LACHRYMÆ CHRISTI.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9873, 2 November 1897, Page 2

LACHRYMÆ CHRISTI.

By Cabtain W. P. Drory, R.M.L.I.

Naval and Military Record.

There was nothing remarkable at first .••ig'it in the small oblong strip of white sand in the heart of the Wc?-t African jungle. Y'.'t for t»vo persons, a iniin and a woman, who were standing in tho glow of the tropic »tir. ?;'... peering down at its level surface, it !<<'fuit;:l to possess considerable fascination. r i'iic! jii.iit, a tall, gaunt Englishman, in a pith l.fltntl and white drill suit, was barely eight ••Hid thirty; vet—by reason of the bent «!i«.'iiliiers, the iron grey hair, the tired look iv Iho eyes that had blinked for years iti hot sunfhine, and the—well, other things • -one would have judged him to be fifty. His companion was a graceful, sweet-faced woman of six unci twenty summers, with the tint of the English wild rose lingering in her cheek's, it is a well-known fact thafc there are no original similes left wherewith the artist in printer's ink may describe a pvetty woman. The novelist who compared his heroine's eyes (o those of a shot partridge hit upon the very last of them. Therefore, and because it is no more than the truth, you will forgive mc for mentioning that my heroine had hair of spun gold, eyes the tint of the shadowy Mediterranean under summer cloudn, and teeth like a double row of pearls for regularity anfi whiteness. Round one dainty sleeve was bound the badge ot the Red Cross, and, for the rest, she was wearing the picturesque blue, white and scarlet uniform of a nursing sieter of the Royal Navy. On three side 3of the tiny clearing the jungle spread uninterruptedly for miles, bnt on the fourth it ended abruptly after a 100 yards or bo in a narrow belt of cultivation. Along the far edge of this bolt, between the maize fields and a mud-banked, reed-fringed river, straggled a handfnl of native huts and European bungalows; and over the most pretentious of the latter drooped the Union Jaok. For this was the English Consulate, and the gaunt man with the tired eyes talking to lariy in the jungle was the Consul. On the veraurlah were two more nurses, looking across the river bar, beyond which a hospital ship and half a dozen men-of-war were rolling their nettings under iv the long, glassy swell. A few days bofore a warlike expedition had been landed from thin squadron " for the punishment of (native) wickedness and vice," and was engaged at the present moment in cutting its v/ay through the jtingle towards the bloody capital. For obvious reasons I cannot toll you that city's name, but the scene of my story was officially termed the ,r ßaso of Operations." "And this," the consul was saying, with a flourish of his stick and the pride of a man showing the lions of his neighbourhood, " is our European cemetery." The sister again noted the depressing gloom of the juugle, tho entire lack of wooden crons or tombstone, the land crabs stirring in the sand, and shuddered. "Oh 1 Mr Sieveking," she exclaimed, " how dreadful! Of course, it cannot really matter what becomes of one's body after death, but I should not like the thought of being buried here. And what are all these round, black things sticking out of the sand? Why," she stooped down and examined one at her feet, " they're beer bottles!" Tho smooth, white surface of the parallelogram was studded with rowa of these inverted empties, well embedded in the sand, like the pips on a gigantic domino. "Whisky bottles for tho most part," corrected the consul, bitterly, " though that is a matter of detail. But the idea was my own, and one, I flatter myself, that possesses at least the merit of originality. You see it was this way, sister. The sand is so loose that neither stone nor wooden cross will stand upright; but I couldn't bear the thought of all these poor dcv— poor fellows, I mean, lying here like a lot of executed criminals without a tally among them to tell t'other from which. So— please don't laugh—l sent home for a packet of black-edged note paper, wrote the cArcumstancee ot e&cVx man's death, as well as I could remember them, and with an appropriate text, on hali sheets, corked them tip in bottles, and etuok them where | you see them now." "But how did yon manege