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diff --git a/old/12880-8.txt b/old/12880-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..02d397a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12880-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7149 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Times and Out, by Nellie L. McClung + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Three Times and Out + +Author: Nellie L. McClung + +Release Date: July 11, 2004 [EBook #12880] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE TIMES AND OUT *** + + + + +Thanks to A Celebration of Women Writers +http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/ +for providing the source text. + + + + + + + +THREE TIMES AND OUT + +TOLD BY + +PRIVATE SIMMONS + +WRITTEN BY + +NELLIE L. MCCLUNG + +Author of SOWING SEEDS IN DANNY, IN TIMES LIKE THESE, +and THE NEXT OF KIN + +With Illustrations + + +TORONTO + +THOMAS ALLEN + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK + +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + +1918 + + + + To the companion who failed + through no fault of his and + no lack of courage + TOM BROMLEY + loyal friend and best of com- + rades, this book is dedicated. + + + +PREFACE + + +When a young man whom I had not seen until that day came to see me +in Edmonton, and told me he had a story which he thought was worth +writing, and which he wanted me to write for him, I told him I could +not undertake to do it for I was writing a story of my own, but that +I could no doubt find some one who would do it for him. + +Then he mentioned that he was a returned soldier, and had been for +sixteen months a prisoner in Germany, and had made his escape-- + +That changed everything! + +I asked him to come right in and tell me all about it--for like every +one else I have friends in the prison-camps of Germany, boys whom I +remember as little chaps in knickers playing with my children, boys +I taught in country schools in Manitoba, boys whose parents are my +friends. There are many of these whom we know to be prisoners, and +there are some who have been listed as "missing," who we are still +hoping against long odds may be prisoners! + +I asked him many questions. How were they treated? Did they get +enough to eat? Did they get their parcels? Were they very lonely? +Did he by any chance know a boy from Vancouver called Wallen Gordon, +who had been "Missing" since the 2d of June, 1916? Or Reg Black from +Manitou? or Garnet Stewart from Winnipeg? + +Unfortunately, he did not. + +Then he began his story. Before he had gone far, I had determined to +do all I could to get his story into print, for it seemed to me to be +a story that should be written. It gives at least a partial answer +to the anxious questionings that are in so many hearts. It tells us +something of the fate of the brave fellows who have, temporarily, +lost their freedom--to make our freedom secure! + +Private Simmons is a close and accurate observer who sees clearly +and talks well. He tells a straightforward, unadorned tale, every +sentence of which is true, and convincing. I venture to hope that +the reader may have as much pleasure in the reading of it as I had +in the writing. + +NELLIE L. McCLUNG + +Edmonton, October 24, 1918 + + + +CONTENTS + + I. HOW IT STARTED + II. THROUGH BELGIUM + III. INTO GERMANY + IV. THE LAZARET + V. THE PRISON-CAMP + VI. ROSSBACH + VII. THE ESCAPE + VIII. OFF FOR SWITZERLAND! + IX. CAUGHT! + X. THE CELLS! + XI. THE STRAFE-BARRACK + XII. BACK TO CAMP + XIII. CELLELAGER + XIV. OFF FOR HOLLAND! + XV. CAUGHT AGAIN + XVI. THE INVISIBLE BROTHERHOOD + XVII. THE CELLS AT OLDENBUBG + XVIII. PARNEWINKEL CAMP + XIX. THE BLACKEST CHAPTER OF ALL + XX. ONCE AGAIN! + XXI. TRAVELLERS OF THE NIGHT + XXII. THE LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM + XXIII. OUT + CONCLUSION + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + PRIVATE SIMMONS + From a photograph taken since his return to Canada + OFFICER'S QUARTERS IN A GERMAN MILITARY PRISON + GIESSEN PRISON-CAMP + TED BROMLEY, IN RED CROSS OVERCOAT WITH PRISON + NUMBER AND MARKED SLEEVE + GERMAN PRISON STAMP + These stamps are used to pay prisoners for their work and + to be exchanged for any money they may have when captured + TWO PAGES FROM PRIVATE SIMMONS'S DIARY + MAP MADE BY PRIVATE SIMMONS OF THE FIRST ATTEMPT + THE CHRISTMAS CARD WHICH THE GIESSEN PRISON AUTHORITIES + SUPPLIED TO THE PRISONERS + MAP MADE FROM PAPER WHICH CAME IN A PARCEL, WRAPPED AROUND + A FRUIT-CAKE + FRIEDRICHSFELD PRISON-CAMP IN WINTER + MAP WHICH PRIVATE SIMMONS GOT FROM THE CANADIAN ARTIST AT + GIESSEN, SHOWING ROUTES OF SECOND AND THIRD ATTEMPTS + FRIEDRICHSFELD PRISON-CAMP IN SUMMER + A PRISON POST-CARD FROM FRIEDRICHSFELD BEI WESEL, SHOWING + COSMOPOLITAN GROUP OF PRISONERS + POST-CARD SENT BY PRIVATE BROMLEY FROM THE PRISON-CAMP OF + SOLTAU, SHOWING GRAVES OF PRISONERS + + + + +THREE TIMES AND OUT + + + +CHAPTER I + +HOW IT STARTED + + +"England has declared war on Germany!" + +We were working on a pumphouse, on the Columbia River, at Trail, +British Columbia, when these words were shouted at us from the door +by the boss carpenter, who had come down from the smelter to tell us +that the news had just come over the wire. + +Every one stopped work, and for a full minute not a word was spoken. +Then Hill, a British reservist who was my work-mate, laid down his +hammer and put on his coat. There was neither haste nor excitement in +his movements, but a settled conviction that gave me a queer feeling. +I began to argue just where we had left off, for the prospect of war +had been threshed out for the last two days with great thoroughness. +"It will be settled," I said. "Nations cannot go to war now. It would +be suicide, with all the modern methods of destruction. It will be +settled by a war council--and all forgotten in a month." + +Hill, who had argued so well a few minutes ago and told us all the +reasons he had for expecting war with Germany, would not waste a word +on me now. England was at war--and he was part of England's war +machine. + +"I am quitting, George," he said to the boss carpenter, as he pulled +his cap down on his head and started up the bank. + +That night he began to drill us in the skating-rink. + +I worked on for about a week, but from the first I determined to go +if any one went from Canada. I don't suppose it was all patriotism. +Part of it was the love of adventure, and a desire to see the world; +for though I was a steady-going carpenter chap, I had many dreams as +I worked with hammer and saw, and one of them was that I would travel +far and see how people lived in other countries. The thought of war +had always been repellent to me, and many an argument I had had +with the German baker in whose house I roomed, on the subject of +compulsory military training for boys. He often pointed out a +stoop-shouldered, hollow-chested boy who lived on the same street, +and told me that if this boy had lived in Germany he would have +walked straighter and developed a chest, instead of slouching through +life the way he was doing. He and his wife and the grown-up daughter +were devoted to their country, and often told us of how well the +working-people were housed in Germany and the affairs of the country +conducted. + +But I think the war was as great a surprise to them as to us, and +although the two women told us we were foolish to go to fight--it was +no business of ours if England wanted to get into a row--it made no +difference in our friendly relations, and the day we left Clara came +to the station with a box of candy. I suppose if we had known as much +then as we do now about German diplomacy, we shouldn't have eaten it, +but we only knew then that Clara's candy was the best going, and so +we ate it, and often wished for more. + +I have since heard, however, of other Germans in Canada who knew more +of their country's plans, and openly spoke of them. One of these, +employed by the Government, told the people in the office where he +worked that when Germany got hold of Canada, she would straighten out +the crooked streets in our towns and not allow shacks to be built on +the good streets, and would see to it that houses were not crowded +together; and the strangest part of it is that the people to whom he +spoke attached no importance whatever to his words until the war came +and the German mysteriously disappeared. + + * * * + +I never really enlisted, for we had no recruiting meetings in Trail +before I left. We went to the skating-rink the first night, about +fifteen of us, and began to drill. Mr. Schofield, Member of the +Provincial Parliament, and Hill were in charge, and tested our +marksmanship as well. They graded us according to physical tests, +marksmanship, and ability to pick up the drill, and I was quite +pleased to find I was Number "One" on the list. + +There was a young Italian boy named Adolph Milachi, whom we called +"Joe," who came to drill the first night, and although he could not +speak much English, he was determined to be a soldier. I do not know +what grudge little Joe had against the Germans, whether it was just +the love of adventure which urged him on, but he overruled all +objections to his going and left with the others of us, on the last +day of August. + +I remember that trip through the mountains in that soft, hazy, +beautiful August weather; the mountain-tops, white with snow, were +wrapped about with purple mist which twisted and shifted as if never +satisfied with their draping. The sheer rocks in the mountain-sides, +washed by a recent rain, were streaked with dull reds and blues and +yellows, like the old-fashioned rag carpet. The rivers whose banks +we followed ran blue and green, and icy cold, darting sometimes so +sharply under the track that it jerked one's neck to follow them; and +then the stately evergreens marched always with us, like endless +companies of soldiers or pilgrims wending their way to a favorite +shrine. + +When we awakened the second morning, and found ourselves on the wide +prairie of Alberta, with its many harvest scenes and herds of cattle, +and the gardens all in bloom, one of the boys said, waving his hand +at a particularly handsome house set in a field of ripe wheat, "No +wonder the Germans want it!" + + * * * + +My story really begins April 24, 1915. Up to that time it had been +the usual one--the training in England, with all the excitement of +week-end leave; the great kindness of English families whose friends +in Canada had written to them about us, and who had forthwith sent +us their invitations to visit them, which we did with the greatest +pleasure, enjoying every minute spent in their beautiful houses; and +then the greatest thrill of all--when we were ordered to France. + +The 24th of April was a beautiful spring day of quivering sunshine, +which made the soggy ground in the part of Belgium where I was fairly +steam. The grass was green as plush, and along the front of the +trenches, where it had not been trodden down, there were yellow +buttercups and other little spring flowers whose names I did not +know. + +We had dug the trenches the day before, and the ground was so marshy +and wet that water began to ooze in before we had dug more than three +feet. Then we had gone on the other side and thrown up more dirt, +to make a better parapet, and had carried sand-bags from an old +artillery dug-out. Four strands of barbed wire were also put up +in front of our trenches, as a sort of suggestion of barbed-wire +entanglements, but we knew we had very little protection. + +Early in the morning of the 24th, a German aeroplane flew low over +our trench, so low that I could see the man quite plainly, and could +easily have shot him, but we had orders not to fire--the object of +these orders being that we must not give away our position. + +The airman saw us, of course, for he looked right down at us, and +dropped down white pencils of smoke to show the gunners where we +were. That big gray beetle sailing serenely over us, boring us with +his sharp eyes, and spying out our pitiful attempts at protection, is +one of the most unpleasant feelings I have ever had. It gives me the +shivers yet! And to think we had orders not to fire! + +Being a sniper, I had a rifle fixed up with a telescopic sight, which +gave me a fine view of what was going on, and in order not to lose +the benefit of it, I cleaned out a place in a hedge, which was just +in front of the part of the trench I was in, and in this way I could +see what was happening, at least in my immediate vicinity. + +We knew that the Algerians who were holding a trench to our left had +given way and stampeded, as a result of a German gas attack on the +night of April 22d. Not only had the front line broken, but, the +panic spreading, all of them ran, in many cases leaving their rifles +behind them. Three companies of our battalion had been hastily sent +in to the gap caused by the flight of the Algerians. Afterwards I +heard that our artillery had been hurriedly withdrawn so that it +might not fall into the hands of the enemy; but we did not know that +at the time, though we wondered, as the day went on, why we got no +artillery support. + +Before us, and about fifty yards away, were deserted farm buildings, +through whose windows I had instructions to send shots at intervals, +to discourage the enemy from putting in machine guns. To our right +there were other farm buildings where the Colonel and Adjutant were +stationed, and in the early morning I was sent there with a message +from Captain Scudamore, to see why our ammunition had not come up. + +I found there Colonel Hart McHarg, Major Odlum (now Brigadier-General +Odlum), and the Adjutant in consultation, and thought they looked +worried and anxious. However, they gave me a cheerful message for +Captain Scudamore. It was very soon after that that Colonel Hart +McHarg was killed. + +The bombardment began at about nine o'clock in the morning, almost +immediately after the airman's visit, and I could see the heavy +shells bursting in the village at the cross-roads behind us. They +were throwing the big shells there to prevent reinforcements from +coming up. They evidently did not know, any more than we did, that +there were none to come, the artillery having been withdrawn the +night before. + +Some of the big shells threw the dirt as high as the highest trees. +When the shells began to fall in our part of the trench, I crouched +as low as I could in the soggy earth, to escape the shrapnel bullets. +Soon I got to know the sound of the battery that was dropping the +shells on us, and so knew when to take cover. One of our boys to my +left was hit by a pebble on the cheek, and, thinking he was wounded, +he fell on the ground and called for a stretcher-bearer. When the +stretcher-bearer came, he could find nothing but a scratch on his +cheek, and all of us who were not too scared had a laugh, including +the boy himself. + +I think it was about one o'clock in the afternoon that the Germans +broke through the trench on our right, where Major Bing-Hall was in +command; and some of the survivors from that trench came over to +ours. One of them ran right to where I was, and pushed through the +hole I had made in the hedge, to get a shot at the enemy. I called +to him to be careful, but some sniper evidently saw him, for in less +than half a minute he was shot dead, and fell at my side. + +An order to "retreat if necessary" had been received before this, but +for some reason, which I have never been able to understand, was not +put into effect until quite a while after being received. When the +order came, we began to move down the trench as fast as we could, but +as the trench was narrow and there were wounded and dead men in it, +our progress was slow. + +Soon I saw Robinson, Smith, and Ward climbing out of the trench and +cutting across the field. This was, of course, dangerous, for we were +in full view of the enemy, but it was becoming more and more evident +that we were in a tight corner. So I climbed out, too, and ran across +the open as fast as I could go with my equipment. I got just past the +hedge when I was hit through the pocket of my coat. I thought I was +wounded, for the blow was severe, but found out afterwards the bullet +had just passed through my coat pocket. + +I kept on going, but in a few seconds I got a bullet right through +my shoulder. It entered below my arm at the back, and came out just +below the shoulder-bone, making a clean hole right through. + +I fell into a shallow shell-hole, which was just the size to take me +in, and as I lay there, the possibility of capture first came to me. +Up to that time I had never thought of it as a possible contingency; +but now, as I lay wounded, the grave likelihood came home to me. + +I scrambled to my feet, resolved to take any chances rather than be +captured. I have an indistinct recollection of what happened for the +next few minutes. I know I ran from shell-hole to shell-hole, +obsessed with the one great fear--of being captured--and at last +reached the reserve trench, in front. I fell over the parapet, among +and indeed right on top of the men who were there, for the trench was +packed full of soldiers, and then quickly gathered myself together +and climbed out of the trench and crawled along on my stomach to the +left, following the trench to avoid the bullets, which I knew were +flying over me. + +Soon I saw, looking down into the trench, some of the boys I knew, +and I dropped in beside them. Then everything went from me. A great +darkness arose up from somewhere and swallowed me! Then I had a +delightful sensation of peace and warmth and general comfort. +Darkness, the blackest, inkiest darkness, rolled over me in waves +and hid me so well no Jack Johnson or Big Bertha could ever find me. +I hadn't a care or a thought in the world. I was light as a feather, +and these great strong waves of darkness carried me farther and +farther away. + +But they didn't carry me quite far enough, for a cry shot through me +like a knife, and I was wide awake, looking up from the bottom of a +muddy trench. And the cry that wakened me was sounding up and down +the trench, "The Germans are coming!" + +Sergeant Reid, who did not seem to realize how desperate the +situation was, was asking Major Bing-Hall what he was going to do. +But before any more could be said, the Germans were swarming over the +trench. The officer in charge of them gave us a chance to surrender, +which we did, and then it seemed like a hundred voices--harsh, +horrible voices--called to us to come out of the trench. "Raus" is +the word they use, pronounced "rouse." + +This was the first German word I had heard, and I hated it. It is the +word they use to a dog when they want him to go out, or to cattle +they are chasing out of a field. It is used to mean either "Come +out!"--or "Get out!" I hated it that day, and I hated it still more +afterward. + +There were about twenty of us altogether, and we climbed out of the +trench without speaking. There was nothing to be said. It was all up +with us. + + + +CHAPTER II + +THROUGH BELGIUM + + +It is strange how people act in a crisis. I mean, it is strange how +quiet they are, and composed. We stood there on the top of the +trench, without speaking, although I knew what had happened to us was +bitterer far than to be shot. But there was not a word spoken. I +remember noticing Fred McKelvey, when the German who stood in front +of him told him to take off his equipment. Fred's manner was halting, +and reluctant, and he said, as he laid down his rifle and unbuckled +his cartridge bag, "This is the thing my father told me never to let +happen." + +Just then the German who stood by me said something to me, and +pointed to my equipment, but I couldn't unfasten a buckle with my +useless arm, so I asked him if he couldn't see I was wounded. He +seemed to understand what I meant, and unbuckled my straps and took +everything off me, very gently, too, and whipped out my bandage and +was putting it on my shoulder with considerable skill, I thought, and +certainly with a gentle hand--when the order came from their officer +to move us on, for the shells were falling all around us. + +Unfortunately for me, my guard did not come with us, nor did I ever +see him again. One of the others reached over and took my knife, +cutting the string as unconcernedly as if I wanted him to have +it, and I remember that this one had a saw-bayonet on his gun, as +murderous and cruel-looking a weapon as any one could imagine, and +he had a face to match it, too. So in the first five minutes I saw +the two kinds of Germans. + +When we were out of the worst of the shell-fire, we stopped to rest, +and, a great dizziness coming over me, I sat down with my head +against a tree, and looked up at the trailing rags of clouds that +drifted across the sky. It was then about four o'clock of as pleasant +an afternoon as I can ever remember. But the calmness of the sky, +with its deep blue distance, seemed to shrivel me up into nothing. +The world was so bright, and blue, and--uncaring! + +I may have fallen asleep for a few minutes, for I thought I heard +McKelvey saying, "Dad always told me not to let this happen." Over +and over again, I could hear this, but I don't know whether McKelvey +had repeated it. My brain was like a phonograph that sticks at one +word and says it over and over again until some one stops it. + +I think it was Mudge, of Grand Forks, who came over to see how I was. +His voice sounded thin and far away, and I didn't answer him. Then I +felt him taking off my overcoat and finishing the bandaging that the +German boy had begun. + +Little Joe, the Italian boy, often told me afterwards how I looked +at that time. "All same dead chicken not killed right and kep' long +time." + +Here those who were not so badly wounded were marched on, but there +were ten of us so badly hit we had to go very slowly. Percy Weller, +one of the boys from Trail who enlisted when I did, was with us, and +when we began the march I was behind him and noticed three holes +in the back of his coat; the middle one was a horrible one made by +shrapnel. He staggered painfully, poor chap, and his left eye was +gone! + +We passed a dead Canadian Highlander, whose kilt had pitched forward +when he fell, and seemed to be covering his face. + +In the first village we came to, they halted us, and we saw it was +a dressing-station. The village was in ruins--even the town pump +had had its head blown off!