Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 14 August 1924, Page 4

That tickling, irritating cough can bo promptly relieved a few drops of “XAZOL” taken on lump sugar. GO doses Is 6d.

SNAKE LION, TSHINO. One dnv, while wriggling through long grass to stalk a knelt antelope of a species called “songwe,” Col. Statliani wits attacked liv a mamba, a snake whose kite is quickly fatal. The shake Struck. but. although its fangs punefnred kis felt lint and handkerchief worn beneath it. Col. _ Stathnm’s head was untouched. Time after time Col. Stathain had ( to protect his wife and himself from , lions, tind once he was charged k\ a i rhino. Hut their adventures with wild animals and their sufferings from thirst were as nothing compared with a period of tremendous mental stress they suffered during a forced spell of camping in territory “ruled” hy an English rocluse who proved to ho insane. Ho fore this man was met, the party • came mion a (Ireek who called ldmself ••Harris Johns.” llis but stood above the junction between two rivers. Col. Stntham described him as “n f a,i;dl le.m. who looked like an invalid and walked like a cripple, but who yet possessed amazing energy and activity, llis courage, too, was remarkable. While this man—who afterwards met a violent death—Col. Stathain went hunting buffalo hy moonlight, clad in pyjamas and trench coat! Hut he had reason to regret doing so. lie explained : For some cause, Johns wanted to get rid. of me—probably he coveted my rifles. Anyhow, one night lie stampeded a herd of Imll'alo right in my direction, and it was only by firing both, barrels of my heavy .300 cordite rifle

at their nearest Hank and thus just succeeding in turning the mad rush that 1 escaped being trampled to death. Mrs .Stathain declared that on a later occasion the Greek was nil the point of •slabbing the colonel in the I tack. The meeting with the mad Englishman, who was known as “Johnson,” occurred soon afterwards. THE M.AI) KKCLI’SK. Col. Stathain said: Johnson was the strangest man I had ever met. When I arrived at his lint, he was sitting gazing moodily into a lire in the open, with Ids head resting on his hands, lie jumped to his leet in alarm at my approach, and, when 1 told him that m.v wife was on her way to his liuh, he was tenihl\ alarmed. This bronzed and bearded man had not seen a while woman for many years, and he told me that, laid he known she was coming, he Mould have bolted into the bush. Col. Stathain was forced to remain some time near Johnson to wait for carriers to continue his journey. Had he been able to proceed at once he and his bride would have escaped what they both regard ns the most terrible experience of their lives. Johnson (explained the colonel) : would have fits of frightful insanity and was continually trying to provoke me to a quarrel. The situation wa« made all the more dreadful hy the fact that 1 was ill and weak with injuries

sustained hunting. Always f had to £ he on guard, for 1 did not know when ( . lie would attempt to kill me. ( | f thought the end had come when ! one night he came into our tent when ! j my wife was lying down, ami began to voice unreal grievances against mo. At that time I was terribly ill and I practically at bis mercy and all I ( could do was to use’ all my energy in 1 keeping calm. Had i responded to ] bis accusations with one angry word, j all would have been over. I ••KOI! MV WIFE'S SAKE.” I Kor three hours I fought to keep my i voice quiet and to answer him sollly,

! allaying little by little ltis self-invoked I nng'er. I knew that, for the sake of my wife l simply could not aflord to die. There we were, my wife and I, ! helpless in tilt' hush—in toriitoiv where Johnson's word was practically i law. j Duri'.’ig thr.t long mental struggle Hiy wife lay trembling on her bed fearing to speak a word, not tinring to more an eye-lid. At last, just as I was ready to collapse, Johnson’s demeanour changed, and he suddonlj marched out of the camp. Somehow. 1 felt that all was not yet over and that Johnson was waiting for his chance to get at mo. I went out of the tent and saw my dog nosing about a bush not inr nt\a,\. When I called, ho came, wagging his : tail. I knew hv that sign that there was somebody behind the bush and guessed that it was Johnson. To disarm his suspicion, 1 called out Ito my wife that there was nobody I about, mill then went baek into the tent In a whisper I told her not to ■ make a sound, and 1 still kept watch. A little later in the night I surprised ' him walking by the tent, and, very , guiltily, he explained that lie had drop- ' ped a letter and had come to pick :l U|> PKHFKCT HOST, AT TIMES. Col. Stathain added that in some 1 moods Johnson was the “perfect win:? host in the wilds.” “Tie could wii.o good poctrv.” said the colonel, “aim he told me Hint he had written a ' hook, hut nobody would publish 1 localise it was too libellous.’ Some time later mews came that Johnson bad killed the Greek Johns, ' shot all his own stock, burned his property and then committed suicide. Yet with all tlm memories of her adventures still vivid in her mind Mrs Stathain craves to go hack to Amen. “There’s no place like the bush,” she smiled.