THE YARN OF THE BLACK OFFICER
"It was about 'the last Christmas of the hundred'--the end of last
century. They wanted men for the Black Watch (42nd Highlanders), and the
Black Officer, as they called him, was sent to his own country to enlist
them. Some he got willingly, and others by force. He promised he would
only take them to London, where the King wanted to review them, and then
let them go home. So they came, though they little liked it, and he was
marching them south. Now at night they reached a place where nobody
would have halted them except the Black Officer, for it was a great place
for ghosts. And they would have run away if they had dared, but they
were afraid of him. So some tried to sleep in threes and fours, and some
were afraid to sleep, and they sat up round the fire. But the Black
Officer, he went some way from the rest, and lay down beneath a tree.
"Now as the night wore on, and whiles it would be dark and whiles the
moon shone, a man came--they did not know from where--a big red man, and
drew up to the fire, and was talking with them. And he asked where the
Black Officer was, and they showed him. Now there was one man, Shamus
Mackenzie they called him, and he was very curious, and he must be seeing
what they did. So he followed the man, and saw him stoop and speak to
the officer, but he did not waken; then this individual took the Black
Officer by the breast and shook him violently.
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