--and broken glass, pieces of brick, and +plaster littered the one narrow street. The dressing was done in +a two-room building which may have been a store. The walls were +discolored and cracked, and the windows broken. + +On a stretcher in the corner there lay a Canadian Highlander, from +whose wounds the blood dripped horribly and gathered in a red pool +on the dusty floor. His eyes were glazed and his face was drawn with +pain. He talked unceasingly, but without meaning. The only thing I +remember hearing him say was, "It's no use, mother--it's no use!" + +Weller was attended to before I was, and marched on. While I sat +there on an old tin pail which I had turned up for this purpose, two +German officers came in, whistling. They looked for a minute at the +dying Highlander in the corner, and one of them went over to him. He +saw at once that his case was hopeless, and gave a short whistle as +you do when blowing away a thistledown, indicating that he would soon +be gone. I remember thinking that this was the German estimate of +human life. + +He came to me and said, "Well, what have you got?" + +I thought he referred to my wound, and said, "A shoulder wound." At +which he laughed pleasantly and said, "I am not interested in your +wound; that's the doctor's business." Then I saw what he meant; it +was souvenirs he was after. So I gave him my collar badge, and in +return he gave me a German coin, and went over to the doctor and said +something about me, for he flipped his finger toward me. + +My turn came at last. The doctor examined my pay-book as well as my +wound. I had forty-five francs in it, and when he took it out, I +thought it was gone for sure. However, he carefully counted it before +me, drawing my attention to the amount, and then returned it to me. + +After my wound had been examined and a tag put on me stating what +sort of treatment I was to have, I was taken away with half a dozen +others and led down a narrow stone stair to a basement. Here on the +cement floor were piles of straw, and the place was heated. The walls +were dirty and discolored. One of the few pleasant recollections +of my life in Germany has been the feeling of drowsy content that +wrapped me about when I lay down on a pile of straw in that dirty, +rat-infested basement. I forgot that I was a prisoner, that I was +badly winged, that I was hungry, thirsty, dirty, and tired. I forgot +all about my wounded companions and the Canadian Highlander, and all +the suffering of the world, and drifted sweetly out into the wide +ocean of sleep. + +Some time during the night--for it was still dark--I felt some one +kicking my feet and calling me to get up, and all my trouble and +misery came back with a rush. My shoulder began to ache just where it +left off, but I was so hungry that the thought of getting something +to eat sustained me. Surely, I thought, they are going to feed us! + +We were herded along the narrow street, out into a wide road, where +we found an open car which ran on light rails in the centre of the +road. It was like the picnic trolley cars which run in our cities +in the warm weather. There were wounded German soldiers huddled +together, and we sat down among them, wherever we could find the +room, but not a word was spoken. I don't know whether they noticed +who we were or not--they had enough to think about, not to be +concerned with us, for most of them were terribly wounded. The one +I sat beside leaned his head against my good shoulder and sobbed as +he breathed. I could not help but think of the irony of war that had +brought us together. For all I knew, he may have been the machine +gunner who had been the means of ripping my shoulder to pieces--and +it may have been a bullet from my rifle which had torn its way along +his leg which now hung useless. Even so, there was no hard feeling +between us, and he was welcome to the support of my good shoulder! + +Some time through the night--my watch was broken and I couldn't tell +the time exactly--we came to another village and got off the car. A +guard came and carried off my companion, but as I could walk, I was +left to unload myself. The step was high, and as my shoulder was very +stiff and sore, I hesitated about jumping down. A big German soldier +saw me, understood what was wrong, and lifted me gently down. + +It was then nearly morning, for the dawn was beginning to show in the +sky, and we were taken to an old church, where we were told to lie +down and go to sleep. It was miserably cold in the church, and my +shoulder ached fearfully. I tried hard to sleep, but couldn't manage +it, and walked up and down to keep warm. I couldn't help but think +of the strange use the church--which had been the scene of so many +pleasant gatherings--was being put to, and as I leaned against the +wall and looked out of the window, I seemed to see the gay and +light-hearted Belgian people who so recently had gathered there. +Right here, I thought, the bashful boys had stood, waiting to walk +home with the girls... just the way we did in British Columbia, where +one church I know well stands almost covered with the fragrant +pines... + +I fell into a pleasant reverie then of sunny afternoons and dewy +moonlit nights, when the sun had gone over the mountains, and the +stars came out in hundreds. My dream then began to have in it the +brightest-eyed girl in the world, who gave me such a smile one Sunday +when she came out of church... that I just naturally found myself +walking beside her.... She had on a pink suit and white shoes, and +wore a long string of black beads... + +Then somebody spoke to me, and a sudden chill seized me and sent me +into a spasm of coughing, and the pain of my shoulder shot up into my +head like a knife... and I was back--all right--to the ruined church +in Belgium, a prisoner of war in the hands of the Germans! + +The person who spoke to me was a German cavalry officer, who quite +politely bade me good-morning and asked me how I felt. I told him I +felt rotten. I was both hungry and thirsty--and dirty and homesick. +He laughed at that, as if it were funny, and asked me where I came +from. When I told him, he said, "You Canadians are terrible fools to +fight with us when you don't have to. You'll be sick of it before you +are through. Canada is a nice country, though," he went on; "I've +been in British Columbia, too, in the Government employ there--they +treated me fine--and my brother is there now, engineer in the +Dunsmuir Collieries at Ladysmith. Great people--the Canadians!" + +And he laughed again and said something in German to the officer who +was with him. + +When the sun came up and poured into the church, warming up its cold +dreariness, I lay down and slept, for I had not nearly finished the +sleep so comfortably begun in the basement the night before. + +But in what seemed like three minutes, some one kicked my feet and +called to me to get up. I got to my feet, still spurred by the hope +of getting something to eat. Outside, all those who could walk were +falling in, and I hastened to do the same. Our guards were mounted +this time, and I noticed that their horses were small and in poor +condition. We were soon out of the village and marching along a +splendid road. + +The day was bright and sunny, but a searching wind blew straight +in our faces and made travelling difficult. It seemed to beat +unmercifully on my sore shoulder, and I held my right wrist with +my left hand, to keep the weight off my shoulder all I could. + +I had not gone far when I began to grow weak and dizzy. The thirst +was the worst; my tongue was dry and swollen, and it felt like a +cocoa doormat. I could see rings of light wherever I looked, and +the ground seemed to come up in waves. A guard who rode near me had +a water-bottle beside him which dripped water. The cork was not in +tight as it should have been, and the sight of these drops of water +seemed to madden me. I begged him for a drink, and pointed to my +parched tongue; but he refused, and rode ahead as if the sight of +me annoyed him! + +Ahead of us I could see the smoke of a large town, and I told myself +over and over again that there would be lots of water there, and food +and clean clothes, and in this way I kept myself alive until we +reached Roulers. + + + +CHAPTER III + +INTO GERMANY + + +Roulers is a good-sized town in West Flanders, of about thirty +thousand population, much noted for its linen manufacture; and has a +great church of St. Michael with a very high tower, which we could +see for miles. But I do not remember much about the look of the town, +for I could hardly drag my feet. It seemed as if every step would be +my last. But I held on some way, until we reached the stopping-place, +which happened to be an unused school. The men who had not been +wounded had arrived several hours ahead of us. + +When, at last, I sat down on one of the benches, the whole place +seemed to float by me. Nothing would stand still. The sensation was +like the water dizziness which makes one feel he is being rapidly +propelled upstream. But after sitting awhile, it passed, and I began +to recognize some of our fellows. Frost, of my own battalion, was +there, and when I told him I had had nothing to eat since the early +morning of the day before, he immediately produced a hardtack biscuit +and scraped out the bottom of his jam tin. They had been served with +a ration of war-bread, and several of the boys offered me a share of +their scanty allowance, but the first mouthful was all I could take. +It was sour, heavy, and stale. + +The school pump had escaped the fate of the last pump I had seen, and +was in good working order, and its asthmatic creaking as it brought +up the stream of water was music in my ears. We went out in turns and +drank like thirsty cattle. I drank until my jaws were stiff as if +with mumps, and my ears ached, and in a few minutes my legs were tied +in cramps. + +While I was vainly trying to rub them out with my one good hand, Fred +McKelvey came up and told me a sure cure for leg-cramp. It is to turn +the toes up as far as possible, and straighten out the legs, and it +worked a cure for me. He said he had taken the cramps out of his legs +this way when he was in the water. + +I remember some of the British Columbia boys who were there. +Sergeants Potentier, George Fitz, and Mudge, of Grand Forks; Reid, +Diplock, and Johnson, of Vancouver; Munroe and Wildblood, of +Rossland; Keith, Palmer, Larkins, Scott, and Croak. Captain +Scudamore, my Company Captain, came over to where I sat, and kindly +inquired about my wounds. He wrote down my father's address, too, +and said he would try to get a letter to him. + +There was a house next door--quite a fine house with a neat paling +and long, shuttered windows, at which the vines were beginning to +grow. It looked to be in good condition, except that part of the +verandah had been torn away. The shutters were closed on its long, +graceful windows, giving it the appearance of a tall, stately woman +in heavy mourning. + +When we were at the pump, we heard a gentle tapping, and, looking up, +we saw a very handsome dark-eyed Belgian woman at one of the windows. +Instinctively we saluted, and quick as a flash she held a Union Jack +against the pane! + +A cheer broke from us involuntarily, and the guards sprang to +attention, suspecting trouble. But the flag was gone as quickly as +it came, and when we looked again, the shutters were closed and the +deep, waiting silence had settled down once more on the stately house +of shutters. + +But to us it had become suddenly possessed of a living soul! The +flash of those sad black eyes, as well as the glimpse of the flag, +seemed to call to us to carry on! They typified to us exactly what +we were fighting for! + +After the little incident of the flag, it was wonderful how bright +and happy we felt. Of course, I know, the ministrations of the pump +helped, for we not only drank all we wanted, but most of the boys had +a wash, too; but we just needed to be reminded once in awhile of what +the real issues of the war were. + +Later in the day, after we had been examined by another medical man, +who dressed our wounds very skillfully, and gently, too, we came back +to the school, and found there two heavily veiled Belgian women. They +had bars of chocolate for us, for which we were very grateful. They +were both in deep mourning, and seemed to have been women of high +social position, but their faces were very pale and sad, and when +they spoke their voices were reedy and broken, and their eyes were +black pools of misery. Some of the boys afterwards told me that their +daughters had been carried off by the Germans, and their husbands +shot before their eyes. + +I noticed the absence of children and young girls on the streets. +There were only old men and women, it seemed, and the faces of these +were sad beyond expression. There were no outbursts of grief; they +seemed like people whose eyes were cried dry, but whose spirits were +still unbroken. + +Later in the day we were taken to the station, to take the train for +the prison-camp at Giessen. Of course, they did not tell us where we +were going. They did not squander information on us or satisfy our +curiosity, if they could help it. + +The station was full of people when we got there, and there seemed +to be a great deal of eating done at the stations. This was more +noticeable still in German stations, as I saw afterwards. + +Our mode of travelling was by the regular prisoner train which had +lately--quite lately--been occupied by horses. It had two small, +dirty windows, and the floor was bare of everything but dirt. We were +dumped into it--not like sardines, for they fit comfortably together, +but more like cordwood that is thrown together without being piled. +If we had not had arms or legs or heads, there would have been just +room for our bodies, but as it was, everybody was in everybody's way, +and as many of us were wounded, and all of us were tired and hungry, +we were not very amiable with each other. + +I tried to stand up, but the jolting of the car made me dizzy, and +so I doubled up on the floor, and I don't know how many people sat +on me. I remember one of the boys I knew, who was beside me on the +floor, Fairy Strachan. He had a bad wound in his chest, given him by +a dog of a German guard, who prodded him with a bayonet after he was +captured, for no reason at all. Fortunately the bayonet struck a rib, +and so the wound was not deep, but not having been dressed, it was +very painful. + +I could not sleep at all that night, for the air was stifling, and +somebody's arm or foot or head was always bumping into me. I wonder +if Robinson Crusoe ever remembered to be thankful for fresh air and +room to stretch himself! We asked the guards for water, for we soon +grew very thirsty, and when we stopped at a station, one of the boys, +looking out, saw the guard coming with a pail of water, and cried +out, "Here's water--boys!" The thought of a drink put new life in us, +and we scrambled to our feet. It was water, all right, and plenty +of it, but it was boiling hot and we could not drink it; and we +could not tell from the look of opaque stupidity on the face of the +guard whether he did it intentionally or not. He may have been a +boiling-water-before-meals advocate. He looked balmy enough for +anything! + +[Illustration: Officers' Quarters in a German Military Prison] + +At some of the stations the civilians standing on the platform filled +our water-bottles for us, but it wasn't enough. We had only two +water-bottles in the whole car. However, at Cologne, a boy came +quickly to the car window at our call, and filled our water-bottles +from a tap, over and over again. He would run as fast as he could +from the tap to the window, and left a bottle filling at the tap +while he made the trip. In this way every man in the car got enough +to drink, and this blue-eyed, shock-headed lad will ever live in +grateful memory. + +The following night after midnight we reached Giessen, and were +unloaded and marched through dark streets to the prison-camp, which +is on the outskirts of the city. We were put into a dimly lighted +hut, stale and foul-smelling, too, and when we put up the windows, +some of our own Sergeants objected on account of the cold, and shut +them down. Well, at least we had room if we hadn't air, and we +huddled together and slept, trying to forget what we used to believe +about the need of fresh air. + +As soon as the morning came, I went outside and watched a dull red, +angry sky flushing toward sunrise. Red in the morning sky denotes +wind, it is said, but we didn't need signs that morning to proclaim a +windy day, for the wind already swept the courtyard, and whipped the +green branches of the handsome trees which marked the driveway. My +spirits rose at once when I filled my lungs with air and looked up at +the scudding clouds which were being dogged across the sky by the wind. + +A few straggling prisoners came out to wash at the tap in the +courtyard, and I went over to join them, for I was grimy, too, with +the long and horrible ride. With one hand I could make but little +progress, and was spreading the dirt rather than removing it, until a +friendly Belgian, seeing my difficulty, took his cake of soap and his +towel, and washed me well. + +We were then given a ration of bread about two inches thick, and a +drink of something that tasted like water boiled in a coffee-pot, and +after this we were divided into ten groups. Those of us who knew each +other tried hard to stay together, but we soon learned to be careful +not to appear to be too anxious, for the guards evidently had +instructions to break up previous acquaintanceships. + +The wounded were marched across the compound to the "Revier," a dull, +gray, solid-looking building, where again we were examined and +graded. Those seriously wounded were sent to the lazaret, or hospital +proper. I, being one of the more serious cases, was marched farther +on to the lazaret, and we were all taken to a sort of waiting-room, +and taken off in groups to the general bathroom to have a bath, +before getting into the hospital clothes. + +With me was a young bugler of the Fifth Royal Highlanders, Montreal, +a little chap not more than fifteen, whose pink cheeks and curly hair +would have made an appeal to any human being: he looked so small and +lonesome and far from home. A smart young military doctor jostled +against the boy's shattered arm, eliciting from him a cry of pain, +whereupon he began to make fun of the little bugler, by marching +around him, making faces. It gave me a queer feeling to see a +grown-up man indulging in the tactics of a spoiled child, but I have +heard many people express the opinion, in which I now heartily agree, +that the Germans are a childish sort of people. They are stupidly +boastful, inordinately fond of adulation and attention, and peevish +and sulky when they cannot have their own way. I tried to imagine how +a young German boy would have been treated by one of our doctors, and +laughed to myself at the absurdity of the thought that they would +make faces at him! + +The young bugler was examined before I was, and as he was marched out +of the room, the doctor who had made the faces grabbed at his kilt +with an insulting gesture, at which the lad attempted to kick him. +The doctor dodged the kick, and the Germans who were in the room +roared with laughter. I hated them more that minute than I had up to +that time. + +The Belgian attendants who looked after the bathing of us were kind +and polite. One of them could speak a little English, and he tried +hard to get information regarding his country from us. + +"Is it well?" he asked us eagerly. "My country--is it well?" + +We thought of the shell-scarred country, with its piles of +smouldering ashes, its pallid women with their haunted faces, the +deathlike silence of the ruined streets. We thought of these things, +but we didn't tell him of them. We told him the war was going on in +great shape: the Allies were advancing all along the line, and were +going to be in Berlin by Christmas. It was worth the effort to see +his little pinched face brighten. He fairly danced at his work +after that, and when I saw him afterwards, he eagerly asked--"My +country--is it well?" I do not know why he thought I knew, or maybe +he didn't think so. But, anyway, I did my best. I gave him a glowing +account of the Allied successes, and painted a gloomy future for the +Kaiser, and I again had my reward, in his glowing face. + +Everything we had was taken from us except shoes, socks, cap, and +handkerchief, and we did not see them again: neither did we get +another bath, although I was six weeks in the hospital. + +The hospital clothes consisted of a pajama suit of much-faded +flannelette, but I was glad to get into it, and doubly glad to get +rid of my shirt and tunic, which were stiff on one side with dried +blood. From the lazaret, where I had my bath, I could see the gun +platform with its machine guns, commanding every part of the Giessen +Prison. The guard pointed it out to me, to quiet my nerves, I +suppose, and to scare me out of any thought of insubordination. +However, he need not have worried--I was not thinking of escaping +just then or starting an insurrection either. I was quite content to +lie down on the hard straw bed and pull the quilt over me and take +a good long rest. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LAZARET + + +The lazaret in which I was put was called "M.G.K.," which is to say +Machine Gun Company, and it was exactly like the other hospital huts. +There were some empty beds, and the doctor seemed to have plenty of +time to attend to us. For a few days, before my appetite began to +make itself felt, I enjoyed the rest and quiet, and slept most of the +time. But at the end of a week I began to get restless. + +The Frenchman whose bed was next to mine fascinated me with his +piercing black eyes, unnaturally bright and glittering. I knew +the look in his eyes; I had seen it--after the battle--when the +wounded were coming in, and looked at us as they were carried by on +stretchers. Some had this look--some hadn't. Those who had it never +came back. + +And sometimes before the fighting, when the boys were writing home, +the farewell letter that would not be mailed unless--"something +happened"--I've seen that look in their faces, and I knew... just as +they did... the letter would be mailed! + +Emile, the Frenchman, had the look! + +He was young, and had been strong and handsome, although his face was +now thin and pinched and bloodless, like a slum child's; but he hung +on to life pitifully. He hated to die--I knew that by the way he +fought for breath, and raged when he knew for sure that it was going +from him. + +In the middle of his raging, he would lean over his bed and peer +into my face, crying "L'Anglaise--l'Anglaise," with his black eyes +snapping like dagger points. I often had to turn away and put my +pillow over my eyes. + +But one afternoon, in the middle of it, the great silence fell on +him, and Emile's struggles were over. + + * * * + +Our days were all the same. Nobody came to see us; we had no books. +There was a newspaper which was brought to us every two weeks, +printed in English, but published in German, with all the German fine +disregard for the truth. It said it was "printed for Americans in +Europe." The name of it was "The Continental Times," but I never +heard it called anything but "The Continental Liar." Still, it was +print, and we read it; I remember some of the sentences. It spoke of +an uneasy feeling in England "which the presence of turbaned Hindoos +and Canadian cowboys has failed to dispel." Another one said, "The +Turks are operating the Suez Canal in the interests of neutral +shipping." "Fleet-footed Canadians" was an expression frequently +used, and the insinuation was that the Canadians often owed their +liberty to their speed. + +But we managed to make good use of this paper. I got one of the +attendants, Ivan, a good-natured, flat-footed Russian, to bring me +a pair of scissors, and the boy in the cot next to mine had a stub +of pencil, and between us we made a deck of cards out of the white +spaces of the paper, and then we played solitaire, time about, on +our quilts. + + * * * + +I got my first parcel about the end of May, from a Mrs. Andrews whose +son I knew in Trail and who had entertained me while I was in London. +I had sent a card to her as soon as I was taken. The box was like a +visit from Santa Claus. I remember the "Digestive Biscuits," and how +good they tasted after being for a month on the horrible diet of +acorn coffee, black bread, and the soup which no word that is fit for +publication could describe. + +I also received a card from my sister, Mrs. Meredith, of Edmonton, +about this time. I was listed "Missing" on April 29th, and she sent a +card addressed to me with "Canadian Prisoner of War, Germany," on it, +on the chance that I was a prisoner. We were allowed to write a card +once a week and two letters a month; and we paid for these. My people +in Canada heard from me on June 9th. + + * * * + +I cannot complain of the treatment I received in the lazaret. The +doctor took a professional interest in me, and one day brought in two +other doctors, and proudly exhibited how well I could move my arm. +However, I still think if he had massaged my upper arm, it would be +of more use to me now than it is. + +Chloroform was not used in this hospital; at least I never saw any +of it. One young Englishman, who had a bullet in his thigh, cried +out in pain when the surgeon was probing for it. The German doctor +sarcastically remarked, "Oh, I thought the English were _brave_." + +To which the young fellow, lifting his tortured face, proudly +answered, "The English _are_ brave--and _merciful_--and