to identify the graves ? " The consul thrust his stick into the sand until the ferrulo struck with a dull thud upon a coffin lid. "I located them by taking soundings," he eaid, " but for the rest I had to trust to memory and guesswork, adapting the nature of the bottle, as far as possible, to the nationality of the deceased." ■" I am afraid I don't quite follow you." "The grave in the left hand corner yonder," explained the consul, "is poor Ollendorff, my late German colleague. Hia epitaph is in a bottle that once contained laager. The one next to it is a West countryman's. Hβ was in the Houeaa Police, and I've quite forgotten his name; anyhow, he has a text at hie head, and it's in a Plymouth gin bottle. The one with tfao Jamieeon label just showing above the Bfcnd has a few lines inside from the metrical version of the Psalms. Dear old Donald Macleod, a trader chum of mine is underneath —and so on, and so on. God knows, Miss Mainwaring, that I mean no irreverence. Some, no doubt, have got their wrong tallies, but I've done my best for them, and no one else ever comes near the place." And then, aa if he were half-ashamed of his weakness, he added, •• They've most of 'em got womenfolk over in Europe, don't you know ?" Although she still continued to gaze at the sand, the trained hospital nurse was only too conscious of the man's tremulous hands, his weak, twitching mouth, and the dull look in the eyes that was not all due to the eunglare ; and well enough did she comprehend their terrible import. The bottles themselves, indeed, tola her a far more pitiful tale than any of those set forth upon their cream-laid, black-eged contents, After a moment's pause she looked up, and the gentle eyes were glistening with unshed tears. " Do you know," she eaid softly, " I think it was very nice of you to take all that trouble." " 1 am glad you think so," he returned wistfully, with the least possible accent on the. * you , ; and for an instant his eyes •ought the beautiful face which ho was madly beginning to hope might be the means, even at the eleventh hour, of working his salvation. For Horace Sieveking, wrangler, linguist, brilliant administrator •od diplomatist, had in these latter days added to his long list of attainments that of confirmed drunkard. The so-called town at the mouth of the muddy river was as unimportant as it was unhealthy; and the authorities, to whom the consul's vice was well kuown, were mercifully resolved to leave the matter of his dismissal to the climate. On tho departure of the expedition he had courteously placed the consulate at the disposal of the nursing sisters, retiring himself meanwhile to an empty and lees commodious bungalow in the " town." TSie ladies being very sea-sick, thankfully availed themrelvcs of the invitation until each time as the " cases " should begin to arrive from the front, and their services be required. From the moment the lonely, broken down exile encountered Hilda Mainwaring'e sweet glance of pity he vas ee&ed with a burning desire to recover eomething of his lost manhood. To this end he had, by an almost superhuman effort of will, abstained from alcohol for three whole days and nights, with the natural result, in the case of so hard a drinker, that be was now on the verce of delirium tremens. "By the way," he said turning the conversation from the subject of himself and his acts, " I ought to tell yon the story of the first burial that took place here. It was that of a private of Marines serving in a gunboat on the coast, and his shipmates, finding, aa I sai d, that nothing would remain upright in the loose sand, cast about for some other means of marking the grave. Some one suggested shells. So, artor coOectmg a Sent number from the beach, they arranged them upon the grave m tho form of a man's name —which happened to be E. Proet." • VJ hat W( i 3 9 , rather J a Pretty idea," said the moment, Mr bievekinjr, thatl wish to disthe two. don t you think that eeaehelhiare more appropriate than— f> "I do think go. Miss Mamwaring," he Sue " t>»t-well, I& the £ q wTt 7l a thc men camo on the morrow trelrh,f- th °- &*& *ey found to their great indignation that the name had been changed to F. Tozer. After every white a?" Zα** «c only three ot as .—had coaohatals ixorad bia Innocence

