THE SNIPER OF VAN NOORDAN'S RIDGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 234, 28 November 1900, Page 4

THE SNIPER OF VAN NOORDAN'S RIDGE.

tontwmi from firtt page.

VUf companion is the one who find thit shot," said the Boar, as he resented not the rough heads which dncged kirn wide to the little grave. Then came the sharp, stern words of command, the ratt'e of the carbines, the crash of the volley, and back into the grave fell the dead sniper. General Gondle faced about and marched to the camp. Now and again he cast his, eyes over to the hill from whence the remaining sniper had sent his ballets. He bit his lips with rage, for, unab'e to move from his preient position, it was humiliating that the oarap should be thrown into disturb; •ace and speculation by the action of one wretched Boer concealed in the hills. Throegh the long, tint day, the, secret assailant kept up his fusilade of shots. With monotonous regularity the Mauser bullets fell here, there, and evetywhere. The distance was not two thousand yards, hut pa-ty after party who had tried to accurately locate the position failed in their attempts. Sheer from the plain the ragged face of the hill went five hundred feet. There was no pathway, no means by which the top could be reached. Concealed among the boulders on the top of this wall-like rock was she mysterious sniper. Two shots rarely oame from the same pace. It was exasperating, tanti'ising, and discreditable. Therefore, when Private Gosling acknowledged to be the best shot of the Wiltshire*, was presently asked to pit his prowness against that of the mysterious sniper, there was no prouder man in 'camp than Gosling , himself., " What you did yesterday," said the General, "I am proud of, but we can't dislodge this man, whoever he is without smashing down the face of that cliff. He seems to have got into a perfect fort of a place. Take your horse, go to the sooth for aconple of miles, op on the fl ink of the hill, get above bim, and Eee if you can't get a shot at him. See the crest of that hill there? If yon can get on the top of that yon ought t3 be able to command the whole of the ridgr, and it's somewhere in that ridge you'll find your quarry." Gosling cantered oS gaily. He mide a wide detour around the camp, then headed straight far the southern base of the Li Is, crossed the eprnit, and advanced steadily op the long valley tbroagh which roared the frothy j mountain stream. He tethered bis horse to a tie * stomp at the font of th' ateep hill, and, slinging hi? r fh to bis back, commeac'd bis long and laboross o'imb. Up and up he went and the beat of the Airein ana caused the sweat to tall from his brow in ttreama. He paused now and again to get breath and to sack his fingers, eot Needing from the cuts of the sharp rocks and *""** the thorns of the pr'okly bashes which ; he bad been forced to grasp to aid bim upwards. Below bim on the plain he eoald see the camp, the regular stretches of tents, the laager and the waggons, the rvi>°, ard the tiny bodies, wtioh looked 1 ke ants moving, bub wbich were in n. j He reached the crest and paused a moment before he looked over. Then he saw the top of the wnll-liks a perfect bastion of a place, nM ereviceß and oewsses efficient to bide a hundred npn. Hs eagle rye searched every mok and corne-, but In foand nt what tie Bought. Ho r nnir/ed i-i this ewtrmplarive at it ido for a sre >rd or two when, w'-en~piig! cpmo a bu'let, a Web j rrfn.' sound, ai.d he knew tbat tho intdeii messenger had gn j tbroogh his he met. H* dropped at once, and crert cautioDs'y around the c .no of the ti "; not daiig to tho «■ a vestige of himself above ihe ragged edge of tbe moon - ! New down, now up, unli l be oameo'.cj more ia sight of the ridge, bat this tnn on t'lo flaofr, with the almost tqnare top of the lidge between him and the valley where the Brit'sh encampment lay.

H* uis'ung his rifl', acd, holding it in nadinese, peeped gingerly over the trp. Ho docked in time, warned by the f*i.M> fhsh on the tiJgp, and the boiled of the sniper para barmkss'y ove" bis he id.

Witbinfinitn care he wormed the / barrei of his rift* tbrongh iha etoner, and simed a.** the spot whence hid come the l«st shot. Then he watched ; watcb> d end waited, bat not another abofe came his way. Now and again a refo t r iue oit, ad faoh time from a A:S irent fpot, as Gosling's quick ear determined.