they use +chloroform for painful operations, and do this for the German +prisoners, too." + +But there was no chloroform used for him, though the operation was +a horrible one. + +There was another young English boy named Jellis, who came in after +the fight of May 8th, who seemed to be in great pain the first few +days. Then suddenly he became quiet, and we hoped his pain had +lessened; but we soon found out he had lock-jaw, and in a few days +he died. + + * * * + +From the pasteboard box in which my first parcel came, I made a +checker-board, and my next-door neighbor and I had many a game. + +In about three weeks I was allowed to go out in the afternoons, and +I walked all I could in the narrow space, to try to get back all my +strength, for one great hope sustained me--I would make a dash for +liberty the first chance I got, and I knew that the better I felt, +the better my chances would be. I still had my compass, and I guarded +it carefully. Everything of this nature was supposed to be taken from +us at the lazaret, but I managed, through the carelessness of the +guard, to retain the compass. + +The little corral in which we were allowed to walk had a barbed-wire +fence around it--a good one, too, eight strands, and close together. +One side of the corral was a high wall, and in the enclosure on the +other side of the wall were the lung patients. + +One afternoon I saw a young Canadian boy looking wistfully through +the gate, and I went over and spoke to him. He was the only one who +could speak English among the "lungers." The others were Russians, +French, and Belgians. The boy was dying of loneliness as well as +consumption. He came from Ontario, though I forget the name of the +town. + +"Do you think it will be over soon?" he asked me eagerly. "Gee, I'm +sick of it--and wish I could get home. Last night I dreamed about +going home. I walked right in on them--dirt and all--with this +tattered old tunic--and a dirty face. Say, it didn't matter--my +mother just grabbed me--and it was dinner-time--they were eating +turkey--a great big gobbler, all brown--and steaming hot--and I sat +down in my old place--it was ready for me--and just began on a leg +of turkey..." + +A spasm of coughing seized him, and he held to the bars of the gate +until it passed. + +Then he went on: "Gee, it was great--it was all so clear. I can't +believe that I am not going! I think the war must be nearly over--" + +Then the cough came again--that horrible, strangling cough--and I +knew that it would be only in his dreams that he would ever see his +home! For to him, at least, the war was nearly over, and the day of +peace at hand. + +Before I left the lazaret, the smart-Alec young German doctor who had +made faces at the little bugler blew gaily in one day and breezed +around our beds, making pert remarks to all of us. I knew him the +minute he came in the door, and was ready for him when he passed my +bed. + +He stopped and looked at me, and made some insulting remark about +my beard, which was, I suppose, quite a sight, after a month of +uninterrupted growth. Then he began to make faces at me. + +I raised myself on my elbow, and regarded him with the icy composure +of an English butler. Scorn and contempt were in my glance, as much +as I could put in; for I realized that it was hard for me to look +dignified and imposing, in a hospital pajama suit of dirt-colored +flannelette, with long wisps of amber-colored hair falling around +my face, and a thick red beard long enough now to curl back like a +drake's tail. + +I knew I looked like a valentine, but my stony British stare did the +trick in spite of all handicaps, and he turned abruptly and went out. + +The first week of June, I was considered able to go back to the +regular prison-camp. A German guard came for me, and I stepped out in +my pajamas to the outer room where our uniforms were kept. There were +many uniforms there--smelling of the disinfectants--with the owners' +names on them, but mine was missing. The guard tried to make me take +one which was far too short for me, but I refused. I knew I looked +bad enough, without having elbow sleeves and short pants; and it +began to look as if I should have to go to bed until some good-sized +patient came in. + +But my guard suddenly remembered something, and went into another +hut, bringing back the uniform of "D. Smith, Vancouver." The name +was written on the band of the trousers. D. Smith had died the day +before, from lung trouble. The uniform had been disinfected, and hung +in wrinkles. My face had the hospital pallor, and, with my long hair +and beard, I know I looked "snaggy" like a potato that has been +forgotten in a dark corner of the cellar. + +When we came out of the lazaret, the few people we met on the road to +the prison-camp broke into broad grins; some even turned and looked +after us. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE PRISON-CAMP + + +The guard took me to Camp 6, Barrack A, where I found some of the +boys I knew. They were in good spirits, and had fared in the matter +of food much the same as I had. We agreed exactly in our diagnosis +of the soup. + +I was shown my mattress and given two blankets; also a metal bowl, +knife, and fork. + +Outside the hut, on the shady side, I went and sat down with some of +the boys who, like myself, were excused from labor. Dent, of Toronto, +was one of the party, and he was engaged in the occupation known as +"reading his shirt"--and on account of the number of shirts being +limited to one for each man, while the "reading" was going on, he sat +in a boxer's uniform, wrapped only in deep thought. + +Now, it happened that I did not acquire any "cooties" while I was in +the army, and of course in the lazaret we were kept clean, so this +was my first close acquaintanceship with them. My time of exemption +was over, though, for by night I had them a-plenty. + +I soon found out that insect powder was no good. I think it just made +them sneeze, and annoyed them a little. We washed our solitary shirts +regularly, but as we had only cold water, it did not kill the eggs, +and when we hung the shirt out in the sun, the eggs came out in full +strength, young, hearty, and hungry. It was a new generation we had +to deal with, and they had all the objectionable qualities of their +ancestors, and a few of their own. + +Before long, the Canadian Red Cross parcels began to come, and I got +another shirt--a good one, too, only the sleeves were too long. I +carefully put in a tuck, for they came well over my hands. But I soon +found that these tucks became a regular rendezvous for the "cooties," +and I had to let them out. The Red Cross parcels also contained +towels, toothbrushes, socks, and soap, and all these were very +useful. + +After a few weeks, with the lice increasing every day, we raised such +a row about them that the guards took us to the fumigator. This was +a building of three rooms, which stood by itself in the compound. +In the first room we undressed and hung all our clothes, and our +blankets too, on huge hooks which were placed on a sliding framework. +This framework was then pushed into the oven and the clothes were +thoroughly baked. We did not let our boots, belts, or braces go, as +the heat would spoil the leather. We then walked out into the next +room and had a shower bath, and after that went into the third room +at the other side of the oven, and waited until the framework was +pushed through to us, when we took our clothes from the hooks and +dressed. + +This was a sure cure for the "cooties," and for a few days, at least, +we enjoyed perfect freedom from them. Every week after this we had a +bath, and it was compulsory, too. + +[Illustration: Giessen Prison-Camp] + +As prison-camps go, Giessen is a good one. The place is well drained; +the water is excellent; the sanitary conditions are good, too; the +sleeping accommodations are ample, there being no upper berths such +as exist in all the other camps I have seen. It is the "Show-Camp," +to which visitors are brought, who then, not having had to eat the +food, write newspaper articles telling how well Germany treats her +prisoners. If these people could see some of the other camps that I +have seen, the articles would have to be modified. + + * * * + +News of the trouble in Ireland sifted through to us in the +prison-camp. The first I heard of it was a letter in the "Continental +Times," by Roger Casement's sister, who had been in Germany and +had visited some of the prison-camps, and was so pleased with the +generous treatment Germany was according her prisoners. She was +especially charmed with the soup!!! And the letter went on to tell +of the Irish Brigade that was being formed in Germany to fight the +tyrant England. Every Irish prisoner who would join was to be given +the privilege of fighting against England. Some British prisoners +who came from Limburg, a camp about thirty miles from Giessen, told +us more about it. Roger Casement, himself, had gone there to gather +recruits, and several Irishmen had joined and were given special +privileges accordingly. However, there were many Irishmen who did +_not_ join, and who kept a list of the recruits--for future +reference, when the war was over! + +The Irishmen in our camp were approached, but they remained loyal. + + * * * + +The routine of the camp was as follows: Reveille sounded at six. We +got up and dressed and were given a bowl of coffee. Those who were +wise saved their issue of bread from the night before, and ate it +with the coffee. There was a roll-call right after the coffee, when +every one was given a chance to volunteer for work. At noon there was +soup, and another roll-call. We answered the roll-call, either with +the French word "Présent" or the German word "Hier," pronounced the +same as our word. Then at five o'clock there was an issue of black +bread made mostly from potato flour. + +I was given a light job of keeping the space between A Barrack and B +Barrack clean, and I made a fine pretense of being busy, for it let +me out of "drill," which I detested, for they gave the commands in +German, and it went hard with us to have to salute their officers. + +On Sundays there was a special roll-call, when every one had to give +a full account of himself. The prisoners then had the privilege of +asking for any work they wanted, and if the Germans could supply it, +it was given. + +None of us were keen on working; not but what we would much rather +work than be idle, but for the uncomfortable thought that we were +helping the enemy. There were iron-works near by, where Todd, +Whittaker, Dent, little Joe, and some others were working, and it +happened that one day Todd and one of the others, when going to have +teeth pulled at the dentist's, saw shells being shipped away, and +upon inquiry found the steel came from the iron mines where they were +working. When this became known, the boys refused to work! Every sort +of bullying was tried on them for two days at the mines, but they +still refused. They were then sent back to Giessen and sentenced to +eighteen months' punishment at Butzbach--all but Dent, who managed +some way to fool the doctor pretending he was sick! + +That they fared badly there, I found out afterwards, though I never +saw any of them. + +Some of the boys from our hut worked on the railroad, and some went +to work in the chemical works at Griesheim, which have since been +destroyed by bombs dropped by British airmen. + +John Keith, who was working on the railroad,--one of the best-natured +and inoffensive boys in our hut,--came in one night with his face +badly swollen and bruised. He had laughed, it seemed, at something +which struck him as being funny, and the guard had beaten him over +the head with the butt of his rifle. One of our guards, a fine old, +brown-eyed man called "Sank," told the guard who had done this what +he thought of him. "Sank" was the "other" kind of German, and did all +he could to make our lives pleasant. I knew that "Sank" was calling +down the guard, by his expression and his gestures, and his frequent +use of the word "blödsinnig." + +Another time one of the fellows from our hut, who was a member of a +working party, was shot through the legs by the guard, who claimed he +was trying to escape, and after that there were no more working +parties allowed for a while. + +Each company had its own interpreter, Russian, French, or English. +Our interpreter was a man named Scott from British Columbia, an +Englishman who had received part of his education at Heidelberg. From +him I learned a good deal about the country through which I hoped +to travel. Heidelberg is situated between Giessen and the Swiss +boundary, and so was of special interest to me. I made a good-sized +map, and marked in all the information I could dig out of Scott. + +The matter of escaping was in my mind all the time, but I was careful +to whom I spoke, for some fellows' plans had been frustrated by their +unwise confidences. + +The possession of a compass is an indication that the subject of +"escaping" has been thought of, and the question, "Have you a +compass?" is the prison-camp way of saying, "What do you think of +making a try?" + +One day, a fellow called Bromley who came from Toronto, and who was +captured at the same time that I was, asked me if I had a compass. He +was a fine big fellow, with a strong, attractive face, and I liked +him, from the first. He was a fair-minded, reasonable chap, and we +soon became friends. We began to lay plans, and when we could get +together, talked over the prospects, keeping a sharp lookout for +eavesdroppers. + +[Illustration: Tom Bromley / In Red Cross overcoat with prison number +and marked sleeve] + +There were difficulties! + +The camp was surrounded by a high board fence, and above the boards, +barbed wire was tightly drawn, to make it uncomfortable for reaching +hands. Inside of this was an ordinary barbed-wire fence through which +we were not allowed to go, with a few feet of "No Man's Land" in +between. + +There were sentry-boxes ever so often, so high that the sentry could +easily look over the camp. Each company was divided from the others +by two barbed-wire fences, and besides this there were the sentries +who walked up and down, armed, of course. + +There were also the guns commanding every bit of the camp, and +occasionally, to drive from us all thought of insurrection, the +Regular Infantry marched through with fixed bayonets. At these times +we were always lined up so we should not miss the gentle little +lesson! + + * * * + +One day, a Zeppelin passed over the camp, and we all hurried out +to look at it. It was the first one I had seen, and as it rode +majestically over us, I couldn't help but think of the terrible use +that had been made of man's mastery of the air. We wondered if it +carried bombs. Many a wish for its destruction was expressed--and +unexpressed. Before it got out of sight, it began to show signs of +distress, as if the wishes were taking effect, and after considerable +wheeling and turning it came back. + +Ropes were lowered and the men came down. It was secured to the +ground, and floated serenely beside the wood adjoining the camp.... +The wishes were continued.... + +During the afternoon, a sudden storm swept across the camp--rain and +wind with such violence that we were all driven indoors.... + +When we came out after a few minutes--probably half an hour--the +Zeppelin had disappeared. We found out afterwards that it had broken +away from its moorings, and, dashing against the high trees, had been +smashed to kindling wood; and this news cheered us wonderfully! + + * * * + +A visitor came to the camp one day, and, accompanied by three or four +officers, made the rounds. He spoke to a group of us who were outside +of the hut, asking us how many Canadians there were in Giessen. He +said he thought there were about nine hundred Canadians in Germany +altogether. He had no opportunity for private conversation with us, +for the German officers did not leave him for a second; and although +he made it clear that he would like to speak to us alone this +privilege was not granted. Later we found out it was Ambassador James +W. Gerard. + +It soon became evident that there were spies in the camp. Of course, +we might have known that no German institution could get along +without spies. Spies are the bulwark of the German nation; so in the +Giessen camp there were German spies of all nationalities, including +Canadian. + +But we soon saw, too, that the spies were not working overtime on +their job; they just brought in a little gossip once in a while--just +enough to save their faces and secure a soft snap for themselves. + +One of these, a Frenchman named George Clerque, a Sergeant Major in +the French Army, was convinced that he could do better work if he +had a suit of civilian clothes; and as he had the confidence of the +prison authorities, the suit was given him. He wore it around for a +few days, wormed a little harmless confidence out of some of his +countrymen, and then one day quietly walked out of the front +gate--and was gone! + +Being in civilian dress, it seemed quite likely that he would reach +his destination, and as days went on, and there was no word of him, +we began to hope that he had arrived in France. + +The following notice was put up regarding his escape: + + +NOTICE! + +Owing to the evasions recently done, we beg to inform the prisoners +of war of the following facts. Until present time, all the prisoners +who were evased, have been catched. The French Sergt. Major George +Clerque, speaking a good German and being in connection in Germany +with some people being able to favorise his evasion, has been +retaken. The Company says again, in the personal interests of the +prisoners, that any evasion give place to serious punition (minima) +fortnight of rigourous imprisonment after that they go in the +"Strafbaracke" for an indeterminate time. + +GIESSEN, den 19th July, 1915. + + +Although the notice said he had been captured we held to the hope +that he had not, for we knew the German way of using the truth only +when it suits better than anything they can frame themselves. They +have no prejudice against the truth. It stands entirely on its own +merits. If it suits them, they will use it, but the truth must not +expect any favors. + +The German guards told us quite often that no one ever got out of +Germany alive, and we were anxious to convince them that they were +wrong. One day when the mail came in, a friend of George Clerque +told us he had written from France, and there was great, but, of +necessity, quiet rejoicing. + +That night Bromley and I decided that we would volunteer for farm +service, if we could get taken to Rossbach, where some of the other +boys had been working, for Rossbach was eighteen miles south of +Giessen--on the way to Switzerland. We began to save food from our +parcels, and figure out distances on the map which I had made. + +The day came when we were going to volunteer--Sunday at roll-call. Of +course, we did not wish to appear eager, and were careful not to be +seen together too much. Suddenly we were called to attention, and a +stalwart German soldier marched solemnly into the camp. Behind him +came two more, with somebody between them, and another soldier +brought up the rear. The soldiers carried their rifles and full +equipment, and marched by in front of the huts. + +We pressed forward, full of curiosity, and there beheld the tiredest, +dustiest, most woe-begone figure of a man, whose clothes were in +rags, and whose boots were so full of holes they seemed ready to drop +off him. He was handcuffed and walked wearily, with downcast eyes-- + +It was George Clerque! + +[Illustration: German Prison Stamp] + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ROSSBACH + + +It was September 25th that we left the prison-camp and came to +Rossbach--eighteen miles south on the railway. The six of us, with +the German guard, had a compartment to ourselves, and as there was +a map on the wall which showed the country south of Rossbach, over +which we hoped to travel, I studied it as hard as I could without +attracting the attention of the guard, and afterwards entered on my +map the information I had gained. + +It was rather a pretty country we travelled through, with small farms +and fairly comfortable-looking buildings. The new houses are built of +frame or brick, and are just like our own, but the presence of the +old stone buildings, gray and dilapidated, and old enough to belong +to the time of the Crusaders, kept us reminded that we were far from +home. + +However, we were in great humor that morning. Before us was a Great +Adventure; there were dangers and difficulties in the way, but at +the end of the road was Liberty! And that made us forget how rough +the going was likely to be. Besides, at the present time we were +travelling south--toward Switzerland. We were on our way. + +At Wetzlar, one of the stations near Giessen, a kind-faced old German +came to the window and talked to us in splendid English. + +"I would like to give you something, boys," he said, "but"--he +shrugged his shoulders--"you know--I daren't." + +The guard pretended not to hear a word, and at that moment was waving +his hand to a group of girls--just the regular station-goers, who +meet the trains in Canada. This was, I think, the only place I saw +them, for the women of Germany, young and old, are not encouraged to +be idle or frivolous. + +"I just wish I could give you something," the old man repeated, +feeling in his pocket as if looking for a cigar. + +Then Clarke, one of our boys, leaned out of the window and said, +"I'll tell you what we would like best of all, old man--if you +happen to have half a dozen of them on you--we'll take tickets to +Canada--six will do--if you happen to have them right with you! +And we're ready to start right now, too!" + +The German laughed and said, "You'd better try to forget about +Canada, boys." + + * * * + +The guards who brought us to Rossbach went straight back to Giessen, +after handing us over to the guards there, and getting, no doubt, an +official receipt for us, properly stamped and signed. + +Rossbach has a new town and an old, and, the station being in the new +town, we were led along the road to the old town, where the farming +people live. It is an old village, with the houses, pig-pens, and +cow-stables all together, and built so close that it would be quite +possible to look out of the parlor window and see how the pigs are +enjoying their evening meal or whether the cow has enough bedding. + +There have been no improvements there for a hundred years, except +that they have electric lighting everywhere, even in the pig-pens. +There were no lights in the streets, though, I noticed, and I saw +afterwards that a street light would be a foolish extravagance, +for the people go to bed at dark. They have the real idea of +daylight-saving, and do not let any of it escape them. + +The guards took us around to the houses, and we created considerable +interest, for strangers are a sensation at Rossbach; and, besides, +prisoners are cheap laborers, and the thrifty German farmer does not +like to miss a bargain. + +The little fellows were the first choice, for they looked easier to +manage than those of us who were bigger. Clarke was taken by a woman +whose husband was at the front, and who had five of as dirty children +as I ever saw at one time. We asked one little boy his age, which he +said was "fünf," but we thought he must be older--no child could get +as dirty as that in five years! + +I was left until almost the last, and when a pleasant-looking old +gentleman appeared upon the scene, I decided I would take a hand in +the choosing, so I said, "I'll go with you." + +I was afraid there might be another large family, all with colds in +their heads, like the five which Clarke had drawn, waiting for me, so +that prompted me to choose this benevolent-looking old grandfather. + +The old man took me home with him to one of the best houses in the +village, although there was not much difference between them. His +house was made of plaster which had been whitewashed, and had in