oi the outrage, it wae discovered t'uat the shells had rearranged themselves ! "

"The shells?" "Yes—or, rather, the live fish inside them."

Sister Hilda laughed softly. "Mr Sievekince," said she, " you should tell that tale to the gallant Marines themselves on their return from the front. But why Tozer any rr,r>re than Jones or Smith ? "

"That is what puzzled the dead man's comrade?, until they looked up his papers, and fomid that K. Tozer was his real name, E. iYu-it being the assumed one under which he had enlisted ! '■'

" No -wonder shell fleh are said to be good for the brain," commented Hilda, still laughing. " I had no idea till now that they were so marvellously in* elligent !" " Nor I," said the consul l'ghtly. "But you will allow, Miss Mainwaring, that, if bottles are less poetical than sea shells, they are at all events more stable."

" And yet"—there was infinite compassion in tise woman's voice—"l have known the former to change a living man more completely than the shells in your story changed a dead one's name."

Then, of a sudden there swept over her a great wave of pity for this wrecked manhood, which had "shown 31 one time such brilliant promise, anil w'ti-j'j could fcal as tenderly ,\n a woman foe liic lonely dead. "Oh ! Mr Sievoking," she sai<l, in her earnestness laying her hind upon his sleeve, "please forgive mc if I seem impertinent, aud remember only that 1 am a professional nurse of suffering humanity, trained in a great London hospital. I have seen—ah ! how much I have seen of that terrible malady you are so manfully struggling against, and from the bottom of my heurt I pity you. Because your guests are ladiee and you are a gentleman, you are making a gallant effort to resist a frightful craving; and, perhap3, we nurses, with our hospital ward experitsnee, can appreciate the cost of that effort bettor than most womeu. But, oh ! why not make our visit the turning point in"your career" It would at least be " —here she smiled through her gathering teare —" a graceful tribute to the charms and influence for good of our sex. In a few houi'3 more we must return to our duties, and you will be freed from the restraint of our presence. And then, Mr Sieveking, you must continue for your own sake the struggle you have begun for ours, and I pray the God of all battles to give you strength to win this one."

"As long as you do that, Miss Mainwaring," said the Consul, baring his head, " be sure that all the devils in hell would have no chance again3t mc. I shall remember and cherish your sweet words till my dying day." And lifting the fingers, which had touched his sleeve, he reverently stooped and kissed them.

Why, O Christ! bad this wrman been allowed to cross his lonely path years too late and just as he was succeeding in drinking himself into a blessed forgetfulncss of the might) have been 1

Unlike the happier doad at his feet, he had no " women folk over in Europe "—or anywhere else, for that matter, and those hft had known best were not of the ministering angel clas3. Yet, was it too late after all ? Supposing — Sieveking smiled grimly at the bare idea—but, supposing such an astounding miracle were worked as his reformation, would she, with her professional experience of dipsomania, entertain for one moment the thought, of casting in her lot with his? Would it be right to allow her, even if she were willing, to sacrifice herself for his salvation ? No, a thousand times no. And yet lie trembled so exceedingly at the mere possibility of such rapture that Hilda grew alarmed.

" The sun has set some time," she said, " and you are feeling chilly, Mr Sieveking. Hadn't we better be getting back ? " But he still lingered, leaning heavily upon his stick. " You are very fond of your profession, are you not, Miss Mainwaring?" he asked.

"Oh ! I am simply devoted to the work," she answered, enthusiastically. " Then nothing, I suppose "— he was tracing patterns in the Band, now with hia fltick—"wonld ever induce you to give ib up?" " Only one thing," she said, in a low voice, after a moment's hesitation.

"He looked up quickly. The wild rose tint in her cheeks had deepened— a reflection of the sunrise after-glow, perhaps, or— Ah ! How madly his heart beat at that second thought. "And that is?" he whispered, "Mr Sieveking, you must congratulate mc. When we get home to England—l beg your pardon ?" *• Nothing, nothing. Yes when you get home to England ?"

