A "DESERTER'S" FEAT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 10526, 2 December 1916, Page 11

A "DESERTER'S" FEAT.

A non-commissioned officer of the Devons, wounded in recent lighting, tells the following story:— "1 don't hold with these conscience chaps, but there was one ot the tribe that proved himself a man in the end. He was attached to a Labour unit of the Cornwalls behind the line, lie was a quiet, moping sort of man, who kept severely to himself, and scowled when anybody tried to make friends with him. One exception was made in favour of a little girl, the daughter of the lady with whom he was billeted. He played with this child a lot, and appeared very fond of her. One day the Germans sent shells over that way', and the little girl was killed while she was waiting for the return of the conscience chap from the railway. Someone told him what had happened. He got permission to go to billets, and when he saw the body of the poor girl he went almost crazy. In the morning he was missing. He was posted as a deserter. All wondered what had become of him, but we were ordered up into the trenches again, and hadn't time, to worry about him more.

"The next day we advanced to attack the enemy position. We had a blazing I'.ot time of it, I can tell you. However, we got through and we set to work charing out the Huns in fine style. It was desperate work, and in the thick of it a comrade drew my attention to a strange-looking man of ours, who was wedged in among a knot of Germans, who he was laying out right and left. I never saw such scrapping. He had the making of a small cemetery around him, when the Germans uncovered a machine-gun. which immediate opened fire on us. The man didn't hesitate a minute, but went straight for that gun. He was hit, and stumbled, but got up again and dashed on. He swooped down on the gun and wiped out the crew in less time than it takes to tell. Then he collapsed. We rushed to his aid, and I had the surprise of my life. It was the conscience chap who had deserted from the Labour Battalion. He was nearly done for, but managed to tell me that from the first his conscience had roubled him about escaping- the risks other men were running. The death of the little girl had been the finishing touch. He cleared' off, and equipped himself and joined the attackingparty of Devons without being noticed : n the excitement. He had had the, time of his life, and felt he could now die with an easy conscience."