SICK MAN'S PLIGHT.

Shannon News, 20 November 1925, Page 2

SICK MAN'S PLIGHT.

+— —-— vi:uy im-'julous journey. HIDE IN A ToLTING TRAIN. uvj'k sdo miles of africa. - There vwjj taken not- long ago to the Lev'. Father llackett, sitting m his slidv ' in Spanish place London, a, S-.ii lion, an outpost *i Nigeria. T ; th-il a yomu friend, to whom Fathe H'icludt v,a: gimrdian, was lying m ' tVit lone v.- Place, 4000 mile* away, w h a -acturod spin,-. Nothing- could he clono for him, and He prayed to C °Srilac,eU rood *e cab^am, land. Ho spent no more time (hun was necessary to put the affairs of his church in order, and in Svo weeks' time stood by the> bed ot h* friend at Joss, which is 800 miles of forest and river from the West African coast, and where the the ther rr'fmeter is steady at 95 degrees in the shade. ■ or course, the priest's young friend, -who w#3 Air H-iXtoji, a clerk of tb< jVink of West Africa, was glad to see him He repeated his plea to be taken .-Some, and told what had happened, j r«. had fallen from a window, frac- ' luring liis backbone and at* the »ny hospital ot Joss, where lie-had been car-icd, nothing could be done, ; for ■ him. Perhaps nothing ever could be done for"him. But if he could.get,back • to London, where crcal surgcens are

—onp, says, the narrator of the story, could almost hear the sick man's pleas! Father Hackett heard the- plea and bade Mr. Sexton to b e of courage, for he would take him back. His courage would be needed, for the SOO miles to Laws was a perilous ordeal. Once it would have been impossible, for bearers avouUl- have had to carry his litter all the way; but now up to and beyond the tin mines runs a jolt, ing train, and a little tin mine wagon on a 2ft. track.

By these crude methods of -locoino. lion, through three days and nights of the African heat, the injured man was borne back to the coast at Lagos. It wu'j a terrible journey for one in his condition. Every jolt'was a wrench to his aching body, and when he could bear the jolting no longer the train was stopped to give him a rest. But ho got through with the help of his devoted guardian, who, with a native, sat night anj da.y holding steady the hammock in which he was slung. Mr. Sexton was taken' aboard a steamer, and though the pain and exertion brought on—fever during the voyage he got safely to London and became a patient in a nursing home.