Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 29, 2025
Is it King David ye mane?" There was a roar of laughter, and this was my introduction to Terence McCann and Swein Poulsson. The fort being crowded, we were put into a cabin with Terence and Cowan and Cowan's wife a tall, gaunt woman with a sharp tongue and a kind heart and her four brats, "All hugemsmug together," as Cowan said.
I have seen brave men and cowards since, and I am as far as ever from distinguishing them. Before we knew it Poulsson was in the hole once more had wriggled out of it on the other side, and was squirming in a hail of bullets towards Ray. After it came James Ray himself, and lastly Poulsson, and a great shout went out from the loopholes and was taken up by the women in the common.
At that Cowan left his post and snatched the rifle from Poulsson's hands. "Ye're but wasting powder," he cried angrily. "Then, by tam, I am as vell under the bed," said Poulsson. "Vat can I do?" I had it. "Dig!" I shouted; and seizing the astonished Cowan's tomahawk from his belt I set to work furiously chopping at the dirt beneath the log wall. "Dig, so that James can get under."
The lights of the village twinkled at our feet, and now and then a voice from below was caught and borne upward to us. Once another noise startled us, followed by an exclamation, "Donnerblitzen" and a volley of low curses from the company. Poor Swein Poulsson had loosed a stone, which had taken a reverberating flight riverward.
And we were astir with the light, preparing for our journey into the unknown country. At seven we embarked by companies in the flatboats, waving a farewell to those who were to be left behind. Some stayed through inclination and disaffection: others because Colonel Clark did not deem them equal to the task. But Swein Poulsson came.
Suddenly Poulsson dropped his handle, causing the boat to swing round in the stream, while the men damned him. Paying them no attention, he stood pointing into the blinding disk of the sun. Across the edge of it a piece was bitten out in blackness. "Mein Gott!" he cried, "the world is being ended just now." "The holy saints remember us this day!" said McCann, missing a stroke to cross himself.
Swein Poulsson had become a hero, nor was he willing to lose any of the glamour which was a hero's right. "You did not see me safe James, no? I vill tell you Joost how." It never leaked out that Swein was first of all under the bed, for Polly Ann and Bill Cowan and myself swore to keep the secret.
That night, as Tom and Cowan and McCann and James Ray lay around their fire, taking a well-earned rest, a man broke excitedly into the light with a kettle-shaped object balanced on his head, which he set down in front of us. The man proved to be Swein Poulsson, and the object a big drum, and he straightway began to beat upon it a tattoo with improvised drumsticks.
"'Tis no news to me," said Terence, stamping his feet on the flinty ground; "wasn't it Davy that pointed him out to us and the hair liftin' from his head six months since?" "Und you like schwimmin', yes?" said Swein Poulsson, his face like the rising sun with the cold. "Swimmin', is it?" said Terence, "sure, the divil made worse things than wather. And Hamilton's beyant."
And we were astir with the light, preparing for our journey into the unknown country. At seven we embarked by companies in the flatboats, waving a farewell to those who were to be left behind. Some stayed through inclination and disaffection: others because Colonel Clark did not deem them equal to the task. But Swein Poulsson came.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking