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diff --git a/9384.txt b/9384.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e19851b --- /dev/null +++ b/9384.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1104 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Comrade In White, by W. H. Leathem + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Comrade In White + +Author: W. H. Leathem + + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9384] +This file was first posted on September 28, 2003 +Last Updated: May 15, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMRADE IN WHITE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Robert Prince and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + +THE COMRADE IN WHITE + + +By The Rev. W. H. Leathem, M. A. + + +Introduction By Hugh Black + + + "I shall not fear the battle + If Thou art by my side." + + + +1916 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +The Great War has put a strain on the resources of human nature, as +well as on material resources. Men who have come through the hell of +the trenches have discovered some of the secrets of life and death. +Many of them have known a reinforcement of spiritual power. It is +quite natural that this fact should often be described in emotional +form as direct interposition of angels and other supernatural +agencies. Among these the most beautiful and tender stories are +those of "The Comrade in White." In essence they are all testimony +to the perennial fount of strength and comfort of religion--the +human need which in all generations has looked up and found God a +present help in times of trouble. + +The origin of the many stories brought back to England from the +battle fronts by her soldiers is that to the average Briton this a +religious crusade, and men have gone with an exaltation of soul, +willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, willing to die that the +world might live. Men and women are face to face with eternal +realities, and are driven by the needs of their hearts to the +eternal refuge. Unless we see this we miss the most potent fact in +the whole situation. + +The tender stories in this little volume are a reflex of the great +religious stirring of the nation. They describe in a gracious and +pathetic way the various abysmal needs of this tragic time, and they +indicate how many human souls are finding comfort and healing and +strength. They are finding peace as of old, through the assurance +that "earth has no sorrows, that heaven cannot heal." + +HUGH BLACK. + +NEW YORK. + + + + +"THE WHITE COMRADE" + + +I + + + When soldiers of the Cross waged Holy War, + With courage high, and hearts that did not quail + Before the foe, in olden times they saw + The blessed vision of the Holy Grail. + Tho' Christ was gone, His pledge was with them yet, + For, borne on wings of angels, from the skies, + They saw the chalice that once held the wine + As emblem of the Saviour's sacrifice + For men, and knew that still the Master met, + With His own friends, in fellowship divine. + + +II + + + Christ has His soldiers now. + Though years have rolled + Away, the warriors of the Cross are strong + To fight His battles, as the saints of old, + Against oppression, tyranny, and wrong. + And still amid the conflict, they can trace + The Saviour's influence. Not the Holy Grail + Which once as His remembrance was adored, + But Christ Himself is with them. For a veil + Is lifted from their eyes, and, face to face + They meet the presence of the risen Lord. + + +III + + + O blessed vision! After all the years, + Thou'rt with us yet. To-day, as heretofore, + Men see Thee still and they cast off their fears, + And take fresh courage to press on once more. + The soldiers, bearing from the desperate fight + A wounded brother, see Thee, in the way, + And know Thee for the Saviour, Healer, Friend, + For once again, Thy loved ones hear Thee say + (O Christ! White Comrade, in their stand for right!) + "Lo, I am with you alway, to the end." + + +_Fidei Defensor_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. IN THE TRENCHES + +II. THE MESSENGER + +III. MAIMED OR PERFECTED? + +IV. THE PRAYER CIRCLE + + + + + +I. IN THE TRENCHES + + "And immediately He talked with them, and + saith unto them, 'Be of good cheer; it is I; be + not afraid.'" + + --THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MAKK, chap, vi: 50. + + "And His raiment was white as snow." + + --THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW, chap. xvii: 2. + +"The Battle of Mons, which saved the British Army from annihilation, +was, for the most of those who fought with the angels, a sepulchre. +They saved the British Army, but they saved it at fearful cost. No +'great host' withdrew