DESPERATE CHAUFFEUR.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLI, Issue 41, 4 December 1914, Page 2

DESPERATE CHAUFFEUR.

This is one of the most ghastly stori* I have heard among the jy-im incideuu that have so far marked this savage va. (writes the Paris correspondent of the 'Daily Mail'). It would take a Zola to relate its horror fully. I wll cot gives names or places, not because everj detail is not available, hut because it the man concerned in the story wer» again to fall into the hands of Germans his manner of death m ght be made unpleasant. There is a French chauffeur in the employment of a rich young man l'vinif it a district recently occupied by the Germans; When his young master went to the war he was left without work. Hon. ever, he received an offer to drive mmm refugees to a town in the south «| France. Ho was away 10 days and when he returned he found the part o! the country from which he had set out in the hands of the enemy. Almost at once lie met a Gorman patrol. The officer in command wa s t man of enormous stature and ev idem It of great nhysical strength. "You niino,'' he said in bad Fremh and in a threat, ening tone to ",he chauffeur, "car mine. March!" And getting in at the haek the officer drew h : s revolver and j)la -«! the muzzle against the chauffeur'* head. So they started, the two together, along the road. It was a bad road. and ■the chauffeur began to fear that tta jolting might make the revolver go off bv accident. He accordingly asked the officer whether he would not prefer to sit in front. The giant consented. Corpse for a Passenger. Then suddenly a desperate idea occurred to the Frenchman. A* if bv accident he stopped the engine. Then, with an exclamation of annoyance be got down and raised the bonnet. I must have a look at the carburetter." he said, and went to the tool box at tta back of tho car, behind h s captor's seat, to get a spanner. The German did not turn his head. Then the Frenchman's lips t and his teeth set hard. Silently he iai>.ed the heavy spanner and with a cra»h brought it swiftly down on the -rant officer's head. The victim half sjinnij up, then fell forward against <> wind-screen, dead.

For a second the chauffeur stood tli«rc trembling, surveying his own dreadful handiwork. Then he took his place lit tho side of the corpse and drove on At last the chauffeur came I<> tlif place he had ; n mind. It was a lonely bridge over the Aisne Canal. He -t-oji-P«1 the car and then with a great effort he raised tho dead man in li s armStaggering under the weight Cthe officer was a man of lo stone) lie carm-d the corpse to the parapet, poised the great fornf there for a second, and then with a push .sent it with a single spMi out if sight below into the green waters underneath the bridge. He met no more patrols, and he ha* now taken up his regular work as a private chauffeur again.