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 ous. But the dogs had become used to it so they did not mind the noise. The stench of decaying bodies, of dead men and horses and dogs filled the air.

Sometimes they did not have time to bury the dead and often they could not find them in the tangle of trees and débris of rocks and sod, so it was altogether a hell on earth in which Pierre and his dog team labored.

But the going over the hills and through the deep gulches as time passed became more difficult, and they lost more dogs and men each day than they had the day before.

Finally, one terrible day when the heat had been even more unbearable than usual and they had been bombarded continually with shrapnel and shell so that they had barely reached the army, the enemy laid