Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #14 May 2015 | Seite 81

missed anything?”

and demanded a report.

Lieutenant Houseman, royal navy, detached, walked
in, said sorry for being late and reported that the Greyhound had sand in the gearbox and would be unable to
move tomorrow.

“Yes sir, I was just, that is to say these men fired at a
shadow sir. Nothing there. I’ll have them disciplined
for incompetence.”
“Begin ya pardon general but we saw ‘im, we both
saw ’im and we shot ‘im. Standin’ right there plain as
day. By that bush.”

The meeting did not go well.
#

“General there is no way they could have seen someone that close, there is no cover. If there had been
someone there where did he go?”

Two hours later and the general was taking a few
minutes of peace to write a letter to his granddaughter.
He wrote every day and then sent them all together
whenever he was able. He thought it a little silly but
his granddaughter Abigail insisted he do it and if he
were honest with himself he found it cleared his mind
to detail each day’s events in a letter.

The general looked from the two soldiers to the lieutenant and back.
“Let’s have a sweep out there, two squads. Look for
tracks.”

His train of thought was shattered by the sound of
a gunshot, the heavy crack of a Martin Henri by the
sound of it, which meant one of his men. A second
shot rang out and the general, revolver in hand, was
outside his tent and looking for the source of the
shooting.

The closest sergeant quickly organised a skirmish line
that moved out from the camp and began to search for
the intruder.
Several minutes later a corporal came back to the general from the searchers. “General we found something,
not rightly sure what. Too dark to see much.”

The guard outside his tent was looking to the west. “It
came from over there sir.”
Soldiers were spilling out of their tents, sergeants were
shouting orders, organised chaos among the regulars,
just chaos amongst the levy and civilians.
“You, with me.” The general ordered and set off
towards the western end of the camp where the shots
had come from.
#
The officer of the watch was third platoons lieutenant
Fowler, of the Hampshire fowlers don’t ya know.
Recently joined the garrison and never seen action.
Widely regarded as a stuck up incompetent amongst
his fellow officers and called far worse behind his
back by the ranks.
The general, guard in tow and revolver in hand arrived

General Summerby called for a lantern and without
checking that his order was carried out he waved the
corporal to lead him out of the camp. The guard from
his tent close behind.
They walked no more than ten yards and stopped by a
patch of shrub, too low to have been cut down by the
fire wood gatherers. The General looked but could see
no more than some sort of hollow behind the bush.
Then an oil lamp arrived and the general looked up to
order whoever was carrying it to bring it closer when
he was struck silent by surprise. The man carrying the
lantern was clearly a native, one of the levy perhaps. A
hard looking man, weathered by years under the harsh
sun.
“Bring it closer, over here.”

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