STORIES OF BRAVERY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1228, 2 April 1914, Page 4

STORIES OF BRAVERY.

THE TRUE TEST OF COO AHE

“Anyone can he brave in company,” said the old war correspondent, as we talked after dinner, "and courage is easy to display in broad daylight. The greatest test of nerves that I know is to he on sentry at night when the enemy is close at hand, and might at any time show up. To he under fire in the daytime with the chance of being finished suddenly with a bullet which comes from an unknown rifle, is nothing to it. and even waiting for a bayonet charge when your ammunition bolt is empty is sport to sen try-go in the darkness. with the knowledge that a man might pounce upon you at any moment.'’ The talk fell to the bravest men known by members of the company. ‘•The bravest man I have known,” said a colonel, who fought in the South African War, “was a big, flabby, and, as far as 1 knew him, distinctly lazy army surgeon. He came to ns Into in the war and as he had the VAC. and seemed such an unlikely man to (xissess it, I made enquiries about how it was won. He was under lire at one of the early fights against the Roefs, and found a man who had been shot through an artery in the thigh. Ho took hold of the wound with his hand temporarily to stop the bleeding, and immediately afterwards the. firing became so hot Unit all his own fellows retired and left him there in the open, lying beside the wounded man. For five hours lie Tiling on to that artery under a very hot sun, and in an exposed position. The enomy Found him, and thought ho was merely keeping quiet, for while he lay there he was shot five times. When his men got him he was just about finished from loss of blood. Doth of them recovered, and the doctor, when some of them tried to talk to him about it. said that, being a lazy man and fond of warmth, he found if quite to Ids liking lying there in the sun.”