A STRAY SHOT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4572, 17 February 1893, Page 1

A STRAY SHOT.

[BT*PBE3)EBIO VILMBHS.T y{Pa\i M«.U Budget.) It waa a warm time m the Morava Valley — not only climatically, for the summer was exceptionally hot and oppressive, but warm with the heat of battle, burning villages and blazing camp fires. Every night for the last week in Angus fc, 1876, a dull red light .flowed over the valley, colouring the limpid waters of the Morava with blood-like tints. A low oraokling and hißaing came sighing with the evening 'breeze from burning homesteads of the unfortunate Servian peasantry as Bpeoks of bright flame shot up into the air. Each day's bloody work added to the night'B lurid glow, for the Turks were always victorious, and destroyed everything that. came: in their way as they advanced up the valley, illustrating the aphorism, "Where the hoof of the Turkish horse treads, no blade of grasa ever grows." I had watched the last shots one evening flicker againdb the. purple background of the darkening hills, spattering in the gloaming like flecks of fire from a t flint and steel, for. the Turks were now within a few miles of our town, and tomorrow portended a warmer period still. ■ . Far into the night the stretcher-bearers were trailing over the Alexinatz bridge up through the winding streets of the town with 1 their groaning bur dens of maimed humanity. •Early in the month several English surgeons and dressers had arrived, and, under the superintendence of Surgeonaofajor Mackellar, were busy at work in the little schoolhouse .which had been transformed early in the campaign into a temporary hospital. To-night there was an almost unbroken line of bearers stretching from the sohoolhouse through the main street, out of 'the town into the open country. Archibald Forbes and I, after a hasty meal in the little hoßteiry near by, would devote our evenings to starting from the hospital and examining the patient sufferers on their litters >as they waited their turn. We found that many of the badly -wounded had waited since early dawn for treatment, and some, growing impatient, had struggled' out of their' stretchers or blocked waggons and crawled along the side-walks towards the sohoolhonee till their life-blood had drained from their veins down the gutters. There they lay, stiff and stark, staring up into the face of the mellow moon. As we walked slowly down this sad procession, we would turn those who were already dead aside to make room, and the time shorter, for the living to gain the. hospitals. Forbes and I wandered backward and forward on this .painful duty till the fires in the valley paled in the stronger light of dawn. The three or four rooniß constituting the 'hospital were crowded with wounded ; there waß hardly space for the doctors to work in, and this they had to do by the fitful flicker of a few tallow candles stuck -in patches of grease on the floor. I had been assisting the Burgeons by passing the instruments from one room to another, holding a candle, or pressing the hand of some poor fellow under treatment, when, almost faint with the stifling atmosphere, •I thought I would seek some fresh air. , Picking my way through the crowd of wounded on the landing and stairway, I had atlast gained the street entrance, when >mj leg was plnoked at by some poor creature in the shadow of the portal. As he lifted his face a moonbeam fell on a Bight I shall never forget. His face, a mere pulp, was crushed by a fragment of shell> and was black bb a negro's with clotted gore; only air bubbles frothed from , where his mouth and nose had been. Staring appalled at this gruesome sight, lie aroused me by touching my boot and slowly lifting his arm, pointed to the •lower part of his face. The poor fellow repeated this action before I understood him. Then I knelt by his side, unscrewed my brandy flask, and poured some of the liquid down his throat. He could not express his gratitude by word of mouth, but his eyelids trembled, and he slowly lifted his arm again gradually, bringing his hand to the salute. The quiet patience of this' soldier, -his fearful plight, will ever remain in my memory. During the night a contingent of Eussian Volunteers arrived with a few officers. Then, when the sun was well up, Servian reinforcements came in from Deligr&de. To blare of bugles, with swinging gait, they tramped down the street. Some of the few remaining wounded' of the previous night, still lying in the gutters, aroused themselves for the moment, and tried to turn their groans to ' cheers. Xegiment after regiment passed on. Far into the morn, the points of the bayonets glistenod above the dust as the troops marched through the town out into the ■'■; ' r open, down into the yajley./ The valley df Vvt£e««h^b#^v:}de^ '. ; ' powder and blood waa -eyeryvherev. ', The, , desultory, shots which had been exchanged . in the early morning gradually ceased, and ' for a time a universal quietude reigned, but, just before midday, the opening of the artillery fire on both sides and the sharp crackle of musketry presaged close fighting. I am easily stirred by some dramatic action in a good play or the martial strains of a fine band, but the ping of the bullet and the whistle of shell certainly stir me more. " Plenty of time," said my friend Forbes, noticing myperturbated spirit. " They are just playing up to the grand finale, and that is when we ought to be there. Come, sit down and eat your dinner." . We took onr accustomed seats at the little table in the corner of our inn facing the street. As we were beginning our meal a , smiling . young Russian with - Calmuok-like cheek bones, tip-tilt nose, sandy hair, and small grey eyes, looked through the window, and a pair of bine spectacles perched on his olfactory organ. On seeing us he opened the door, walked