WAS IT A GHOST?
202
The Ypres Times.
Thank you, soldier," he whispered once more.
But all the while his face grew whiter and his features sharper.
A minute later he took his trembling hand from beneath the blanket, and tried to
point it towards me.
I took it, and held it in mine.
Good-bye, Kamerad," he whispered, looking upon me with fading eyes.
Good-byeGermancomrade," I answered.
And if I must confess the truthwell, then, there were tears in my eyes.
So we partedI to the sunken road, and a soldier's lothe, to Eternity.
Away in the distance boomed the guns on the horizon flared the rocket-lights.
The Hun was retreating further to the Rhine stubbornly and relentlessly the Allies were-
marching forward. With both Hun and Briton, dutythe stern inflexible duty of the-
soldiercalled. Away in the distance boomed the guns on the horizon flared the rocket-
lights.
Yet, as I passed over that battlefield, I realised that above all wars and fighting,
above even the sublime virtues of duty and patriotism, rose a greater, a more transcendant
thing. It was the God-implanted spirit of humanity in us all in the presence of death
and suffering.
ABE RED C. TOMLINSON, M.A.
When we speak of ghosts we usually associate them with old empty houses in lonely
parts of the country. But ghosts on the battlefieldwho ever saw one Yet when you
think of it, what likelier place for ghosts to walk than the battle ground of Europe during
the war. Surely, in the rich harvest of death a stray wraith or two would escape the
reaper's sheaves.
We lay in bivouacs some miles beyond the battered town of Dickebusch. On our
immediate right was a hedge screening from view a single railway line, which ran forward
in the direction of the trenches. On the other side of the railway a high wood filled the
view.
This was early in August, 1917. The battle of Flanders was in progress, and the
improved weather made possible again the full blast of operations. Slightly to our rear
was a battery of guns whose iron lungs made night hideous with their roar, while the
summer darkness was weirdly illuminated by their almost incessant flashes of light.
There was but grim relief to the din when the enemy bombing planes came over, as they
would do several times in the night, and our guns had perforce to pause in the argument,
to speak again only when the planes had departed. In these days our unit was resting
by night, but under such conditions sleep was impossible. On one of these occasions,
lying awake while pandemonium reigned, I saw, coming through a break in the hedge, a
figure emerge and walk with a slow deliberate step in the direction of our camp. Presently
it turned and retraced its steps, disappearing finally through the opening in the hedge.
At the time I thought nothing of the incident, concluding it was probably one of the
officers taking the air in his pyjamas, for the figureor whatever it waswore no uniform.
However, the following night, amid the same circumstances of guns and bombs, I was more
than surprised to see the same form step once more through the hedge and walk for several
yards with the same unhurried and seemingly aimless pace as on the previous occasion.
I was now thoroughly intrigued, and bent a more interested glance at what I beheld.
The figure was above the average in height and wore what looked like tight fitting pants
and close fitting upper garment. The head dress conveyed the impression of a white top