it a +good-sized kitchen, where the family really lived, and an inner room +which contained a large picture of the Royal Family, all in uniform, +and very gorgeous uniforms, too. Even the young daughter had a +uniform which looked warlike enough for a Lieutenant-Colonel's. There +was also a desk in this room, where the father of the family--for +the old man who brought me in was the grandfather--conducted his +business. He was some sort of a clerk, probably the reeve of the +municipality, and did not work on the farm at all. There was a fine +home-made carpet on the floor, but the room was bare and cheerless, +with low ceiling, and inclined to be dark. + +When we entered the kitchen, the family greeted me cordially, and I +sat down to dinner with them. There were three girls and one brother, +who was a soldier and home on leave. + +Bromley went to work for a farmer on the other side of the +village, but I saw him each night, for we all went back to a large +three-storied building, which may once have been a boarding-house, to +sleep each night, the guard escorting us solemnly both to and from +work each day. This was a very good arrangement for us, too, for we +had to be through work and have our supper over by eight o'clock each +night. + +After our prison diet, the meals we had here were ample and almost +epicurean. We had soup--the real thing--made from meat, with plenty +of vegetables; coffee with milk, but no sugar; cheese, homemade but +very good; meat, both beef and pork; eggs in abundance; but never any +pastry; and lots of potatoes, boiled in their skins, and fried. + +There were plenty of fruit-trees, too, in Rossbach, growing along the +road, and, strange to say, unmolested by the youngsters. The trees +appear to belong to the municipality, and the crop is sold by auction +each year to the highest bidder. They are quite ornamental, too, +standing in a straight row on each side of the road. + +The farmers who lived in this village followed the oldest methods of +farming I had ever seen, though I saw still more primitive methods in +Hanover. Vegetables, particularly potatoes and mangels, were grown in +abundance, and I saw small fields of stubble, though what the grain +was I do not know. I saw a threshing-machine drawn by a tractor going +along the road, and one of the girls told me it was made in England. +The woman who had the farm next to the one I was on was a widow, +her husband having been killed in the war, and she had no horses at +all, and cultivated her tiny acres with a team of cows. It seems +particularly consistent with German character to make cows work! They +hate to see anything idle, and particularly of the female sex. + +Each morning we rode out to the field, for the farms are scattered +over a wide area, and three-acre and five-acre fields are the average +size. The field where we went to work digging potatoes was about +a mile distant from the house, and when I say we rode, I mean the +brother and I--the girls walked. I remonstrated at this arrangement, +but the girls themselves seemed to be surprised that it should be +questioned, and the surly young brother growled something at me which +I knew was a reflection on my intelligence. + +When we got into the field and began to dig potatoes, good, +clear-skinned yellow ones, Lena Schmidt, one of the girls, who was a +friend of the family, though not a relation, I think, began to ask me +questions about Canada (they put the accent on the third syllable). +Lena had been to Sweden, so she told me proudly, and had picked up +quite a few English words. She was a good-looking German girl, with +a great head of yellow hair, done in braids around her head. The +girls were all fairly good-looking though much tanned from outdoor +work. Lena had heard women worked in the house, and not outside, in +Canada--was it true? + +I assured her it was true. + +"But," said Lena, "what do they do in house--when bread is made and +dish-wash?" + +I told her our women read books and played the piano and made +themselves pretty clothes and went visiting and had parties, and +sometimes played cards. + +Of course it was not all told as easily as this sounds. + +I could see that Lena was deeply impressed, and so were the two +others when she passed it on. Then she began to question me again. + +"Are there many women in Canada--women in every house--like here?" + +I told her there were not nearly so many women in Canada as here; +indeed, there were not enough to go around, and there were lots of +men who could not get married for that reason. + +When Lena passed that on, excitement reigned, and German questions +were hurled at me! I think the three girls were ready to leave home! +I gently reminded them of the war and the complications it had caused +in the matter of travelling. They threw out their hands with a +gesture of despair--there could be no Canada for them. "Fertig," they +said--which is the word they use to mean "no chance," "no use to try +further." + +Lena, however, having travelled as far as Sweden, and knowing, +therefore, something of the world's ways, was not altogether without +hope. + +"The war--will be some day done!" she said--and we let it go at that. + +Lena began to teach me German, and used current events as the basis +of instruction. Before the end of the first day I was handling +sentences like this--"Herr Schmidt expects to have his young child +christened in the church next Sunday at 2 o'clock, God willing." + +Helene Romisch, the daughter of the house, had a mania for knowing +every one's age, and put the question to me in the first ten minutes +of our acquaintance. She had evidently remembered every answer she +had ever received to her questions, for she told me the age of every +one who passed by on the road, and when there was no one passing she +gave me a list of the family connections of those who had gone, or +those who were likely to go, with full details as to birthdays. + +I think it was Eliza, the other girl, who could speak no English and +had to use Lena as interpreter, who first broached the tender subject +of matrimony. + +Was I married? + +I said, "No." + +Then, after a few minutes' conference-- + +Had I a girl? + +"No--I hadn't," I told them. + +Then came a long and heated discussion, and Lena was hard put to it, +with her scanty store of English words, and my recently acquired +German, to frame such a delicate question. I thought I knew what it +was going to be--but I did not raise a hand to help. + +Why hadn't I a girl? Did I not like girls? or what? + +I said I did like girls; that was not the reason. Then all three +talked at once, and I knew a further explanation was going to be +demanded if Lena's English could frame it. This is the form in which +the question came: + +"You have no girl, but you say you like girls; isn't it all right to +have a girl?" + +Then I told them it was quite a proper thing to have a girl; I had no +objections at all; in fact, I might some day have a girl myself. + +Then Lena opened her heart, seeing that I was not a woman-hater, and +told me she had a beau in Sweden; but I gathered from her manner of +telling it that his intentions were somewhat vague yet. Eliza had +already admitted that she had a "fellow," and had shown me his +picture. Helene made a bluff at having one, too, though she did not +seem able to give names or dates. Then Lena, being the spokeswoman, +told me she could get a girl for me, and that the young lady was +going to come out to the potato digging. "She see you carry +water--she like you," declared Lena. This was interesting, too, and +I remembered that when I was carrying water from the town pump the +first day I was there, I had seen a black-eyed young lady of about +sixteen standing in the road, and when I passed she had bade me +"Good-day" in splendid English. + +On Saturday, Fanny Hummel, for that was the black-eyed one's name, +did come out. The three girls had a bad attack of giggles all the +time Fanny and I were talking, for Fanny could speak a little +English, having studied a year at Friedberg. She had a brother in +the army who was an officer, and she told me he could speak English +"perfect." As far as her English would go, she told me about +Friedberg and her studies there, but when I tried to find out what +she thought about the war, I found that Fanny was a properly trained +German girl, and didn't think in matters of this kind. + +When the day's work was over, Fanny and I walked back to town with +the three girls following us in a state of partial collapse from +giggles. That night, Lena wanted to know how things stood. Was Fanny +my girl? I was sorry to break up such a pleasant little romance, but +was compelled to state with brutal frankness that Fanny was not my +girl! + +I do not know how Fanny received this report, which I presumed would +be given to her the next day, for the next day was the one we had +selected for our departure. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE ESCAPE + + +Sunday, October 3d, was the day we had chosen as our "going-away" +day. We did no work on Sundays, and so had a full day's rest. +Besides, we had a chance for a bath on Sunday, and knew we needed +every advantage we could get, for it was a long way to Switzerland. + +The day had been sunny and bright, but toward evening big, heavy +clouds rolled up from the southwest, and the darkness came on early. +This. suited our purpose, and it was hard for Bromley and me to keep +our accustomed air of unconcern. + +By a fortunate arrangement, we were occupying a room downstairs in +the old boarding-house, which made our escape less difficult. The +upstairs sleeping-place would hold only three more when the six of us +arrived from Giessen the week previous, and that left three of us for +a downstairs room. For this, Bromley and I, and a young Englishman +called Bherral were chosen. + +The walls of the house were of plaster, and the windows had a double +barring of barbed wire, stapled in; but plaster does not make a very +secure bedding for staples, and we figured it would not be hard to +pry them out. + +[Illustration: Two Pages from Private Simmons's Diary] + +There was a light outside which burned all night at the corner of the +house, and by it the windows were brightly illumined. This made our +exit rather difficult. The doors were all locked, and there were +about a dozen guards who slept in another room adjoining ours. Some +of them slept, we knew, and we hoped they all did. + +None of the prisoners at this place had ever attempted to escape, and +so the guard had become less vigilant. I suppose they figured it out +that if any of us were determined to go, we would make the start from +the field where we were working, and where there were no guards at +all. + +But they made a fine bluff at being awake all night, for we heard +them walking up and down in the early evening. However, we reasoned +that they were not any keener on sitting up than any of the rest of +us would be if we didn't have to; and it turned out that our faith +in them was justified. + +Although we did not have to work on Sunday, those who had to work in +the mines had no seventh day of rest, and the night-shift went out +each night about ten-thirty when the day-shift men came in. We had +decided on eleven-thirty as the hour for our departure, giving the +guard one hour in which to settle down after this disturbance. + +We were lying on our mattresses, apparently wrapped in a heavy +slumber, but in reality eagerly listening to every sound.... We heard +the night-workers going out, and the day-men coming in and going +heavily to rest.... A guard seemed restless for a while and tramped +up and down the creaking floor... but at last the only sound to be +heard was the deep breathing of tired men. + +I heard Bromley gently reaching for his clothes, and I did not lose +any time in getting into mine. Bherral and a little Frenchman, who +were in our room, were wide awake and full of fear. They had tried +to dissuade us. + +But the guards, all unsuspecting, slept on. + +They slept the sweet sleep of childhood while we pushed out the +strands of barbed wire which protected the window; they slept while +Bromley slipped cautiously to the ground, and while I handed him down +the overcoats, boots, and parcels of food (which we had been saving +for a month); they slept while I slid through the window and dropped +to the ground, too. + +Just then the wind caught the window, which was on a hinge, and +slammed it noisily against the wall. + +We grabbed our belongings, and ran! + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +OFF FOR SWITZERLAND! + + +We ran as if the whole German Army were in pursuit. Our feet did not +seem to touch the ground. I believe if we could have held that pace +we should have been in Switzerland in the morning! + +Reaching a little hollow, we slackened our pace and listened. There +was not a sound from behind. Either there was no more wind, or the +boys had closed the window from within. We figured that they would do +this, and open it before morning so they could claim they had not +heard us go. Then we put on our boots. + +The night was at its blackest, and a drizzling rain began to fall. +This was in our favor, for nobody was likely to be about on such a +night. When we saw we were not pursued, we took time to arrange our +packs. I carried my compass, which I had been able to secrete during +numerous searchings, and my map, a pair of socks, pipe, tobacco, +matches in a tin box, an empty beer-bottle, and several things to +eat, saved from our parcels,--chocolate, tinned meat, biscuits, +cheese, and bread. Bromley had a pack similar to mine, and when +we got them ready and our overcoats on, we started off in a +southeasterly direction, guided by the light from the place we had +left. We walked as fast as we could in the darkness, which was heavy +enough to hide in, but made progress very difficult, for we could not +see each other or one step before us. We tripped over a railway track +once, and if there had been any one near they might have heard us. + +But in spite of the rain, which fell with steady insistence and began +to weigh down our overcoats; in spite of the blackness which made the +travelling unbelievably difficult; in spite of the fact that we were +in a land of enemies, playing a desperate game against terrible odds, +we were happier than either of us had been since being taken to +Germany, for a weight had been rolled off our souls. We were on our +way to freedom! + +When we found it necessary to consult the compass, I took off my +overcoat and lay flat on the ground with my compass and matches +ready. Bromley put my coat over my head and shoulders, tucking it +well in around me, so no light could shine through. Then I struck +a match, and in its light made the observation, always taking into +consideration the fact that in that part of Europe the compass points +sixteen or seventeen degrees west of due north. + +We were careful to avoid the main roads and to seek out the +seldom-travelled, ones, for we knew that our only chance was in not +being seen at all, as we wore our own Canadian uniforms, which would +brand us at once for what we were. Added to that, we could not form +a single German sentence if we were challenged. Of course, I could +say "that Herr Schmidt expected to have his young child baptized in +the church next Sunday, God willing," but I felt that that was not +altogether the proper reply to make to the command--"Halt! Wer da?" + +The villages were very thick here, and our chief difficulty was to +keep out of them. Once we ventured rather close to the road which ran +near the railroad, and heard a number of people talking. They were +travellers who had alighted from the train which had raced past us +in the darkness a few minutes before. The station is often quite a +distance from the village, and these were the passengers walking back +to their homes--the village which we had been avoiding. + +We dropped to the ground, and the people went by, one old man +singing. I knew he was old, for his voice was cracked and thin, but +of great sweetness, and he sang an aria from a musical comedy which +was popular then, called "The Joy of Life." I had heard a doctor in +the lazaret singing it. + +When the sound had grown fainter in the distance, we came out of our +hiding-place and went on. + +"It seems hard," said Bromley, "to be fighting with people who can +sing like that. I can't work up any ill-will to that good old soul, +going home singing--and I don't believe he has any ill-will to us. +I couldn't fight the Germans if they were all like this old chap +and Sank!" + +"You wouldn't need to," I said. "There would not have been any +fighting." + +And then we strained our ears to listen to the song, not a word of +which we understood, though to us the music was full of good-will +and joy. + +"We've got to keep farther out," I said at last. "We are sure to run +into some one and then it will be all up with us!" + +We found, at last, after much stumbling over rough ground, a road +quite grass-grown and apparently abandoned. We followed it for about +a mile, making good progress, until we came to a stream over which +there was a bridge. We hesitated a minute before going over, but the +place was as silent as a cemetery, and seemed perfectly safe. So we +cautiously went over, keeping a sharp outlook all the time. When we +were over the bridge, we found ourselves in the one street of another +village. + +We stopped for a minute and listened. There was not a sound. We then +went forward. Most of the streets of the villages are paved with +cobblestones, but these were not, and our boots made no sound on the +dirt road. Not even a dog barked, and just as we were at the farther +end of it, the village clock rang the hour of three! + +"That's all right for once," I said, "but it's risky; I don't think +we'd better try it again. Some barking dog is sure to awake." + +Soon after that the east grew red with morning, and we struck +straight into the woods to find shelter. We soon found ourselves in +high rushes growing out of swampy ground, and as we plunged along, we +came to a high woven-wire fence, which we supposed marked the bounds +of a game preserve. + +We quickened our pace, although the going was bad, for the light was +growing and we knew these German peasants are uncomfortably early in +their habits. We came on a garden, carefully fenced with rails, and +helped ourselves to a few carrots and turnips to save our supply of +food, and, finding near there a fairly thick wood, decided to camp +for the day. + +That was Monday, October 4th, and was a miserable day with sudden +bursts of sunshine that made our hearts light with the hope of +getting both warm and dry; but the sunshine no sooner came than it +was gone, and then a shower of rain would beat down on us. + +However, we managed to make our feet comfortable with the extra pair +of socks, and we ate some carrots, bread, and cheese. But it was so +cold, we could not sleep. + +We were glad when it grew dark enough for us to start out again. We +found we were in a well-cultivated district; almost every acre was in +garden, potatoes and sugar beets, whose stalks rustled and crackled +as we went through them, and this made our going slower than it +otherwise would have been. There were a few late apples on the trees, +but they were poor, woody ones. I do not know whether they were a +sample of the crop or just the culls that were not considered worth +picking. But we were glad of them, and filled our pockets. + +The streams which we came to gave us considerable trouble. We were +not exactly dry, but then we could have been wetter, and so we hunted +for bridges, thereby losing much time and taking grave chances of +being caught. We were new in the matter of escaping, and had a lot +to learn. Now we know we should have waded through without losing a +minute. + +That morning, just before stopping-time, in crossing a railway +Bromley tripped over a signal wire, which rang like a burglar alarm +and seemed to set a dozen bells ringing. We quickened our pace, and +when the railway man came rushing out of his house and looked wildly +up and down the track, we were so far away he could not see us! + +We kept well to the east, for we knew the location of Frankfort +and that we must avoid it. Bromley had difficulty in keeping his +direction, and I began to suspect that he thought I was lost, too. So +I told him the direction the road ran, and then made an observation +with the compass to convince him, but many a time in the long, black +middle of the night, I thought I detected a disposition to doubt in +his remarks. + +When the North Star shone down on us, we could find our way without +trouble, but when the night was clouded, as most of the nights were, +it became a difficult matter. + +The third night there was a faintly light patch in the sky, by which +I guided my course and did not use my compass at all. Bromley had +evidently not noticed this, and declared that no human being could +keep his direction on as black a night as this. The faint light in +the sky continued to hold, and I guided our course by it until we +came to a road. Here Bromley insinuated that I had better use my +compass (I was thinking the same thing, too). I assured him it was +not necessary, for I knew the road was running east and west. It was, +I knew, if the light patch in the sky had not shifted. + +When we made the observation with the compass, we found it was so; +and Bromley asked me, wonderingly, how I could do it. I told him it +was a sort of sixth sense that some people had. After that he trusted +me implicitly. This saved him a lot of anxiety, and also made it +easier for me. + +Soon after this we got into a miry part of the country, with the +woods so thick and the going so bad that we knew we could not make +any progress. It was a veritable dismal swamp, where travellers could +be lost forever. + +As we stumbled along in this swampy place, we came to a narrow-gauge +railway, which we gladly followed until we saw we were coming to a +city. This we afterwards knew to be the city of Hanau. Just in the +gray dawn, we left the track and took refuge in a thick bush, where +we spent the day. This was October 5th. + +Our first work was to change our socks, spreading the ones we took +off on a tree to dry. We then carefully rubbed our feet until they +were dry, and put on the dry socks. We soon learned that we must +leave our boots off for a while each day, to keep our feet in good +condition. The pressure of the boots, especially with the dampness, +made the feet tender and disposed to skin. + +This day was a showery one, too, but the sun shone for about an hour +in the morning, and when Bromley lay down to sleep, I decided to go +out and see what sort of country we were in. I wanted to check up my +map, too, for if it were correct, we should be near the Main River. + +I made my way cautiously to the edge of the wood, marking the way by +breaking the top of a twig here and there, to guide me safely back +to Bromley. Ordinary travellers can call to each other, but the ways +of escaping prisoners must all be ways of quietness, although their +paths are not all paths of peace! + +I saw a beautiful little lodge, vine-covered, with a rustic fence +around it, with blue smoke curling out of its red-brick chimney, and +I just knew they were having bacon and eggs and coffee for breakfast. + +Two graceful deer, with gentle eyes, looked out at me from a tangle +of willows, and then I knew the brown lodge was the game-keeper's +house. A hay meadow, green with after-grass, stretched ahead of me, +but there was no sign of the Main River. + +I had kept well under cover, I thought, but before long I had the +uncomfortable feeling that some one was following me; the crackling +of the bushes, which ceased when I stopped, and began again when I +went on, seemed very suspicious. I abruptly changed my course, making +a wide circle, and was able to elude my pursuer and find my way back +to Bromley. + +I had an uneasy feeling that I had been too careless, and that some +one had seen me. However, I lay down to sleep, for I was dead tired, +and we had a splendid