BATTLEFIELD GHOSTS.

Thames Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 10287, 8 January 1917, Page 2

BATTLEFIELD GHOSTS.

SIiEX BY SOLDIERS. Tnc soft-, tneliow tw.kgbt of the summer eveaiing l was niblting' a.way. into the darkness of night. i was sitting among 100' or so- soldiers, in till a quiet, pretty grounds of a mil;-' tary 'hospital.', llie', conversation had drifted .to ghosts. By degr-e-s. it became clear to mc that on all battlefields. Rant and W&st, gh ;:*/«.. have been ,seen. ;■ "'i was on sentry-go cur.side a barn in France," said one blue-clad hero, a. .man of * en: oils turn of mind, lie "between 30' and 40 years, of a : ie. /"A full moon wa.s whining so brightly in a cloudless sky," he went ■on. ''that I could see to read' a newspaper. • ' . 'Troseutly, far away, I heard l a ko-vmd give d- mtue—- ho ;rd j'-'st -v ••• fa-iid. note. I recognised the deep, ni.-Mintful hay at once as, that oi a bloodhound. I p- : cked up my rifle and looked in the direidion from which it had come, but'couldn't, see anything. •?•<'■ ■ . "The country nre<imd w.-.s flat and treeless, and in -utlr-r rewpe-ts open, and. even a. hounrl. 200 or -"*T>r> yard* away could ha.rd'y have escaped my .notice. ''Well. I s'!p.p-.>se 1 continued to •search-for that hound for. a. good 'five minn.itcvs*. But not a livim? th.in-.-r anywhere, and. except for the wives ■of companion!?, ialkino- softly imsine the barn, moth'n<>- to- .be heard. Everywhere a. dead silence--a dead quiet ; everywhere the. yiloin.'-e of tlie

grave. "Then something happened ' that caused mc to drop my rifle-nnd froze idie blood in ,mv veins.

"Not half a dozen yards away a b-race of bloodhounds, coupled to-g-ether, and' with . tongue® hanging out of their '!mouths, galloped, nr.st ■wifch music as loud, as cv 1, in a. way, as sweet as a peal of church bells. The dogs came into being bofore mc.

"An invisible somothing set them before my eyes: a.n invisible something snatched them- away again. ■'. "I saw them for about the .space of 20 seconds. -Then the deep quiet again, unbroken even by the distant rumble of guns or some night bird's call. ' ' ■;

"X saw them so distinctly that J noticed, they were joined together by a abort chain, so bright that it glistened in the .; moonlight, and that they were dim-coloured. "Moments wentt by before 1 could ■ pick up- my rifle and move irorn the ■spot where 1 was -standing. At last ! managed, to stagger .into the barn. "The place was. lit by a conple of small, smoky lanterns, and most -<d' the men ' thii-.rejn awake'and read-in?;. "They when they saw mc, remarking that- I was s> > white 'that 1 might have he;-n mistaken for a • i.e.:-. hy..:ij(-.hy orps-e.. o-'.. '">' ■■--•kprt them if they had heard .aiiy thing, ana they said, Oi^tlnn^.' except, the .fail of my rifle.' ''Then I tchl ■ the:;> tlie-.story. The? dCdn't ridicule it, but took it quite seriously'and-.fell to discussing it from a practical point of view. "The. conclusion arrived at was that 1 had really hoard a distant hound give ton-rue, and- than, as I had searched the country before mc for the animal, that'l had fa.!len into' momentary doze or stvipor and dre.imt j or imagined the rest. "At this moment, however, up rattled some motor cars- to cany .is away ito'the firmg 1 line, to help getaway -so-me badly Wounded mcn —-men.! with limbs blown away, and in other respects 'horribly mutilated by the explosion of mines, and as at. length we .gazed on the poor fellows, lying ' out in the cold ■ -mcriht, just where they had been hurledi some groaning. some, suffering in .silence, we couldnot help thinking there- W>s isrmethinjcr iin- the; lapparitiion of the phan-. j torn hound, 1 ? alter; all. . "Since tihen I have fold tihft story to a good many others, ' anfi . kftVV

