ded,
dryly.

"You saw him after he left here!" exclaimed the countess. "I do not
understand."

The girl saw she would have to go into particulars. But she did not
tell the countess she had taken her trip to the field hospital with the
secret agent, M. Lafrane.

"Dear me! That was so like him," the countess observed when she had
heard the story of Aunt Abelard and her pullets. "His brother, too----"

"Is Count Allaire like his brother?" Ruth asked quietly.

"Yes. In many ways."

"I have never seen a picture of the count, have I?" the American girl
pursued.

"But, yes! You have but to look at Henri," laughed the countess. "A
little older. Perhaps a little more serious of expression. But the
same tall, slim, graceful figure, both. Pardon my pride in my sons,
Mademoiselle. They are my all now. And they are both like me, I
believe," she added softly.

Ruth looked at her with luminous eyes.

"Like you in every way, Madame? Given so entirely to the service of
their country?"

"But yes! Too recklessly patriotic, I fear," said the countess. Then,
with a start, she exclaimed: "What is this? Do my eyes deceive me? Is
it that wicked Bubu, running wild and free again?"

Ruth turned quickly. Crossing the wide lawns she saw the greyhound
pass swiftly. He was without his blanket, and it seemed to Ruth as
though the barrel of his body was much lighter of color than his chest
and legs. Like a flash he was behind the chateau.

"_Ma foi_!" gasped the countess. "What is---- Something----"

She started to follow the dog. As she still clung to Ruth's arm the
girl must perforce go with her. Through Ruth's mind was swirling a
multitude of suspicious thoughts.

CHAPTER XVI

THE HOLLOW TOOTH

Bubu had been running at large--and in the daytime. He had come from
the north. Ruth believed the dog had crossed the lines and just now
had arrived at the chateau after his long and perilous journey.

Yet for a greyhound the fifteen or twenty kilometers between the
chateau and the battle front was a mere nothing. At the rate the girl
had seen the "werwolf" flying over the fields, he must have covered
that distance faster than an automobile. And, too, he would take a
route much more direct.

The countess seemed to have forgotten Ruth's presence; but the girl
could not well draw her arm away and remain behind. Besides, she was
desperately eager to know what would be done to Bubu, or with him, now
th