" said the A.P.M. "And I'm sure I should have noticed
him.... I'm fond of dogs, and I notice them all.... I'll help you any
way I can.... Give me full particulars, and I'll pass them round to my
police."

He listened while I tried to obtain further clues from the doctor as to
the branch of the service to which the captain, seen that morning with
"Ernest," belonged. The doctor, his cap tilted backwards, a long dark
cigar protruding at an angle of 45 degrees from the corner of his
mouth, did his best, but it was no good. "I'm sorry--I don't know your
regiments well enough," he said at last.

It was at this point that the doctor's groom--in the building trade
before the war--entered into the conversation. He had heard everything
that had been said since the quest began, but this was the first remark
he had made.

"The officer the medical officer spoke to this morning, sir, was in the
---- Pioneers," he said to me.

"Why didn't you tell us that before?" asked the doctor impatiently.

"Sorry, sir, you didn't ask me," was the toneless reply.

The doctor looked unutterable things, and the lighted end of his cigar
described three or four irregular circles. "Gosh!" he pronounced
briskly. "We gotta put more pep into looking for this dog, or the
war'll end before we find him."

A high-velocity shell bursting on the near side of the factory helped
to decide us. The A.P.M. said that a party of the Pioneers had marched
down the street half an hour ago. The doctor and I bade him good-bye,
went through the village, and were directed to a lane alongside a
railway embankment. In one among a row of wooden huts, where the
Headquarters of the reserve infantry brigade were quartered, we found
the colonel of the Pioneers finishing lunch. He and our colonel were
old friends, and immediately I explained the object of my visit he
became sympathetic. "Yes," he laughed, "we have your dog--at least our
A Company have him. I believe they found him wandering on the other
side of the valley.... Stop and have some lunch, and I'll send for
him."

"No, thank you, sir.... I shall have to be getting back."

A subaltern went off to fetch the dog. The doctor left to pick up the
horses and to return to the waggon line. The colonel invited me to have
a drink. But there was disappointment when the subaltern returned. "I'm
afraid the dog has gone again, sir--about half an hour ago."

"Really!" said the colonel.

"Yes, sir; he was in A Company's mes