from that field of destruction; the great host +strewed the ground with their bodies. Only a remnant of those who +stood in the actual furnace of Mons escaped with their lives ... Let +those who mourn, take encouragement from these stories of visions on +the battlefield, quietly and with a child's confidence, cultivate +within themselves a waiting, receptive and desiring spirit. Let them +empty themselves of prejudice and self.... Let them detach +themselves more and more from the obsessions of worldly life. +Serenity is the path by which the thoughts of God travel to us; and +Faith is the invitation which brings them to the table of our souls." + +--ON THE SIDE OF THE ANGELS. + + + +IN THE TRENCHES + +Strange tales reached us in the trenches. Rumours raced up and down +that three-hundred-mile line from Switzerland to the sea. We knew +neither the source of them nor the truth of them. They came quickly, +and they went quickly. Yet somehow I remember the very hour when +George Casey turned to me with a queer look in his blue eyes, and +asked if I had seen the Friend of the Wounded. + +And then he told me all he knew. After many a hot engagement a man +in white had been seen bending over the wounded. Snipers sniped at +him. Shells fell all around. Nothing had power to touch him. He was +either heroic beyond all heroes, or he was something greater still. +This mysterious one, whom the French called _The Comrade in White_, +seemed to be everywhere at once. At Nancy, in the Argonne, at +Soissons and Ypres, everywhere men were talking of him with hushed +voices. + +But some laughed and said the trenches were telling on men's nerves. +I, who was often reckless enough in my talk, exclaimed that for me +seeing was believing, and that I didn't expect any help but an +enemy's knife if I was found lying out there wounded. + +It was the next day that things got lively on this bit of the front. +Our big guns roared from sunrise to sunset, and began again in the +morning. At noon we got word to take the trenches in front of us. +They were two hundred yards away, and we weren't well started till we +knew that the big guns had failed in their work of preparation. It +needed a stout heart to go on, but not a man wavered. We had advanced +one hundred and fifty yards when we found it was no good. Our Captain +called to us to take cover, and just then I was shot through both +legs. By God's mercy I fell into a hole of some sort. I suppose I +fainted, for when I opened my eyes I was all alone. The pain was +horrible, but I didn't dare to move lest the enemy should see me, +for they were only fifty yards away, and I did not expect mercy. I +was glad when the twilight came. There were men in my own company +who would run any risk in the darkness if they thought a comrade was +still alive. + +The night fell, and soon I heard a step, not stealthy, as I expected, +but quiet and firm, as if neither darkness nor death could check +those untroubled feet. So little did I guess what was coming that, +even when I saw the gleam of white in the darkness, I thought it was +a peasant in a white smock, or perhaps a woman deranged. Suddenly, +with a little shiver of joy or of fear, I don't know which, I +guessed that it was _The Comrade in White_. And at that very moment +the enemy's rifles began to shoot. The bullets could scarcely miss +such a target, for he flung out his arms as though in entreaty, and +then drew them hack till he stood like one of those wayside crosses +that we saw so often as we marched through France. And he spoke. The +words sounded familiar, but all I remember was the beginning. +"If thou hadst known," and the ending, "but now they are hid from +thine eyes." And then he stooped and gathered me into his arms--me, +the biggest man in the regiment--and carried me as if I had been a +child. + +I must have fainted again, for I woke to consciousness in a little +cave by a stream, and _The Comrade in White_ was washing my wounds +and binding them up. It seems foolish to say it, for I was in +terrible pain, but I was happier at that moment than ever I remember +to have been in all my life before. I can't explain it, but it +seemed as if all my days I had been waiting for this without knowing +it. As long as that hand touched me and those eyes pitied me, I did +not seem to care any more about sickness or health, about life or +death. And while he swiftly removed every trace of blood and mire I +felt as if my whole nature were being washed, as if all the grime and +soil of sin were going, and as if I were once more a little child. + +I suppose I slept, for when I awoke this feeling was gone. I was a +man, and I wanted to know what I could do for my friend to help him +or to serve him. He was looking towards