Real and False.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 18 March 1907, Page 4

Real and False.

" Ojm orer the ridge, we are safe," laid ihlet, aa he and Peterson stool ou the summit waiting loi the lait twe of their party to tome up. While he was speaking', ballets still sang hi the au above them, itriking with sharp, cnekling noises against the baked soil arid hard stones beneath them. Dust and rock ipHntcra and battered ricochets sprang ap around them, while from the distant ridge aune the report of the enemy's volley ont of t ftint, fleeting cloud of smoke. Two seconds of shock and suspense seemed as age ; but at the end of it they looked into the dip and saw the two stragglers groveltag—one close to the ridge fifty yards to tfeeir riglt; the other, two hundred yards •taught billow them.

"Wbo't the sprinter, you orl?" asked Malet, start and practical. " I fancy you are. . You go for the fellow down there, while I leramble after this chap alongside—same risk to both," he added, starting on his-way, tad flinging hia cumbersome sword over the ridge into safety. " You've further to go j my ground's more diffieult, and I'm on a level with their rifiei the whole way." Crashing over tha rocks, he met a quick convnlsive death en he had travelled twenty yards.

Peterson had assented, with what pride and courage had remained to him after the tbotk of the volley, to the fact that he was the faster man. This appeal to his vanity bad steadied hia nerves better than brandy. Like brandy, the effects of the fillip were •hort lived. Malet was fighting for his last treath with three bullets in his lungs, before •be other, with bended head and slinking gait, had covered a third of his distance. Then his spasmodic burst of courage spent itself. Reaching a boulder that jutted out on his course, he flung himself behind it. Burying his face in his hands like the hunted ostrich, ho quivered and sobbed, and prayed to God in his agony and shame. Like the hunted ostrich, he cared not, now that his face was hidden from the enemy, what part of his body was exposed. A bullet glancing off a neighbouring rock struck him in the ankle. He roared with pain and tainted away. Then the man whom Peterson had sought to rescue opened his eyes and saw the boulder above him. Cruel was the pain in his thigh as he moved, and far away seemed the boulder; but crawling doggedly, painfully, with many rests by the way, he at length reached the haven. Falling alongside Peterson, he fainted again from loss of blood. The men, who had reformed behind the ridge, had answered the enemy's fire. Seeing nothing left in the dip, save the two corpses near the ridge, and not caring to face the bullets that poured upon them, the Fathaus bad retired. The sergeant upon whom Malet'j command had devolved sent a picket back to hold the opposite heights, and a party lo find Malet, Peterson, and the two Itmgglcrs. They found what remained of Malet and one of the stragglers near the ridge. After a search they came upon Peterson nursing his ankle behind the boulder and binding up the other straggler's thigh wj>h one of his putties. They carried the two dead and the two wounded back to camp. At the base hospital, at Nowsliera, docbrs andr.hrsing sisters fought their bitter fight with death, sometimes winning, s'-vietimcs losing. The X ray searched out lh hidden ballet: the water bod eased the jolting dooly's !>ed sore; morphia brought sleep to tired eyes that would not closo. ' ifediciae played its part equally with •nrgery and nursing; for exposure to sun, nnd min, and cold, and the dependence upon doubtful Kid and more doubtful water, . bring certain harvsts of malaria, dysentery, and typhoid. Disease and the Afridi bullet itaikci band in hand.

No case gave more «nxiety than tnat ol Lieutenant Peterson. Bought down from Uje front with » shattered ankle, bis bad Isseii looked upon us a simple case; but he had not bean in hospital a week before ha developed enteric fever. The medical men give it as ft maxim that except in the case cf certain complications, enteric is a matter ol nursing. Petei son's ease baffled them. The doctor, the nurse, and the orderly on duty stood outside the officers' ward one morning, discussing the patient within O , "It is an abwlntcly typical case," said the doctor. " I'he wound in his ankle is a mere n>a-bite, his constitution is splendid, bat be niakea bo fight for life." '"There U somethidg on his mind," said the siirtet. "He struggles to tell it, and je> ean't, I sat with him some hours last night and he talked wildly, sometimes delirious, lomctiuicson the border of delirium ; bat always this trouble with him. 'No one knOTfl; that's the worst of it,' he kept moaning. Then, when I hoped he was getting calmer, ho called out, ' Sister, bister, ion't think I m as good as Mulct, becuise IY.i nut.' Then he got excited and shouted, • I'm a coward, a cur 1 "oil them I'm » enr 1 If ever they tell you anything else, HI titrml'tn a cur!' " "Purely morbid, purely morbid! "com siT.ted the doctor. " Cheer him up an & sliive to set his mind at rest. What state is be in now ? " "He is quiet, and recognised me a tew rni'Uiles ago " '■ £' ! G J oor pavdon, tir," chimed in the Orderly, tainting, "but have you seen this? IVrl'nps it might do to cheer Mr. Peierjon up." He held out a two days'old "Pioneer" Hid pointed to a paragraph. " Capital! " ciclaimed the doctor as hj» •Wad the paragr.iph. "I'll read it to hia) now * This is the tonic he wants." .";.' Uendiug over the patient, the doctor whispered: " Listen to this, it's uews for yon; it will do you good," and holding tha paper before him ho read: "We are authorised to state that Lieutenant Peterson, of the Ist BswtsUire ~.. Jiogiment, has been recommended for the Distinguished Service Order for his gallantry in rescuing Private Watson, of . that regiment, in the Kara Valley on the Ist instant."