hiding-place in the thick bush. + +I do not know how long I slept; it seemed only a few minutes when a +bugle-call rang out. We wakened with a start, for it went through us +like a knife. + +We heard loud commands, and knew there was a company of soldiers +somewhere near, and I gathered from my recent observations that +these sounds came from the hay meadow in front of us. + +We did not connect the demonstration with our presence until the +soldiers began shouting and charging the wood where we lay. Then we +knew we were what the society papers call the "raison d'être" for +all this celebration. + +We lay close to the earth and hardly dared to breathe. The soldiers +ran shouting and firing (probably blank cartridges) in every +direction. Through the brush I saw their feet as they passed--not +ten feet from where we lay. + +The noise they made was deafening; evidently they thought if they +beat the bushes sufficiently hard, they could scare us out like +rabbits, and I knew they were watching the paths and thin places +in the woods. But we lay tight, knowing it was our only safety. + +Soon the noise grew fainter, and they passed on to try the woods we +had just come through, and we, worn with fatigue, fell asleep. + +In the afternoon they gave our woods another combing. They seemed +pretty sure we were somewhere near! But they did not come quite so +close to us as they had in the morning. + +However, we had heard enough to convince us that this was a poor +place to linger, and when it got real dark, we pushed on south across +the hay meadow. This meadow was full of ditches which were a little +too wide to jump and were too skwudgy in the bottom to make wading +pleasant. They delayed us and tired us a great deal, for it was a +tough climb getting out of them. + +At last we decided to take the road, for the night was dark enough to +hide us, and by going slowly we thought we could avoid running into +any one. + +We had not gone very far when we heard the sound of wagons, and when +we stopped to listen we could hear many voices, and knew our road was +bringing us to a much-used thoroughfare. In the corner formed by the +intersecting roads there was a thick bush of probably ten acres, and +I could not resist the desire to scout and see what sort of country +we were in. So I left Bromley, carefully marking where he was by all +the ways I could, and then went out to the edge of the bush. I went +along the edge of the road, keeping well into the bush. It was too +dark to see much, but I could make out that there was a well-wooded +country ahead of us. I came back to the exact place where I had left +Bromley, or at least where I thought I had left him, but not a trace +of him could I see. Of course, I dared not call, so I gave a soft +whistle, as near like a bird-call as I could. Bromley reached out his +hand and touched me! He was right beside me. That gave me the comfort +of knowing how well the darkness and bushes hide one if he is +perfectly still. + +We thought this road led to the river Main, and decided to keep close +to it so we could get across on the bridge. We followed along the +road until it branched into two roads. We took the right branch +first, but as it turned more and more sharply to the west, we +concluded it was the road to Frankfort, and retraced our steps to the +place where we had picked it up, and went the other way. There was +heavy forest along the road, and it seemed to us to run southeast by +east. We wanted to go south, so we turned off this road through a +chance hay meadow, and then through the forest, until we found a sort +of road which ran south. + +All German forests have roads, more or less distinct, traversing them +according to some definite plan, but they do not necessarily follow +the cardinal points of the compass. We followed the south road, which +was little used, until we came to a stream. There was no way of +getting across it, so we followed its bank until it flowed into the +Kinzig River. We knew by our map this must be the Kinzig River. + +We tried to find a path along the Kinzig, but there did not seem +to be any, and the underbrush was impenetrable. We decided to wait +until morning came, took some chocolate and biscuits and filled our +beer-bottle in the stream. Then we found a comfortable bank, and put +some brush under our heads and slept. But not very soundly, for we +did not want to miss that misty light which comes about an hour +before sunrise. + +We wakened just as the light began to show in the east, and, stiff +and cold, with our teeth chattering, we started on our way to find +some means of getting across the Kinzig. Bridge, boat, or raft, +anything would do us, provided only it came soon, before the +daylight. + +In a few minutes we came to a foot-bridge, with a well-beaten path +running down to it and up the opposite bank. So we made a dash across +it. We knew enough, though, to get off the path at once, for we could +see it was a well-travelled one. We struck into the wood, keeping our +southerly direction, but soon came out on another road, and as the +light was too strong now for us, we went back into the woods and kept +hidden. + +That was Wednesday, October 6th. Again it rained; not in showers this +time with redeeming shots of sunshine, but a dull, steady, miserable +rain that wet us clear through to the skin. Still, we ate our cheese +and bread, and opened a tin of sardines, and managed to put the +day in. We were near a town, and could hear people driving by all +day long. We were kept so on the alert that we had no time to feel +uncomfortable. However, we were very glad when the darkness came and +we could stretch our legs and get warm again. + +We had great difficulty to clear the town and the railway yards +ahead of us, but at last found a road leading south, and followed it +through the forest. In one place, as I was going along ahead, intent +on keeping the road, which seemed to be heaped up in the middle, +I heard a cry behind me, and almost jumped across the road in my +excitement. Instinctively I began to run, but a second cry arrested +me, for it was Bromley's voice. I ran back and found he had fallen +into a hole in the road. The heaped-up appearance I had noticed was +the dirt thrown out of a six-foot drain, in which they were laying +water-pipes, and into this Bromley had fallen. He was not hurt at +all, but jarred a little by the fall. + +We knew we had passed the Hesse boundary, and were now in Bavaria. + +Our one beer-bottle did not hold nearly enough water, and in our long +walk through the forest on this night we suffered from thirst. We had +thought we should be able to find cows to milk, but on account of the +people living in villages, there was but little chance of this. + +When we got out of the forest we found ourselves in an open country. +We came to a good-sized stream, and crossed the bridge and to our +horror found ourselves in a town of considerable size. The streets +were dark, but from one or two windows lights shone. We pushed +rapidly on, and thought we were nearly through, when a little upstart +of a fox-terrier came barking out at us from a doorway. We stepped +into a space between two houses, and just then a cat crossed the +street and he transferred his attentions to her. + +"I always did like cats," Bromley whispered. + +We came out again and went on, breathing out our condemnation of all +German dogs. And we were not done with them yet! For before we got +out another cur flew at us and raised enough noise to alarm the town. +I believe the only thing that saved us was this dog's bad character. +Nobody believed he had anything--he had fooled them so often--and so, +although he pursued us until we slipped down an alley and got into a +thick grove, there was not even a blind raised. He ran back, yelping +out his disappointment, and the bitterest part of it would be that no +one would ever believe him--but that is part of the liar's +punishment. + +We got out of the town as soon as we could, and pushed on with all +haste; we were afraid that news of our escape had been published, and +that these people might be on the lookout for us. The telephone poles +along the roads we were travelling kept us reminded of the danger we +were in. + +Loaded apple-trees growing beside the road tempted us to stop and +fill our pockets, and as we were doing so a man went by on a bicycle. +We stepped behind the tree just in time to avoid being seen, and +although he slackened his pace and looked hard at the place where we +were, he evidently thought it best to keep going. + +We met two other men later in the night, but they apparently did not +see us, and we went on. + +We left the road after that, and plunged into the woods, for the +daylight was coming. + +During the day of October 7th we stayed close in the woods, for we +knew we were in a thickly settled part of the country. Lying on the +ground, we could see a German farmer gathering in his sugar beets, +ably assisted by his women-folk. We could also hear the children from +a school near by, playing "Ring-a-ring-a-röselein." + +The rain that day was the hardest we had yet encountered, but in the +afternoon the sun came out and we got some sleep. At dusk we started +out again, on a road which had forest on one side and open country on +the other. We could see the trains which ran on the main line from +Hanau to Aschaffenburg. The Main River was at our right. Soon the +forest ended abruptly, and we found ourselves in an open country, and +with a railroad to cross. + +As we drew near, the dog at the station gave the alarm. We stepped +into a clump of trees and "froze." The man at the station came +rushing out and looked all around, but did not see us, and went back. +We then made a wide detour and crawled cautiously over the road on +our hands and knees, for this road had rock ballast which would have +crunched under our feet. + +We then went on through the village, where another dog barked at us, +but couldn't get any support from his people, who slept on. We were +worried about the time, for neither of us had a watch, and we +suspected that it was near morning. We hurried along, hoping to find +a shelter, but the country seemed to be open and treeless. A thick +mist covered the ground and helped to hide us, but it might lift at +any minute. + +We struck straight east at last, in the hope of finding woods. +Through the mist we saw something ahead of us which when we came +nearer proved to be a hill. Hoping it might be wooded on the top, we +made for it with all haste. When we reached the top we found no +woods, but an old cellar or an excavation of a building. It was seven +or eight feet deep, and the bottom was covered with rubbish. Into it +we went, glad of any sort of shelter. + +When daylight came, we looked cautiously over the edge, and saw we +were near a village; also we saw that about two hundred yards away +there was a good thick wood, but it was too late now to think of +changing our position. There was a potato patch on the face of the +hill, with evidence of recent digging. About eight o'clock we heard +voices. Women were digging the potatoes. + +Our feet were very sore that day, on account of the rain and of our +not being able to keep our boots off enough each day, but we lay +perfectly lifeless and did not even speak, for fear of attracting +the attention of the potato-diggers. We wished it would rain and +drive the potato-diggers in. But about nine o'clock a worse danger +threatened us. We heard firing, and could hear commands given to +soldiers. Soon it dawned on us that they were searching the wood for +us. + +The hours dragged on. We were cramped and sore of feet, hungry, and +nervous from lack of sleep, but managed to remain absolutely +motionless. + +About three o'clock a five-year-old boy belonging to the +potato-digging party, strolled up to the top of the hill. Bromley saw +him first, and signed to me. He loitered around the top of the cellar +a few minutes, threw some stones and dirt down, and then wandered +away. There was nothing to indicate that he had seen us. + +But in a few moments a woman and little girl came. The woman looked +straight at us, and made away at full speed. We knew she had seen us. +Then we heard the soldiers coming, shouting. It was not a pleasant +time to think of. + +When they surrounded the place, we stood up, and surrendered. + +There was nothing else to do. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CAUGHT! + + +At first it seemed as if there were a platoon of soldiers: they were +everywhere I looked, and there were more coming! They were, for the +most part, young fellows from the training camp at Aschaffenburg, +and it was not every day they got a chance to catch a couple of +prisoners. So it was done with a flourish! + +The Captain instructed us to put up our hands, and two of the +soldiers searched us. They were welcome to my map, because already I +was thinking of making another, but I did not like to see my compass +go--I kept wondering how I would ever get another. + +There was no hostility in their attitude toward us, either from the +soldiers or the civilians. The potato-diggers, mostly women, went +straight back to their work as if they had done their share and +now some one else could "carry on." Prisoners or no prisoners, the +potatoes had to be dug. + +A few children gathered around us, but they kept back at a respectful +distance and made no remarks. Where the military are concerned, the +civilian population do not interfere, even by words or looks. + +The village women who gathered around us had most apathetic, +indifferent, sodden faces; I don't believe they knew what it was all +about. They were no more interested in what was going on than the +black-and-white Holstein cows that grazed in the meadow near by. + +[Illustration: Map made by Private Simmons of the First Attempt] + +I spoke of this afterwards to Bromley. + +"But you must remember," he said, "they knew enough to go and tell on +us. That wasn't so slow." + +We could see that the soldiers were greatly pleased with their catch, +by the way they talked and gesticulated. Every one was pleased but +us! Then the commander, addressing his men in what we took to be a +congratulatory speech, called for volunteers. We knew the word. + +I looked at Bromley, and saw the same thought in his face, but his +sense of humor never failed him. + +"Cheer up, Sim!" he said. "They are just calling for volunteers to +shoot us. The boys must have something to practise on." + +We laughed about it afterwards, but I must say I did not see much +fun in it that minute. But it was only volunteers to take us into +Aschaffenburg. The commander wished to spread the joy and gladness as +far as it would go, and I think it was fully a dozen who escorted us +to Aschaffenburg, about a mile and a half away. + +They marched us through the principal streets, where I saw the sign +"Kleiderfabrik" many times. The people stopped to look at us, but I +saw no evidence of hostility. I am not sure that the majority of the +people knew who we were, though of course they knew we were +foreigners. + +There was one person, however, who recognized us, for as we were +marching past one of the street-corners, where a group had gathered, +a voice spoke out in excellent English, "Canadians, by Jove! And two +fine big chaps, too!" + +The voice was friendly, but when I turned to look I could not see who +had spoken. + +Their pride in showing us off was "all right for them," but pretty +hard on us, for it was a long time since we had slept, and we did not +enjoy being paraded through the city just for fun. We knew we were in +for it, and wanted to know just what they were going to do with us. + +At last they drew up with great ceremony before the Military +Headquarters, where there was more challenging, by more guards. I +think another guard fell in behind to see that we did not bolt, and +we were conducted into the presence of the Supreme Commander of that +Military District. + +He sat at a high desk in the centre of the room. There were several +clerks or secretaries in the room, all in uniform, and there seemed +to be considerable business going on when we came in, for numerous +typewriters were going and messengers were moving about. I noticed +there was not a woman in the room. + +When we entered and were swung up to the Commander's desk, with a few +words of introduction, there was complete silence. + +The soldiers who brought us in stepped back in a straight line, all +in step, and waited to be congratulated, with that conscious air of +work well done that a cat has when she throws down a mouse and stands +around to hear the kind words which will be spoken. + +The Supreme Commander was a grizzled man, with bushy gray eyebrows +which were in great need of being barbered, red cheeks, and a +curled-up mustache. He spoke through an interpreter. + +We were asked our names, ages, previous occupation, when captured, +and the most important questions of all, "Why were we fighting +against Germany?" and, "Why did we want to leave Germany?" + +I was questioned first, and after I had answered all the minor +questions, I told him I enlisted in the Canadian Army because we +considered ourselves part of the British Empire, and besides, Great +Britain's share in the war was an honorable one which any man might +well be proud to fight for. I said we were fighting for the little +nations and their right to live and govern themselves. I told him it +was the violation of Belgium that had set Canada on fire. + +When this was passed on by the interpreter, I could see it was not +well received, for the old man's eyebrows worked up and down and he +said something which sounded like "Onions." + +Then he asked me what did Canada hope to get out of the war? I said, +"Nothing"--Canada would gain nothing--but we had to maintain our +self-respect, and we couldn't have kept that if we had not fought. +"But," I said, "the world will gain a great deal from the war, for +it will gain the right to live at peace." + +At the mention of peace, some of the officers laughed in contempt, +but at a glance from the Supreme Commander, the laugh was checked +with great suddenness! + +He then asked me why I wanted to get out of Germany. + +I told him no free man enjoyed being a prisoner, and besides, I was +needed in the army. + +All these answers were taken down by two secretaries, and Bromley was +put through the same list of questions. + +He told them no one in Canada had to fight, no one wanted to fight, +because we are peaceable people, but we believe a little nation had a +right to live, and we had been taught that the strong must defend the +weak. + +When they asked him why he wanted to get away from Germany, he told +them he had a wife and two children in Canada, and he wanted to see +them: whereupon the Commander broke out impatiently, "This is no time +for a man to think of his wife and children!" + +When the Supreme Commander was through with us, we were taken to the +station and put on the train for Giessen, escorted by a Sergeant +Major, who had an iron cross ribbon on his coat, and two privates. + +We got a drink at a tap in the station and ate some bread and cheese +from our pack, which they had not taken away from us, but they did +not offer us anything to eat. + +On the train, where we had a compartment to ourselves, one of the +privates bought some fruit, and gave us a share of it. Our German +money had been taken away from us when they searched us, and we +had nothing but prison-stamps, which are of no use outside the +prison-camp. One of the privates was a university man, and in broken +English tried to tell us why Germany had to enter the war, to save +herself from her enemies. I thought his reasoning was more faulty +than his English, but believed in his sincerity. + +He told us that every nation in the whole world hated Germany and +was jealous of "him," and that England was the worst of all. He said +England feared and hated the Bavarians most of all, and that all +Bavarian prisoners were shot. I tried to convince him that this was +not so; but he was a consistent believer and stuck to it. He said +when Germany won the war "he" would be very kind to all the countries +"he" conquered, and do well for them. He told us he hated England, +but not all "Engländers" were bad! + +At Hanau we changed cars and had a few minutes to wait, and our +guards walked up and down with us. The station was crowded with +people, and the lunch-tables were crowded, although it was getting +late in the evening. + +At Friedberg we had an hour's wait, and we saw the same thing. +Beer-drinking and eating was going on in a big lunch-room, but the +patrons were ninety per cent men. The Sergeant Major with the iron +cross did not bother us at all, and at Friedberg he devoted himself +to the young lady who sold cigars, beer, and post-cards in the +station. + +We asked our friend who could speak a little English what they were +saying, but he, being a university man and of high degree socially, +gave us to understand that the Sergeant Major was lowering his +dignity to flirt with the girl behind the counter. He said it was all +"verrücktheit" (craziness). We were of the opinion that it was the +girl who was stepping down! + +When we got into Giessen, they took us on the street-car to the +prison-camp, and we were glad, for it had been a long day for us, and +the thought of longer ones ahead was not cheering. + +We were taken to the hut where the prison-guards sleep, and were +given a room at the very end, where we would surely be safe. We were +tired enough not to give any trouble, and when they left us, we threw +ourselves down without undressing and slept till morning. + +At nine o'clock we were taken before the officers of our own Company, +and put through the same questions. The answers were written down, as +before. We were then marched away to the Strafe-Barrack. + +The Strafe-Barrack had in it about thirty prisoners, but it was not +nearly full. These were all kept at one end of the hut, and at the +other end there were three men whose official standing was somewhat +of a mystery to us at first. Two of them were Belgians, a private and +a Sergeant, and one was a British Sergeant. They were dressed like +ordinary prisoners, but seemed to be able to go about at will. + +We soon caught on to the fact that they were spies, whose business +it was to watch the prisoners and repeat anything that would be of +interest to the authorities. During the five days we were kept there, +waiting for "cells," we found them quite friendly. + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE CELLS! + + +On the morning of the fifth day two cells were reported empty, and +we were taken to them. + +The cells are in a wooden building inside the camp, and in the +building we were in there were ten of them, divided from each other +by wooden partitions whose cracks are battened with strips of wood to +prevent light from coming through. There are two windows, one over +the door and one in the outside wall. These have a solid wooden door +which can be shut over them, excluding every ray of light. + +The cells are about six feet by eight in size, and have a wooden +platform to sleep on. There is no bedding of any kind. There is one +shelf, on which a pitcher of drinking-water stands, and there is an +electric button by which the guard can be called. + +We were allowed to keep all our clothing, including our overcoats, +and I managed to hold on to a stub of a pencil and a piece of stout +string. + +When the guard brought me in and told me to "make myself at home" or +words to that effect, and went out, locking the door, I sat down on +the wooden platform, and looked around. + +It was as black as the infernal regions--I might as well have had my +eyes shut, for all I could see. However, I kept on looking. There was +no hurry--I had time to spare. I had more time than I had ever had +before. + +Soon I noticed that in the partition at my right there was a place +where the darkness was broken, and a ray of light filtered through. +As I watched it, into the light spot there came two glistening points +which looked very much like a pair of eyes. + +I did not move, for I could