The enn rose higher, and its hot foams fell on the trooper's back. He was petting tired with watching, and was jaet determining to vacate bis position, when he bbw something which caused his eyes I o blink; end his fbgers to close steadily on the trigger. /mong the' boulders on th? oppoiite side hi the hill be biw a movement; it was jnet the flatter of gr>mthing wbite, an-1 is disappeared on the instant. Then be saw it again, and incnufciooslv looked ovflr. His eye bad jost canght the glint of a riflj, when its bullet eang ita way. His own finjer'press- d the; trigger a nco'n<'nri sfoerwaid', but he knew be hid or'ssed.

At aoy rate, ha hid located his quarry, scarcely foor handrail ysrds *eparat»d two. Both were admirably coaccftlfd, each writing for tie cpoortonity to deal oub de«*b. A qaait-r of an hour pissed, aid nothing h.«ppm d. Half-m-bour, and tb«n Gosling saw, rising over the edee of a boulder, at least forty-ft p,t higher than from where th- last shot, bad com?-, tie h ad of the sniper Ho faw the hand raised f» shield tha eyes from the snn. Tb<» head was turne 1 in the direjiion of the cunp, and Gos'ino took his Bights and prrpired to fire. It was not th-* f -ii t of killing a man in cold blood ; ho knuw a' well as anyone ih t what be «ai doing was on'y what the Other w joid ba»e done to him j bat at ; the mo-nent when hj« had covered bi?' adversary, and conld bave brought Mm down by the mere p e-oure of bis finger on the trigger, something seemed j to say to bim—" Don't do it!" j Bis fingers twitched, Bat hehndj hfsitited, and in that hesitation he' htd 'oßb. He cursed himself for h'«t ■ (oily, sprawled out) to make «are of l\t

next shot, and bis eyes never blinked as he watched, A flatter of white, the i form of a face over the rocks, and away went Goslings bullet. He chnokled as he saw, through the haze of smoke, the head disappear, and to his ears came tha faint scream of agony. But be was to wary to expose himself, i The soream might have been a feint,! and he lay low, watohing and waiting! meanwhile that the sun circled over bim and began to descend towards the western horizon. Two hours had passed since he sent the shot, but from the other tide there oame no found of movement, there oame no shot.

Bat then it came over him tbat, pprhaps, after all, he h«d done what he wanted. With the agility of a chamo's he crept down the side of the hill into the valley, but never exposing himsßlf. Here and there be paused to hold Mb helmet, and point his rifle over tho edge iof the rock in full view of the enemy i but not a shot c*me. He crossed the valley and began to creep up the sides of the other right. His sharp eye had located the spot where he had seen the face of the sniper. Up and up he went, UDtil, spent, he reached the top.

He crawled gingerly over the side, searched among the crevasses between the boulders, and found what he Bought The sniper was there, back against the rock, rifle in hand, the head bowed opon the breast, apparently dead. Gosling brought himself up with a jerk, and his heart Beemed to leap into his mouth, a mist sprang before his eyes, and he almost dtopped his rifle. Sure enough, there was the sniper, but it was not the sniper he had expected to see. No long-bearded, ragged Boer, with a slouch hat and bandolier; he only saw the frail form of a girl, whose short frock scarcely reached below her knees. He saw the flaxen hair, matted now with blood, falling over the sboalders, and staggering forward he saw in tbe small hand, grimy and bloodstained now. a sqnare object, wbich he gazed at with great curiosity.

It was only a photograph, a photograph of a man and a girl. Gosling recognised the man—it was he whom they bad shot that morning. He had recognised tbe photograph of the girl now that he had smoothed from the face the mifcted hair, and he knew that it was Jan Meyer's daughter he had killed.

He got down to tbe camp; how be j knew not. His comrades wondered at his tßciturnity, ar.d Gensral Gundle 1 himself, who took his report, thought him a strange fellow that he was not ela'el tt what he had done.

Trooper Goaliog, best shot in the Wiltshire?, bragged of many things which he did in the South African campaign; but he never bragged of bow he shot tbe Boer sniper km Van Noorrlen'a Bidge. Glasgow Weekly Herald.