THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, *191.**
RAF AND
Concluding
AND NAVY JOIN
JOIN THE HUNT, BUT THE PIPERS FIND THE ANSWER
Reveille...and Highland
A
Fantasy by
the Monster's JOHN secret is out
IT
was Private Chalky White, No. 6 Platoon, B Company, 1st Battalion Augustus Highlanders, who saw the Monster on the great sweep of moorland high above Loch Ness. Since early afternoon two RAF recce plones had criss-crossed the area where it was believed to be roaming They had been joined later by two USAF helicopters, great ungainly bluebirds that hovered, bonked and swooped with Yankee dash above the heads of the Highlanders.
14-
A quadren of Scimitars had
DER muna head termed by the eyes and scanned Pie Whir's fushed on
egret Beeping
adcoming Highlandet. Hyunmilitary topographical refer- A quarter of a mile away estrouted that they had "overed care. The
Nur pussbly seven miles to 2 rockface covered in bottle- extended order when he heard green lichen reared boidy from ..shot team the men 50 yards the moor
his left.
and a winent were
ין
The stPTING Tha ACP about jets They refinad 11 the #oove gait. Just
selcanto, bunt ad gan as ipo kiy
He raced
"As that sparent “
Larut Niall Nachis se
1r
d St
ti
He raced over the heather in llying leaps. his binoculars thumping on his chest
He saw as he ran twe ritemen h plaloon crouching tow
of
to
He dropped in the ground and
led the last w yards
One of them was Pe hiky White
his men. No
- זיו י.:
Platzon cumio auker Leant. "they'l have a bad god sporting Loch Ness
: է:
The Monster"
oncerned.
See -Lieut
J...
MacDiamond
...
Wa
on the left wing of a two-male-
AHES
Over There.
15
And
S
A deep cleft split it almost in
MacDiarmid rised glasses and took a long careful look At Best Be nothing. The base of thr chimney was almost black
1
he was turning to lock above t when something in the shadows moved
Insivatly he froze his bu link sa culars on it I began to las
that shape against the backgrouna,
first as 112
blur. a massive suddenly it came to focus.
"My Gorl," said Sec Lieu". MacDiarmid
it's incred.
DRIFT
F1 White In a whisper a semquaver hysterla than he knew "Ovet tours.
in that S Bulow be- tween them rocks."
MacDiarmid narrowed
hi ible
facolor
onally Curtouche, Corbiché
CT 18, 50ASA. CT 18, 50 ASA.
Agfo
תי f}
CALDER
Pte. Chalky White turned 21 startled face to his young com- mander
-Wal is it, sir?" he asked MacDiarmid, with the respons!- bilities of command resting firmly on his shoulders #ensed th other's fear and laughed.
Its a great monster, White," he sald. "A great. genooine. prehistoric piece of fossilised nonsense that shouldn't be here
"Quick, on your feet Tell Sergeant Macdonald to get the blower to battalion and tell them we've Private White needed no fur- spotted Nessie."
ther urging He was off like a young deer.
Boldly
MacDiarmid
trought
ר
his
10
oscillate
alas us to bear on the Monster. 11 was huge. gigantic, all of 40- 50!: kong, with an odd, luath- zume ruptiban néck, a small, tho ridiculous head and en Us flipper-like Jeet. It
peated to be resting.
Suddenly the long neck right. writhed upwards and the tiny
With head-comic
a lurch and a massive stër on, watched on such a great roll the huge beast came
creature-began
Blast, swiftly Diarmid, it's spotted us. He was
thought Mac Pipe-Major Mac
lardy led the Mon-
ou!
nts oxter
and, with fingers enost of his men were now dancing, played one of the live headlong flight. Best Reveilles in the whole world of fighting men, "The Mackenzie Highlanders."
in
Cautiously he moved towards Piper Macleod. Carefully, he worked closer and closer until
As it skirled gafly over the he was within shouting dis- moor the Augustus Highlanders Lance.
of its moorland sanctuary and by reporters, tour- • sniffed the air MacDiarmid ists and the hush-yawiied, scratched their Heads,
heard the noise distinctly. Then
with a speed deceptive in such ed ranks of the bulk it came boldly out into the open--and straight for No. Augustus High- landers. He gave a
Pintoon.
