The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-01-17
A sERGEANTS GHOST.

In Guise' regiment there was Sergeant
Arthur Davies, who was popular with his
comrades. He was superior, in birth and
education, to the ordinary run of noncom-
missioned Officer and was besides remark
able for his great stature, his immense
physical strength and his handsome per-
sonal appearance. He had been active in
obtaining recruits for the regiment, and
in consequence received greater amount
of pay and enjoyed a better position than
others nominally of the same rank. A
frank, manly, fearless English soldier, he
had ingratiated himself even among the
sour and sullen highIanders and was re-
garded by them with less animosity- prob
ably than any other soldier in the regi-
nent. The sergeant was an enthusiastic
sportsman, and so little did he fear any
treachery on the part of the mountaineers
that he frequently set out on shooting ex-
cursions over the wild moors alone or at
tended by a single gillie.
On the morning of Sept. %, 1749, Ser
geant Davies started off alone with his
fOwling piece to shoot over moor not far
distant from Braenar. When night fell,
he did not return to his quarters, and the
next day passed without any tidings of
him. On the third day search party was
sent out to scour the district for the miss
ing sergeant, but was unable to find the
slightest trace OF him.
Five years passed, and the mysterious
disappearance of Sergeant Davies had not
been accounted for. Even his comrades
had ceased to speculate over it. Nor
would it probably ever have been solved
but for one man, who had sworn never to
cease his inquiries and Investigations I'M
til the murderers of Sergeant Davies wero
brought to justice. This man was James
Small, formerly an ensign in the Earl of
LOndOn's regiment and now steward Of
the estate of Strowan.
Small had known Sergeant Davies well.
They had fought at CuIloden together and
had subsequently met often while Guise's
regiment was Quartered in Braemar. Tho
new steward of Strowan was determined
and consequential man.
With patient, logged perseverance and
the keen instinct of born detective he set
himself to the task of discovering the per-
petrators of the crime, and at last sue
ceeded. Bit by bit he Joined together tho
stray pieces of evidence, until he had q
case sufficiently strong to justify him Sc
curing the arrest of two highlanders-
Duncan Terig, alias Clerk, and Alexander
Balm Macdonald. The fowling piece be-
longing to the murdered man had been
found in the house of one of them and
trinkets and valuables known to have
been the property of Sergeant Davies had
been seen in the possession of both men.
The prisoners were arraigned before the
lords of session at O'Clock on the morn
ing of June II, 1854. Then there was
made public the strange story of the man
ner in which the crime and it's perpetrators
had been discovered.
Alexander Macpherson of Inverey,
farm servant, aged 90, deposed that one
night in the summer of 1850, while in bed
in a shealing {the long turf matched out
houses in which highland farm servants
slept, in beds ranged along the wall), sew
eral others being at the same time in the
said shealing, there entered man dressed
in blue, whom he took to be the brother
of neighbor Donald Farquharson of
Glendee, who came to his bedside and
beckoned him to come out Macpherson
rose and followed the figure outside the
door, whereupon the person turned and
said:
IT am Sergeant Davies" Then, point
ing to moss, or tract of swampy land,
known as Christie's HILL he added: ''You
will find my bones there. Go and bury
them at once, for can have no peace, nor
will 1 give you any, until my bones are
buried, and you may get Donald Farqu-
harson to help you"
Having spoken these words solemnIy
and earnestly the apparition vanished.
Early next morning Macpherson went
alone to the spot indicated by the wrath,
and SO exactly had been the instructions
given by the mysterious visitant that be-
fore he had searched five minutes he came
upon human body mbedded in the moss.
A few nights later the apparition again
visited Macpherson when he was in bed in
the shealing and reproached him for not
having carried out its instructions for
burial, urging him at the same time to
lose time in committing the remains to
the earth. Then Macpherson plucked up
courage to ask, who murdered your To
which the apparition replied, Duncan
Clerk and Alexander Macdonalg.'
IN fbo fO1 i'm da1y MacnharcOT xUoT1f,
to Donald Farquharson, told him the story
and persuaded him to come and assist to
bury the body of the murdered man in
dry ground. Farquharson, never doubt
ing the truth of the story. went with Mac
pherson to Christie's hill, carried the
body away, dug a grave in dry ground,
and there buried the remains. To all his
own share in the business Farquharson
swore positively and emphatically ex-
pressed his belief that Macpherson had
told nothing but the truth. The only 9TH
er person to whom Macpherson conhded
the story was John Growar of Dalhownie,
who deposed that Macpherson, under strict
promise of secrecy, told him a few days
after the apparition had appeared for the
second time how he, in obedience to its
commands, had, with the assistance of
Donald Farquharson, buried the body.
i. But there was still stronger corrobora-
ton of Macphersons strange story in the
evidence given by Isabel Machardie of In
verey, who deposed that on the night on
which Macpherson declared that he saw
the apparition for the second time she,
sleeping at the other end of the shealing,
in the portion set apart for the women,
most distinctly saw something naked
come in at the door and go straight to
Macpherson bed, which frightened her so
much that she drew the clothes over her
head; that when it appeared, it came in a
bowling posture, but she could not tell
what it was; that next morning she asked
Macpherson what it was that had trou-