THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 253, 23 February 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

Cli'dren, he knew, were often afraid of shadows. He remembered perfectly that on the wall of the bed room, when ho wan a small boy, hung a print trained in straw, the nail of which cast a shadow that in the wavering light ot tho lowered gas-jet always looked like a spider's lanky moving leg. This used to frighten him horribly, and no amount of turning up the pis and reasoning could comfort him when ho woko and saw that awful little threatening line. But that in these later years, when he was supposed to be grown up. a shadow—aWe all Ira own should have power to scare lum was too absurd.

' Absurd, perhaps, yet undeniably true. Ho li:ul nrt uneasy fooling tliat hi' was being watched, and t!i"t tips crooked thing that counterfeited his form niul sidled about him wherever he wont, w.i i tli,. watcher, the sentinel, the spy, always on duty. Even in a darkened room or in the middle of the night h;> felt it there, only awaiting the ton-h of n. matih to sprinjr to"attention and resume its visible guard. In Hie diffused light of a eloudv nViv it lurked, a dingy l»lur. :it his foot ; in direct sunshine it defied him hodilv; if hn paused to glance at n dimly illumined shop window ho was conscious of it. extended and distorted, its head lost, in oli.-iintv. behind him. Mi told nobody of this |vr>i-tent sensation, pirtly because he thought it silly to admit siit-h n ohildisli fear, pirtlv lnv.ni>." th ■ logical, argumentative i :i'f of him knew it was due to ••nerves." '|'!ie other Hiffering half howeie:-, dhordod all l-gio and could only l„. sunnressed bv constant effort" or \r!l. His period of eonvalesrvnco drew to its i-lomv he had no good reason for pro'onging it. and was rubor glad when tli,- business of preparing for the return to Ins men at (he fronl caused fins ridioiilois worry to r ■ -r<\-\

As h-> ~1 i„ I,;, due-nut one even in 2, not far from |.J„, f ton ( |, no :i letter. (],„ flj, koi in« flame of lis fondle throw ;i grotesque .illioitolfp of h.ini-

self on the boxes which lined the wall beside him. and the uncanny sense of ijiMng watched by it again took hold of him. In turn he watched the shadow. It. too, pretended to be very busy writing. As ho considered it a face looked round the entrance. "■Hullo, doc.!'' he said. "Where are you going!"'

"Advanced Dressing Station. big business on to-night." The doctor grinned, as if it were the most cheerfu Ithng in the world.

" Yes, 1 know. I say, doc, can you give me a tonic?''

"Not just at tho moment, old chap. Come to mo in the morning. Feeling soodv! J "

"A trifle, Ktu it's not worth talking "liout. I'm going over presently—patrol, investigating the habits of J'ritz."

"Righto; good luck!'' The two shook hand-,, quite aware that it might be lor tho hist time. He had seen, with tiio tail of h : s eye, his shadow shake hands with the doctor's. Left alone, he finished his letter, and then, blowing out the candle, traversed tho communication trench leading to tho liiing-.'jne, and selected his men irom the group anxious to be included in tho risky work of the next hour. They moved to and fro in the gloom like shadows themselves, and be felt very strung-up as with three others ho climbed over the parapet and began to stuinblo slowly iorward on the wet. slushy ground. This was shadow indeed, he thought. Yet with light there could bo no shadow, naturally; therefore, this expanse of pitchy "darkness certainly could not he shadow.

For some distance he crept onward alone; the nup flirted a star-shell, and bo dropped flit. But the opposite trench wa.« suspicious, and began strafing No Man's Lind energetically with a couple of machine guns—he" heard the bullets whipping the mud in two ii.tersecting arcs of fire. Unluckily, he wn.s on a slight hillock, and in the brilliance of successive star-shells feared to move. In the high glow he saw tho earth al Iround him cold and pittod I'ke a lunar landscape—mine-craters, chains of hole* stretching into the diV tanee full of blackness. He wondered where the other fellows were . . . that whinnying wave of bullets was coming nearer again.

A blow, like a severe punch from n clenched fisht, (aught him on the snoulder. Hn rolled into a slimy cavity and lay still: he found his breathing 'needed careful management. An hour pnssetd; two hours. He hoped the others had got hack safely, for on their report partly depended the arrangement of the attack. How the shells—otir shells—howled overhead! It was very dark now. . . .

Sounds of shouting, oT heaw run. uing feet, came quickly; it was the attack. He distinguished a shadow that squelched jxist him, but he would not cry out; let the man go on, and good luck to him! The shout : ng died away. 'J he sky grew pallid, then grev, then flushed with rosy clouds. He. closed his for he felt very weorv; but he o|)ened thorn again as a shadow fell across his face and words were spoken. '• That's him . . . Can you see us, sir? tVe'vo come to look for vou first chance. Those machine guns—we've got 'cm now. And their heavies are strafing too far back; but there isn't much time to loss.. Drink this sir " Ho tried to speak, but could not hornetlun K had congealed on his lips . his s:do hurt. And when thev lifted him, ho tainted with the ngonv

The doctor grinned again when h<« saw this burden brought in and received a wan smile in return. "Now then, my boy, for your tonic •■ • • Carefully now—cut away the s.eevo . . . cut awav the vest. . . . Blighty, for sure. . ."

As he lay there helpless ho watched the doctor's shadow on the rough plank wall of the hut that formed the Advanced Drawing Station—the shadow nit which his own had shaken hands. Ic moved about, picked up other shadows, put. them down: .t semed to watch Mini, to grimace at him.

"-Now—you won't know anvthina Keadvi" ' a

I nder the anaesthetic his spirit sa* a■multitude of shadows and to each o* them ho put the mv.stie question: 'Am you Good or Evilp v And they all answered. "Wnen you stand in the Light, we come." What did that mean? Light was goad: it caused shadow: can good cause evil? Cold and expressionless, the spectres crowded past him • the. ■.r,st grew—he put out his hand to touch them: he called them. The light was (lazzlmg. . . He opened his eve* I ho doctor was bending over him. "lou've beer* 'off' fust twentv minutes, ' Ik, said. -Sand I must say you've been talking awful piffie, old bov-vou almost gave me the pip. But vour shadows, whatever they are, are gone now. How d'you feel no we've given you a preliminary clenn-up?" He smiled and managed to whimper that he felt "jolly"—which in the circumstances was a pretty good effort, considering the straif-jaeeket of bandages round his ribs and shoulders Soon ho fell asleep. And in that deep shimher the shadoy watchers left him. For he had travelled through the Valley of the Shadow, and, after that he could fear no evil from the little trudging phantom of himself "when he 6 tood hi the Light."