learnt that, other* have a.l-s-o seen, tlie ; bounds. Moreover, I have heard ■ that on, every occasion they have been \ men something' .great lias taken, place ''.mi the'battle front." i N'\w we cune Uy a. human' gho<st, .if .a. ghost could-be called human ; 'to an elderly French warrior with, white. beard, - long 1 " white hair, and the equipment of 1870. This .ghost has been coining and going- ever since the beginning of the war. Now he. has shown himself to marching troops —troop's weary and on the point of losing confidence in themselves, their country, and their Allies, beckon'iii'U' to. them to take heart and push, forward ; nOW leading a charge to German trenches; now cropping' up in the pathway of an enemy about to <*Viy. and - tripping him up or knock: no; his weapon out of his liand, yel' remaining invisible to him; now bending over some wounded man dying, with a great burning thirst, and-.giving him drink from the water-bottle the soldier carries, and tlhus saving hi.s life. ft-ris only for a few .scurrying mo-me-nfe that the fine old -soldier is ■seen. He is sturdy and strong, erect as- an- athlete of iO',' with, firm, , >swiiiig- : ' ins step-,, rosy /cheek;*, and, laughing lips and eyes. Victory always '" follows close on his heels. .Again and again he was at Verdun away back in the .spuing at t-ho&e blackvmo'ments Avhen it seemed that -the Germans mu-st achieve- their' object and break, through- the. Krenelv defence.. .. Most of the men in. the hospital grounds liad_ heard som-iLhins' about the interesting; old fellow, and' some of them sufficient to till a book.

* * ■» «• *t ■«■ w ' . . The next man to'- tell a story ,was one who had fought at .tlie.. .Dardanelles. : "Early one m-Oirnin-.r," he began, "I was on outpost duty with a,

pal. In time there, came an enor-mous.-shell, and my friend was killed. His head and limbs were blown from his body, and lay in all directions— arms and legs everywhere, so- tospeak. "He was. ;)J boiut 50 yards from mc when the thing happened, and the

.ghastliness: of it all. fairly rooted mc to- the ground. "At length, as I stood like an imagfe -of bronze, with eyes rivetted on the hea-d, I noticed , something' that scared mc- more than ever. That head was moving; there was no mistakei about that—it was rolling' over.

ana over, very slowly, and ma-kin ar *or its body. iNow. the face was hidden in, the.dust of the ground, now 100-king up in the sky. '"Then 1 noticed another pleasant detain. Tho arms and legs were moving too. The fingers of the hand "were stretched wide apart, digging xheTinsolves .into the..ground and •Severing away; the . toes-of the bier boots were "retting- a bite where they could, then' giving l a. shove, and thus •tne logs were shiitimr. ■ ''In time aIT five readied the : ■iruiik at,precisely the ssiane moment: - it had been a i-«.ck-anu-neek' race alt.i ine way ; and, listen to this, i was < ;.»«2in<j: on a romp 1 , etc corpse. ! ; 'i went-, and esa.mir.ed it, and, as , far ;).:>•- 1 could ft-e. it was- not, so- much , ,ii. bruised. - .iuKt the shook of the j explosion, had wrenched the life from , i \ it. "I felt T had hml a pretty -rood dov-e----fo-r the-time bema, and so 'shinned' ! it. I didn't stop before T had cover-j 3d the mile that separated mc from j my .compitny. ' ' j "I wish .somebody had been tinrrnui mc. I, reckon I covered .that mile) veil inside fiye miimtes —a. wondei-fui aerf-ormance, considering the going' md' my equipment. ' "I told the fellows all that had happened, and some of us went back, a odt gimrerly, to give the remains a nrrial. "We found the corpse exactV ns b lad last seen it—calm,, beautiful,. uninjured. "Yet I saw_all I have s n irl T saw is clearly as T see von-der.trees.".. '"T believe s-dd a- hard°n"d w>mpai<rf]e r . "I mvs'd.f hnve . ?ee'n hinjps n.s bnd when ha.v" V"m KBeefSn-z near mc and b-jl'ots whVtling

pa,-;ft my. head, and I haven't had much sleep ftu weeks and . ■ -precious little to eat. "At smch. firoei;. ghosfe- come- and g-o in a reax'dar procession. '; af, least, \ such is the • oa.se with mc." ,