Soon his tongue came out and he was panting and lolling as though it had been noonday in summer, instead of the cool of the morning. It was now so hard to travel that he did not think he could even reach the smooth road, for he had to lie down and rest every few rods.
Once he found a cool, green spot under a great tree where war had not devastated nature. Here he lay for half an hour resting and then, feeling better, he went forward faster.
He had come almost to the edge of the woods when he heard men’s voices. He listened eagerly. Perhaps they were friends. If they were, he would go to them. Soon he made out the voices plainly. They were not far away, so he crept forward eagerly.
At last he made them out. They were friends. They wore uniforms like the men at the hospital. He wagged his tail frantically and crept still closer. He would make sure. There were so many things to be afraid of here in this strange land to which he and his master had come.
Presently the men came so close that he could see them plainly. They were talking in low voices. They were two Red Cross men carrying a wounded soldier on a litter. He was very sure they were good men, for their dress was just like that of the men who unloaded the ambulances at the hospital. With a glad yelp Pep limped forward. He felt very sure they would be good to him. The Red Cross men had often petted him at the hospital.
The men were so busy with the wounded soldier that they did not notice him until he rubbed against the leg of one of them. That made the man stop and cry out.
His companion laughed. “’E won’t ’urt you, Bill,” he heard the other man say. “’E is just a poor wounded bull terrier. ’E just came out of the bush.” The two men laid down the stretcher to rest and one of them called Pep to him.
“Poor Perp,” he said. “You ’ev got it in your ’ind leg. War is ’ell all right, eh old dog?”
Pep assented and licked the man’s hand. There was something he wanted the man to do. He could not think what it was, but the man’s next words reminded him.
“Where’s your master, old sport? You air lost. Whose dog are you, Perp, any how?”