equent barrages you are called upon to provide, besides the
harassing and the normal shooting, a very great strain is placed
on your Brigade. And the success we had yesterday was largely
made possible by the splendid work of your people."

About eleven o'clock the doctor, who had ridden from the waggon line,
came in gaily singing "Hail! hail! the gang's all here," to a tune from
the "Pirates of Penzance." "I've located 'Ernest,'" he shouted
triumphantly when he saw me.

"Splendid," I answered, smiling in return. "Have you got him at the
waggon line?"

"No; I saw him as I was coming up here. He was trotting along with a
captain who was going towards that village with the factory, over
there."

"Was he a staff captain, with a Military Cross and another ribbon?" I
asked.... "Didn't you tell him it was our dog?"

"That's so. I told him that, and 'Ernest' came and jumped around when
he saw me; but the captain said it couldn't be our dog, because a
brigadier-general's name was on the collar, and he wasn't going to let
him go; his colonel wanted him. Besides," added the doctor plaintively,
"'Ernest' wouldn't follow me."

"His colonel!" I repeated, puzzled. "Didn't he say 'his General'? A
staff captain is on a brigadier-general's staff.... His colonel?... Are
you sure he was a staff captain? Was he wearing red?"

"I didn't see any red," replied the doctor. "He was walking behind a
waggon that had a pile of wood and iron on it. It looked as if they
were moving."

My face fell. "Did you notice his regiment? Was he a gunner or an
infantryman, or what?" I asked quickly.

"Well, I can't say that I did. I don't know all your regiments."

The colonel joined us. "Laneridge has brought my mare up," he remarked
pleasantly. "You'd like a little exercise, perhaps. When the doctor has
finished his sick parade you take my mare and see if the dog can be
found."

The doctor and I rode across country, and scoured the village he had
pointed to, but there was no trace of "Ernest." We spoke to a couple of
military policemen, told them all about our loss, saw that they
inscribed particulars in their note-books, and then continued our
inquiries among some heavy gunners, who had pulled into a garden near
the sugar factory. I even narrated the story to an Irish A.P.M., who
was standing in the street conversing with a motoring staff officer.
"I've been in this village fully an hour and haven't seen a dog such as
you describe,