The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1893-11-23
A STORY OF COUNTERMINE B.

''And he earneth wages tc
put it into bag with holes"
There's somethin' movin' in Coun-
termine B., sir"
Color Sergeant William Bates stood
in the doorway and snapped out these
words with that sense of military dis
cipline and curtness which had earned
him the stripes that were On his sleeve
! The startling announcement was
made to Us In general and to Crater
in particular. 1t was Crater who had
eXcavated Countermine B, and Crater
was out of that room like a terrier.
He was tall, spare youth, with hair
that that stood up from his forehead
like a soft and somewhat wavy door
mat. Crater had been thought a great
deal of at Woolwich. He had a clever
head, and the Sappers We're proud of
him, As yet it was only matter of
appearance, for George Crater had
done nothing remarkable up to to the
time when our small force was corner
ed He was the only engineer among
us-just as l was the only doctor. At
first they had made us take care of
Ourselves-on the principle Of guard
ing the brain that can think for the
rest.
From this vague allusion to great
poem it must not be concluded that
this story Is about Lucknow. No.
We were not Lucknow, and no one
ever wrote poem about us. We were
merely small detachment of men,
and, alas women, moving down from
an advanced station On the Indian
frontier before the temporarily trium
phant raids of a few rebel Hillmen.
A very small fight is sufficient to get
killed ina very small body OF men
may make very large bid for immor
tality.
We were rather pleased with our
selves. We We're distinctly martyrs.
An ungrateful country was going
about its duty, was spending its May
week at Cambridge, was lolling away
its. afternoons at Hurlingham and
scarcely giving second thought to the
fact that it had been deemed expedi-
ent to temporarily withdraw the gar
rison of Narog.
We were in, in fact, the garrison of
Nauog. We had successfully march
ed throug 200 miles of a country
physically broken, morally unstable.
We were forty, rank and file, and we
had with us Old Tar sioI, the tea
planter, Mrs. Tangler, Edith Tangler
and their European maid. We had
two ladies of our own the majors
wife and her sister, Miss Woodhorn.
We had lost three men, killed, and
two days before we had buried tele
graph clerk who had succumbed to a
nasty spear wound in the groin. The
only man among us whom thorough
ly disliked was young Bird, of the
Guides [ imagine there was little
sympathy between Bird and Crater.
The former was all swagger- the
latter all hard work and commendable
ambition.
We were stuck at a Oak bungalow
by the side of the river. The ferry
boat was on the other side in posses
sion of the main body of the rebel
Hillmen. This was Crafers chance
the major resolved to fortify the place
and wait. Crater gurgled with JOY
behind his pipe when the decision
was made known to him, He had
some most original ideas on fortifica-
ton, which, after all was his business,
and when man has original ideas on
his own business and confines his at
tention to it he usually gets on.
Crafer's Notifications were fearfully
and wonderfully made. The strange
thing was that he drew them all out
first in pocketbook with a ruler and
piece of string, He actually made
plan of that Oak bungalow, and built
plan of fortitication around it, all
scaled to feet and inches. Bird laugh
ed at the whole thing, and said that
long before the earthworks were
thrown up our own men would be
waiting for us across the river. But
Bird was wrong. No one came to the
other side of the river TO fetch us
away. Instead, the Hillmen came
across in the ferryboat and began
throwing up earthworks of their
own within range. Crater gurgled
still. This was getting interesting.
The enemys earthworks We're duly
scaled down to inches in the note
book. Then Bird began to get uncom-
Portable. He was very rich young
man Mrs. Tangler knew it,. and he
had many things which he wanted to
buy before he died. He had no con
tidence III Crafer's earthworks.
In this respect Bird differed from
the rest of us. The major pulled his
mustache. and said Crater was all
right. Crater was a good man. As
for myself, l said nothing. 1t was not
my business. But | was not in the
east uneasy and attended to that
which was my business all the better
because Crater had all the fortitica-
tions neatly worked out in his pocket
book. But Edith Tangler had per
feet confidence in Crafer's earthworks,
and said SOTO some people She
said so to me, and asked me if | did
not think them wonderful | said
| did. But there were other things
which struck me as still more wonder
| full. One of these was the perfect
serenity of this gentle-souled girl in
the very heart of a most unmistakable
danger.
Danger is very difficult thing to hide.
Ii ship is going down everybody on
board knows it, however comforting
the authorities may be. There is no
doubt that Edith Tangles was quite
aware of the fact that any sunset might
be our last. She was not constructed
on heroic lines at all. She was rather
small and slightly built, with very
fascinating fair hair and thoughfn1