Independent Reading #14 - The Sniper

The Sniper

By Liam O’ Flaherty

The long June twilight faded into night. Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but

for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale

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light as of approaching dawn over the streets and the dark waters of the Liffey.

Around the beleaguered Four Courts the heavy guns roared. Here and there

through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms. Republicans and Free Staters were

waging civil war.

On a rooftop near O’Connell Bridge, a Republican sniper lay watching. Beside

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him lay his rifle and over his shoulders was slung a pair of field glasses. His

face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam

of the fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used

to looking at death.

He was eating a sandwich hungrily. He had eaten nothing since morning. He

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had been too excited to eat. He finished the sandwich, and, taking a flask of

whiskey from his pocket, he took a short drought. Then he returned the flask

to his pocket. He paused for a moment, considering whether he should risk a

smoke. It was dangerous. The flash might be seen in the darkness, and there

were enemies watching. He decided to take the risk.

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Placing a cigarette between his lips, he struck a match, inhaled the smoke hurriedly and put out the light. Almost immediately, a bullet flattened itself

against the parapet of the roof. The sniper took another whiff and put out the

cigarette. Then he swore softly and crawled away to the left.

Cautiously he raised himself and peered over the parapet. There was a flash

and a bullet whizzed over his head. He dropped immediately. He had seen the

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flash. It came from the opposite side of the street.

He rolled over the roof to a chimney stack in the rear, and slowly drew himself up behind it, until his eyes were level with the top of the parapet. There

was nothing to be seen – just the dim outline of the opposite housetop against

the blue sky. His enemy was under cover.

Just then an armoured car came across the bridge and advanced slowly up the

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street. It stopped on the opposite side of the street, fifty yards ahead. The

sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor. His heart beat faster. It was

an enemy car. He wanted to fire, but he knew it was useless. His bullets would

never pierce the steel that covered the gray monster.

Then round the corner of a side street came an old woman, her head covered

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by a tattered shawl. She began to talk to the man in the turret of the car. She

was pointing to the roof where the sniper lay. An informer.

The turret opened. A man’s head and shoulders appeared, looking toward the

sniper. The sniper raised his rifle and fired. The head fell heavily on the turret

wall. The woman darted toward the side street. The sniper fired again. The

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woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter.

Suddenly from the opposite roof a shot rang out and the sniper dropped his

rifle with a curse. The rifle clattered to the roof. The sniper thought the noise

would wake the dead. He stooped to pick the rifle up. He couldn’t lift it. His

forearm was dead. “I’m hit,” he muttered.

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Dropping flat onto the roof, he crawled back to the parapet. With his left

hand he felt the injured right forearm. The blood was oozing through the

sleeve of his coat. There was no pain--just a deadened sensation, as if the arm

had been cut off.

Quickly he drew his knife from his pocket, opened it on the breastwork of the

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parapet, and ripped open the sleeve. There was a small hole where the bullet

had entered. On the other side there was no hole. The bullet had lodged in the

bone. It must have fractured it. He bent the arm below the wound. the arm

bent back easily. He ground his teeth to overcome the pain.

Then taking out his field dressing, he ripped open the packet with his knife.

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He broke the neck of the iodine bottle and let the bitter fluid drip into the

wound. A paroxysm of pain swept through him. He placed the cotton

wadding over the wound and wrapped the dressing over it. He tied the ends

with his teeth.

Then he lay still against the parapet, and, closing his eyes, he made an effort

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of will to overcome the pain.

In the street beneath all was still. The armoured car had retired speedily over

the bridge, with the machine gunner’s head hanging lifeless over the turret.

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The woman’s corpse lay still in the gutter.

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The sniper lay still for a long time nursing his wounded arm and planning

escape. Morning must not find him wounded on the roof. The enemy on the

opposite roof covered his escape. He must kill that enemy and he could not

use his rifle. He had only a revolver to do it. Then he thought of a plan.

Taking off his cap, he placed it over the muzzle of his rifle. Then he pushed

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the rifle slowly upward over the parapet, until the cap was visible from the

opposite side of the street. Almost immediately there was a report, and a bullet pierced the centre of the cap. The sniper slanted the rifle forward. The cap

clipped down into the street. Then catching the rifle in the middle, the sniper

dropped his left hand over the roof and let it hang, lifelessly. After a few

moments he let the rifle drop to the street. Then he sank to the roof, dragging

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his hand with him.

Crawling quickly to his feet, he peered up at the corner of the roof. His ruse

had succeeded. The other sniper, seeing the cap and rifle fall, thought that he

had killed his man. He was now standing before a row of chimney pots, looking across, with his head clearly silhouetted against the western sky.

The Republican sniper smiled and lifted his revolver above the edge of the

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parapet. The distance was about fifty yards – a hard shot in the dim light, and

his right arm was paining him like a thousand devils. He took a steady aim.

His hand trembled with eagerness. Pressing his lips together, he took a deep

breath through his nostrils and fired. He was almost deafened with the report

and his arm shook with the recoil.

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Then when the smoke cleared, he peered across and uttered a cry of joy. His

enemy had been hit. He was reeling over the parapet in his death agony. He

struggled to keep his feet, but he was slowly falling forward as if in a dream.

The rifle fell from his grasp, hit the parapet, fell over, bounded off the pole of

a barber’s shop beneath and then clattered on the pavement.

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Then the dying man on the roof crumpled up and fell forward. The body

turned over and over in space and hit the ground with a dull thud. Then it lay

still.

The sniper looked at his enemy falling and he shuddered. The lust of battle

died in him. He became bitten by remorse. The sweat stood out in beads on

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his forehead. Weakened by his wound and the long summer day of fasting and

watching on the roof, he revolted from the sight of the shattered mass of his

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dead enemy. His teeth chattered, he began to gibber to himself, cursing the

war, cursing himself, cursing everybody.

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He looked at the smoking revolver in his hand, and with an oath he hurled it

to the roof at his feet. The revolver went off with a concussion and the bullet

whizzed past the sniper’s head. He was frightened back to his senses by the

shock. His nerves steadied. The cloud of fear scattered from his mind and he

laughed.

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Taking the whiskey flask from his pocket, he emptied it a drought. He felt

reckless under the influence of the spirit. He decided to leave the roof now and

look for his company commander, to report. Everywhere around was quiet.

There was not much danger in going through the streets. He picked up his

revolver and put it in his pocket. Then he crawled down through the skylight

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to the house underneath.

When the sniper reached the laneway on the street level, he felt a sudden

curiosity as to the identity of the enemy sniper whom he had killed. He decided that he was a good shot, whoever he was. He wondered did he know him.

Perhaps he had been in his own company before the split in the army. He

decided to risk going over to have a look at him. He peered around the corner into O’Connell Street. In the upper part of the street there was heavy firing, but around here all was quiet.

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The sniper darted across the street. A machine gun tore up the ground around

him with a hail of bullets, but he escaped. He threw himself face downward

beside the corpse. The machine gun stopped.

Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.