Lloyd stammered them out, greatly embarrassed, feeling that her pronunciation must have grown quite faulty from lack of practice under the Major’s careful training.  The orderly repeated them in an undertone, then, turning to Hero, gave the order in a clear, deep voice, that seemed to thrill the dog with its familiar ring.  Instantly at the sound he started out across the field.  Not a thing that had been taught him in his long, careful training was forgotten.

The first man he found was lying in a ditch, apparently desperately wounded.  Hero allowed him to help himself from his flask, and drag a bandage from the bags on his back.  Then, standing with his hind feet in the ditch and his fore feet resting on the bank above him, he gave voice until the men by the ambulance heard him, and came toward him carrying a stretcher.

“Look at him!” exclaimed Mrs. Walton, who with the party and several of the officers had walked down to the hospital tent.  “He knows he has done his duty well.  Did you ever see a dog manifest such delight!  He fairly wriggles with joy!”

The praise of the men bearing the stretcher, and especially of the orderly, seemed to send the dog into a transport of happiness.  The second man lay far on the outskirts of the field, hidden by a thicket of hazel bushes.  This time Hero’s frantic barking brought no reply.  The men acted as if deaf to his appeals of help, so in a few minutes, evidently thinking they were beyond the range of his voice, he picked up the man’s cap in his mouth, and ran back at the top of his speed.

“Good dog!” said the orderly, taking the cap he dropped at his feet.  “Go back now and lead the way.”

“If that man had really been wounded, and had crawled under that thicket,” said Colonel Wayne, “we never could have found him alone.  Only the sense of smell could lead to such a hiding-place.  The ambulance might have passed there a hundred times and never seen a trace of him.”

The hunt went on for some time; before it closed, every man personating a killed or wounded soldier was located and carried to the hospital tent.  When the tired dog was finally allowed to rest, he dropped down at the orderly’s feet, panting.

“That, was certainly fine work,” said the Colonel, stooping to pat Hero’s sides.  “I suppose nothing could induce you to give him up to the army?” he asked, turning to Lloyd.

“Oh, no, no, no!” cried Lloyd, as if alarmed at the suggestion, and pressing Hero’s head protectingly against her shoulder.  If she had been proud of him before, she was doubly proud of him now.  He had won the admiration of the entire regiment.  Never had he been so praised and petted.  When Mrs. Walton called her party together for their homeward drive, it was plain to be seen that Hero was loath to leave the camp.  A word from the orderly would have kept him, despite Lloyd’s commands to jump up into the wagon.

As the boys rode on ahead again, Keith said, “It does seem too bad to force that dog into being a private citizen when he is a born soldier.”