" I—l am going to be married." Tho evening had grown confoundedly dark and cold all of a eudden. What the devil was the matter with it 1

" I sincerely trust that you will be very happy," murmured the Consul politely. " But you are right, Miss Mainwaring, we must be going. The sun has set, and black night will soon overtake us—very soon indeed now I"

One of the " cases " brought back to the coast by the successful expedition was that of a midshipman with an injured leg. A detached clot of blood in a vein of that member may, as long as it remains there, be a small matter ; but in the heart or brain, whither the shaking of a passing footstep may speed it, it means instant death. The boy had been carried in the first instance to the Consulate, and there the principal medical officer decided to leave him, deeming the possibility of malarial fever preferable to the certainty of a fatal shaking on shipboard. Vigilant nursing for a few weeks was all the case needed, said the P.M.0., glancing over hie spectacles at the nursing staff. Without an instant's hesitation Sister Hilda volunteered to remain behind with the patient. No one was more keenly alive to the dangers of that pestilential spot—no one, probably, bad stronger reasons for desiring a, epeedy return to England. But Hilda's standard of duty was a high one, and ehe had used no feminine exaggeration of speech when she had told Sieveking that evening in the jungle that she was devoted to her work.

So the squadron dispersed, and the hospital ship with ber freight of sick and wounded went home minus a nursing sister. Again the Consul withdrew without a murmur to the ramshackle bungalow in the "town,"

While his roomy batchelor quarters were given up to Hilda, her patient, and a native woman attendant. He ransacked the district for fruit, fish and game, and every morning Hilda found a bouquet of fresWypicked Aower3 in the verandah* In the sweltering afternoons, with hi 3 craving for drink rending and tearing him like a legion of devils, he would watch by the sick boy's bedside arid amiiste him with stories of the weary jungle life, in order that the wornout Sister might get an hour or two's miichnw.lcd sleep. And sometimes, in the saffron and orange afterglow of the sunset, or in the golden light of the great tropic moon, he would stiCiid on the verandah for a brief five minutes, drinking in the tones of a voice which reminded him of a bell heard across the summer sea. Bat these glimpses ot heaven the racked sinner allowed himself but seldom ,- for they were invariably followed by paroxysms of tears and remorse upon the lonely beach for tha sweet companionship and that other perfect life which might have been his. Now, about a week after the departure of the squadron from that part of the coast, trouble arose at a certain port within the consular jurisdiction, which demauded Sieveking's immediate presence. In spite of his moral degradation in one direction, his devotion to duty's call was as unflinching as that of Hilda herself. Tho thought of leaving her practically alone for a whole fortnight in that land of battle, murder, and sudden death, nearly drove him out of his mind ; yet he set about his preparations for departure without a moment's wavering.

Although he apprehended no defa'nite danger, he took special measures to ensuie the safety, of the Consulate and its inmates during his absence ; and to that end he solemnly committed them to the care of the German Vice-Consul, a callow youth in goggles, but the only other white man for the moment in the place. _ The niyht before his departure Hilda and lie stood on the verandah in the moonlight. " By the time you return, Mr Sieveking," she was saying, "my patient ought to be quite convalescent aud able to travel. We shall then have no need to trespass any longer on your generous hospitality." The Consul sighed. " You will return," he said, "to all that makes life worth living—civilisation, refined society, friendship, and" —his voice trembled —"love. I, on the other hand—bah !" He broke off with a shudder. He had made his bed, and he must lie on it, without wbining like a beaten cur.

But she turned hey beautiful face to hie, the triumph of conquest shining in her eyes ; aud her voice, though scarce above a whisper, rang like a silver clarion in his ears.

" You, too, will some day return to the world—to houour, and fame, and friends, and—best of all—the love of a true woman. Yet here at your post the good fight must first be fought out to the bitter end, and surely each day is bringing you nearer to victory !" " Then, to you, Sister Hilda, my guardian angel, I shall owe my salvation. For it was your hand which stayed mc as I tottered on the brink of the precipice, and which has daily drawn mc farther back from destruction."

