THE POISONED WELL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3096, 29 May 1917, Page 6

THE POISONED WELL

GRIM SKETCH FROM THE FROM

(By, Patrick Mac Gill ,, Author of "Tho Great Push," etc.) fTlio following is published by the War Office through the Press Bureau, and forwarded on by the secretary of the Royal Colonial Institute. , ] Micky Kynan had come in on a stretcher from the fields round Bapaume, aud this was the story which he told while the M.O. was dressing hie wound:— ""Well, I was goin' across there through tbiin shell holes in open order and havin' a look at things. It's the divil's own leasehold this bit o' counthry up here be Bawpum. A shell-hole at ivery step and ethrands iv barbed wire, end diehinantled houses, and ruins, and destruction. Where the counthry's not torn up its only a restin' place for dud shells and dead Bodies.

"It looks as if there's a war on here. I says to meself; and I stopped and puts a match to me pipe. Now, if there's one tiling more than another that puts life into me its me ould black dudheen aud a bit of thick black twist. So I puts a light to it as I said, and bad a puff "Thin I got what every soldier expects at one time or another,- a packet right in,me showlder, and down I goes flop into a , puddle. Knocked out. Iv coorse I was. How long I lay there T. don't know. But I have mbiories if somebody comin' along and lifiin' me up anil niuryin' me somewhere. But where to I don't know.

"Well and good. Whin-1 did come to I was all alone sittin' in a ehell hole me showlder throblrin' and me head spinnin' like the propeller iv an aryplane "Where am I? I asks meself. and looks round mewithout gcttin' up to me fpet. But notbin' was to.l>e seen bar that spread of disolatkm with its barbed wire entanglements and its shell-hole-;, and here and there a dead Boohe lyin' face downwards. And I was sick iv the war but how pise eoi-ld T be, sppin l that in addition to havin' me -shoivlriVr so painfu! T-had also lost me pipe. Whin a man like me's all.alone and not havin' no tibacky, it's almost, as well to be out at the back iv Godspeed, where the black haythens ote wan another when they're hungry.

'"Am T near the war at all?' I asked meself, and listened to hear things. Tlmie .enough the war was still goin' on, for a shell came droppin' not far from me on the left flank, and then another went whizz over me head aud dropped on the right. And there was me, all alono without a-pipe. 'Mother o' God/ says I, 'preserve me. a. Donegal man that doesn't want to die like a baste o' the fields.' "And then, would ye believe me, as it in answer io me prayers I saw something comin' along the rim iv the shell hole. What-was it? What, but a poor, thin, dirty dog, wid its silly tail between its skinny legs, and a God-help-me look in its two silly-lookin' eyes.

" Te're a poor, silly-lookin' crathur,' says I, addressin' me remarks to the al:iinal."

Rynan'a expressions of pity for the dumb animal save way to siii excess of language which in pi-infc can only be hinted at by dashes and notes of exclamation. The tlressing-etation listened, fascinated, and a wounded youth who had come out in a draft a week previous was seen to blush.

"Beggin' yer pardon, sor," said Kynan, looking at tho M.0., "but when wan meets a live crathur where nothin" mortal is expected, wan is apt to get a bit excited. I felt a sort iv brotherly feeliu' for the lyiimal, for isn't it said that a man without a. pipe and a dog with its tail between its legs are meet company in a lone liouse?

"I called tho dog up to me, and up it conies. 'Ye're lookin' unhappy,' says 1, "and I pattin' it. 'Buck up/ I says, 'for it's a poor heart that niver rejoices. "Well, 1 didn't feel so bad now, and I thought it was high time to get back. I got to my feet to find that my equipment was gone, cut- off. I suppose a stretcher-bearer had done that, and then left me in the shell-hole, thinkin' me dead, or wid the intention of comin' back to pick me up again. I hadn't a drop of wather either, and me as dhry as an ashpit.

, "I Inks at the dog and the do? luks at me. AVc'll git out o' this, I says to him. The Boche is not sliollin's us now, and ye follow me and if us two gets back safe I'll get ye posted to the best battalion in tlio B.E.F. So we set off, I walkin' and staggerin' in front dog followin' at mo heels. . . . But the drouth that was on me, Mother iv God. I_ might ne well be in the sandy deserts o' Arabeea. Prisintly ] sees a well under a littlc-knowe, mid. the watlier as clear as if it was in a strame flowin , down to Gweebara. Bay. To look, at it warmed the cockles iv me heart. And the dog. The little imp if the divil saw it afore mo and he was already down to his ears in it drinkin' like bully 0. Bad scran to yo for a dog, guys I. Ye're goin' afore, yor betthors. And it's nof a dlirink wo want, as far as I can see, but a bath.

"To make a Tew remarks like that fieomwl to take it oiit of me, or maybe it was the excitement, and a«h m.iybe it was mo wound. But whatsoinever it was 1 went reelin' and foil down there in a deixl faint on the very brink o" the well. "When I emu to T had a Ink round and (hero T saw the dog lyiii' on (bo ground with its legs stretched out and its jfnvs all afoam, and net a stir in any limb o' it at all. T gets (o me feet !>.nil .looked at the watlier, then at the dog, 'then at the watlier attain. And the drouth wos on inc. worse nor iver.

But I didn't dhrink 'Tivas thin that T met the st.reteher-beamrs, and } tonld tjiim io brirnr some of the. wathet back with tliim. Have ye seen it. sor?" "T examined, it." said fie doctor. "Poisoned, sor?" asked TCyiian. The doctor nodded his head. ".Arsenic," he replied.