Daily camera., 1901-04-09
Weeds Of Society"
The Story Of Snipey and Ripper.

2 ~
- dock, with don't-care-a-fgfor-
anybody air.
What's the charge against these
fellows?" inquired the magistrate.
Drunk and tisorderly, your wor-
ship, and assaulting the police"
There was no defense.
ANY previous convictions asked
his worship, with sour look at the
two youths of promise.
Ripper thrust his hands deep into
his pockets; Snipey, somewhat older,
watched the dockkeeper with an
anxious eye. There were previous
convictions.
That will dol" said his worship
severely. You are evidently in
corrigible. Such fellows are the
weeds of society. It's pity you can
not be-er-plucked out. You will be
removed to the house of correction
for three months"
A raw-footed and broken detach-
ment of British infantry regiment
was stumbling gamely along dreary
ravine in the interior of China. The
regiment helped make up n relief
force which was hurrying to the res
cue of a missionary station. Two
smart companies had mustered into
the gray light of early morning and
had set out to reconnoiter in the
hills. Through childlike faith in the
efficiency of the information supplied
by a so-called intelligence department,
the major commanding the detach-
ment had got hopelessly out of his
reckoning. The intelligence depart
ment of the Chinese had misled
them, and by the late afternoon the
British had fallen into an ambush.
From the rocky ridges thanking the
ravine the Chinese showed now and
then the CLEAN of a scimitar to their
prey. Little puffs of smoke appeared
more frequently still, and were some
times followed by sickening little
"plops," when the bullet met flesh
and bone in the valley. The dead
lay sprinkled in the wake of the
British in dabs of scarlet, as if they
were playing a weird game OF hare
and-hounds with death.
The end of their endurance came
when the shadows of the rapidly ap-
preaching night closed upon them.
The word to halt was given and
obeyed, although its mellow note
killed all hope. Rations of -four and
water were passed round, and, with
the sentries posted, the little body of
British soldiers sat or lay at ease,
rifle in hand. waiting for night and
death.
Two hours passed; then the COM
manding officer was startled from a
doze by hoarse whisper:
"Majer! majer!"
".Hallo!" he snapped. "Who the
devil is that?"
ME, majer-Privit 'Arrison. I've
bin a-talkin' the persition over with a
mate-friend, beggin' yer pard'n, sir
O. mine, an we thinks. theers a
charnce O. savin' the detachment"
There were few expletives in the
darkness.
"Who told the privates the detach-
ment wanted any saving?"
Then there was a sound like sup
pressed chuckle, and the whisper re-
asserted itself. BY and by the ex-
pletives melted into answering whis-
pers, then followed silence.
Ten minutes after there slipped in
to the silence the rustic of gently
moving men.
"Snipey, ole mani" Z
"Kipper!"
Two hands groped ridiculously in
! the inky night until they found each
other. A few answering cracks from
the hills were followed by the hum of
wasted ammunition.
"Majer said as it was a five-ter-one
charnce," replied Snipey, with some
thing of Importance creeping into his
tone.
"Wot else did e say, mate, when
yer axed imp"
"say? Why, bloomin' 'air-lifters
at fust, as it's is nature to. Then
says I, Me an my pal. majer, reckons
as these pigtails wun't want ter tackle
in the darkness, accuse they might
get cut up bit; SO they'll wait an
pot us comfortable in the mornin','
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