TRUE TO DEATH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3372, 11 November 1911, Page 10

TRUE TO DEATH.

A WOUNDED TELEGRAPH BOY INSISTS ON DOING HIS DUTY.

Noel Bourgoin was only fourteen, but lie was of the stuff of which heroes are made, and he persisted in doing his duty although the shadow of death was upon him. The story is one to make the pulse beat quicker, both with admiration of the boy’s heroism and with indignation at the callousness of the motor driver who was responsible for his death. Bourgoin, a cyclist telegraph messenger, was carrying a telegram from Toucy to a spot near London. While riding down a narrow lane he had to pass a heavy waggon, the driver of which was asleep. As he got iabreast of the waggon a motor-car dashed up from the opposite direction, and. the boy w r as hurled on to a heap of stones at the roadside. The driver of the motor-car did not wait to see whether the boy was hurt, but the noise of his fall awoke the waggoner, and 1 he, seeing that Bourgoin had fainted, ran to a cottage for some water. When the lad had recovered somewhat the cottagers told him that he w r as unfit to go on with the telegram, and the waggoner offered to take it for him. The cottagers offered to keep the boy with them for the night, but he refused, saying that it was his duty to deliver the telegram and that he could manage to do the three miles on his bicycle more quickly than could the waggon. ... , Much against their inclination the kindly cottagers let him go. Tho boy must have fallen off his bicycle several times during the ride, for next morning traces of blood! were found zig-zag-ging across the road he had travelled. It was late at night when he delivered the message, and he was then so ill that the people of the house sent him hack to Toucy in a carriage. A doctor found that the boy had fractured his skull, and despite the utmost care he died before daybreak.