Bruce

ront, it had been stipulated by the Mistress and the Master that if ever h

for the average life of a courierdog on the battle-front was tragically short. And his fate was more than ordinarily certain. If the boche

s reached its limit; and the Blue Cross-"for the relief of dogs and horses injured in the service of the Allies"-was forced to take what it could get. Yet many a

es." Right gallantly, in more than one tight place, had Bruce been of use to the "Here-We-Comes." On his official visits to the

he army would he give the adoring personal loyalty he had left at The Place with the Mistress and the Master. Those two were

-or only occasionally tumultuous-sector, near Chateau-Thierry.

the "White Rabbit" and who now was mentioned in dispatches as the "Crown Prince") had succeeded

s and their rabbit-faced princeling into surrender before the latter could get out of the snare, and to the shelter of the high ground and the reenforcements t

lly hammered Germans. Even the fiercely advancing Franco-Americans, the "Here-We-Comes," had lost th

day, into a smashed farmstead where his friends, the "Here-We-Comes," were bivouacked for the n

e the colonel was busily scribbling a detailed report of th

antly wagging his plumy tail and waiting for the folded me

anced up abstractedly from his writing, at sight of Bruce's silken head at his

the collie wearied of waiting for a caress from a man whose caresses, at best, he did not greatly value. He turned and strolled out of the shed. His message deliv

ust been set up near by. From it arose a blend of smells that were mighty tempting to

in the supper preparations, was Mahan's closest crony, old Sergeant Vivier. The wizened little Frenchman, as a boy, had been in the surr

oop of joy from them would have greeted his advent. This afternoon they merely chirped abstractedly at

the "Here-We-Comes" to turn aside and bivouac for the night had been a sha

all but closed the deal that means fortune to him-at such crises it is maddening to be halted at the very verge of triumph. But to

d too sane to give way to the bursts of temper and the swirls of blasphemy that swayed so many of their comrades.

es in the way of calming and bracing them. Hence, apart f

n the greeting. With the air of an epicure, he sniffed at the contents of one of the kitchen's bubbling kettles.

his head. But on the faces of all of them was unrest and a certain wolfish eagerness, which precluded playing with pets at such a time. The hot zest of t

his men drive the hated graycoats before them that day that he had o

result, when the signal to bivouac for the night was given, the "Here-We-Comes" were something like a mile ahead of th

f the FrancoAmerican line. It was in rebuke for this bit of good progress and bad tactics th

So far had it advanced that, for the moment, it was out of touch with the rest of the division. It was, indeed, in an excellent position to be cut off and demolished by a dashing

ide," loudly grumbled one Yankee private to another as the two clumped up to the kitchen,

there while the rest of us stroll on to Berlin!" snapped Top-Sergeant Mahan, wheeling upon the grumbler

t in his words. And the silenced private knew it. He knew, too, that the t

ring companion. Nor were the rest of Bruce's acquaintances disposed to friendliness. Wherefore, as soon as supper was eaten, the dog returned to his heap of bedding, for

The tired men gladly rolled themselves into their blankets and fell into a dead slee

hus far to-day, he was now evidently going for a walk. And even though it wa

ahan's slightly cupped palm. And the top-sergeant so far abetted the breach of discipline as to give the collie's head a furtive pat. The night was dim, as the moon had not ris

posted a lanky Missourian whom Bruce liked, a man who had a way of discovering in his deep pockets stray bits of food which he had hoarded there for the colli

sourian's vigil. So, when the rest of the party moved along to the next sentry-go, the dog remained. The Missourian was only too glad to have him do so.

d fro at his side. But presently this aimless promenade began to wax uninteresting. And, as the two came to the far

t brown eyes the pendulumlike progress of his friend. And always the dog's plumed

moon butted its lazy way through th

estalled if the wind had been blowing from the other direction, and

d his receding figure, drowsily. At the end of ninety yards or more, the Missourian passed by a bunch of low bushes which grew a

der the glow of the rising moon. The shadow was humpy and squat. Noiseless, it g

wind prevented him from smelling out the nature of the mystery. It also kept his keen hearing

him near enough, by Bruce's system of logic, for the Missourian to have smelled and heard the pursuer. So Bruce got up, in the most leisurely fashion, pr

silence, the two seemed to cling together. Then the Shadow fled, and the

ian, from the moment the stranglingly tight left arm had been thrown around

r him. Dog-instinct told the collie his friend had been done to death. And

d to hate it, even as a dog hates the vague "crushed cucumber" smell of a pitviper. But while every dog dreads the viper-smell as much as he loathes

the body of the kindly man who so lately had petted him; t

an electric change came over him. The softness fled from his eyes, leaving them bloodshot and blazing. His great tawny ruff bristled like an angry cat's. The

long stride deceptively swift. The zest of the man-hunt had obsessed him, as

as flying faster. Despite the murderer's long start, the dog speedily cut down the distance between h

ent. He could catch the pad-pad-pad of running feet. And

r direction. He heard not only the pounding of his prey's heavy-shod feet, but the soft thud of hundreds-perhaps thousands-of other army shoes. And now, des

nd peered in front of him. The moon had risen above the low-lying horiz

arer of glad tidings. And he was even now drawing up to a group of men who awaited eagerly his coming. There must have been fifty men in the group. Behind t

