LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6648, 12 September 1889, Page 1

LITERATURE.

ON THE OLD MOLE GUARD. £Bt John D. Bam] (Concluded.) Sewxthelesß the thing left an unpleasant impression on his mind, and one that he could not wholly shake off, although he tried his hardest. Allan's words, the very way in which he told his outrageous story, rendered it impossible to doubt his sincerity of belief in what he saw* or he fancied he saw. Corporal Steelewas an old soldier, and, while very intelligent, was a remarkably unimaginative man* The " Bed Book,**" Field and Kfle Exercises," he had off by heart and was ready to swear by, but of poets he knew little and romancers less. Yet, as he sat there in the silent guard-room, listening to the eerie lap, lap of the water and the deep breathing of his sleeping comrades, he felt a sense of slow uneasiness creep over him, too dim to resolve into shape, and yet strong enough to be almost unbearSo pronounced did itbeoome at last that he flung down his pen, and, approaching the door of the guard-room, stepped out on the Mole. Hidden in the shadow of the wall, he looked keenly along the white back of the Mole curving inward like a wall through the dark water. AUwasnght,Boftf Mheoouldsee. No. 1 sentry was standing at ease at some little distance, his mouth agape, his eyes fixed on vacancy. No. 2 he could just distinguish, marching briskly up and down his post, the quick glitter of his bayonet marking the points at which he turned. Reassured, the corporal was in the act of turning indoors again when a heavy bell somewhere in the town attack two, eleotrifviiur No. 1 from laziness into activity. Fro£ far away the call "All's well" came ringing round the rook, and as it reached him he took it up with a jackallike yell that made the air quiver. No. 2 answered it with one of equal volume, and then approaching the door No. 1 thrust his head in, shouting : "Sentry go I" "Don't say anything about Allan's scare," said the corporal in a rapid undertone. "I don't want him chaffed about it." "A' rieht," was the answer; and then the relieving sentries made their appearance, yawning and rubbing their eyes. No. 1 was speedily relieved, and before the new sentry had taken two turns of his post the old one was down at full length on the wooden bench and nearly fast asleep. Insomnia in any shape does not obtain in the army to any marked extent. All was right on No. 2, and the transfer was quickly effected. But as the relief was mq-Mhing off, Allan approached the new sentry. "For God's Bake, keep your eyes about you, and wide open," he said, in alow, earnest tone. The other, a remarkably handsome man of about thirty, but whose character was none of the best, halted and stared at the speaker in astonishment. "What the— whatfs the matter with you ?" he asked. " Did you bring a bottle on guard with yon, or what ? " " Never mind that, Wilson; yon do as I tell you," "Is anything wrong? " " Not yet, but there may be." "All right, I'll keep a good lookout," replied the other, in a careless tone, as he turned away* "What were you saying to him?" asked the corporal, as they went back towards the guard-room. " Only telling him to kesp a sharp eye about him. You may say what you like, corporal, but I feel sure that something is going to happen on that post before we go off. It has been growing on me ever since I saw that infernal thing an hour ago, and I can't Bhake it off." The other made no reply then ; bnt when the relief had been dismissed, he beckoned Allan to follow him from the room. Outside was a bench running along the walL On this they seated themselves, and then the corporal spoke. "Now, Allan, just go over that yarn again," he said, "and tell me every thing, down to the very position of the stones yon were standing on." Thus adjured, Ailap repeated at much greater length, and with more of detail, the Btory he had before told. The corporal heard him in silence, and when he had finished sat for some moments in thoughtful reverie. "You don't drink, I think you said ?" "I don't; never did." "Have you been reading any ghost yarns lately? There's some such trash in the library, I know." "No, I haven't, and I don't believe in ghosts, or at least did not till— till now !" " Do you now ?" " I don't seem to "have much choice left. How on earth am I get over that shadow ?" "Your eyes may have deceived you." "Bet your best button they did not." " And there was nothing that you could see likely to account for it ?" "Nothing." Both were silent fox some minutes, and then the corporal broke out in a tone of irritation— "Hanged if I don't think that we are a pair of auld henwives, bothering about such stuff as this!" - " Maybe," returned Allan drily. " But I don't feel like a henwife, and I'd just like to ask you a question." "What is it?" " You're an old soldier, and have seen a good deal in your time. Now, did you .. never come across things that neither you nor any man living could explain, try as you might P" The corporal did not answer, but there rose in his memory more than one queer recollection— such recollections as every observant man must have who has long lived such a life as falls to the lot of the British soldier or sailor. " Well," he said slowly, " it seems to me that the world is full of queer things, comrade, or rather things that seem queer to us, but I don't believe in ghosts for all that. This story of yours is not worse than some I have heard either. But we needn't bother about it. Letfrgoin." "I'm not going in," replied Allan quietly. "What for?" "Because I don't feel easy about that POSt. fm poing- to sit hero * while where I can see it." " Stuff ! Why, suppose {hat anything went wrong down yonder, it would be all over before yon could get hire. Besides, there's No. 1 to look out.for that." " No. 1 might not see what was happening nearly so soon as I would, and as for getting there I wouldn't try; I could reach anybody yonder in about a second with this." He tapped something resting against the .wall beside him as he spoke. Looking down the corporal saw that it was his rifle. The thing frightened him thoroughly, somehow, and he looked at Allan anxiously. The face of the latter was pale, and there was a strange light in his eyes. Yet there was not the slightest trace of irrationality about him. "Why, what do you expect to see, in the name of all the saints ?" "I don't know," returned the other, speaking in tones that told of increasing excitement, "but I do know that something I will see. Do you know what that thing looked like ? It has just come to me *ow,"

