A STRANGE AFFAIR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1652, 19 December 1916, Page 4

A STRANGE AFFAIR.

FRIGHTENED BOSCHES.

AN UNSEEN VISITOR

Many are the stories, grave and gay, which are told about the prisoners of war and others interned in camps scattered up and down throughout England and Scotland. But one of the best and most amusing is that which deals with a strange nightly thing. It frightens not only the Germans, but their guards also. From time to time, not long ago, the captives kept in the grounds of. a certain camp grumbled bitterly and long that their rest was being broken by the singular pitter-patter and most extraordinary ongoings of an unknown and unseen visitor, who suddenly came into their midst late in the night or just before the dawn. On many occasions the guard was called out to search for the intruder. But nobody and nothing could ever be found.

Then a soldier on guard one night saw it, and he had the fright of his life. When his comrades in the guardroom turned out to bis hullabullooing, and ran In bis rescue, they discovered nothing. Yet the sentry discribed the thing to them as “uncommon queer! —just like a big cat, but with a red-striped face!’’ As he was known to be a very trustworthy man and truthful, the sergeant of the guard bad a thorough search made. But, as before, nothing came of it, and the sentry was made much fun of by his comrades for having nightmare when on duty. MORE THRILLS.

A few days later a Avorkman had a strange experience when repairing part of the roof. At the end of his day’s Avork he left his toolbag safely hidden away in a corner. Next morning he suav, to his surprise, that the contents of his bag lay strewn all over the place. Here was his hammer, and there his chisel. The screAvdriver avus tucked away in a crevice, and the rest of his tools lay higgledly-piggledly. Then* Avere, 100, ipieer foot-marks in the saAvdust. Someone suggested it Avas a faA - ourite dog of one of the prisoners of war interned in another part of the camp. Someone else proposed it Avas the ghost of a dog that had died of grief at parting Avith its master Avhen the “Vaterland” had called upon him to join the army, and Avas noAv searching for him. But at last one person recalled a certain fact. So a trap Avas set and baited with choice red meat. Next morning the nightly visitor was in it hard and fast.

It Avas a great, fat racoon. Ever since Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, had shown part of his famous zoo there, the racoon, that had escaped, had lived hunting rats and mice l>y night, and lying loav by day in its den right over the ceding of the commandant’s office. Here its larder Avas found, Avith store of rats and mice, and the hones of. cals Avhich it had hunted- down. Speedily the thing that frightened the Bosches found itself behind the steel mesh of a cage, much to its rage and disgust.