in, bowed, and marched np to our table. With a smile he wiped his pince-nez on the sleeve of his jacket, placed them on the table by his plate, then called for food and • commenced eating. Now, being more or lesa an old campaigner, I can put up with almost any kind of eccentricity in the manner of eating ; but this little Russian's behaviour was, to say the least, nauseating-— not so much in / using his fingers, or in the fact that, if we had had such luxuries, we would not have hesitated in eating peas with a knife— for that weapon he used with marvellous dexterity in conveying his food to his mouth. When the feeding was done he calmly seized his fork, which had been untouched for any edible uae, and slowly began dislodging from between his teeth the stringy portions of the tough beefsteak he had been consuming. At one moment he seemed to be performing an act of jugglery, as the three-pronged instrument almost disappeared down his throat in pearch of Borne molar, but it would miraculously turn up once more as much as to Bay, "You observe, ladies and gentlemen, there is no deception about it." My sense of decency was so aroused at this loathsome exhibition that I turned to Forbes and whispered, " That young man will not be a great loos to society if he gets shot this afternoon." The gentleman with < the fork did not seem to notice our wellmarked aversion to his eccentric behaviour. After the Russian had made his mouth .: comfortable and lodged his goggles on his ■; ' sunburnt nose, his face widened into a grin as he told us that he had only arrived | : tbat morning, and that he knew us by 1 repute, that he was a brother war-corre-s pondent for a Mobcow journal, and he felt ;.; bo honoured in making the acquaintance of ■ tWo'Buch distinguished brethren. . ;

In spite of his urbanity and good humour the uncomfortable sensation he had caused us by his novel use of the fork could not easily be effaced. We were glad to light our pipes and get once more into the open. All the time*during dinner the increasing rattle of musketry and booming of guns told us the fight was waxing hotter and hotter. We hastened to the Ute dv ppnt. The works at the bridge were bristling with bayonets, for the reserves we had seen march by in the morning were packed closely under cover. About half a mile from the bridge we joined Mackellar and his staff of surgeons, and jogged along in their ambulances till a favourable spot, a deserted cottage, was reached, where we halted to receive the wounded. In our immediate front were fields of Indian corn, then a wood Btretched from the river on our left flank as far as the hills skirting the right of the valley. Through this wood, close in to the fort hills, where it passed a village, our road could be traced by occasional puffs of dusbasashell struck it or an orderly scampered along. The fighting was going on on the other sides of the thicket; we could see the branches of the trees stand out in bold relief from the yellow flashes of our artillery on the outer fringe. The little village on our right seemed almost deserted, but lazily hanging in the noontide heat was a red-cross flag on the roof o£ one of the houses. Surgeon Boyd was told off to go as far as this village and report the number of wounded. Now I knew that Boyd was very anxious to Bee some practice, and this was his first venture in the field, so I thought I would accompany him. As we began to move parallel to the wood a horseman passed us waving his arms in recognition and grinning from ear to ear. His horse, a rugged, heavy-boned animal, seemed to be playing cup-and-ball with him, but the rider etill held on. It Was the little Russian correspondent of the fork incident. One or two shells from the enemy, missing our artillery, passed over the trees and came upon the road. One whistled so near to 93 that we fell flat to the ground ; it whisked along to the fields on our right and burst in the soft soil. As the mud and stones were shot into the air, more and more did our Russian's horee eeem to play cup-and-ball with him till we loat sight of horse and rider aa they danced into the village. A few slightly wounded soldiera dribbled through the wood into our road. We dressed their wounds and they hurried away to the bridge in our rear. On entering the hamlet we found it rapidly filling up with wounded; many of them had maimed themaeives by blowing off their trigger fingers. The stumps were freshly blackened with powder, and we could see by the looks of these * cowardly stragglers and • the faces of the more seriously hurt that the day was lost. We hurried up to the house flying the red cross. The wounded were being rapidly placed in the requisitioned country carts, which were hastened away as Boon as filled. To our surprise we, found the ambulance worked by. .Russian women, three in number, dressed in neat uniforms, with their badge of office painted on their black mackintosh aprons. Up to i their armpits in blood these plucky little ladies had been running the hospital all day, and were now standing at their post saeing to the wounded. The noise increased in the main street. Now a gun thundered along, then came another with one of the drivers badly hurt, followed by a few/tunning infantry. The orackle o£ ; musketry seemed quite near;, presently a shell skimmed over the roof of the hospital, I loosening a few tiles, but left the red cross flag lazily Hanging. By Jove ! thought I, the Servians have already commenced the retreat. How soon the Turks will be in the village heaven only knows. I turned to the Sisters, lifted my hat, and said .