. A bullterrier, or an Airedale, would have charged on at his foe, and wou

rded fold-Bruce came to an abrupt halt, at sight of these reenforcements. He stood irresolute,

ld not have known that a German brigade had been sent to take advantage of the "Here-We-Comes" temporarily isolated position-that three sentries had been killed in silence and t

t a fairytale animal. But what he could and did realize was that a mass of detested Germans was moving toward him, and that he c

ded eerily through that silent place of stealthy moves. And he stepped majest

and tinged his snowy chest with the phosphorous gle

iment, had just finished his three-word report to

is d

. The Corporal was worried. He was a Black Forest peasant; and, while iron m

rve-strain to creep through long grass, like a red Indian, to the murder of a hostile sentinel. And

ich he had crawled to the killing, had suddenly seemed peopled with evil gnomes and goblins, whose existence no true Black Forest peasant can doubt. And, on the run

no creature of any sort. Yet he was sure that on the way back he had been pursued by-by Something! And into his scared memory, as he ran, had flashed

Almost he was inclined to laugh at his fears of the fabled Werewolf-and especially at the idea that he had been pursued. He drew a lon

mysterious threat. And there, not thirty feet from

ion of overstrained nerves and of

its teeth, the ghostly shimmering of its snowy chest. The soul of the man he had slain had taken this traditional form and was hunting down the sl

eet, gripping the officer's booted knees and screeching for protection. The colonel, raging that the surprise attack should be imperiled by such a r

secondary phase-the impulse to strike back at the thing that had caused the fright. Rolling over and over

ivate's rifle and fired three times, blindly, at Bruce. Then, foaming at the

collapsed, in an inert furry heap, among the bushes.

rksman-instinct had guided his bullets. And at such close range there was no missing. Bruce went to

en a chance to wake and to rally, the regiment could not possibly be "rushed," in vivid moonlight, before the nearest Allied forces could move up to its support. And those forces were only a mile or so

In another minute, the sentry-calls would loca

auders was followed by the barking of equally guttural commands. A

squad of Yankees led by Top-Sergeant Mahan, ten minutes later. It was the shudder-accompanied pointing of the de

was left of the great courier-dog. Back to camp, propelled between tw

prisoner's brain. His nerve and his will-power still gone to smash, he babbled eagerly enou

y by a silver bullet, marked with a cross and blessed by a priest. He will live

omes" learned of Bruce's part i

han-the big tears splashing, unnoted, from his own red eyes-besought the Frenchm

body was borne to its resting-place. A throng of men in the gray dawn stood wordless around the grave.

t the grave's brink. Then, looking about h

d over him. I'd have asked the chaplain to read one over Bruce, here, if I hadn't known he'd

t noisily once more, wi

o laugh, if Bruce hadn't done what he did last night. He was only just a dog-with no soul, and with no

d, still doing his wo

he paper or to make the crowd cheer him when he got back home, or to brag to the homefolks about how he w

y or for the fun of doing our share. But Bruce was a hero because he was ju

him. I'll bet a year's pay he was made a lot of by those folks; and that it wrenched 'em to let him go. You could see he'd been brought

mother's son of us knew we was fighting for the Right; and that we was making the world a decenter and safer place for our grandchildren and our womenfolks to live in. We didn't brag about God bei

ched out of his nice home, into all this. He didn't have a chance to say Yes or No. He didn't h

ybe deserted. That's because we're lords of creation and have souls and brains and such. What did Bruce do? He jumped i

'em or a bullet had cracked their backbones. He saw 'em starve to death. He saw 'em one bloody mass of scars and sores. He saw 'em die of pneumonia and mange and every rotten trench disease. And he knew it might be his turn,

even that time the K.O. sent him up the hill for reenforcements at Rache, when every sharpshooter in the boche trenches was laying for him, and when

ber him and what he did and what thousands of other war-dogs have done,-then maybe you'll be men enough to punch the jaw of any guy who gets to saying that

it into the grave, "it's good-by. It's good-by to the clea

cross at the clu

," he continued thickly, "he'

ld Vivier, insanely. "Rega

xcitement. The others craned their necks to see. The

zedly, was lifting h

scalp. "The bullet only creased his skull! It didn't go through! It's just put him out for a few hours, like I've seen it

droning of bees and the promise of harvest. The long shadows of late afternoon stretched lovingly across the lawn,

set walk through the grounds. At sound of their steps on the gravel, a huge dark

he trotted up to his two deities and thrust his muzzle playfully

d on for a ten-mile gallop. Along his forehead was a new-healed bullet-crease. And the fur on his sides had scarcel

es" had done a job worthy of his own high fame! A

his year on the battle-front. He could serve no longer as a d

Bruce," the Master greeted him, as the collie range

within the cover, was pinned a very small and very thin gold medal. But, light as it was, it

the collie. "Listen, while I read you the inscription: 'T

othing to him. But-strong and vivid to his trained nostrils-he scented on the

E