Then finding
an iron bar he leaped upon the breastwork and threw it at the mass of
heads crowding forward to scale their works.
While the conflict was at its height, when Packenham was leading the
last grand charge against the earthworks. Major Stevens' attention was
directed by repeated and vociferous shouts to "come down," to an object
on his right. Turning his eyes in that direction, he saw Sukey, standing
coolly on the top of the breastwork peering into the darkness for
something to shoot at. The balls were whistling as thick as hail around
him, and cutting up the dirt at his feet.
"Come down, Sukey, come down!" Fernando commanded. Sukey turned round
and, holding up the flap of his old, broad-brimmed hat with one hand, to
see who was speaking to him, answered:
"Oh, never mind, Fernando--here's Sukey--I don't want to waste my
powder, and I'd like to know how I'm to shoot until I see something. I'm
watching for that man on the big white horse."
It was not long until Sukey got his eye on the man on the big white
horse, and leveling his rifle pulled the trigger. At that instant
Packenham fell, bleeding and dying, into the arms of Sir Duncan
McDougall, his favorite aid, who performed a similar service for General
Ross when he was mortally wounded a few months before. Sukey coolly
descended from the breastwork and, sitting down at the root of a tree,
took out his book and said:
"I've balanced the score.
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