SENSATIONS "UNDER FIRE."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 148, 13 June 1908, Page 4

SENSATIONS "UNDER FIRE."

"Look iiliio. there! They're on us!" There was a ring in Hie grizzled sereoant's voice that I had never heard l«'loie. The piercing blast of a buglo had awakened me with a start, although I hardly seemed to have been asleep live minutes. " Pi-n-ug!'' a bullet sang its way through tlie air. and cut a hole in each side of the tent. I leaped to my feel. 'I his was niv first taste of war--real war bloodshed! Snatching up Ihe rille thai had lain al my side, I tumbled out of the tent with my comrades. The enemy were sniping at the little camp from behimi a series of hillocks. Eying (la 1 on tlie ground, hugging unloaded "rille to my shoulder, I saw the brutality nf bat lie for the iirst time—a skinu'ish. in which my comrades died without being able to extract 101 l Iron, the enemy. The first pang of excitement, was leaving inc. So far, I had not pulled the trigger, and a feeling ol sickness overcame me. It was tlie groan of a chum, live yards on niv left." that roused me to the reality of it all. His head fell to the {.'round, and was buried in the dry I felt the blood race through my veins, stirring the brain to sheer savagery. A pull' of smoke far away caught niv eve. mid I lired niv first shot into tlie middle of it. with the wild desire to kill. The sickness was gone. J ground my teeth in the agony of revenue. N A second pu.i. Almost simullanconsIv mv rille answered, and a form toppled doii-n the side of the, hillock. I had killed a man with as little compunction as you light your pipe. A bullet whizzed within a foot ot my head, and immediately afterward" a man who had been lying on my right crumpled up. shook convulsively, mid then lay still. The thought of'it unnerved me. To die amid the lire and stress of lighting lias no horror at the time, but In lie still, ami wait to stop one ot those leaden messengers with one's frame is demoralising. A bullet snapped a button from my shoulder and left a furrow in the cloth. 1 did not even shudder. Only one's wildest emotions are stirred' ol such a moment. What does a lost button count when there is Death in the air? Five tinise 1 lired at a mound, 01. which I could detect a slight movement. It was almost hopeless; but during a lull in the hail of shot I saw a figure leave the sheltering hillock and crawl painfully across to the place where most of the enemy seemed to be. The man was probably wounded or dying; but we had our dying and our dead, Before he had gone far a dozen shots riddled the crawling ligurc, and it remained where it was. the lust for blood when bullets arc living leaves no room for sentiment.

A shot glanced oil" my rille. and spent itself in the air. It did not dawn on me then how near I had been on (he brink. I only examined the weapon to make sure it was not damaged, hetore returning to the grim work of After a while my eyes began to grow dim. and my head swam. I put my hiind to mv leg. to ease a pain that might have'lieen caused by a bruise. I touched wet clothing, aiid realised I had been wounded. One docs not feel pain much when frying to shoot one's fellow-creatures. Oradiially I grew weaker. The shots existed in a dream, and the horror faded aw.iv. \\ hen I rei-ovet-ed. was bandaging my leg. "They've "one!'' said a voice. "The skunks 'drew' oil' when they lired of il.'