hear the guards moving up and down the +gangway, but I could hardly wait until I heard the gates of the +gangway close. Then I went to the crack and whispered. + +"Hello!" + +"Hello!" came back the answer; and looking through the crack I saw +a lighted cell, and in it a man, the owner of the two bright eyes I +had seen. + +"What are you?" came a whisper. + +"Canadian," I answered; "in for trying to escape." + +By putting my ear to the crack, I could hear when he whispered. + +"I am a Frenchman," he said in perfect English; "Malvoisin is my +name, and this is my second attack of cells--for escaping--but I'll +make it yet. Have you the rings? No? Well, you'll get them. Look at +me." + +I could see that his uniform had stripes of bright red wagon paint +on the seams, and circles of it on the front of the tunic and on +his trousers, with a large one on the back of the tunic between the +shoulders. + +"You'll get these when you get into the Strafe-Barrack," he said. + +"How long shall I be there?" I asked. + +"Nobody knows," he answered. "If they like you, they may keep you! +It's an indeterminate sentence.... That's a good cell you have. I was +in that cell the last time, and I fixed it up a little." + +"What did you do to it?" I asked. + +"There's a built-in cupboard over at the other side, where you can +keep your things!" + +"Things!" I said--"what things? I've nothing but a pencil and a +string." + +"The boys will bring you stuff," he said; and then he gave me +instructions. + +"Write a note," he said. "Here's a piece of paper," shoving a +fragment of newspaper through the crack. "Write a note addressed to +one of your friends, tell him you are in cells, but get out every day +to lavatory in Camp 8--they'll bring you food, and books." + +"Books!" I said. "What good would books be to me in this black hole?" + +"I am just coming to that," he whispered back; "there's a crack like +this with a movable batten over on the other side. You can stand on +the platform, pull down the strip of wood, and get in quite a decent +light from the other cell. It is a light cell like mine; and right +above it you'll find the board that is loose in the ceiling; you can +pull it down and slip your book into the space and then let it up +again." + +I stepped over to the other side, and found everything just as he +said. Life grew brighter all at once, and the two weeks of "cells" +were robbed of a great part of their terror. + +I set to work to pull a nail with my cord, and was able to do +it after considerable labor, but there was no hurry at all. It +all helped to put the long hours in! With the nail I made the +reading-crack larger, in anticipation of the books which were to +come, but was careful not to have it too big for the strip of wood +to cover when it was swung back into place. + +When morning came I got my issue of bread, the fifth part of a small +round loaf, which was my allowance for the day. Then for ten minutes +we all swept out our cells and were taken out to the lavatory. I had +my note ready, and when the guard was not looking, slipped it into +the hand of a Frenchman who was standing near me. + +The lavatory was in the same building as Camp 8 Lavatory, and was +divided from theirs by a wall with an opening in it, through which +parcels might be passed between the strands of barbed wire. + +The Frenchman delivered my note quite safely, and the next morning I +found several little packages on the floor of the lavatory. Bromley +and I managed to get out at the same time, and as the guard did not +understand English, we were able to say a few words to each other. + +The boys sent us things every day--chocolate, biscuits, cheese, +cigarettes, matches, and books. We wore our overcoats to the lavatory +each day, so we could use the pockets to carry back our parcels +without detection. We were also careful to leave nothing in the cell +that would attract the attention of the guard, and Malvoisin and I +conserved matches by lighting one cigarette with the other one, +through the crack. + +Bromley had no reading-crack in his room, but with a nail and string +soon made himself one. + +Standing on the platform, I could open the reading-crack and get +several inches of light on my book. I read three or four books in +this way, too, making them last just as long as I could. + +On the fourth day I had light in my cell. The two windows were opened +and the cell was aired. On the light day I got more to eat, too, +coffee in the morning, and soup in the evening. On that night I had +a mattress and blankets, too. + +Toward the end of my two weeks I had hard luck. The cell next to +mine, on which I depended for the light to read by, was darkened. I +was right in the middle of "The Harvester." I tried it by the crack +between my cell and that of Malvoisin, but the light was too dim and +made my eyes ache. However, after two days a light-cell prisoner was +put in, and I was able to go on with my story. + +Malvoisin did all he could to make my punishment endurable. On +account of his cell being lighted, he could tell, by the sunlight +on the wall, what time it was, and passed it on to me, and when I +couldn't read because the cell next to mine was dark, he entertained +me with the story of his adventures--and they were many! + +His last escape had been a marvellous one--all but the end. When +outside of the grounds, on a digging party, he had entertained the +guards so well, by showing them fancy steps in dancing, that they had +not noticed that he was circling closer and closer to a wood. Then, +when he had made some grotesque movement, which sent the staid +German guards into paroxysms of laughter, he had made a dash for the +wood. The soldiers at once surrounded the place, but Malvoisin had +gone up a tree. The guards fired through the woods, calling on him +to surrender, while he sat safe and happy in one of the highest +branches, watching the search for him. The searching of the wood +continued for two days, but he remained in his nest in the tree, +coming down at night to get the food he had buried in the ground +while on the digging party. + +They gave up the search then, and he started for Switzerland. He got +a suit of painter's clothes at one place--overalls and smock--by +going through a window where the painters had been working, and with +his knowledge of German was passing himself off for a painter, and +working toward home. But his description was in the newspapers, and +a reward offered for his capture. His brilliant black eyes and the +scar on his cheek gave him away, and one of his fellow-workmen became +suspicious, and for the sake of the reward notified the military. + +But he said he would be sure to reach home next time! + +He had a week longer punishment than we had, and so when our two +weeks were up we left him there. + +When I said "Good-bye" to him through the crack, and tried to tell +him how much he had done for me, he laughed light-heartedly and +called back, "Good-bye, old man, I'll meet you in Paris--if not +sooner!" + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE STRAFE-BARRACK + + +When they took us to the Strafe-Barrack, the Company painter was +summoned and put on our rings, which stamped us as desperate +characters who would have to be watched. There was something to me +particularly distasteful about the rings, for I hated to have my +Canadian uniform plastered with these obnoxious symbols. But I did +not let the guards see that it bothered me at all, for we knew that +the object of all their punishment was to break our spirits. + +The Strafe-Barrack was supposed to finish the work begun in the +cells. It followed up the weakening of our bodies and minds, caused +by the fourteen days' solitude and starvation, and was intended to +complete the job with its deadly monotony and inaction. + +We got no parcels; so the joy of expectation was eliminated. We did +not know how long we were in for, so we could not even have the +satisfaction of seeing the days pass, and knowing we were nearing +the end! We had no books or papers; even the "Continental Times" was +denied us! We got the same food as they had in the prison-camp, and +we had a mattress to sleep on, and two blankets. + +So far as physical needs were concerned, we were as well off as any +of the fellows, but the mental stagnation was calculated, with real +German scientific reasoning, to break us down to the place where we +could not think for ourselves. They would break down our initiative, +they thought, and then we should do as they told us. As usual in +dealing with spiritual forces, they were wrong! + +In the morning we swept the floor of the hut, and spread up our +beds and had our breakfast. Then we sat on stools for an indefinite +period, during which time we were not supposed to speak or move. It +was the duty of the guards to see that we obeyed these rules. It is +a mean way to treat a human being, but it sent us straight back upon +our own mental resources, and I thought things out that I had never +thought about before. Little incidents of my childhood came back to +me with new significance and with a new meaning, and life grew richer +and sweeter to me, for I got a longer view of it. + +It had never occurred to me, any more than it does to the average +Canadian boy, to be thankful for his heritage of liberty, of free +speech, of decency. It has all come easy to us, and we have taken all +the apples which Fortune has thrown into our laps, without thinking. + +But in those long hours in the Strafe-Barrack I thought of these +things: I thought of my father and mother... of the good times we had +at home... of the sweet influences of a happy childhood, and the +inestimable joy of belonging to a country that stands for fair play +and fair dealing, where the coward and the bully are despised, and +the honest and brave and gentle are exalted. + +I thought and thought and thought of these things, and my soul +overflowed with gratitude that I belonged to a decent country. What +matter if I never saw it again? It was mine, I was a part of it, and +nothing could ever take it from me! + +Then I looked at the strutting, cruel-faced cut-throat who was our +guard, and who shoved his bayonet at us and shook his dirty fist in +our faces to try to frighten us. I looked at his stupid, leering face +and heavy jowl, and the sloped-back forehead which the iron heel had +flattened with its cruel touch. He could walk out of the door and out +of the camp, at will, while I must sit on a chair without moving, his +prisoner! + +Bah! He, with the stupid, _verboten_ look in his face, was the +bondsman! I was free! + +There were other guards, too, decent fellows who were glad to help +us all they dared. But the fear of detection held them to their +distasteful work. One of them, when left in charge of us as we +perched on our chairs, went noisily out, in order to let us know he +was going, so that we could get off and walk about and talk like +human beings, and when he came back--he had stayed out as long as +he dared--I think he rattled the door to warn us of his coming! + +Then the head spy, the Belgian private, who had his headquarters in +the Strafe-Barrack, showed us many little kindnesses. He had as his +batman one of the prisoners whose term of punishment had expired, +and Bromley, who was always quick-witted and on the alert, offered +himself for the job, and was taken, and in that way various little +favors came to us that we should not otherwise have had. + +Being ring-men, there were no concessions for us, and the full rigor +of the _strafe_ would have fallen on us--and did at first; but when +Bromley got to be batman, things began to loosen a little for us and +we began to get _part_ of our parcels. + +The head spy claimed more than the usual agent's commission for all +these favors, but we did not complain, for according to the rules we +were not entitled to any. + +The process regarding the parcels was quite simple. Spies in the +parcel party, working under the Belgian, brought our parcels to his +room at the end of the Strafe-Barrack. He opened them and selected +what he wanted for himself, giving Bromley what was left. + +Sometimes, in his work of batman, Bromley got "tired," and wanted +help, suggesting that a friend of his be brought in to assist him. +I was the friend, and in this way I was allowed to go up to the +Belgians' room to sweep, or do something for them, and then got +a chance at our parcels. At night, too, when the guard had gone +and the lights were out, we got a chance to eat the things we had +secreted under the mattress; but generally we kept our supplies in +the Belgians' room, which was not in danger of being searched. + +Bromley, as usual, made a great hit in his new position of batman. +He had a very smooth tongue, and, finding the British Sergeant +susceptible to flattery, gave him plenty of it, and when we got +together afterwards, many a laugh I had over his description of the +British Sergeant's concern for his appearance, and of how he sent +home to England for his dress uniform. + +We got out together when we went back to our own Company to get extra +clothes. We stayed out about as long as we liked, too, and when we +came back, we had the Belgian with us, so nothing was said. The +strafe-barrack keepers, even the bayonet man, had a wholesome fear +of the Belgian. + +This Belgian was always more or less of a mystery to us. He was +certainly a spy, but it was evident he took advantage of his position +to show many kindnesses to the other prisoners. + + * * * + +There was one book which we were allowed to read while in +Strafe-Barrack, and that was the Bible. There were no Bibles +provided, but if any prisoner had one, he might retain it. I don't +think the Germans have ever got past the Old Testament in their +reading, and when they read about the word of the Lord coming to some +one and telling him to rise up early and go out and wipe out an enemy +country--men, women, and children--they see themselves, loaded with +_Kultur_, stamping and hacking their way through Belgium. + +I read the Books of the Kings and some other parts of the Old +Testament, with a growing resentment in my heart every time it said +the "Lord had commanded" somebody to slay and pillage and steal. I +knew how much of a command they got. They saw something they wanted, +a piece of ground, a city, perhaps a whole country. The king said, +"Get the people together; let's have a mass-meeting; I have a message +from God for the people!" When the people were assembled, the king +broke the news: "God wants us to wipe out the Amalekites!" The king +knew that the people were incurably religious. They would do anything +if it can be made to appear a religious duty. Then the people gave a +great shout and said: "The Lord reigneth. Let us at the Amalekites! +If you're waking, call me early"--and the show started. + +The Lord has been blamed for nearly all the evil in the world, and +yet Christ's definition of God is love, and He goes on to say, "Love +worketh no ill to his neighbor." + +I can quite understand the early books in the Bible being written by +men of the same cast of mind as the Kaiser, who solemnly and firmly +believed they were chosen of God to punish their fellow-men, and +incidentally achieve their ambitions. + +But it has made it hard for religion. Fair-minded people will not +worship a God who plays favorites. I soon quit reading the Old +Testament. I was not interested in fights, intrigues, plots, and +blood-letting. + +But when I turned to the teachings of Christ, so fair and simple, +and reasonable and easy to understand, I knew that here we had the +solution of all our problems. Love is the only power that will +endure, and when I read again the story of the Crucifixion, and +Christ's prayer for mercy for his enemies because he knew they did +not understand, I knew that this was the principle which would bring +peace to the world. It is not force and killing and bloodshed and +prison-bars that will bring in the days of peace, but that Great +Understanding which only Love can bring. + +I was thinking this, and had swung around on my chair, contrary to +rules, when the guard rushed up to me with his bayonet, which he +stuck under my nose, roaring at me in his horrible guttural tongue. + +I looked down at the point of his bayonet, which was about a quarter +of an inch from my tunic, and let my eyes travel slowly along its +length, and then up his arm until they met his! + +I thought of how the image of God had been defaced in this man, by +his training and education. It is a serious crime to destroy the +king's head on a piece of money; but what word is strong enough to +characterize the crime of taking away the image of God from a human +face! + +The veins of his neck were swollen with rage; his eyes were red like +a bull's, and he chewed his lips like a chained bulldog. But I was +sorry for him beyond words--he was such a pitiful, hate-cursed, +horrible, squirming worm, when he might have been a man. As I looked +at him with this thought in my mind the red went from his eyes, his +muscles relaxed, and he lowered his bayonet and growled something +about "Englishe schwein" and went away. + +"Poor devil," I thought. I watched him, walking away.... "Poor +devil,... it is not his fault."... + +Malvoisin came to the Strafe-Barrack a week after we did, and I could +see that the guards had special instructions to watch him. + +None of the ring-men were allowed to go out on the digging parties +from the Strafe-Barrack, since Malvoisin had made his get-away in +front of the guards, and for that reason, during the whole month we +were there, we had no chance at all for exercise. + +Malvoisin was thin and pale after his three weeks' confinement in +cells, but whenever I caught his eye he gave me a smile whose +radiance no prison-cell could dim. When he came into the room, every +one knew it. He had a presence which even the guards felt, I think. +We went out a week before him, and we smuggled out some post-cards +which he had written to his friends and got them posted, but whether +they got by the censor, I do not know. The last I saw of him was the +day he got out of Strafe-Barrack. He walked by our hut, on the way +to his Company. He was thinner and paler still, but he walked as +straight as ever, and his shoulders were thrown back and his head +was high! His French uniform was in tatters, and plastered with +the obnoxious rings. A guard walked on each side of him. But no +matter--he swung gaily along, singing "La Marseillaise." + +I took my hat off as he went by, and stood uncovered until he +disappeared behind one of the huts, for I knew I was looking at +something more than a half-starved, pale, ragged little Frenchman. +It was not only little Malvoisin that had passed; it was the +unconquerable spirit of France! + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BACK TO CAMP + + +After the monotony of the cells and the Strafe-Barrack, the camp +seemed something like getting home for Christmas. All the boys, +McKelvey, Keith, Clarke, Johnston, Graham, Walker, Smith, Reid, +Diplock, Palmer, Larkins, Gould, Salter, Mudge, and many others whom +I did not know so well, gathered around us and wanted to know how we +had fared, and the story of our attempt and subsequent punishment +formed the topic of conversation for days. + +All the time we had been in retirement, we were not allowed to write +letters or cards, and I began to fear that my people would be very +anxious about me. I had given cards to returning "strafers" to post, +but I was not sure they had ever got out of Germany. Many parcels had +come for me from other friends, too, and the big problem before me +now was to find some way to acknowledge them. A card a week, and a +letter twice a month, does not permit of a very flourishing +correspondence. + +A decent German guard consented to take Bromley and me to the +building where the parcels were kept for men who were in punishment, +and we, being strong in faith, took a wheelbarrow with us. Of course, +we had received a number of parcels through our friend the spy, but +we hoped there would be many more. However, I got only one, a good +one from G. D. Ellis, Weston, England, and that saved me from a hard +disappointment. I saw there, stacked up in a pile, numerous parcels +for Todd, Whittaker, Little Joe, and others, who were serving their +sentences at Butzbach. I reported this to our Sergeant Major, and the +parcels were opened. Some of the stuff was spoiled, but what was in +good condition was auctioned off among us and the money sent to them. + +A letter came to me from my sister, Mrs. Ralph Brown, of Buchanan, +Saskatchewan, saying they were worried about me because they had not +heard from me, and were afraid I was not receiving my parcels. Then +I decided I would have to increase my supply of cards. The Russian +prisoners had the same number of cards we had, but seldom wrote any. +Poor fellows, they had nobody to write to, and many of them could not +write. So with the contents of my parcels I bought up a supply of +cards. I had, of course, to write them in a Russian's name, for if +two cards went into the censor's hands from M. C. Simmons, No. 69, +Barrack A, Company 6, something would happen. + +So cards went to my friends from "Pte. Ivan Romanoff" or "Pte. Paul +Rogowski," saying he was quite well and had seen M. C. Simmons +to-day, who was grateful for parcel and had not been able to write +lately, but would soon. These rather mystified some of the people who +received them, who could not understand why I did not write directly. +My cousin, Mamie Simmons, and Mrs. Lackie, of Dereham Centre, +Ontario, wrote a letter back to the Russian whose card they had +received, much to his joy and surprise. + +One of my great desires at this time was to have a compass, for +Bromley and I were determined to make another attempt at escape, just +as soon as we could, and many an hour I spent trying to find a way +to get the information out to my friends that I wanted a compass. At +last, after considerable thinking, I sent the following card to a +friend of mine with whom I had often worked out puzzles, and who I +felt would be as likely to see through this as any one I could think +of. + +This was the message: + +DEAR JIM:--I send you this card along with another to come later, +which please pass on to Fred. In next parcel, send cheese, please. + +Yours as ever + +M. C. SIMMONS + +In the address I slipped in the words--"Seaforth Wds." This I hoped +the censor would take to mean--"Seaforth Woods"; and which I hoped my +friend would read to mean--"See fourth words"; and would proceed to +do so. + +After I had sent this away, I began to fear it might miscarry and +resolved to try another one. I wrote a letter to my brother Flint, +at Tillsonburg, Ontario, in which I used these words, "I want you +to look into this for me"; later on in the letter, when speaking of +quite innocent matters which had nothing to do with "compasses," I +said, "Look into this for me and if you cannot manage it alone, get +Charley Bradburn to help you." + +I took the envelope, which had a bluish tint inside and steamed it +open, both the ends and bottom flap, and when it was laid open, I +wrote in it in a very fine hand, these words: "I tried to escape, but +was caught and my compass taken away from me. Send me another; put it +in a cream cheese." + +When the envelope was closed, this was almost impossible to see. I +knew it was risky, for if I had been found out, I would have been +"strafed" for this, just as hard as if I had tried to escape. +However, I posted my letter and heard nothing more about it. + +I had, through the kindness of friends, received a number of books, +Mr. Brockington, of Koch Siding, British Columbia, and Miss Grey, +of Wimbledon, England, having been very good to me in this way; +and as many of the parcels of the other boys contained books, too, +we decided to put our books together, catalogue them, and have a +library. One of the older men became our librarian, and before we +left Giessen I think we had a hundred volumes. + +The people who sent these books will never know the pleasure they +gave us! The games, too, which the Red Cross sent us were never idle, +and made many a happy evening for us. + +At night we had concerts, and many good plays and tableaux put on by +the boys. There was a catchy French love song, "Marie," which was a +great favorite with the boys. From this we began to call the Kilties +"Marie," and there were several harmless fights which had this for a +beginning. The Kilties had a hard time of it, and had to get another +dress before they could be taken on a working party. The Germans did +not consider the kilt a "decent dress" for a man. + +The parcels were an endless source of delight, and I was especially +fortunate in having friends who knew just what to send. Mrs. Palmer, +of Plymouth, sent me bacon; Mrs. Goodrich, my sister, and Mrs. +Goodrich, Sr., of Vancouver, sent fruit-cakes; Mrs. Hill, wife of +the British reservist who gave me my first drill in British Columbia, +sent oatmeal, and his sisters, Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Hamer, made candy. +Lee Davison, of Trail, whose brother is now a prisoner in Germany, +sent me tobacco, and so did Harold Andrews, of Trail, and Billy +Newell, of Koch Siding. + +The distribution of the mails was a time of thrills. One of the +Sergeants called it out, while every one crowded eagerly around. + +Poor Clarke, one of the brightest, merriest-hearted boys we had, +seldom got a letter, but he was right on hand every time, and when +there was no letter for him, would tear his hair dramatically and +cry,-- + +"Gott strafe England." + +Clarke had the good gift of making everybody laugh. I remember once +seeing him patching his trousers with a Union Jack, and singing, +"We'll never let the Old Flag fall!" + + * * * + +The German respect for the military caste was well shown in the +punishment of a Russian officer who had offended them by something he +had done or had not done. He was sent to our hut--as a punishment. He +had a room to himself, a batman, the privilege of sending out to buy +food, as much as he liked. His punishment consisted in having to live +under the same roof and breathe the same air as common soldiers. He +was a very good fellow, and told us many things about his country. +Incidentally we found out that his wages as a Lieutenant in the +Russian Army were one hundred and fifty dollars a year! + + * * * + +Bromley and I had not worked at all since coming out of +Strafe-Barrack. Being ring-men gave us immunity from labor. They +would not let us outside of the compound. Even if we volunteered +for a parcel party, the guard would cry "Weg!"