"Roberts."

Off trotted Bruce on his second trip.

"I had forgotten to say which train you'll have to take in the
morning," explained the Master. "So Roberts wrote, asking what
time he was to have the car at the door after breakfast. It was
careless of me."

The guest did not answer. But when Bruce presently returned,--
this time with no paper in his collar-ring,--the officer passed
his hand appraisingly through the dog's heavy coat and looked
keenly down into his dark eyes.

"Gun-shy?" asked the guest. "Or perhaps he's never heard a gun
fired?"

"He's heard hundreds of guns fired," said the Master. "I never
allow a gun to be fired on The Place, of course, because we've
made it a bird refuge. But Bruce went with us in the car to the
testing of the Lewis machineguns, up at Haskell. They made a most
ungodly racket. But somehow it didn't seem to bother the Big Dog
at all."

"H'm!" mused the guest, his professional interest vehemently
roused. "He would be worth a fortune over there. There are a lot
of collies in the service, in one capacity or another--almost as
many as the Airedales and the police dogs. And they are doing
grand work. But I never saw one that was better fitted for it
than Bruce. It's a pity he lives on the wrong side of the