Love stories; Nobility -- Great Britain -- Fiction; Switzerland -- Fiction
“At the inquest on the late Mrs. Knight, the wife of Colonel Knight
who was reported murdered by natives in East Africa some little
time ago, some interesting evidence was given. It appeared from
the testimony of Mrs. Parsons, a nurse in the Hawk’s Hall
Hospital, that when warning was given of the approach of Zeppelins
during last week’s raid on the Eastern Counties and London, the
patients in the upper rooms of the hospital were removed to its
lower floors. Finding that one young man, a private in the
Suffolk Regiment who has lost both his feet, had been overlooked,
Mrs. Knight, followed by Mrs. Parsons, went upstairs to help him
down. When Mrs. Parsons, whom she outran, reached the door of the
ward there was a great explosion, apparently on the roof. She
waited till the dust had cleared off and groped her way down the
ward with the help of an electric torch. Reaching Private
Thompson’s bed, she saw lying on it Mrs. Knight who had been
killed by the fallen masonry. Private Thompson, who was unhurt
beneath the body, said that when the bricks began to come down
Mrs. Knight called to him to lie still and threw herself on him to
protect him. Then something heavy, he believed the stone coping of
a chimney, fell on her back and she uttered one word, he thought
it was a name, and was silent. Mrs. Knight, who was the only child
of the late Sir John Blake, Bart., the well-known shipowner, is
said to have been one of the richest women in England. She married
the late Colonel Knight some months ago, immediately before he was
sent to East Africa. Under the provisions of her will the cremated
remains of Mrs. Knight will be interred in the chancel of the
Abbey Church at Monk’s Acre.”
Godfrey read this awful paragraph twice and looked at the date of the
paper. It was nearly two months old.
“So she was dead when she came to me. Oh! now I understand,” he
muttered to himself, and then, had not a passing native servant caught
him, he would have fallen to the ground. It was one of the ten thousand
minor tragedies of the world war, that is all.
Three months later, still very crippled and coughing badly, because of
the injury to his lung, he reported himself in London, and once more
saw the Under-Secretary who had sent him out to East Africa. There he
sat in the same room, at the same desk, looking precisely the same.
“I am sorry, Sir, that my mission has failed through circumstances
beyond my control. I can only add that I did my best,” he said
briefly.
“I know,” answered the official; “it was no fault of yours if
those black brutes tried to murder you. Everything goes wrong in that
cursed East Africa. Now go home and get yourself fit again, my dear
fellow,” he went on very kindly, adding, “Your services will not be
overlooked.”
“I have no home, and I shall never be fit again,” replied Godfrey,
and left the room.
“I forgot,” thought the Under-Secretary. “His wife was killed
in a Zeppelin raid. Odd that she should have been taken and he left.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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