The evening times., 1898-05-10
A BALAKLAVA HERO.

Inc neau OF al ogre crouSHiiS Aoi
possible victims could have looked no
less grim than the huge, squat work
house standing back from the road.
Tall iron railings encircled it like a
collar of spikes. and a one-windowed
porter's lodge blinked banefully at pas
sers-by.
A weary old man helped himself
along with the aid of a stick He
Strengthened his figure when he reached
the lodge, and seemed TO hesitate while
he looked at the building with dim,
weak eyes, and the rushing wind fut-
tered his clothes like rags on scare
crow.
He made several steps forward, then
retreated. AS he Strengthened him.
self to walk, three medals for Valor
jingled loosely on his shrunken breast.
He glanced round nervously. There
was no one to watch. He was only
hero, and he hesitated on the thresh-
hold of the workhouse. He had braveo
the Russian cannon, and had slipped
down a rope at Lucknow into a ruck of
frenzied sepoys. Why should he hesi-
tate?
April rain began to pelter down fit
fully. He pulled his worn coat closer
over him and strode forward with final
resolution.
On the steps of the workhouse he
turned to get a last furtive glance at
the outer world. AS the sun leaped
from behind a cloud it glittered on the
medals on his breast
In the lodge a square-jowled man,
with hard, straight creaseS in his sui
len face. was tapping abStractedly on
an old desk with an enormous key To
an imaginative mind he would have
served as an admirable miniature por-
trait of the workhouse itself.
"Name?" he said, projecting himself
toward a big book.
James Redfern, late of the Tenth
Black Watch" answered the old man.
James Redfern was past work, and
explained this to the governor, who
promptly ordered him to break a hun
dredweisht of stone as a preliminary
canter: this was probably to take the
freshness out of him and to disillusion
him as to his incapacity for work.
Redfern was locked in a cell furnish
ed with great Jagged Jumps of stone,
and it was his compulsory duty to
break them into pieces small enough
TO pass through a grating in the wall.
The old man toiled hour after hour.
but his weak blows seemed to e rather
caressing the stone than breaking it.
At length. in the afternoon. he fell for
ward over his hammer and the jagged
stones that Uttered the floor
Hello!" said the sQuare-jowled
warder, opening the door, None of
this, yer know. This amt a lady's
boodoir. This amt "a +"
He terked the old man face up. His
features were cut with the jagged stone
and black lines of hunger ringed his
eyes.
When the warder, by twirling Red
ferns hand round and round, and by
his arm, had satisfied himself
that there was no Shamming, the old
manwas removed to the infirmary. He
was a very light burden, and stalwart
casual slung him over his shoulder and
carried him off jauntily, like a sack of
flour. When he came to the doctor Or
dered him boiled eggs and a nourishing
diet for day or two.
A card to this effect was hung over
his bed with string. A pauper in the
next bed, who suffered from epileptic
fits, mathematical the old man garru-
ously. The boiled eggs seemed partic-
llarly to rouse his ire. Every time the
passed to the other end of the
ong room he would lift himself on his
elbw and scream across the interven-
ng space: "B'iled eggs! YAH" He put
such an amount of condemnation into
his phrase that the other patients took
up the matter, and by muttered and
1is5ointed conversation arrived at the
opinion that the old soldier was a par
ous ruffian, presumer on generosity,
an interloper and a thief.
In three days the doctor certified
hat Redfern was able to leave his bed,
md the old man meekly rose and hud-
lied his painful limbs into his gar
nents.
Redfern went into the office OF the
warder, who said that he
must return to breaking stones or leave
he house. There was to be a meeting
If the guardians that afternoon, how
ever, and he had the option of apply
ng to them for lighter work.
The square-faced man took out of his
lesk the three medals which Redfern
had been obliged to temporarily sur.
'ender on his entrance.
They amt bad medals, are they?"
said the square-faced man. II suppose
hey are worth five bob apiecer'
They are worth more than that to |
me-" said Redfern.
Wouldn't sell 'em, I suppose?" said !
he warder,
mo. I wouldn't sell them for any |
hing: they are the only things have |
eft to remind me that I've been a SOL |
lier!"
nBut they amt much good to you