like that ?" Belshazzar reached across and kissed him.

The Harvester put his arm around the dog.

In the man's disappointment and heart hunger he leaned his head against the beast and said, "I've always got you to love and protect me, anyway, Belshazzar.

Maybe the man who said a dog was a man's best friend was right.