burker

Updated: June 16, 2025

I say I was fresh, calm, and cool. I was. And there was Burker looking exactly as in life, save for a slight nebulosity, a very faint vagueness of outline, and a hint of transparency. Twenty living men and one dead faced me, twenty dismounted and one mounted. I called the corporal in charge of the armoury. "How many on parade?" I asked. He looked puzzled, counted, and said:

Percival Christopher Wren - Driftwood Spars: The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who: Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life

I knew they frequently reposed in the pocket of her dressing-gown. In the said pocket they were and so was a letter in the crude large handwriting of Sergeant Burker. I did not read it, but I did not see the necessity of a correspondence between my wife and such a man as I knew Sergeant Burker to be. They met often enough, in all conscience, to say what they might have to say to each other.

Percival Christopher Wren - Driftwood Spars: The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who: Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life

If it did not, I would go to Burker and say to him quietly: "Burker, you must leave this station at once and never see or communicate with my wife in any way. Otherwise I have to kill you, Burker to execute you, you understand." ... A native syce from the Artillery lines led my charger into the little compound of my tiny bungalow.

Percival Christopher Wren - Driftwood Spars: The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who: Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life

"Why twenty, ain't there?" I numbered the troop. Twenty and Burker. "Tell off by sections." Five sections and Burker. "Sections right." A column of five sections and Burker, in the rear. I called out the section-leader of Number One section. "Are the sections correctly proved?" I asked, and added: "Put the troop back in line and tell-off again". "Five sections, correct," he reported.

Percival Christopher Wren - Driftwood Spars: The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who: Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life

Was I frightened? I do not know. At first my heart certainly pounded as though it would leap from my body, and I felt dazed, lost, and shocked. I think I was frightened not of Burker so much as of the unfamiliar, the unknown, the impossible. How would you feel if your piano suddenly began to play of itself? You would be alarmed and afraid probably, not frightened of the piano, but of the fact.

Percival Christopher Wren - Driftwood Spars: The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who: Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life

When Dolores came home from the Bandstand I said quietly: "Show me the jewellery Burker sent you, Dolly. I am very much in earnest, so don't bluster." She seemed about to faint and looked very frightened perhaps my face was more expressive than a gentleman's should be. "It was only a little thing for my birthday," she whined. "Can't I keep it? Don't be a tyrant or a fool."

Percival Christopher Wren - Driftwood Spars: The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who: Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life

I almost forgot my purpose and had actually turned toward the armoury for a rifle and cartridge when I remembered and controlled my rage. If I shot him, then and there, I must go to the scaffold or to jail forthwith, and Dolores must inevitably go to a worse fate. Had I been sure that she could have kept straight, Burker would have been shot, then and there.

Percival Christopher Wren - Driftwood Spars: The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who: Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life

Section Six must have thought me mad.... Twice again the dead man drilled with the living, and each time I described what happened to Major Jackson. "It is a persistent hallucination," said he; "you must go on leave." "I won't run from Burker, nor from a hallucination," I replied. Then came the end.

Percival Christopher Wren - Driftwood Spars: The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who: Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life

"Who the devil was that rode with me as Number Twenty-four? It was it was like Sergeant Burker." "It was Sergeant Burker, Sir," said I. "I knew it was," he replied, and added: "Man, you and I are fey." "Will you tell Major Jackson of this, Sir?" I begged. "He knows I have seen Burker's ghost here before, and tells me it is a hallucination." "I'll go and see him now." he replied.

Percival Christopher Wren - Driftwood Spars: The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who: Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life

I replied that I had accused her of nothing at all, and merely offered advice in the matter of correspondence with Burker. I explained how I had come to find the letter and stated that I had not read it. "Then how do you know that we " she began, and suddenly stopped. "That you what?" I inquired. "Nothing," she said.

Percival Christopher Wren - Driftwood Spars: The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who: Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life