An Old Soldier Indeed.

Manawatu Herald, 29 March 1894, Page 2

An Old Soldier Indeed.

A contemporary illustrating acts of presence of mind gives the sub* joined instance : — •• At the time of the Maori War in • sixty-four,' at the Lower Wairoa, there wag a redoubt occupied by detachments of militia and regulars At the rear and outside was the commissariat tent, and it happened that the commanding officer, Captain B , of the 43rd, had suspicions that the night sentrits on guard over the store tent, were treated to more than a single friendly * tot.' One night

at a late hour the officer took a stroll J by himself, aud found the sentiy I fast asleep on kin post ! The captain I quietly relieved him of his rifle, and walked off with it towards the guardroom. But quietly as this was done, it woke the soldier, and to full con- j %ciousnes3 of the awful seriousness of his position. Like a Hash of lightning a sudden thought struck him, and as quick as lightning he acted it. He whipped round the op HTiM'fflF vay to his own tent, took another rifle from the rack, and returned to his own post. Whfd a few minutes later a ' file of the guard ' went to take him prisoner, there he was most vigilantly walking up and down his beat, and ar>»ed with his own rifle 1 The ' happy thought' that saved him from at jileasfc fifty lashes and a long term of imprisonment was his suddenly remembering that the rifle taken from him was not im own but on r> (hi-ing nearest to hand) he had taken indiscriminately from the rack when hurriedly turned out for guard. There was not an atom of proof that he had been asleep or had been disarmed."