"At Sundhurst the instructors, virtuoso perform-
laving presented their lefor. ged cadets with a set piece of military chaos to unravel gest to say with heavy sarcasm: **It Beesn't matter what you do as long as you do something."
ance,
the
Sec.-Lietrt MacDiannid did haversack something. In his were several little "Red Devil" hit, and the fifth turned grenades, used in training 10 Monster about.
It was unhurt. acclimatise unscasoned
troops I lumbered off towards the dis- to battle noises, and let ver tant horizon. No.
S Platoon from a recent exercise.
cheered, The Monster was 150 yards away and coming strongly when when dusk fell.
The Monster was still at large
At 20.00hrs Mar Diarmid KOL the irst Brigade HQ. ordered the Augus- grenade out, pulled the pin. rose tus Highlanders to bivouac for
the night.
to his feet and held his fre. 11 was a gesture of defeat hercism, worthy of citation in the London Gazette.
The Monster was 15 yards
So over this ancient
over 200 years, there glowed the camp tires of men on the march.
their backs. ran their hands through tousled hair and got
up.
An order...
"Keep playing."
Not 200 yards froth where Piper Macleod played his salutė to the morning the Monster "For God's sake slept.
and follow me."
he yelled. keep playing
As the music of the "Mar- To Piper Macleod, 15 years in kenzie Highlanders" probed the Army, an order was 10
is primeval senses it yawned, order. He kept playing and be
shook itself and stood rocklike followed And behind the ND as the music carried over, the killed figures during on the crisp morning atc. Then Monster. The tiny head du by
it began to move towards the from side to side ar fi diarred
the music. piper.
Piper Macleod was zuilaved Sec-Lleut. MacDiarmid. saw it before any of his men. He ever two miles, in estate nel had an advantage over most
to collerse, by Piper Donaldson, of Don Coy, and by the umb of them. He had seen it before,
here it is! There it is!" he he strange little procesation was yelled. Tally-hd, Tally hot"
within a mile of the lochside the only piper left to take over
8 Coy commander crawled was the pipe-major himself." out of a diminutive, blvvy tent
For the last mile to Loch Ness in gay striped pyjamas, What's Five Major Maclardy gave thi elag up," he shouted. "What the battlefield, for the Arst time to hell then he, too, saw it. world's Press (watching breath- Jess from the hillside), the from the first of his paralysed The company pipers played their (or words to that effect), About Highlanders and several
"Jumping Jehosaphat," he said hushed ranks of the Augustus hun- men when MacDiarmid threw
cricket-bal throw-straight marches and laments until the simultaneously and strathspeys and reels,
had camped their 150 men of B Company saw it dred tourists who at the coming beast,
with one out all night a virtuoso per- It was а last fire flickered wardy magnificent effort.
srid accord
fled for their lives, formance. the troops rolled themselves in many of them without their
When he reached, the loch The grenade burst in the air their blankets to sleep the steep kilts. Jess than five yard
shore the the of the brave as their forbears from
Pipe-major marched monster with noise like had done in
to a flank, and turned about to this place batore
Plyer Macleod conttued to face the Monster as it lurche¤ small howitzer. The effect
un them,
play, blissfully unaware that down the steep slope. the onrushing beast was rather
the enemy was within striking like trying
At first light B Company's to shoot 27) elephant with an afrgun. But piper, Dorrioch Macleod,
ย
distance. And as he matched Carefully, almost reluctantly, trom and counter-marched the Mon- the Monster slid into the loch. the explosion stopped it in its North Uist, esteemed as one of ater followed him.
The water burned white as it tracks.
4
the finest pipers in the High-
a from the shore. Then it dived and was gone.
land Brigade, marched briskly it was Sec.-Ideut. MacDiarmid 3 up to a little hill on the flank who sensed what was happen- and of the company position.
ing. Don't anybody move," he The music drifted over There he tucked his bag under yelled, beedless of the fact that loch, sweet and sad
Grenades No's. 2 and straddled the target right left, the fourth scored a
direct