Next morning the problem was still unsolved. But it was solved that evening. For that evening a fresh contingent of marines trooped by the farm and in their wake, tired, anxious, but undiscouraged, was Verdun Belle. Six miles back two days before she had lost her master, and until she should find him again she evidently had thought that any marine was better than none.
The troops did not halt at the farm, but Belle did. At the gate she stopped dead in her tracks, drew in her lolling tongue, sniffed inquiringly at the evening air, and, like a flash, a white streak along the drive, she raced to the distant tree, where, on a pile of discarded dressings in the shade, the pups were sleeping.
All the corps men stopped work and stood around and marveled. For the onlooker it was such a family reunion as warms the heart. For the worried mess sergeant it was a great relief. For the pups it was a mess call, clear and unmistakable.
So with renewed faith in her heart and only one worry left in her mind, Verdun Belle and her puppies settled down with this field hospital. When the next day the reach of the artillery made it advisable to move down the valley to the shelter of a fine hillside chateau, you may be sure that room was made in the first ambulance for the three wanderers.
Two Cots Were Shoved Together Under a Spreading Tree
In a grove of trees beside the house the tents were pitched and the cots of the expected patients ranged side by side. The wounded came—came hour after hour in steady streams, and the boys of the hospital worked on them night and day. They could not possibly keep track of all the cases, but there was one who did. Always a mistress of the art of keeping out from under foot, very quietly Belle hung around and investigated each ambulance that turned in from the main road and backed up with its load of pain to the door of the receiving room.
Then one evening they lifted out a young marine, listless in the half stupor of shell shock. To the busy workers he was just Case No. Such and Such, but there was no need to tell any one who saw the wild rejoicing of the dog that Belle had found her own at last.
The first consciousness her master had of his new surroundings was the feel of her rough pink tongue licking the dust from his face. And those who passed that way on the following Sunday found two cots shoved together in the kindly shade of a spreading tree. On one the mother dog lay, contented with her puppies. Fast asleep on the other, his arm thrown out so that one grimy hand could touch one silken ear, lay the young marine. Before long they would have to ship him on to the evacuation hospital, on from there to the base hospital, on and on and on. It was not very clear to anyone how another separation could be prevented. It was a perplexing question, but they knew in their hearts that they could safely leave the answer to some one else. They could leave it to Verdun Belle.