the stream, and his hands +were clasped in prayer; and then I saw that he too had been wounded. +I could see, as it were, a shot-wound in his hand, and as he prayed +a drop of blood gathered and fell to the ground. I cried out. I +could not help it, for that wound of his seemed to me a more awful +thing than any that bitter war had shown me. "You are wounded too," +I said faintly. Perhaps he heard me, perhaps it was the look on my +face, but he answered gently, "This is an old wound, but it has +troubled me of late." And then I noticed sorrowfully that the same +cruel mark was on his feet. You will wonder that I did not know +sooner. I wonder myself. But it was only when I saw His feet that I +knew Him. + +"The Living Christ"--I had heard the Chaplain speak of Him a few +weeks before, but now I knew that He had come to me--to me who had +put Him out of my life in the hot fever of my youth. I was longing to +speak and to thank Him, but no words came. And then He rose swiftly +and said, "Lie here to-day by the water. I will come for you tomorrow. +I have work for you to do, and you will do it for me." + +In a moment He was gone. And while I wait for Him I write this down +that I may not lose the memory of it. I feel weak and lonely and my +pain increases, but I have His promise. I know that He will come for +me to-morrow. + + + + +II. THE MESSENGER + + "And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood + in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace + be unto you." + + --THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE, chap. xxiv: 36. + +"The War has powerfully changed the 'psychological atmosphere,' and +the thoughts of a great multitude are turned towards the spiritual +aspect of existence. In this vast but connected universe we are not +the only self-conscious beings. Life is working here as elsewhere, +for some sublime purpose. The day is at hand when we shall turn from +the child-like amusements and excitements of physical science to the +unimaginable adventures of super-physical discovery; and in that day +we shall not only flash our messages to the stars, but hold +communion with our dead." + +--HAROLD BEGBIE. + + + +THE MESSENGER + +The Parish Church stood high perched in the Glen, and through its +clear windows we could see the white, winding road that was our one +link with the great world beyond the mountains. Perhaps our eyes +strayed from the preacher's face more than was seemly, and in spring +time we had this excuse, that the fresh green of the larches against +the dark rocks made a picture fairer to the eye than our plain old +Church and its high pulpit. + +But that Sunday in the spring of the Great War the minister had us +all, even the young and thoughtless, in the hollow of his hand. It +was the 18th chapter of Second Samuel that he had read earlier in +the Service, and now he was opening its meaning to us with deep-felt +realisation of those great dramatic episodes. + +We saw the young man Absalom die. We saw Cushi start to bear his +tidings to the king. We watched Ahimaaz swift on his track. We +marked the king's anxious waiting, and the fixed gaze of the watchman +on the city walls. We strained in the long strain of the runners. We +fainted with the fears of a father's heart. We saw Ahimaaz outrun his +rival yet falter in his message. And we heard the blow upon David's +heart of Cushi's stroke. "And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young +man Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The enemies of my lord the king, +and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man +is." + +There were tears in the women's eyes as the preacher called us to see +the stricken and weeping king climbing with weary step to the chamber +over the gate. And in a solemn hush we heard the cry of his anguish +"--O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died +for thee. O Absalom, my son, my son!" + +We had anxious fathers and mothers and wives and sisters in the +Church that day, and it was as though our own sorrows were all +gathered up into the old, unhappy, far-off things of which the +preacher spoke. I had a dear one to be concerned for, but I was +thinking now of some one else. For Widow McDonald was there, and the +days had grown into weeks since last she had tidings of John--and he +was her only boy. + +Suddenly she rose and slipped out. I followed her, for there was an +odd, silent friendship between us, and I thought that I might help. +To my surprise she did not turn homewards, but down the Glen, and +there I saw that some one was waiting for her by the pine wood. +"I saw your sign, sir," she said, "and I guessed you brought news of +John. Oh, sir, tell me quick, is he safe?" + +"He is safe," the stranger