Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/56

 tradesman who succeeded in escaping. But the next morning he was caught in his home and shot—he might have proved an unpleasant witness. At the estate of Härtonäs the owner, Mr. Bergbonn, was sitting at his breakfast table when a band of Red Guardsmen entered and cried: "Hands up!" Mr. Bergbonn was deaf, and turned to his wife, asking: "What is it they are saying?" At the same moment there was a loud report and the old gentleman fell dead to the floor, shot through the head. As if nothing had happened the Red "ordermen" now began to search for arms—which, of course, were not found. A guards constable in private service was the next victim. He was sitting in his little house when the Red entered and ordered him to follow them. The wife and children clung to the head of the family and would not let him go. "You shall have him back again," say the Red consolingly to the woman. Half an hour later the door is opened and the dead body of the man is thrown in. "There, you have your husband!" cries a voice outside.

In a detached villa near Helsingfors lived a widowed lady, Mrs. Sahlstrøm, with her four young sons. They had no reason for believing themselves hated or disliked by the "people." But one morning at seven o'clock they are awakened by a shot from the forest, and looking out through the window they see that the watch-dog lies shot by the steps. At the same moment there is a hammering on the door, and the eldest son, Gunnar, goes out to open it. Hardly has he put his head through the opening when there is the crash of a volley and he rolls down the steps into the yard, wounded though still alive. At the sound of the reports and the savage oaths Mrs. Sahlstrøm comes hurrying up, as also a younger son, Ragnar, only dressed in his night-clothes. As soon as he shows himself he, too, is saluted by a volley and