AN OLD SOLDIER'S STORY.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1517, 29 January 1886, Page 3

AN OLD SOLDIER'S STORY.

All our fellows were as brave as their swords. I don't remember ever meeting a coward amongst them. Speaking fur myself, as I had t'le good fortune to win the Victoria Cross, I trust I may say without boasting that I am not of a timorous nature. Have I ever felt fear ? I should think so. If you ever hear a man say he has Eever felt fear, set him down as a braggart or insensible block. I got eueh a scare once as I shall never forget to my dyirg day. It was shortly after the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny that the regiment I belonged to was quartered in Burrampore. For some time the men were generally healthy, and the loss by death comparatively light. At length that fatal scourge, the cholera, broke out, every day claiming ten or a dozsn victims, but the deaths amongst the soldiers were light compared to the natives, who literary diel in armies. Night and day a sentry kept guard over the log house in which the dead bodies of i/iy comrades were placed as soon as life was extinct.

It happened one night to be my turn to be sentry. I noticed the private I relieved look white and flurried, but, of course, being on duty, we could not pass any remarks, and I was left alone at my post. That same day I lost my best chum, a jovial, hearty lad The lite and soul of our company, his wasted b)dy lay stiff and stark along wiih the corpses of twelve others, in the deadhouse.

The terrible question came to my mind :

" not be my turn next ? " A sudden and dismal bowl of a jackal seemed to give my thoughts a dread reply. All at once I heard a peculia* rus'ling sound, which sent a chill through every vein ; the nuise came from inside the dead-house. Then came the never-be-forgotten terror. I stood petrified, unable to move hand or foot. 1 tried to utter a cry, but my tongue clove to the roof of my mouth. No words can express the horror I felt when I beheld the door of the dead-house slowly open, aud a white sleeved-arm thrust out.

At length by a powerful effort I managed to shout out, "Who goes there? In God's name speak, or I shall fire." I felt my arms shake as I aimed point blank at the door. The loDg thin arm was instantly withdrawn and the door gently closed again. My heart gave a great bouad, and I was covered with perspiration. Bat

though I still trembled in every limb, I recovered ia some degree my firmness and presence of mind. "You coward," I upbraided myself, "it is only one of my comrades brought here prematurely before he was dead." As this conviction forced itself on my mind, I became more calm. Grasping my musket in my left hand, with my right I threw open the door and entered. The bodies lay in a row on the floor some qnite uncovered and some wrapped in mats, their arms and legs stiff and straight in the eternal frost of death.

Try to imagine my awe and amazement when upon counting them, I found the exact number, thirteen} there was no mistake—thirteen! Frantic with horror I glared around, and prodded the walls with my bayonet ;no one was there. I was alone with the dead ; to whom then eould the arm belong ? The mystery was soon solved. An apparition in a black angle of the wall—white, mistlike, undefined, like a spectre just rising from a yawning grave.

Uttering a loud yell I levelled my musket, fully intending to blaze away at the phanton, but fortunately it gave proof of its vitality by springing forth and thrusting the gun aside. It was a woman's voice that rang through my ears. " Mercy, Sahib ; no fiah ; not know me ? Me only poor Ratjee ; you no kill poor Ratjee." The murder was out and the mystery solved. The Hindow girl waa a favourite with the man who had preceded me on this post She had come to have a chat with him and bring him a bottle of arrack.

Now the men were under the strictest orders to hold no communication with the natives, least of all . when on duty; so my comrade, disturbed in his tete-a-tete, by the arrival of the u rounds," in order to escape punishment for his breach of disipline, had thrust the poor girl in the deadhouse and shut her in.

When I had sufficiently recovered my composure, I got rid of the gilr and renewed my solitary pacings to and fro; but I was well nigh exhausted with the fright and excitement I had undergone. I was glad enough when I saw the gleam of lanterns and heard the measured tramp of approaching footsteps.

I was relieved from my po9t. The officer in command looked me steadily in the face. " What is the matter, WilsoQ ?" he enquired kindly, "you appear ill." ■' A little touch of the fever, sir," I said, " that is all."

" Well, my man, go to the doctor, and he will give you something to do you good," he replied. 41 By Jove, you look as if you had seen a ghost."