answered. I could not see His face, but +He seemed weary and far-travelled. It was His voice that made me +wonder. For as He said "safe," it was as a new word to me, so full +of healing and of peace that it laid to rest every fear of my unquiet +heart. + +"And will he be home soon?" It was the mother who was speaking now. + +"I have taken the dear lad home," answered the stranger. "His room +has been long prepared for him in my Father's house. He has fought a +good fight. He was wounded, but his wounds are healed. He was weary, +but he has found rest." And so speaking He looked at us, and as the +mother clasped my hand I knew that the truth was breaking on her too. + +"He is dead," she sobbed. + +"No," said the stranger, "he is alive, for he has laid down his life +that he might take it again." + +There was silence then, and the stranger turned to leave us. Even in +her grief the mourner was mindful of what was due to Him who had +taken upon Himself the burden of sorrowful tidings. + +"Come back with us, and break bread, and rest a while," she said, +"for, sir, you seem spent, and it is out of a kind heart that you +have spoken." + +"I may not tarry," He made answer, "for there are many who need me, +and I must go to them, but for thy comfort thou shalt first know who +hath brought thee tidings of thy son's passage through death to life." + +I dare not try to tell what happened then under the shadow of the +pines, but somehow we _knew_ our eyes looked into the face of the +soldiers' _The Comrade in White_; and we knew Him. And then His hand +was lifted in blessing, and we heard this word, that is now as the +music of our daily lives: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give +unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your +heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." + + * * * * * + +We walked in a strange, calm silence to the widow's cottage, and +then as we parted she turned to me a face filled with heavenly +peace--"My dear boy lives," she said. + + + + +III. MAIMED OR PERFECTED? + + "Now no chastening for the present seemeth + to be joyous but grievous: nevertheless, afterward, + it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness + unto them which are exercised thereby." + + --HEBREWS xii:11. + +"Six months passed within the danger zone, produces a subtle but +marked change. Bright lads become men, who bear all the marks of +having passed through a solemn purification by fire. And the subtle +influence, as thus depicted, is communicated to us.... To say that +the horrors of war have subdued and overawed them is but part of the +explanation. It seems nearer to the truth to add, that these +harrowing experiences, whatever they may have been, have only helped +to make our young men susceptible to spiritual influences of the +highest quality. In fine, they have been following in the footsteps +of Him who is The Great Sacrifice, and even amid the bursting shells +have caught a glimpse of wounds that transform and consecrate their +own." + +--_The Great Sacrifices_, JOHN ADAMS. + + + +MAIMED OR PERFECTED? + +My heart grew bitter in me when the news came of Harry's operation. +I had been half relieved when I heard that he was wounded, and that +the wound was not dangerous. For the grim alternative was seldom out +of my thoughts, and at least his dear life was safe. Now I was +crushed by the brave, pathetic letter in which he told me that his +right leg had been amputated, and that he was lucky to get off so +easily. That made me rebellious and very, very bitter. And it was +against God that I felt worst--God who had allowed this unthinkable +thing to be. + +Harry a cripple! Harry of all people! I could not imagine it, nor +accept it, nor even face the truth of it. And away at the bottom of +my heart lurked the thought that it had been better for himself that +he had died in the strength and beauty of his manhood. Why should +his spirit be doomed to live on in a ruined home? + +Harry is my only brother, and he has been my hero always. Manliness, +strength, courage, unselfishness--I know what these things mean; +they mean Harry. And of course I was proud when he got his double +blue at Cambridge. Cricket and football were more than pastimes to +him. He put his heart and soul into them, and when he made 106 not +out against Oxford he was as happy as if he had found a new continent. +And now the great athlete, the pride of his College, the big +clean-limbed giant was a cripple. I could not weep for it, because I +could not believe it. I took the thought and flung it from me. And +then I picked it up again, and gazed at it with hard, unseeing eyes. +It was at that time I stopped praying. What was prayer but a mockery, +if Harry was maimed? + +Harry was at