[ Then the doctor stood back aghast; toi i x hb patient, who, a moment since, had been li"it<-iiing intelligently to what was read to £ % hiii now lay motionless with the pallor of t»* <l<.ath upon bini. Ashe died, his! (ace lost <(■ tno look of grief and shame that it had worn !, for rainy days, and his spirit fled joyfully t from the torment of an undeserved reward. •S ... & "lain'tnoV..amedhero!" K The visitor at the hospital gave a little g&'gasp She bad just left the cot of a wan Eg faced child with the transparent temples and W *"le Woe eyes of the expectant angel. After p* inch a tender vision it was something of a jj&UJhesk to meet a pair of bloodshot, lashlcsis, B"" browless orbs glaring defiantly from it Kf- jinn*ely contorted face. jU "What is the matter with that man?" - tte visitor asked. e "Banred—mine accident," the attendant SvMJiwered. "Not much skin on his back, g'-'fteysay." & "Wonder why he says he isn'i a hero? %_ Why should he be a hero?" f- Shaft No. 1 of the Colombia Coal Com- %■ |»ny me a gaseous mine. John Davies, E,' miner, firing a blast in the face of the west jfc -Wltn;, saw the (as blowers ignite and a %£.iua* dart back several feet into the passage. fe Slat was one of the things likely to happen _ when » shot was fired in that part of the % Wfa *A wMtr pipe and > hose were read)

for Just smb. an srwrgeivfy.' When Davfei attempted to turn on the water the hose burst. In the delay of securing a second length, brattices and timbers caught from the flaming gas, and the fire made fierce headway. > The mine bos? was summoned, and gang succeeded gang in the desperate fight against the advancing (lames. Scorched, choking, exhausted, the mine boss and his men were forced at last to turn and run for safety. " God help the men in the East Slope!" sobbed the boss as he fled.

Terry Murphy, running with the rest, stopped as though lassoed. The men in the East Slope!

While ho thought of the death trap Totry Murphy was drenching his clothing and his hair with water from the hose.

"Tory, lad, you've got to do itl" the men heard him yell. One strong gasp filled his lungs, then with a bound he plunged into the blazing furnace. Like a stone from a volcano he dashed out into the East Slope. Scorched, blinded suffocated, he clutched and clawea at the air, heaving his broad chest and gasp ing like a dying lisb. on Die sand. The charred remnants of bis clothes lell from his back, and the coolness and darkness of the slope were as a taste of paradise. Bnt mine doors and brattices had been carried away by the force of the explosions and the air about him was already heavy wish smoke. An explosion far behind, driving the air down the slope, lifted him from bis feet and rolled him over and over along the passage.

" Sure, I'm glad the wind's with me ! " muttered the miner as lie picked himself up. Tony Murphy was the swiftest runner in the coal regions. He had need to lie swift. There was nearly a mile of winding underground passage to be traversed, and he raced with death. The air currents and the miner's iti.-tinct guided him in the blackness until he caught the glimmer of the lanterns. "Hun, run—for your lives! "he shouted as bo dashed past the mouth of each breast. Men who daily took their chances with death needed no second warning. They threw down their picks and rushed to the slope. &

Escape by the nsual travelling way was impossible. Torry remembered a shaft recently sunk to secure better ventilation. Towards that he led the way, through a maze of passages, and the miners followed the ghostly white figure without question. The shaft bad not been completed, but there was a ladder for the use of the laborers. At the foot of this stood Torry Murphy, steadying the ladder, ordering, directing, while the others ciimbed silently apward to safety. Meanwhile the steam rose from the young man's body as from a racehorse at the end oi a heat.

Dennis Martin, waiting beside Torry for his turn to mount, babbled for gladness. "It's Missus Dennis Martin 'll be afthci aayin' the koind word to ycz, mo bhoy! Sure, me ould woman 'll be thankful her man—what's mesilt—is out aloivc 1 "

Torry laughed joyously. "Sura, and it's mesilf that's hopin' there's somebody 'll be thankful Torry Murphy's out aloivc." Afterwards Dennis told his wife how Torry said that, and Mrs. Martin told Mrs. Flaherty, and Mrs. F aherty told told Mrs. Dempsey, and Mrs. Dempsey told the mine boss's daughter, Maggie, and Maggie turned as red as the roses ou her Sunday hat and told no one but Torry. When Torry Murphy crawled up the bidder—naked as God made him, scorched and blackened—the stupor stricken miners a.voka from their trance, and cheered and laughed, and cried as though it had been St. Patrick's Day with a green Hag in sight.

Torry, too, tried to cheer, but something dark came before his eyes as he dropped gentlv forward on bis face.