For a second time he raised her fingers to his lips, aud, with a heart too full for further words, quitted the Consulate. Twelve glaring, Bteaming, wicked West Coast days had crawled by, when Sieveking sprang from the deck of the crazy coaster upon the rotting pier beneath the Consulate. Owing to his admirable tact and diplomacy his mission had been crowned with signal success, and he was home agairt two days earlier at least than he had anticipated. Yet, try as he would to feel elated, his heart lay like lead within him, and he found himself shunning the gaze of the German ViceConsul, who, goggles and all, had come to meet him.

•"Evening, Riehter," he said, with a transparent assumptiou of carelessness that a child would have seen through, " er—what a beautiful day we've had 1" Seeing that they had had 364 precisely similar days in the ias6 twelve months, the Teuton merely groaned. " All well up yonder?' Sieveking yawned ostentatiously behind hie hand, "All is well— niifc der young boy." Something in his voice made the other look up. "And Sister Hilda?" he asked sharply, his assumed indifference gone in a moment.

" Die Fcauleiu " began the German, and then stopped. " Mem Got 1" he went on, turning aside, "Igannotdell him." " Speak out, you damned fool," shouted Sieveking, " and don't stand there muttering like a prize idiot, for God's sake ! What of—her ?"

" She died of the fever last night. I haf from her without—benefi—of—clergyfuneral joosfc arrifed." For one moment Sieveking dully wondered whether electrically executed oriminals, whose cases have been bungled, ever feel as he did then. The next instant he was shaking the stolid German by the scruff of the neck as a terrier does a rat.

" You thick-headed useless ullage," he hissed ; " you let her die—that angel who came into this hell of ours to save—ah ! no, Rlchter, you did your best, I know ; I don't mean what I'm saying." He buried his face in his hands.

"Where have you laid her?" he asked presently. "Gloso unter die balings in der nord gorner," said the vice-consul gently. In the solemn evening hour, when the insect murmur and the bird music of the tropical forest were hushed, and the sunset blaze had died to a crimson glow behind the undergrowth, Sieveking the Consul lay face downwards upon the white sand in the little cemetery. A deep cob every now and then shook the gaunt frame, but, so still did ho lie lneanwhiles, and for so iong time, that the little brigbt-eyed lizards ran to and fro aorosa him without fear. At length he rose, and the man of eight-and-thirty, who had of late begun to renew his youth, again looked fifty.

But there were signs of a fixed purpose in the swollen eyes and in the firm quick step with which he left the cemetery. The little coaster, wherein he had arrived that afternoon, sailed at midnight on her return tripj and, in spite of his utter weariness of mind and body, the Consul went with her. For, during the time he had lain upon tho sand, his stricken brain had conceived an idea which he was feverishly anxious to put into execution. On his arrival next evening at his destination he sought out a certain missionary clergyman of the Church of England—the only one in many hundred square miles—and preferred to him a strange request. So strange was it, and so trivial tho object begged for—he would, moreover, give no reason for his conduct—that the good minister set him down as hopelessly insane. Nevertheless, ho furnished him with his heart's desire, and Sieveking bore it back to the Consulate with as much reverence and care as though it had been some priceless relic.

His first act on reaching home was to write on half a sheet of his black-edged notepaper the simple name Hilda, with the date of her death and the text, " Her sun is gone down while it was yet day." Then he tenderly unwrapped the thing he had journeyed so far to obtain, and lo ! it was a. small, empty black bottle, labelled "Laohrymae Christi" (Teara of Christ), which had held the sacramental wine. Surely, reasoned the madman, such a bottle could never profane the resting place of his beloved, and bottles, he was as firmly convinced as ever, were the best means of marking out his jungle cemetery. So he placed his tear-blotted epitaph where the "Tears of Christ" had been, carefully sealing it up ; and in the mellow African moonlight, when the silence of the forest was profound, he set it in the sand at the head of the sleeping woman, who for a few brief weeks had saved him from himself.

And with it he buried all hope of salvation in this life. For, on the morrow, Sieveking, the Consul, was too drunk to rise from his bed.