The Press., 1901-04-04

DrOWDeaf MIN ana nnaliy OFueEeu uiS
execution on. the ground that he was q
spy 1t was only when he knew that
he must die that the young fellow
braced up and showed his courage. and
as he was being led away to execution
he said to the colonel:
''Sahib Colonel. I am innocent. and
you will be punished for my death
You may shoot me and bury my body.
but my spirit will follow you to the
grave"
Half an hour later he was dead. but
he was the last one to be executed.
Chat evening as the colonel entered the
officers mess tent for supper all Of us
noticed that he had queer. troubled
look on his face and that he cast fur
tive glances behind him. After bit
he tried to be jocular. but the effort
was a failure. He said something
about not feeling well, but nobody dar-
ed question him. At midnight that
night we got an explanation. The
colonel called the sentinel into his
tent, and with white face and trem.
bling voice and the Precipitation stand
ing out on his forehead he said:
"Man, DO you see that boy sitting on
the chestT
II see nobody. SIR" replied the senti-
mel.
"He il there, tell you! He fol-
lowed me to mess and back, and he
has been here in plain sight all the
evening. Take him away!'
"But there's nobody here, sir"
And there wasn't. The sentinel call
ed III two officers, who looked and
searched In vain and assured Colonel
Kemble that no boy was present. He
tried to turn 1t of with a laugh, but in
less than "a hours every man in camp
knew that the colonel was haunted by
q specter. He made brave effort to
bluff it out, but it was useless. The
specter followed at his heels by day
and sat by his bedside at night, and
in q week the strong, aggressive man
was becoming a mental wreck. He
turned to us for pity and sympathy,
but we had little to give. He had been
brutal in his vengeance.
The surgeon looked upon the case
at first as some disorder of the brain,
but later ON acknowledged that 1t was
something beyond his medicine. No
one else could see the specter. The
colonel wenld say that it sat beside
him or stood in the door, but there was
nothing for other eyes to rest upon.
He would draw his sword and cut and
slash and thrust at the specter, but he
could not harm it. BY the surgeons
~ r;o 90
poor. 1t was reported as q case of
breaking down over mental anxiety.
but hundreds Of people came to know
better. The specter followed him back,
followed him to the house of friend,
sat with him through every night and
logged at his heels through every hour
Of the day. He could no more shake
it of than he could change the color
Of his eyes. He made the gamest sort
Of fight, knowing that his future career
was at stake, and at length all men
came to pity him-pity him and avoid
him as one accursed. He was medically
treated. given brief furloughs and
every effort made to build him up, but
at the end Of eight months, every day
and every night Of which had been a
terror to him, he ended by blowing
out his brains.
Was 1t q case Of a man haunted by
a spirit seeking revenge? 1t was not
so reported officially, but from first to
last and from the highest to the lowest,
and this includes two surgeons, 1t was
fully and firmly believed that 1t was,
and the uncanny affair had a great
influence over other officers In their
future treatment of the natives.