rowled Dale worriedly; "and one of these days a bullet will
find its way into that splendid carcass of his. He's been shot at, a
thousand times, to my own knowledge. And all I ask is a chance, with a
rifle-butt, at the skull of the Hun who downs him!"

"Downs Bruce?" queried Vivier in fine scorn. "The boche he is no borned
who can do it. Bruce has what you call it, in Ainglish, the 'charm
life.' He go safe, where other caniche be pepper-potted full of holes.
I've watch heem. I know."

Unscathed by the several shots that whined past him, Bruce came to a
halt at the edge of a traverse. There he stood, wagging his plume of a
tail in grave friendliness, while a score of khaki-clad arms reached up
to lift him bodily into the trench.

A sergeant unfastened the message from the dog's collar and posted off
to the colonel with it.

The message was similar to one which had been telephoned to each of the
supporting bodies, to right and to left of the Here-We-Comes. It bade
the colonel prepare to withdraw his command from the front trenches at
nightfall, and to move back on the main force behind the hill-crest.
The front trenches were not important; and they were far too lightly
manned to resist a mass attack. Wherefore the drawing-in and
consolidating of the whole outflung line.

Bruce, his work done now, had leisure to respond to the countless
offers of hospitality that encompassed him. One man brought him a slice
of cold broiled bacon. Another spread pork-grease over a bit of bread
and proffered it. A third unearthed from some sacredly guarded
hiding-place an excessively stale half-inch square of sweet chocolate.

Had the dog so chosen, he might then and there have eaten himself to
death on the multitude of votive offerings. But in a few minutes he had
had enough, and he merely sniffed in polite refusal at all further
gifts.

"See?" lectured Mahan. "That's the beast of it! When you say a fellow
eats or drinks 'like a beast,' you ought to remember that a beast won't
eat or drink a mouthful more than is good for him."

"Gee!" commented the somewhat corpulent Dale. "I'm glad I'm not a
beast--especially on pay-day."

Presently Bruce tired of the ovation tendered him. These ovations were
getting to be an old story. They had begun as far back as his
training-camp days--when the story of his joining the army was told by
the man to whom The Place's guest had written commending the dog to the
trainers' kindness.

At the trai