A Deed of Daring.

Hastings Standard, Issue 190, 7 December 1896, Page 3

A Deed of Daring.

A noble riml of daring achieved by two Englishmen is described by Archibald Forbes in the Youth's Companion,. It was at General Tchernaieff" s headquarters camp at I'eligial in Cpptr Servia. in the summer of l*7l>. The huts of the camp surrounded a square area, through one corner of which passed u small stream. It was near dusk. and the -tat)', having finished dinner in the schoolroom, which served as mess room, were sitting smoking on the rear verandah. Suddenly there came a loud cry of •' Fire !" and men were seen running away in all directions. We all hurried through to the front, the rush being led by a couple of Englishmen. In the centre of an open space stood a wattled but, roofed in with a flat covering of wattled hurdles. Would it be believed that this structure was the powder magazine of the Deligrad force ? Yes: during the day I had seen men tilling the powder bags to be used as charges for the cannon—filling them from open powder barrels, which, when the work was done, were simply covered loosely with canvas. Besides the powder in the barrels and in the charge bag. there was a ijiuintity of Remington cartridges, partly in cases, partly in loose heaps. There was not even a sentry on the hut. I remembered thinking it the most dangerous place' I had over seen. And now spark<, carried by the wind from some cooking fire, or swept from one of the innumerable cigarettes constantly being .smoked, had fallen on the roofing hurdles, and they, as dry as tinder, were kindling into isolated blazing tongues ! The two Englishmen were running toward the hut at top speed. Then they diverged. One headed for the water, and the other held straight for the hut, clambered up its wattled side, reached the roof, and set about beating out and throwing down, as far as possible, the blazing hurdles. His comrade had tilled a bucket and was swiftly carrying it to the man on the roof of the hut. The Russian officers of Tchernaieff's headquarters caught up the idea, ran toward the stream, and formed a chain, but the long link next the hut was allowed to be constituted by the comrade of the man on the roof. His danger, in spite of the bueketfuls of water which reached him from time to time, seemed imminent. With every hurdle thrown down, his footing became the more precarious. Sparks dropping from the wattling, had ignited the cartridges, which were popping off with the noise and smoke of a respectable skirmish. It seemed impossible but that the bags and barrels should catch a spark, and then —well, there could be but one ending. The trouser legs of the man on the roof were smouldering, but still he worked on. A few moments more and half of him disappeared ; his nether limbs had gone through the thinned roof; but he held ou to the top of the wattled wall, ami poured down bucket after bucket. At length he succeeded in quenching the fire and stopping the explosion