Cairo, and I could not go to him. And though that made +me feel helpless, and almost mad with inaction, yet in my heart I +dreaded meeting him, seeing him, taking in the bitterness of it +through the eyes. I was a coward, you see, and my love for him a +poor thing at the best. But there are some who will understand how I +felt, and will forgive me. + +His letters were all right, not a word of complaint, for Harry never +grumbled, and many a good story of the hospital and its patients and +its staff. But there was something else, a kind of gentle +seriousness as if life were different now. And I read my own misery +into that, and pictured him a man devoured by a secret despair, +while he smiled his brave undefeated smile in the face of all the +world. + +The weeks passed, and I braced myself for the coming ordeal. Then +everything came with a rush at the last, and there I was at the docks +giving my brave soldier his welcome home. It was not any easier than +I expected. I tried my hardest, as you may guess, to be all joy and +brightness, but when we were alone in the motor together my eyes +were full of tears, and I broke down utterly. Poor Harry, poor Harry, +why are physical calamities so awful and so irrevocable? + +He let me cry, and then he said suddenly, "Come, Mary, look at the +real 'me,' don't bother about that old leg, but look into my face, +and tell me what you see. There is something good for you to see if +you will look for it." + +He said it so strangely that I was myself in a moment, and doing what +he told me just as in the good old days before the war. And then I +saw that Harry was a new Harry altogether, and that he was radiantly +happy. His face was pale and thin, but his eyes were ablaze with +something mysterious and wonderful. "Don't ask me anything now," he +said; "wait till we are in my old den, and then I will tell you +everything." And by this time I was so comforted that I was content +to lie back and watch that dear, happy face of his. + +I shall never forget the talk we had afterwards. "Mary," he said, in +his straight, direct way, "I've come back a better man. I have been +all my life a healthy, happy pagan. We were brought up, you and I, +on the theory of a healthy mind in a healthy body, and, of course, +it's a good theory so far as it goes. But it did for me what it does +for many a fellow. It made me forget my soul. Sport did a lot for me, +I know, but sport became my world. The life I lived there was +wholesome enough, but at the best what a poor, contracted, limited +thing is the body, and its joy. And what a big, splendid world I've +found the door to now." + +"How did it come about, Harry?" I said, and the frost and the +bitterness and the anger against God were all gone out of my heart +and voice. + +"Well, I don't quite know. That's the queer thing about it. I don't +deny I was a bit savage at first at what had happened. And I often +wished I were dead, for I saw my old self wasn't much good for this +new life I was up against. Then one Sunday the padre, who was a very +decent sort, gave us a straight talk that opened my eyes a bit. He +was speaking about Paul and the difference Christ made in his life. +Paul was a splendid fellow, and as good as good could be, and just +like many a man to-day who seems all right without Christ. But what +a difference Christ made in him for all that! And how He made the +old Saul of Tarsus seem a poor thing in comparison with Paul the +apostle! There was something, too, about Paul's thorn in the flesh, +but I forget that bit. Anyhow I did some furious thinking that +Sunday in Cairo, though I saw nothing clearly, and didn't lay much +store by my own future. + +"That night the strange thing happened. I woke up in the early hours +when no one was astir, and I saw a man come in by the door and walk +down the ward. He gave a sort of understanding, tender look at every +face as he passed, and when he saw that I was awake he came close +beside me and held my hand for a moment. Then he said, 'Will you let +me help you with this burden of yours?' I thought at first it was +the new doctor we were expecting. Then I knew quite suddenly that it +was _The Comrade in White_, and that He wanted me very much to say +'Yes.' And as I said it I felt the first real happiness that I had +known since I was wounded. And then He smiled and went away. + +"I told myself next day that it was a dream, and perhaps it was, but +that strange, odd happiness has never left me since. I wouldn't be +back again in the old way, not for all the world could give me, not +even to have my leg restored." + +"And is He really helping you with your burden?" I whispered. + +"Why, Mary child, can't you see," he exclaimed, with his merry laugh; +"can't you see that