While over the water the papers cried, “The patriot fights for his countryside!”
But little they cared for the Native Press, The worn white soldiers in Khaki dress,
Who tramped through the jungle and camped in the byre, Who died in the swamp and were tombed in the mire,
Who gave up their lives, at the Queen's Command, For the Pride of their Race and the Peace of the Land.
Now, first of the foemen of Boh Da Thone Was Captain O'Neil of the “Black Tyrone”, And his was a Company, seventy strong, Who hustled that dissolute Chief along.
There were lads from Galway and Louth and Meath Who went to their death with a joke in their teeth, And worshipped with fluency, fervour, and zeal The mud on the boot-heels of “Crook” O'Neil.
But ever a blight on their labours lay, And ever their quarry would vanish away, Till the sun-dried boys of the Black Tyrone Took a brotherly interest in Boh Da Thone: And, sooth, if pursuit in possession ends, The Boh and his trackers were best of friends.
The word of a scout--a march by night-- A rush through the mist--a scattering fight-- A volley from cover--a corpse in the clearing-- The glimpse of a loin-cloth and heavy jade earring-- The flare of a village--the tally of slain-- And...the Boh was abroad “on the raid” again!
They cursed their luck, as the Irish will, They gave him credit for cunning and skill, They buried their dead, they bolted their beef, And started anew on the track of the thief Till, in place of the “Kalends of Greece”, men said, “When Crook and his darlings come back with the head.”
They had hunted the Boh from the hills to the plain-- He doubled and broke for the hills again: They had crippled his power for rapine and raid, They had routed him out of his pet stockade, And at last, they came, when the Day Star tired, To a camp deserted--a village fired.
A black cross blistered the Morning-gold, And the body upon it was stark and cold. The wind of the dawn went merrily past, The high grass bowed her plumes to the blast.
And out of the grass, on a sudden, broke A spirtle of fire, a whorl of smoke--
And Captain O'Neil of the Black Tyrone Was blessed with a slug in the ulnar-bone-- The gift of his enemy Boh Da Thone.
(Now a slug that is hammered from telegraph-wire Is a thorn in the flesh and a rankling fire.) * * * *
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