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.