- " Ladies, the enemy is outflanking our position, and will probably be in the town in less than half an hour. Let us eee'you on the road to safety, and leave this business " (pointing to the few maimed creatures still awaiting transport) " to ÜB." One lady with top boots of Hessian cut, short skirt, and Cossack jacket, with revolver slung across her breast, touched her. little black silk Montenegrin cap, fixed on her head of frizzy auburn hair, and, after a mock salute, said sternly, " Sir, and who are you ?" Rather abashed, I was stammering out a reply. Not breeding me She continued, " You are a civilian. I can see this is no place for you." . / " I am a war correspondent," I stuttered. "Then," replied she, "as a non-com-batant seek a place of safety and leave us alone." Our Russian correspondent friend of the fork incident had ridden up, . and was standing, near. On hearing the retort of his woman his miserable stereo? typed- grin suffused his ' face. In my -inmost ..heart I was Sorry that his horse had not missed him in the game of cup-and-ball, and left him a league away sprawling in the dust. The Russian redcross ladies stuok heroically to their poßt —what was worse, we put of pique felt obliged to stay and see them off the ground, which was now sprinkled with the fire of the enemy's sharpshooters as they cleared the way in front oE them. As we left one end of the village with our contingent of wounded the Turks entered the other. Luckily for us the Serbs made a bold Btand for at least an hour, allowing us to catch up with the current of the retreat. We were swept along into thick clouds of dust, into which, struggling and jamming, rolled artillery, ambulance waggons and peasants' carts covered with women and children with their goods and chattels who had retreated early in the day from the village we had just left. For a time a serious block occurred." The wheel of a waggon left its axle, down crashed the cart, shooting its contents of household goods into the middle of the road. The pots and pans rolling between the legs of some artillery horses, frightened these brutes on to their haunches, and they backed tbeir gun into a team of oxen, setting these animals kicking out right and left, scattering the limping wounded aad cowardly. With groans, shrieks and curses the seething masses wavered for a time, then straggled as all making for the protection of the reserves at the tSte-du pont. On reaching Mackellar'a quarters once more I found that Forbes, with great forethought, had at the commencement of the retreat turned the doctor's ambulance' waggon with the horses towards Alexinatz, and was strongly urging one of the surgeon*, young Hare, to hurry up into the waggon. Their surgeon wbb facetiously called the timid Hare by ue, not for want of pluck, but because of his modest and retiring temperament. Hare waa fixing up the artery of a wounded soldier bleeding to death, and would not leave his charge. "For God's sake, come along!" cried Forbes; "the Turks are now on our side of the wood, their bullets ate drilling holes through the mud walls of the hut." Still timid Hare hung, on to the man's artery. We rushed at the surgeon just as the last turn of the bulldog tourniquet did ita work, and Hare and his charge were bandied into the cart. In another moment we were whirled on with the rest of the column. At last we got blocked in the general crush about a mile from the bridge. Forbes and I, who were anxious to get back to the town for the post to Belgrade, decided to make a short cut across the fields. On nearing the Ute-du-pont, some mounted officers rode np to us, waving their arms in the direction of the enemy. We s^ill kept our course. Then the officers closed in on us with revolvers

pointed at our heads and requested us to return to the front-.- It was rather awkward. We knew what they meant. They took us for two of the numerous stragglers who preferred to fight again another, day. j We tried to explain matters, and were on the verge of immediate execution; but luckily one of the staff rode up and, on recognising us, laughed heartily, and allowed us to go on our way. Night was now falling, and the Turkish light field guns* were soon silenced by our heavier artillery at the bridge head. So now, almost; unmolested, . the dejected Servian column" crossed the river and made its way up into the town, only to repeat the horrors of the previous night. As usual, shortly after my arrival, I sauntered into the Bohoolhouse to see how the wounded were getting on. There was a body laid out tor burial in the lower room. The figure seemed very familiar to me. Walking up to the table on which it lay, I stood dumbfoundered. There was the little nose, now telling almost black against the livid face. With a quiet smile on his lips lay our little correspondent friend of the fork incident. A handkerchief tied round his throat hid the wound that invited death. A stray shot had passed through his neok. - - A great sadness fell upon me, for he was one of us, after, all.. I, could picture his mother or someo ne dear waiting anxiously for his return to the old Muscovite city. While I, was in the room two soldiers placed his body on a stretcher. A Sister of Mercy arranged a few white flowers around the little gold Ikon or charm on his breast sb he was carried out into the Btreet. Being a oivilian, the officials of the orthodox Church bad been notified of bis death. ■' In rich vestments, four priests and a choir of boys beaded the funeral procession, which I followed as chief mourner to the little cemetery overlooking the town. It was almost dark before the service was over. When I returned Forbes had sent off his budget of war news, and was waiting for me to sit down with- him to our evening meal at the inn, I told him of the fate of the little war correspondent and my sad journey. Looking steadily at me he aaid, "Do you remember your observation regarding our Russian colleague at this very table this 1 morning?" The cruel words I had uttered in the heat of the moment came back to me with painful rapidity.