ize of the great creature in his path. He
thought of the panther and the other wild beast, whatever it was,
supposed to be roaming about in the woods. Then the moon disappeared as
suddenly as it had lighted up the scene, and the big paws still pattered
on toward him in the darkness, regardless of his repeated challenge.

As the underbrush crackled again with the weight of the great body now
almost upon him, the sentry raised his rifle. A shot rang out, arousing
the camp not yet fully settled to sleep. The echo bounded back from the
startled hills, and rolled away over the peaceful farms and orchards,
growing fainter and fainter, until only a whisper of it reached the white
tent where the Little Colonel lay dreaming. Then the moon shone out again,
and the sentry, going a few paces forward, looked down in horror at the
silent form stretched out at his feet.

CHAPTER XVI

"TAPS"

The corporal of the guard went running in the direction of the shot, and
here and there an inquiring head, was thrust out of a tent.

"Only a dog shot, sir," he was heard to call out in answer to some
officer's question, as he passed back down the line. "Sentry took him for
a wild beast escaped from the show."

Somebody laughed in reply, and the men who had been aroused by the noise
turned over and went to sleep. They did not know that the corporal hurried
on down to the guard-house, and that as a result of his report there was a
hasty summons for the surgeon. They did not know that it was Hero whom the
sentry bent over, gulping down a feeling in his throat that nearly choked
him, as he saw the blood welling out of the dog's shaggy white breast, and
slowly stiffening the silky hair of his beautiful yellow coat.

The surgeon knelt down beside the dog, and as the clouds hid the moon
again, he turned the light of his lantern on the wound for a careful
examination.

"That was a cracking good shot, Bently," he said. "He never knew what
stopped him."

The sentry turned his head away. "I wouldn't have been the one to take
that dog's life for anything in the world!" he exclaimed. "I'd pretty near
as soon have killed a man. It never entered my head that any tame animal
would come leaping out of the woods that way at this time of night. He
loomed up nearly as big as a lion when the moon shone out on him. The next
minute it was all dark again, and I heard his big soft feet come pattering
through the leaves, straight on toward me. It flashed