u carried messages back and forth
across the lines."

"Ah, but you are to be trusted," the countess said cheerfully. "We do
what the Anglais call--how is it?--'our little bit'? Bubu and I. He,
too, is French!" and she said it proudly.

"And for years, Mademoiselle, we have established this couriership of
Bubu's." She laughed. "Do you know what the farmers say of our
so-good dog?"

Ruth nodded. "I have heard the story of the werwolf. And, really,
Madame, the look of him as he runs at night would frighten anybody. He
is ghostly."

The countess nodded. "In that's his safety--and has been since before
the war. For, know you, Mademoiselle, _all_ France was not asleep
during those pre-war years when the hateful Hun was preparing and
preparing.

"My husband, Mademoiselle Fielding, was a loyal and a far-sighted man.
He did not play politics, and seek to foment trouble for the Republic
as so many of our old and noble families did. Now, thank heaven, they
are among our most faithful workers for la patrie.

"But, see you, Count Marchand owned a small estate near Merz, which is
just over the border in Germany. Sometimes he would go
there--sometimes to drink the waters, for there are springs of note,
perhaps for the hunting, for there is a great forest near. He would
always take Bubu with him.

"And so we taught Bubu to run back and forth between here and there.
He carried messages around his neck in those times. Quite simple and
plain messages, had he been caught at the frontier and examined.

"It was our Henri who resorted to the hollow tooth, and that since the
war began. Bubu had one big tooth with a spot on it. Henri knew an
American dentist in Paris. Ah, what cannot these Americans do!" and
the countess laughed.

"We took Bubu to Paris and had the decayed spot drilled out. The tooth
is sound at the root. The dentist made the hole as large as possible
and then we moulded the rubber caps to close it. You see how the
messages are sent?"

"Remarkable, Madame!" murmured Ruth. "But?"

"Ah? Who sends the messages from beyond the German lines? Now it is
Count Allaire himself," she hastened to explain. "In disguise he went
through the lines some weeks ago. The agent who was there came under
suspicion of the Germans."

"And he lives at the castle over there in Germany--openly?" gasped Ruth.

"Nay, nay! It is no castle at best," and the countess laughed. "It is
by no means as great a place as