A STRANGE AFFAIR.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 239, 5 January 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

A STRANGE AFFAIR.

THE THING THAT FRIGHTENED THE BOSCHES.

Many are the stories, grave and gay, which are told about the prisoners ot 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 frightened not only the Germans, but their guards also. -"

From time to time, not long ago, tho 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 lje.fore the dawn. On many oc- ;

casions 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 his hullabullooing, and ran to his rescue, they discovered nothing. Yet the sentry described the Thing to them as " uncommon queer!— just like a cat, but with a red-striped face!" As lie was known to be a very trustworthy man and truthful, the sergeant of tfo guard had a thorough search made. But, as before, nothing came of it, and the sentry was made fun of by his comrades for having nightmare when on duty.

MORE THRILLS. ' A fo'.v days later a <workman had a strange experience when repairing part of the roof. At the end of his day's work he left his toolbag safely hidden away in a corner. Next morning ho ! saw, to hi 3 surprise, that the contents of his bag lay strewn all over the i place. Here was his hammer, and there his chisel. The screwdriver was tucked away in a crevice, and the rest o; his tools lay higgledy-piggledy. There were, too, queer footmarks left ■ in the sawdust. I The Powers That Are deliberated on the strange affair. Xo explanation was forthcoming. \ Someone suggested it was a favourite dog of one of the prisoners interned in another part of the camp. Someone else proposed it was the ghost of a dog that had died of grief at parting with its master when the "Vaterland" had called upon him to join the army, and was now searching for him. But at last one parson recalled * certain fact. So a trap was set and baited with choice red meat. Next morning the nightly visitor was in ft hard and fast. It was a great, fat racoon. Eves sintle Hagenbeokj of Hamburg, had shown part of his famous Zoo there. I the racoon, that had escaped, had lived \ by hunting rats and mice by night, and j lying low by day in its den right over I the ceiling of the Commandant's officeHere its larder was found with stores I of rats and mice, and the bones of rats which it had hunted down. Si»edily the Thing That Frightened the I Benches found itself behind the steel- : mesh of n cage, much to its rage and j disgust.