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    *                     The Pistol                         *
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    G.C.Wraith 25/04/2010

    My wife's family lived in Nyborg on the island of Fyn in
    Denmark. The house they lived in was next to the police
    station and lay at the edge of the moat of Nyborg castle.
    My mother-in-law was working late in the post-office when
    suddenly German soldiers burst in with machine guns and
    told her to go home. That was how world war II came to
    Nyborg.
    My brother-in-law, who was born when the war started, told
    me the following incident. When Germany surrendered, a German
    officer that lived nearby, whose face was familiar, gave him
    his pistol because he was reluctant to hand over his weapon to
    "terrorists". When my father-in-law came home and saw his
    little boy's new toy, he threw it straightaway into the moat.
    I expect it is still there. The house no longer exists. It
    was old and slowly sinking into the moat.

    I found this simple story strangely affecting. It says so many
    things. It raises so many questions that cannot now be answered.

    In remote ponds and bogs of Denmark lie un-numbered ancient
    weapons, rich treasure from far places, gladly offered to gods
    now forgotten, but whose blessings are alive still.