He has carried my burden quite away? I was but +half a man before. He has made me whole." + + + + +IV. THE PRAYER CIRCLE + + + " ... More things are wrought by prayer + Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice + Rise like a fountain for me night and day. + For what are men better than sheep or goats + That nourish a blind life within the brain, + If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer + Both for themselves and those who call them friend? + For so the whole round earth is every way + Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." + + + --_The Passing of Arthur_, ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON. + + + "Fight the good fight with all thy might, + Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right, + Lay hold on life, and it shall be + Thy joy and crown eternally." + + * * * * * + + "Faint not, nor fear, His arms are near, + He changeth not, and thou art dear: + Only believe, and thou shalt see + That Christ is all in all to thee." + + --J.S.B. MONSELL. + + + +THE PRAYER CIRCLE + +Lieutenant Roger Fenton had a lump in his throat when he said +good-bye to his boys. There they were in a bunch on the station +platform, the ten wayward lads into whom he had sought to instil the +fear of God on Tuesday evenings in winter, and with whom he had +rambled and played cricket every Saturday afternoon in summer. Boys +of fourteen to seventeen are a tough proposition, and though Fenton +would answer for their bowling and batting he wasn't over sanguine +about their religion. But they had filled a big place in his lonely +life in the dull little country town, and now he had to leave them +and lose them. For the great call had reached him, and he bore the +King's commission, and in his heart of hearts he had the feeling +that he would never come back. + +Now the chaff and the parting words of good luck were over, and the +train was panting to be off. "Boys," he cried suddenly, "I want you +to do something for me, something hard." "Anything you like, sir," +they answered eagerly. But their faces fell when they heard their +teacher's word. "Look here," he said, "it's this. You'll meet in the +old place every Tuesday evening for a few minutes and pray for me +that I may do my duty, and, if it please God, that I may come back +to you all. And I'll pray for you at the same time even if I'm in +the thick of battle. Is it a bargain?" + +I wish you had seen the dismay on those ten faces. It was any odds on +their blurting out a shamefaced refusal, but Ted Harper, their +acknowledged chief, pulled himself together just in time, and called +out as the train began to move:--"We'll do it, sir. I don't know how +we'll manage it, but we'll do our best. We'll not go back on you." + +As Fenton sank into his corner he was aware of the mocking looks of +his brother officers. "I say," said one of them, "you don't really +think those chaps are going to hold a prayer-meeting for you every +week, and if they did you can't believe it would stop an enemy's +bullet or turn an enemy's shell. It's all very well to be pious, but +that's a bit too thick." Fenton flushed, but he took it in good part. +"Prayer's a big bit of our religion," he said, "and I've a notion +these prayers will help me. Anyhow I'm sure my lads will do their +part. Where Ted Harper leads, they follow." + +And sure enough the boys did their part. It was fine to see them +starting out in the wrong direction, and twisting and doubling +through the crooked lanes till they worked round to the Mission Hall, +and then in with a rush and a scuttle, that as few as possible might +see. The doings of the Fenton crowd, as they were known locally, +were the talk of the town in those first days after Roger departed. +Would they meet? Would they keep it up? Would they bear the ridicule +of the other boys of their own age? And how in the world would they +pray? + +Time answered all these questions except the last. They met, they +continued to meet, they faced ridicule like heroes. But how did they +pray? That mystery was as deep and insoluble as before, for whatever +awful oath of secrecy bound them to silence not a whisper of the +doings of those Tuesday evenings was divulged to the outside world. + +I was the only one who ever knew, and I found out by chance. Ted +Harper had borrowed "Fights for the Flag" from me, and when I got it +back there was a soiled piece of paper in it with something written +in Ted's ungainly hand. I thought he had been copying a passage, and +anxious to see what had struck him, I opened the sheet out and read +these words:--"O God, it's a hard business praying. But Roger made +me promise. And you know how decent he's been to me and the crowd. +Listen to us now, and excuse the wrong