--which is to say, +"Go back." + +This made all our time leisure time, and I put in many hours making +maps, being as careful as possible not to let the guards see me. I +got the maps in a variety of ways. Some of them had been smuggled in +in parcels, and some of the prisoners had brought them in when they +came. + +A Canadian soldier, who was a clever artist, and had a room to +himself where he painted pictures for some of the Germans, gave me +the best one, and from these I got to know quite a lot about the +country. From my last experience I knew how necessary it was to have +detailed knowledge of the country over which we must travel to reach +the border. + +My interest in maps caused the boys to suspect that I was determined +to escape, and several broached the subject to me. However, I did not +wish to form an alliance with any one but Bromley. We considered two +was enough, and we were determined to go together. + + * * * + +One day, in the late fall, when the weather was getting cold, an +American, evidently connected with the Embassy, came to see us, and +asked us about our overcoats. The German officers in charge of the +camp treated him with scant courtesy, and evidently resented his +interference. But as a result of his visit every person who did not +already have a Red Cross or khaki coat got a German coat. + + * * * + +Just before Christmas Day we got overcoats from the Red Cross, dark +blue cloth, full length and well lined. They had previously sent each +of us a blanket. + +The treatment of overcoats was to cut a piece right out of one +sleeve, and insert a piece of yellowish-brown stuff, such as is shown +in Bromley's photograph. We knew that coats were coming for us, and +were particularly anxious to get them before they were disfigured +with the rings which they would put on or with this band of cloth. If +we could get the coats as they came from the Red Cross, they would +look quite like civilian's coats, and be a great help to us when we +made our next escape. Bromley and I had spent hard thinking on how we +could save our coats. + +Larkins, one of the boys who worked in the parcels office, watched +for our overcoats, and when they came he slipped them into the stack +which had been censored, and in that way we got them without having +them interfered with. But even then we were confronted with a greater +difficulty. The first time we wore them the guards would notice we +had no rings, and that would lead to trouble. The piece of cloth on +the arm was not so difficult to fix. Two of the boys whose coats were +worn out gave us the pieces out of their coats, which we _sewed on_, +instead of inserting. The rings had been put on in brown paint lately +instead of red, and this gave Bromley an idea. We had a tin of cocoa, +saved from our parcels, and with it we painted rich brown rings on +our new coats. We were careful not to wear these coats, for we knew +the cocoa rings were perishable, but we had our old overcoats to wear +when we needed one. This saw us past the difficulty for a while. + + * * * + +On Christmas Day we had the privilege of boiling in the cook-house +the puddings which came in our parcels, and we were given a Christmas +card to send instead of the ordinary cards--that was the extent of +the Christmas cheer provided for us. + + * * * + +Soon after Christmas there was a party of about four hundred picked +out to be sent away from Giessen; the ring-men were included, and all +those who had refused to work or given trouble. Bromley and I were +pretty sure we should be included, and in anticipation of the journey +touched up the cocoa rings on our coats. They were disposed to flake +off. I also prepared for the projected move by concealing my maps. + +I put several in the pasteboard of my cap and left no trace, thanks +be to the needle and thread I had bought in the army canteen, and +my big one I camouflaged as a box of cigarettes. A box of Players' +Cigarettes had been sent to me, which I had not yet broken into. I +carefully removed the seal, being careful to break it so that it +could be put back again without detection. Then I cut my map into +pieces corresponding to the size of a cigarette, and, emptying out +the tobacco from a few, inserted the section of map instead, and put +them carefully in with the label showing. I then closed the box and +mended the band so that it looked as if it had not been broken. I +felt fairly safe about this. + +[Illustration: The Christmas Card which the Giessen Prison +Authorities supplied to the Prisoners] + +The day came when we were to leave. Sometimes Bromley and I were on +the list, sometimes we were not. We did not really know until our +names were called. + +Our cocoa rings were fresh and fine, and we walked out with innocent +faces. I don't know why they suspected me, but the Company officer, +with two soldiers, came over to me where I stood at the end of a +double line. At the word from the officer, the soldiers tore off my +pack, opened my coat, examined the rings on my tunic which were, +fortunately, of the durable red paint, guaranteed not to crock or +run. I thought for sure they would search me, which I did not fear at +all, for my maps I considered safe, but I did not want them fooling +around me too much, for my cocoa rings would not stand any rough +treatment. I wished then I had put sugar in the cocoa to make them +stick better. + +But after considerable argument, they left me. Just before the +officer walked away, he shook a warning finger at me and said, +"Fini--dead--fertig," which was his French, English, and German for +the game idea: "If you don't behave yourself, you are a dead man!" + +He directed the soldiers to keep a strict watch on us, and one of +them volunteered the opinion that we should have rings in our noses! + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +CELLELAGER + + +The attention given to me by the prison-guards would have been +disconcerting to a less modest man than I am. A soldier sat with me +all the way on the train. I could not lose him! He stuck to me like +a shadow. When I stood up, he stood up. When I changed my seat, he +changed his. And he could understand English, too, so Bromley and I +could not get a word in. He seemed to me--though I suppose that was +simply imagination--to be looking at my rings, and I knew my pack's +string was rubbing them. I hardly knew what to do. At last I hastily +removed my pack, folded my overcoat so that the rings would not show, +and hung it up, but as the train lurched and rolled, I was fearful +of the effect this would have on the rings. I fancied I smelled dry +cocoa, and seemed to see light brown dust falling on the seat. Why +hadn't I thought to put sugar in it when I mixed it up? + +When we reached the camp, which was called Cellelager, we found we +had come to one which was not in the same class as Giessen. The +sleeping-accommodations were insufficient for the crowd of men, and +there was one bunk above the other. There was one canteen for the +whole camp (instead of one in each hut as we had in Giessen), and +here we could buy cakes, needles, thread, and buttons, also apples. +The food was the same, except that we had soup in the morning instead +of coffee, and it was the worst soup we had yet encountered. As an +emetic, it was an honest, hard-working article which would bring +results, but it lacked all the qualifications of a good soup. I tried +it only once. + +We were delighted to see no rings except what we had in our party. +The Commandant of the camp did not take any notice of them, so we +were able to remove all traces of them from our new overcoats, and +when Steve Le Blanc, from Ottawa, gave me a nice navy-blue civilian +coat, I gave my ringed tunic to one of the boys, who forthwith passed +himself off for a ring-man, to avoid being sent out to work. + +I found, however, he only enjoyed a brief exemption, for his record, +all written down and sent along with him, showed his character had +been blameless and exemplary, and the rings on his coat could not +save him. It was "Raus in!" and "Raus out!" every day for him! In +this manner did his good deeds find him out. + +There was a football ground at this camp, and a theatre for the +prisoners to use, but in the week we were there I saw only one game +of football. + +At the end of a week we were moved again, most of us. They did not, +of course, tell us where we were going, but as they picked out all +of us who had ever tried to escape--and all those who had refused to +work--we were pretty sure it was not a "Reward of Merit" move. + +We were awakened at a very early hour and were started off to the +station, loaded with stuff. We had blankets, wash-basin, empty +mattress, and wooden clogs. The boys did not take kindly to the +wooden clogs, and under cover of the darkness--for it was long before +daylight--they threw them away. The road to the station the next +morning must have looked as if a royal wedding party had gone by. + +This time we were glad to be able to see where we were going, +although it was a dismal, barren country we travelled through, +with many patches of heather moor and marsh. The settlements were +scattered and the buildings poor. But even if we did not think much +of the country, we liked the direction, for it was northwest, and +was bringing us nearer Holland. + +At Bremen, the second largest seaport in Germany, we stayed a couple +of hours, but were not let out of our car, so saw nothing of the +city. + +At about four o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived in Oldenburg, and +began our eight-mile march to Vehnemoor Camp, which is one of the +Cellelager group and known as Cellelager VI. We were glad to dispose +of our packs by loading them on a canal-boat, which we pulled along +by ropes, and we arrived at the camp late in the evening. + +This camp had but a few prisoners in it when we came, but there were +nearly four hundred of us, and we filled it to overflowing. There +were three tiers of bunks where the roof was high enough to admit +of it, and that first night we were there we slept on our empty +mattresses. However, we still had our Red Cross blanket and the two +German blankets apiece, and we managed to keep warm. There were two +rooms with two peat stoves in each room. + +The camp was built beside a peat bog, on ground from which the peat +had been removed, and there was no paving of any kind around it. One +step from the door brought us to the raw mud, and the dirt inside the +camp was indescribable. There were no books or papers; the canteen +sold nothing but matches, notepaper, and something that tasted +remotely like buckwheat honey. + +The first morning the Commandant addressed us, through an +interpreter. He told us he had heard about us. There was dead +silence at that; we were pretty sure we knew what he had heard. Then +he told us that some of us had refused to work and some had tried +to escape; he was grieved to hear these things! He hoped they would +not happen again. It was foolish to act this way, and would meet +with punishment (we knew that). If we would retain his friendship, +we must do as we were told. There was no other way to retain his +friendship. He repeated that. Some of us felt we could get along +without his friendship better than without some other things. We +noticed from the first that he didn't seem sure of himself. + +Then came roll-call! + +None of us like the thought of getting out to work in this horrible +climate, cold, dark, and rainy, and the roll-call brought out the +fact that we had very few able-bodied men. He had a list of our +names, and we were called in groups into an office. Bromley and I +gave our occupations as "farmers," for we hoped to be sent out to +work on a farm and thus have an opportunity of getting away. + +Most of the Canadians were "trappers," though I imagine many of them +must have gained their experience from mouse-traps. Many of the +Englishmen were "boxers" and "acrobats." There were "musicians," +"cornetists," and "trombone artists," "piano-tuners," "orchestra +leaders," "ventriloquists," "keepers in asylums," "corsetiers," +"private secretaries," "masseurs," "agents," "clerks," "judges of +the Supreme Court," and a fine big fellow, a Canadian who looked as +if he might have been able to dig a little, gave his occupation as +a "lion-tamer." + +The work which we were wanted to do was to turn over the sod on the +peat bogs. It looked as if they were just trying to keep us busy, +and every possible means was tried by us to avoid work. + +The "lion-tamer" and three of his companions, fine, vigorous young +chaps, stayed in bed for about a week, claiming to be sick. They got +up for a while every afternoon--to rest. The doctor came three times +a week to look us over, but in the intervening days another man, not +a doctor, who was very good-natured, attended to us. + +One day nine went on "sick parade"; that is, lined up before the +medical examiner and were all exempted from work. The next day there +were ninety of us numbered among the sick, and we had everything from +galloping consumption to ingrowing toe-nails, and were prepared to +give full particulars regarding the same. But they were not asked +for, for armed guards came in suddenly and we were marched out to +work at the point of the bayonet. + +Steve Le Blanc, one of the party, who was a splendid actor, spent the +morning painfully digging his own grave. He did it so well, and with +such faltering movements and so many evidences of early decay, that +he almost deceived our own fellows. He looked so drawn and pale that +I was not sure but what he was really sick, until it was all over. +When he had the grave dug down to the distance of a couple of feet, +the guard stopped him and made him fill it in again, which he did, +and erected a wooden cross to his own memory, and delivered a +touching funeral oration eulogizing the departed. + +We all got in early that day, but most of us decided we would not try +the "sick parade" again. + +This was in the month of January, which is the rainy season, and +there was every excuse for the boys' not wanting to work--besides the +big reason for not wanting to help the Germans. + +One night, when some of our fellows came in from work, cold, wet, and +tired, and were about to attack their supper of black bread and soup, +the mail came in, and one of the boys from Toronto got a letter from +a young lady there who had been out on the Kingston Road to see an +Internment Camp. He let me read the letter. She had gone out one +beautiful July day, she said, and found the men having their evening +meal under the beeches, and they did so enjoy their strawberries and +ice-cream; and they had such lovely gardens, she said, and enough +vegetables in them to provide for the winter. The conclusion of the +letter is where the real sting came: "I am so glad, dear Bert, that +you are safe in Germany out of the smoke and roar and dirt of the +trenches. It has made me feel so satisfied about you, to see these +prisoners. I was worrying a little about you before I saw them. But +now I won't worry a bit. I am glad to see prisoners can be so happy. +I will just hope you are as well cared for as they are.... Daddy and +Mother were simply wild about Germany when they were there two years +before the war. They say the German ways are so quaint and the +children have such pretty manners, and I am afraid you will be +awfully hard to please when you come back, for Daddy and Mother were +crazy about German cooking." + +I handed the letter back, and Bert and I looked at each other. He +rolled his eyes around the crowded room, where five hundred men were +herded together. Two smoking stoves, burning their miserable peat, +made all the heat there was. The double row of berths lined the +walls. Outside, the rain and sleet fell dismally. Bert had a bowl of +prison soup before him, and a hunk of bread, black and heavy. He was +hungry, wet, tired, and dirty, but all he said was, "Lord! What _do_ +they understand?" + + * * * + +Every day we devised new ways of avoiding going to work. "Nix arbide" +(no work) was our motto. The Russians, however, never joined us in +any of our plans, neither did they take any part in the fun. They +were poor, melancholy fellows, docile and broken in spirit, and the +guards were much harsher with them than with us, which was very +unjust, and we resented it. + +We noticed, too, that among our own fellows those who would work were +made to work, while the "lion-tamer" and his husky followers lay in +bed unmolested. His latest excuse was that the doctor told him to lie +in bed a month--for he had a floating kidney. Of course the doctor +had not said anything of the kind, but he bluffed it out. + +One morning when the guards were at their difficult task of making up +a working party, they reported that they were twenty-five men short. +Every one had been at roll-call the night before, the guards were on +duty, no one could have got away. Wild excitement reigned. Nobody +knew what had happened to them. After diligent searching they were +found--rolled up in their mattresses. + +They were all quickly hauled forth and sent out to work. The mattress +trick had worked well until too many had done it, on this morning. + +The morning was a troublesome time, and we all felt better when it +had passed; that is, if we had eluded or bluffed the guard. Bromley +and I had a pretty successful way of getting very busy when the +digging party was being made up. We would scrub the table or grab a +gadbroom and begin to sweep, and then the guards, thinking this work +had been given to us, would leave us alone! + +As time went on, the Commandant became more and more worried. I think +he realized that he had a tough bunch to handle. If he had understood +English, he could have heard lots of interesting things about his +Kaiser and his country--particularly in the songs. The "lion-tamer" +and his three followers generally led the singing, sitting up in +their bunks and roaring out the words. + +The singing usually broke out just after the guards had made an +unsuccessful attempt to pull the bedclothes off some of the boys who +had determined to stay in bed all day; and when the few docile ones +had departed for the peat bog, the "shut-ins" grew joyful to the +point of singing. + +This was a hot favorite: + + "O Germany, O Germany; + Your fate is sealed upon the sea. + Come out, you swine, and face our fleet; + We'll smash you into sausage-meat." + +Another one had a distinctly Canadian flavor: + + "Kaiser Bill, Kaiser Bill, you'd better be in hell, be in hell! + When Borden's beauties start to yell, start to yell, + We'll hang you high on Potsdam's palace wall-- + You're a damned poor Kaiser after all." + +They had another song telling how they hated to work for the Germans, +the refrain of which was "Nix arbide" (I won't work). + +The Commandant came in one day to inspect the huts. The "bed-ridden" +ones were present in large numbers, sitting up enjoying life very +well for "invalids." The Commandant was in a terrible humor, and +cried out "Schweinstall"--which is to say "pig-pen"--at the sight of +the mattresses. He didn't like anything, and raged at the way the +fellows had left their beds. It might have seemed more reasonable, if +he had raged at the way some of them had not left their beds! The men +he was calling down were the gentle ones, those who were out working. +But to the "lion-tamer" and his followers, who were lazily lying in +their beds, laughing at him, he said never a word. + +We knew enough about Germany and German methods to know this sort +of a camp could not last. Something was going to happen; either we +should all be moved, or there would be a new Commandant and a new set +of guards sent down. This Commandant had only handled Russians, I +think, and we were a new sort of Kriegsgefangenen (prisoners of war). +Bromley and I wanted to make our get-away before there was a change, +but we had no compass--my card had not been answered. + +There was a man named Edwards, who was captured May 8th, a Princess +Pat, who once at Giessen showed me his compass and suggested that we +go together next time. He was at Vehnemoor, too, and Bromley and I, +in talking it over, decided to ask Edwards and his friend to join us. +Then the four of us got together and held many conferences. Edwards +had a watch and a compass; I had maps, and Edwards bought another +one. We talked over many plans, and to Edwards belongs the honor of +suggesting the plan which we did try. + +The difficulties in the way of escaping were many. The camp-ground +was about three hundred feet long and seventy-five feet wide, +surrounded by a barbed-wire fence about ten feet high. The fence had +been built by putting strong, high posts in the ground and stretching +the wire on with a wire-stretcher, so that it could not be sprung +either up or down. The bottom wires were very close together. Inside +of this was an ordinary barbed-wire fence with four or five strands, +through which we were forbidden to go. + +Outside the camp at the northwest corner was the hut where the guards +lived when not on duty, and beside this hut was the kennel where the +watch-dog was kept. He was a big dog, with a head like a husky! The +camp was lighted by great arc-lights about sixty feet apart. German +soldiers were stationed outside and all around the camp, and were +always on the alert. + +We planned to go on Friday night, but an unforeseen event made that +impossible. A very dull German soldier had taken out about a dozen +Frenchmen to work on the moor. Two of them had slipped away some time +during the afternoon, and he did not notice he was short until he +got