burker

Updated: June 16, 2025

It happened five minutes after he had said to me, with a queer look in his eyes, and a queer note in his voice, "Man! you and I are fey".... So it is no hallucination and I am haunted by Burker's ghost. Very good. I will fight Burker on his own ground. My ghost shall haunt Burker's ghost or I shall be at peace.

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 Burker heddenta wurkt agin me fer Corner I wuddenta bed to sit on him. Ov setch is the kingum of hevvun! You don't want to moov this boddy til ime summuns to hold a ninquest. Orl flesh are gras!"

Ambrose Bierce - The Fiend's Delight

Burker rode in that blank file and drilled so, throughout save that he would not dismount. Once, as the troop rode in column of sections, I fell to the rear and, coming up behind, struck with all my might at that slightly nebulous figure, with its faint vagueness of outline and hint of transparency. My heavy cutting-whip whistled and touched nothing. I was as one who beats the air.

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

And let God remember how that opportunity came so convincingly so impellingly and if He would judge me and ask for my defence I would ask him who sent Burker here, and who placed him on that fatal spot? Does God sit only in judgment? Does God calmly watch His creatures walking blindfold to the Pit struggling to tear away the bandage as they walk? Can He only judge, and can He never help? "Pray?"

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

At the next drill, twenty-one gentlemen were present and Number Twenty-one, the Sessions Judge of Duri, a Scot, kept staring with looks of amazement and alarm at Burker, who rode as Number Four on his flank, making an odd file into a skeleton section. I was certain that he saw Burker. As the gentlemen "dismissed" after parade, the Judge rode up to me and, with a white face, demanded:

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