One woman brought back to America a Croix de Guerre awarded by France to her intrepid teams of sled dogs. The occasion that won them that honor was their salvation of a stormbound, foe-pressed outpost in the French Alps. Dispatch bearers had been sent back repeatedly, but no succoring answer came, for the messengers were overwhelmed as they passed through the blinding blizzard.

At last matters became desperate. The foe was pressing his advantage with dash and courage, and nothing but quick action could save the situation. So Lieutenant Rene Haas hitched his dogs to a light sled and started through a blizzard before which human flesh, in spite of the "urge" of a consecrated patriotism, had failed. In "sweepstakes racing time" they covered the trip down the mountain and over a perilous pass to the main army post.

There the 28 dogs were hitched to 14 light sleds, and these were loaded with ammunition. Back over the forbidding trail they went, under an artillery fire, facing a bitter wind, and plowing through blinding clouds of snow. On the fifth day, at sunrise, the panting malamutes reached the outpost, their burden of ammunition was rushed to the gunners, and the mountain was saved from the insolent foe.

The stories of courage and bravery among individual dogs on the battlefield are many and inspiring. Michael was the name of a dog which, unaided, dragged his master, who had been left for dead in No Man's Land, back to the trenches. Lutz, the dog hero of Verdun, was awarded the war cross star for his work as an advanced sentinel. Nellie, a fox terrier that followed her master through the rain of shot and shell at the first battle of Ypres and afterward adopted a Belgian regiment, was wounded by shrapnel twice, but continued to "go over the top" until brought to America by the Belgian Mission.

Friends Through Sunshine And Showers.

Photograph by Harry I'. Blanchard.

From their present state of mutual trust and comradeship, it is difficult to picture the age when the forebears of these three playmates were hitter antagonists - the cave-man and the wolf.

Fend l'Air, a black and white setter, partially dug his master out when he was buried by a shell explosion, and remained with him for three days and nights, until he was rescued. Follette. of the Tenth French Army, traveled a mile under a curtain of fire, and, although wounded, continued on her mission. She died of her wounds five days later.

Filax, a sheep dog, failed to win a prize at the New York dog show a few years ago, being pronounced "somewhat too coarse for show purposes." His master thereupon put him into Red Cross work. Braving the dangers of No Man's Land on innumerable occasions, he saved the lives of a hundred wounded French soldiers.

Whose eyes have not floated in seas of tears as the story of good dog Barry, that noble old St. Bernard that saved 40 lives, has been read? Vet there are thousands of good dogs Barry in the world. Rex, a St. Bernard, rescued two boys from the undertow at Fort Hamilton in 1899. Happy, an Airedale, rescued Jack, a fox terrier, from a raging mountain torrent in the Adirondacks some years ago. Stranger and friend, man and beast, have each in their turn known what it is to be rescued from flood and fire by faith ful dogs.