"No." " laia ft mail running with a mortal wound— running till he f eIL" The corporal felt a cold chill cross over him. Alias lifted his rifle, sprung the lerer, pota cartridge in the chamber, shut the breech, and then with the rifle across his knees, sat I<H>kfr»g fixedly in the direction of the sentry in No. 2. "If it wasn't for befog laughed at, rd double the Bentriea/* said the corporal, half to himself. But he so longer thought of going in. He had caught something of his companion's excitement, and felt bo nervously alert mto render aleep impossible. It wa& in rain that he argued aad reasoned with himself, told himself that the whole thing was absurd, and that he was a fool to share tt»e silly fears of a scared reorait. It would not do i rightly or wrongly he had become almost as bad as Allan, and felt that he most see it out. Slowly the time dragged on. Higher and higher the moon rose in the sky that was now dotted with drifting clouds. And with every minnte that passed, the beauty and peacefulnesß of the soft southern nighb deepened. Ho. 1 sentry passed and repaased, giving an occasional .careless look at the two motionless figures seated in the Bhadow of the guardhouse. A soft wind arose and stole in from the sea. The water lapped and gurgled among the stones, till, listening to it, the corporal's excited imagination quickened into nightmare. And still, motionless as a stone, his grasp on his rifle, his eyes fixed on the indistinct figure of No. 2, Allan sat waiting. A cloud passed over the moon, flinging a groat shadow on the Mole. No. 2 reached its far end and halted as the hoarse bell pealed out on the silence. One— two — three ! Hark! Faintly heard at first, but rapidly coming nearer, the call of the sentries runs round the chain. No. 1 takes it np. " Old Mole Ho. I— A-a-sll's well ! " An instant* b pause, and then — " Old Mole No. 2— A-a-all's well! " "My God!" It came oat with a shout, as he sprang to his feet and flung the rifle up to his shoulder, while the corporal yelled frantically— "Guard, turn out!" What, under heaven, had they seen— or heard? A gaunt, dripping figure that seemed to rise out of the sea right behind the unconscious sentry, the quick flash of a knife, an awful cry, that was drowned in the whiplike crack of a rifle ; and then the alarmed guard came rushing out and tore down the Mole after Allan and the corporal. And this was what they saw. Prone on his face, stabbed through and through, and stone dead, lay Wilson, the sentry. And even in the horror of the moment, the corporal saw that he had run or staggered from where he was stabbed to the spot on which he lay in a pool of blood, leaving as he ran the trail of the shadow. "Look," he said, hoarsely, to Allan, "look I" The other turned away with a shudder and approached the little group gathered round a second body — that of the assassin. He too was dead, and as they turned him over and the moonlight fell on his dark face, that yet hare the look of exnltant revenge it had worn when the bullet struck him down, one of the men uttered an exclamation. "What is it? Do you know him?" asked the corporal. "Yes; if s Jose, the gipsy. I knew it would end this way." "How?** "Wilson took away his sweetheart, or the girl he wanted for his sweetheart, and he swore revenge. Well, he's got it in full, poor wretch I"