words, and bring him back safe. +And, O God, make him the bravest soldier that ever was, and give him +the V.C. That's what we all want for him. And don't let the war be +long, for Christ's sake. Amen." + +I felt a good deal ashamed of myself when I came to the end of this +artless prayer. I had got their secret. I could see them kneeling +round the Mission forms, two or three with crumpled papers in their +hands. They were unutterably shy of religious expression, and to read +was their only chance. The boys on whom the fatal lot fell the +previous Tuesday were bound to appear with their written devotions a +week later. This war has given us back the supernatural, but no +miracle seems more wonderful to me than those ten lads and their +ill-written prayers. And, remember, that liturgical service lasted +six months, and never a break in the Tuesday meeting. What a grand +thing a boy's heart is, when you capture its loyalty and its +affection! + +It was a black day when the news came. The local Territorials had +advanced too far on the wing of a great offensive, and had been +almost annihilated. The few survivors had dug themselves in, and +held on till that bitter Tuesday faded into darkness and night. When +relief came, one man was left alive. He was wounded in four places, +but he was still loading and firing, and he wept when they picked +him up and carried him away for first aid. That solitary hero, +absolutely the only survivor of our local regiment, was Lieutenant +Roger Fenton, V.C. + +When his wounds were healed, and the King had done the needful bit +of decoration, we got him home. We did not make the fuss they did in +some places. Our disaster was too awful, and the pathos of that +solitary survivor too piercing. But some of us were at the station, +and there in the front row were the ten men of prayer. Poor Roger +quite broke down when he saw them. And he could find no words to +thank them. But he wrung their hands till they winced with the pain +of that iron grip. + +That night I got a chance of a talk with him alone. He was too +modest to tell me anything of his own great exploit. But there was +evidently something he wanted to say, and it was as if he did not +know how to begin. At last he said, "I have a story to tell that not +one in fifty would listen to. That Tuesday evening when I was left +alone, and had given up all hope, I remembered it was the hour of +the old meeting, and I kept my promise and prayed for the boys of my +Class. Then everything around me faded from my mind, and I saw the +dear lads in the Mission Room at prayer. I don't mean that I went +back in memory. I knew with an absolute certainty that I was there +invisible in that night's meeting. Whether in the body or out of the +body, I cannot say, but there I was, watching and listening." + +"How wonderful!" I said. + +"That's not all, there's something stranger still," he went on. +"They were kneeling on the floor, and Ted Harper was reading a prayer, +and when it was done they said 'Amen' as with one voice. I counted +to see if they were all there. I got to ten right enough, but I did +not stop there. I counted again, and this is the odd thing--_there +were eleven of them_! In my dream or vision or trance, call it what +you will, I was vaguely troubled by this unexpected number. I saw +the ten troop out in their old familiar way, and I turned back to +find the eleventh, _The Comrade in White_, and to speak to Him. I +felt His presence still, and was glad of it, for the trouble and +perplexity were all gone and in their place a great expectation. I +seemed to know the very place where He had been kneeling, and I +hurried forward. But there was nothing to be seen, nothing but the +well-remembered text staring down at me from the wall--'For where +two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the +midst of them.' I remembered no more, till I found myself in the +base hospital. But of course I knew then how I had been saved, and +what my boys had done for me. + +"It makes a man feel strange to have his life given back to him like +that; it's as if God would expect a great deal in return. But +there's a stronger feeling still in my heart. I believe the lads got +their answer not for my sake but for their own. Think what it means +to them. They've got their feet now on the rock of prayer. They know +the truth of God. I'm not sure, but I don't think I'll ever tell +them that I saw Christ in their midst. They know it in their own way, +and perhaps their own way is best." + +And as he said it, I saw that Lieutenant Roger Fenton was prouder of +his boys than of his Victoria Cross. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Comrade In White, by W. H. 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