A STRANGE STORY OF THE SIKKIM WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 274, 21 June 1889, Page 3

A STRANGE ST ORY OF THE SIKKIM WAR.

In Three Parts. PART 111. ' Yes, at a pinch. I could add an "extra one or two to the refct.' ' Well, &en, you must explain to the Abbe that you need aii interpreter. Your column, youhavo told me, may be split up later into de > tachmenter, and as you have not

sufficient interpreters for all contingencies. Explain all this in my tearing, anjj. I will vo unteer f r the appointment. \fi s you must do this as soon as the Abbe returns from vespers, I will go now >nid make my preparations. I have a good deal o do in the way of destroying M.S. — unp'easant connections with the past. I have a lingering affection for one big pil©> tne %uits 9^ much labour. It was to have^een my magnum opus. It is a monograph on Thibetan folk-lore, cpntaining enpugh, of the weird and pi^k ■ marvellous to last generations of such literature. Buiit' shall go with the rest. A l ' revoir.' :' "With this he left me to digest the impressions created by this singular rencontre. Shortly after the Abbe's return, H again put in an appearance. I carried out my appointed part, and ' after some expressions of regret from the Abbe at the temporary — as he inferred- loss of his ' future convert,' ! the matter was settled as H — had proposed. On the way to rejoin the column, H— was very taciturn, and, after a few fruitless attempts to draw him into conversation, I fell in with his mood, and we rode along in silence on our Bbooten pouies. From what I could gather, he was pre-occupied as to the future. On our arrival in camp his appeal ance, dressed as he of course still was a la Thibetan, attracted very little attention, which was exactly what he desired.

Three days' marching with the column bi ought us in view of Thibetan outposts. On the tenth morning after we had joined the column we were face to face with the defenders of the little erection set up by the Thibetans to oppose the passage of traders to and from India. H - had do business to be at the front on this occasion at all, J?ut. he stuck to me, and I did not like to exert my authority to order him back, as he was so bent on coming. Our advance was up a rather steep incline. The path was too narrow to be of much use for many of us, and those on either side of the path had a rough and tumble ssrumble over rocks, boulders, and loose stones. . No sooner had we come within range of their primitive flint-locks thau the Thibetans opened fire. Their weapons were "inaccurate, or their aim was bad, or, perhaps both were in our favour, for their fire; did comparatively little execution. Still a Sepoy dropping now and again sufficiently reminds us of the fact that this was no sham fight with blank cartridge. The strange whirr of the Thibetan balls, too (very unlike the ping .offoiir rjfle bullets) as theyviicocheted on the loose stones around us, left us no illusion as to the leal nature of the contest. H was now provided with the rifle of a fallen sepoy, and Was blazing away with, all .the enthusiasm of a vo ! nnteer . in , his first skirmish. The Thibetan 'fire began to slacken noticeably as we dretr nearer and nearer. We had a shrewd suspicion that they were vacating the premises by the 'back door," which suspicion was amply justified later on. Still they might have been withholding their fire for our final ru h, they having nothing but old obsole'e muzzle-loaders requiring considerable time to charge them, so we had to proceed with circumspection . A desultory fire was still kept up by the Thibetans, so the plaoe was certainly, not entirely evacuated. It might be full of the enemy for all we could see. H was now in the highest of spirits. His Anglo-Saxon instincts lad complete possession of him, and had dissipated every depressing thought and every care. We were scattered about; eachirnail advancing 7 from such cover^.aa: he could ' find The availab'e ground, however, was very limited, so we were well in hand. Our final rush was to take 1 place on the bugle sounding the "charge." H close to me, could hardly constrain his impatience. "When are we to get at them? Why dosen't the General let 'us go? Horn mani pami horn! "But this to me is Li. . ' Those were the last words H ever uttered. His Sentence, if completed, was completed elsewhere. A. ball struck him in the forehead aud he fell almost at my feet. Twas indeed Life in dea h to him ; and thus was ihat mystery concerning his future fiagically solved — the attempted solution of which had been causing him anxiety ever since we left Pedongi 1 There is but little more to tell. Needless to say that I respected his wishes and kept his secret We buried him tHat night as a Thibetan ally, and I read the service over him standing alone by his grave on that wild and rugged Thibeton mountain side. Such was the real end of poor H , and so too ended all chance of any more of his "posthumous " Christmas stories ever appearing. "Did I -ever tell, his friends? Only one. The reception my story met with ontbatjQne , occasion convinced me that in*'me absence ,of all corroborative evidence,' 1 petter hold my tongue, if I did riot^anc^, an ,ovit- ; burst of family indignation culminating in one, or several, breaches of the peace. A No^ Ijd^'t tell h^is friends.: I find stralfgWgnibr'e sympatKetflc f at all events they don't threaten to "horsewhip" me if I daWWfepeatf the VK* BXO.