in. Then great excitement prevailed, and German soldiers were +sent out in pursuit. We watched them going out, dozens of them, and +decided this was a poor time to go abroad. The moon was nearly full +and the clouds which had filled the sky all day, were beginning to +break, all of which was against us. + +On Saturday, just as we feared, an extra guard of about twenty-five +men was sent in from Oldenburg, and as the guard changed every two +hours, and this was about 5.30 o'clock in the evening when they came, +we reasoned that the double guard would go on at seven. After the +guard had been doubled, there would be but little chance for us. + +It was now or never! + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +OFF FOR HOLLAND! + + +The eastern fence was the one we had marked as our point of +departure, and, Saturday being wash-day, there was nothing suspicious +in the fact that we had hung our clothes there to dry. They had to be +hung somewhere. + +The boys were expecting parcels that night, for a canal-boat had come +up from Oldenburg, and every one was out in the yard. Several of the +boys were in our confidence, and we had asked them to stroll up and +down leisurely between the hut and the east fence. + +Just at the last minute the fourth man, Edwards's friend, came to me +and said:-- + +"Sim, we will never make it. The guards will see us, and they'll +shoot us--you know they'll just be glad to pot us to scare the +others. It is madness to think we can get away from here with these +lights shining." + +I told him I thought we had a chance, but did not try to persuade +him. Of course, we all knew we were taking a grave risk, but then, +why shouldn't we? It was the only way out. + +"Don't go, Sim," he said earnestly. + +I told him we were going, but if he felt as he said, it would be +better for him not to come, and already I could see that Edwards, who +was in the group of strollers, had dropped on his stomach and was +filing the lower wire of the inner fence, and when the wire broke he +crawled through to the other fence. + +I joined the party of strollers then, and walking toward the fence, +could see what Edwards was doing. + +With his left hand he held the bottom wire and filed it close to the +post, which did much to deaden the sound, but when the wire broke, to +my strained ears the crack was loud enough to alarm the guard. But +the sound of our voices must have covered it over, for all went well. + +We walked back again leisurely, though to my excited imagination the +sound of the filing deadened every other sound. We were back to the +fence again when I heard the whang of the second wire, and at that I +dropped to the ground and began to crawl after Edwards. + +The light from the arc-lights caught the horseshoes on the heels of +Edwards's boots, and they flashed to my eyes and seemed to me to +shine like the headlights of an engine! It seemed to me as if the +guards must see them. + +On he went--on--and on I followed, and behind me came Bromley. I +could hear him breathe above the beating of my own heart. + +Crawling is a slow and terrible way to travel when every instinct +cries out to run. But for about twenty yards we crawled like +snakes--changing then to the easier method of creeping on hands +and knees. + +Then three shots rang out, and it seemed as if our hearts stopped +beating--but we kept on going! Our first thought was, of course, that +we had been discovered. But no other sound came to us, and, looking +back to the _Lager_, we could still see the men moving carelessly +about. + +The bog was traversed by many ditches, and had a flat but uneven +surface, with tufts of grass here and there. It gave us no shelter, +but the winter night had fallen, and we were glad of the shelter +afforded by the darkness. We knew the moon would be up before long, +and we wanted to be as far away from the camp as possible before that +happened. + +I had gone out to work for a couple of days, to get a knowledge of +the country, and I knew from my map that there was a railway at the +edge of the bog, and as this would be the place where they would +expect to catch us, we wanted to get past it as soon as possible. But +the ditches, filled with water cold as ice, gave us great trouble. +Generally we could jump them, but sometimes they were too wide and we +had to scramble through the best we could. + +About eight o'clock the moon came up, a great ball of silver in a +clear blue sky, and turned the stagnant water of the bog to pools of +silver. It was a beautiful night to look at, but a bad night for +fugitives. Bromley, being a little heavier than either Edwards or I, +broke through the crust of the bog several times, and had difficulty +in getting out. + +About midnight, with the heavy going, he began to show signs of +exhaustion. His underwear, shrunken with cold-water washing, bound +his limbs, and he told us he could not keep up. Then we carried his +overcoat and told him we would stop to rest just as soon as we +crossed the track, if we could find a bush, and he made brave efforts +to keep up with us. + +"You'll be all right, Tom, when we get out of the swamp," we told +him. + +About half-past two we reached the railroad, and finding a close +thicket of spruce on the other side, we went in and tried to make +Bromley comfortable. He fell fast asleep as soon as he got his head +down, and it was evident to Edwards and me that our comrade was in +poor shape for a long tramp. Still we hoped that a day's rest would +revive him. He slept most of the day and seemed better before we +started out. + +The day was dry and fine, but, of course, we were wet from the hard +going across the bog, and it was too cold to be comfortable when not +moving. + +We could hear the children playing, and the wagons passing on a road +near by, and once we heard the whistle of a railway train--but no one +came near the wood. + +At nightfall we stole out and pushed off again. Bromley made a brave +attempt to keep going, but the mud and heavy going soon told on him, +and he begged us to go on and leave him. + +"If you don't go on, boys," he said, "we'll all be taken. Leave me, +and you two will have a chance. I can't make it, boys; I can only +crawl along." + +We came to a road at last and the going was easier. Bromley found he +could get along more easily, and we were making pretty fair time when +we saw something dark ahead of us. I was of the opinion that we +should go around it, but Bromley could not stand any more travelling +across country, and we pushed on. + +The dark object proved to be a house, and it was only one of many, +for we found ourselves in a small town. Then we took the first road +leading out of the town, and, walking as fast as we could, pushed +quietly out for the country, Edwards ahead, I next, and Bromley +behind. + +I heard some one whistling and thought it was Bromley, and waited for +him to come up to tell him to keep quiet, but when he came beside me, +he whispered, "They are following us." + +We went on. + +Soon a voice behind us called, "Halt!" + +"It's no use, Sim--they have us," Bromley whispered. + +Ahead of us was a little bush, toward which we kept going. We did not +run, because we thought that the people who were following us were +not sure who we were, and therefore would not be likely to shoot. +Bromley knew he could not stand a race for it in his condition, but, +knowing him as I do, I believe he would have made the effort; but I +think he saw that if he went back and surrendered, it would give us +more time to get away. + +"Go on, Sim," he whispered to me. + +We had agreed that if anything happened to one of us, the others were +to go on. We could not hope to help each other against such numbers. + +When we got opposite the wood, we made a dash for it. + +I think it was then that Bromley went back and gave himself up. I +often wondered what he told them about the other men they had seen. +Whatever he thought was best for our safety, I am sure of that, for +Bromley was a loyal comrade and the best of chums. + + * * * + +We lay there for a while, wondering what to do. We were about in the +middle of a very small grove, and knew it was a poor place to stay +in, for it was a thin wood, and the daylight was not far distant. + +Edwards, who was right beside me, whispered that he had just seen a +soldier climb a tree and another one handing him a gun. This decided +us to crawl to the edge of the wood again. But when we reached it, +Edwards, who was ahead, whispered back to me that he saw three +civilians right in front of us. + +This began to look like a tight corner. + +We determined to take a chance on the civilians' not being armed, and +make a dash for it. We did, and "the civilians" turned out to be a +group of slim evergreens. We saw a forest ahead, and made for it. The +ground was sandy and poor, and the trees were scattered and small, +and grew in clumps. The going was not hard, but the loss of Bromley +had greatly depressed us. + +Once we met a man--ran right into him--and probably scared him just +as much as he did us. He gave us a greeting, to which we grunted a +reply, a grunt being common to all languages. + +We saw the headlight of a train about three o'clock in the morning, +reminding us of the railroad to the south of us. + +Coming to a thick spruce grove, we decided to take cover for the day. +The morning was red and cloudy, with a chilly wind crackling the +trees over our heads, but as the day wore on, the wind went down and +the sun came out. It was a long day, though, and it seemed as if the +night would never come. It was too cold to sleep comfortably, but we +got a little sleep, some way. + +When we started out at night, we soon came to a ditch too wide to +jump, and as our feet were dry we did not want to wet our socks, so +took them off and went through. January is a cold month for wading +streams, and a thin crust of ice was hard on the feet. They felt +pretty numb for a while, but when we had wiped them as dry as we +could and got on our socks and boots again, they were soon all right. +But our care for our feet did not save them, for the muddy ground, +full of bog-holes, which we next encountered, made us as wet and +miserable as we could be. + +One large town--it may have been Sögel--gave us considerable trouble +getting around it. + +The time of year made the going bad. There were no vegetables in the +gardens or apples on the trees; no cows out at pasture. Even the +leaves were gone from the trees, thus making shelter harder to find. +The spruce trees and Scotch fir were our stronghold, and it was in +spruce thickets we made our hiding-places by day. + +The advantage of winter travel was the longer nights, and although +it had been raining frequently, and the coldest, most disagreeable +rains, the weather was dry during the time we were out. But the going +was heavy and bad, and when the time came to rest, we were completely +done out. + +We had put ourselves on short rations because we had not been able to +save much; we had no way of carrying it except in our pockets, and we +had to be careful not to make them bulge. We had biscuits, chocolate, +and cheese, but not being able to get even a raw turnip to supplement +our stores, we had to save them all we could. + +On January 25th, our third day out, the bush was so short we had to +lie all day to remain hidden. We could not once stand up and stretch, +and the day was interminably long. A bird's nest, deserted now, of +course, and broken, hung in a stunted Scotch fir over my head, and as +I lay looking at it I thought of the hard struggle birds have, too, +to get along, and of how they have to be on the watch for enemies. + +Life is a queer puzzle when a person has time to figure it out. We +make things hard for each other. Here we were, Ted and I, lying all +day inactive, not because we wanted to, but because we had to, to +save our lives. Lying in a patch of scrub, stiff, cold, and hungry, +when we might have been clearing it out and making of it a farm which +would raise crops and help to feed the people! Hunger sharpens a +man's mind and gives him a view of things that will never come when +the stomach is full; and as we lay there under scrub, afraid even +to speak to each other, afraid to move, for a crackling twig might +attract some dog who would bark and give the alarm, I took a short +course in sociology.... The Catholics are right about having the +people come fasting to mass, for that is the time to get spiritual +truths over to them! + +Hunger would solve all the capital and labor troubles in the world; +that is, if the employers could be starved for a week--well, not a +whole week--just about as long as we had--say, two biscuits a day for +three days, with nothing better ahead. But hunger is just a word of +two syllables to most people. They know it by sight, they can say it +and write it, but they do not know it. + +At these times the thought of liberty became a passion with us. +Still, we never minimized the danger nor allowed ourselves to become +too optimistic. We knew what was ahead of us if we were caught: the +cells and the Strafe-Barrack, with incidentals. + +On the fourth day we crossed an open patch of country, lightly +wooded, and then came to a wide moor which offered us no protection +whatever. Our only consolation was that nobody would be likely to +visit such a place. There was not even a rabbit or a bird, and the +silence was like the silence of death. + +I knew from my map that we had to cross the river Ems, and I also +knew that this would probably be the deciding factor in our escape. +If we got over the Ems, we should get the rest of the way. + +About two o'clock in the morning we reached the Ems. It is a big +river in normal times, but it was now in flood, as we could see by +the trees which stood in the water, as well as by the uprooted ones +that floated down the stream. Swimming was out of the question. + +We hunted along the bank that morning, but could find nothing, and as +daylight was coming, we had to take cover. + +All day we remained hidden in a clump of spruce and looked out upon +the cruel sweep of water that divided us from liberty. The west wind +came softly to us, bringing sounds from the Holland border, which we +knew from our map was only four or five miles away! We heard the +shunting of cars and the faint ringing of bells. + +We discussed every plan. We would search the riverbank for a boat, +though we were afraid the German thoroughness would see to it that +there was no boat on this side of any of their border rivers. Still, +they could not watch everything, and there might be one. + +Failing that, we would make a raft to carry our clothes, and swim it. +We had a knife, but no rope. I remember in "Swiss Family Robinson" +how easily things came to hand when they were needed, and I actually +looked in the dead grass at my feet to see if by any chance I might +find a rope or wire--or something. + +But there were no miracles or fairies--no fortunate happenings for +us; and when night came on again we scoured the bank for a boat, but +in vain. Never a boat could we see. + +We then drew together some of the driftwood that lay on the shore, +but when we tried it in the water it would hardly float its own +weight. I felt the hopelessness of this plan, but Ted worked on like +a beaver, and I tried to believe he had more hope than I had. But +suddenly he looked at me, as he stopped, and I felt that our last +plan was gone! + +"It's no use," he said. + +There was only the bridge left, and that, we knew, was very +dangerous. Still, there was a chance. It might not be guarded--the +guard might be gone for a few minutes. And all the time the murmurs +came to us on the wind from the Holland border, and sounded friendly +and welcoming. + +We started out to find the bridge. + +We were better dressed than Bromley and I had been, for we had on the +dark blue overcoats, but not being able to speak the language was +dead against us. + +"Even if they do get us, Sim," Ted said, "we'll try it again--if we +live through the punishment." + +"All right," I said, "I'm game." + + + +CHAPTER XV + +CAUGHT AGAIN + + +The bridge was a fine iron one without lights. The road which led +to it was not much travelled, and it looked as if it might carry us +over--without accident. Anyway, it was our only chance. + +We walked on to the bridge, taking care to make no noise, and +striking a gait that was neither slow nor fast. + +We were nine tenths of the way over the bridge, with hope springing +in our tired hearts at each step. Away to the west, straight ahead of +us, distant lights twinkled. We thought they were in Holland, and +they beckoned to our tired hearts like the lights of home. + +We were only about ten feet from the other side of the bridge, +when... suddenly a light was flashed on us, a great dazzling light +that seemed to scorch and wither us. It seemed to burn our +prison-clothes into our very souls. I'm sure the rings on my knees +showed through my overcoat! + +Into the circle of light three German soldiers came, with rifles +levelled. + +They advanced upon us until their bayonets were touching us. And +again we saw our dream of freedom fade! + +The soldiers took us in charge and marched us to Lathen, a town near +by, where part of the hotel was used as barracks. They showed us no +hostility; it was just part of their day's work to gather in escaping +prisoners. + +There was a map on the wall, and when they asked us where we came +from, we showed them Canada on the map of the North American +Continent. They were decent-looking young fellows and asked us many +questions about Canada. + +Although it was about midnight there seemed to be people on the +streets, which were brilliantly lighted. A Sergeant Major came in, +with a gendarme, who had two women with him. They were well-dressed +looking women, but I kept wondering what they were doing out so late. + +The Sergeant Major and the policeman lacked the friendliness of the +privates, and the former began the conversation by saying, "England +ist kaputt." The Sergeant Major repeated his statement, with greater +emphasis, and I put more emphasis on my reply, and there we stuck! It +did not seem that we could get any farther. It seemed a place to say, +"Time will tell." + +The gendarme was a coarse, beer-drinking type, and I kept wondering +how two such fine-looking women came to be with him. The younger and +handsomer one was not his wife, I knew--he was so attentive to her. +The other one may have been, though she was evidently his superior +in every way. Still, even in our own country very fine women are +sometimes careless about whom they marry. + +The Sergeant Major poured out a volume of questions in German, to +which we replied, "Nix forstand." + +Then the gendarme thought something was being overlooked, and he +suggested that we be searched. I was afraid of that, and had taken +the precaution of hiding the compass as well as I could, by putting +it in the bottom of the pasteboard box that held our shaving-stick. +The stick had been worn down, leaving room for the compass at the +bottom of the box. + +The soldier who searched us did not notice the compass, and handed +the shaving-stick back to me, and I breathed easier. But the gendarme +had probably done more searching than the soldier, and asked me for +it. He immediately let the stick fall out, and found the compass, +which he put in his pocket, with a wink at the others... and it was +gone. + +All our little articles were taken from us and put into two parcels, +which we were allowed to carry, but not keep, and which were +eventually returned to us, and, whether it was done by carelessness +or not I do not know, but by some fortunate circumstance my maps were +left in my pay-book case and put in the package, but I did not see +them until after my punishment was over. + +[Illustration: Map made from Paper which came in a Parcel, wrapped +around a Fruit-Cake / Notice the stain caused by the cake. This is +the map that was hidden in the cigarette-box] + +My notebook attracted the attention of the gendarme, and he took +it from me. I had made entries each day, and these he read aloud, +translating them into German as he went, much to the apparent +entertainment of the two women, who laughed at him, with a forced +gaiety which confirmed my diagnosis of their relationship. I think +he was crediting me with entries I had never made, for the central +figure seemed to be one "Rosie Fräulein," whom I did not have the +pleasure of meeting. + +We could see that although the privates were friendly, there was no +semblance of friendliness in either the gendarme or the Sergeant +Major. I think they would have gladly shot us on the spot--if they +had dared. They were pronounced cases of anglophobia. + +The gendarme at last broke out into English, cutting his words off +with a snarl: + +"What do you fellows want to get back for anyway? England is no good! +England is a liar, and a thief." + +When he said this, I could see Edwards's face grow white and his eyes +glitter. He was breathing hard, like a man going up a steep hill, and +his hands were opening and closing. He walked over to the gendarme +and glared in his face,--"What do I want to get back for?" he +repeated in a steady voice, stretched tight like a wire, "I'll tell +you--this is not any ordinary war, where brave men fight each other. +This is a war against women and children and old men. I have fought +with the Boers in Africa, but I bore them no ill-will--they fought +like men and fought with men. I've been through Belgium--I've seen +what you have done. I have boys of my own--little fellows--just +like the ones you cut the hands off--and I will tell you why I want +to get back--I want to serve my country and my God--by killing +Germans--they're not fit to live!" + +The women drew back in alarm, though I do not think they understood +the words. Instinctively I drew up beside Edwards, for I thought it +was the end; but to our surprise the brutal face of the gendarme +relaxed into a broad grin, and he turned to the women and Sergeant +Major and made some sort of explanation. We did not know what was +coming, and then a controversy took place between the two men as to +what should be done with us. The gendarme wanted to take us, but the +ladies protested, and at last we were led away by the two privates, +carrying our two little packages of belongings. + +We went into an adjoining room, where a coal fire burned in a small +round heater, whose glow promised comfort and warmth. The privates +very kindly brought us a drink of hot coffee and some bread, and +pulled two mattresses beside the stove and told us to go to sleep. +Then they went out and brought back blankets, and with friendly looks +and smiles bade us good-night, incidentally taking our shoes with +them. + +"The Germans are a spotty race," said Ted, as we lay down. "Look at +these two fellows--and then think of those two mugs that any decent +man would want to kill at sight!"--He pointed to the room where we +had left the gendarme and the Sergeant Major. "Oh--wouldn't I enjoy +letting a bit of daylight through that policeman's fat carcass!" + +Next morning, when we awakened, our guards came again and brought us +some more coffee and bread. It was a bright morning, of sunshine, +with a frost which glistened on the pavement and the iron railing +surrounding the building we were in. + +The streets were full of people, and streamers of bunting festooned +the buildings. Children were on the streets, carrying flags, and the +place had a real holiday appearance. + +"Suppose this is all in our honor, Sim," Ted said as he looked out of +the window. "I wonder how they knew we were coming--we really did not +intend to." + +One of the guards, who had a kodak and was taking pictures of the +celebration, asked us if he could take our pictures. So we went out +to the front door, which was hung with flags, and had a picture +taken. + +"What are the flags up for?" we asked him. + +"It is the birthday of the All-Highest," he replied proudly. + +Ted said to me, so the guard could not hear, "Well, the old man has +my sincere wishes--that it may be his last." + +During the forenoon we were taken by rail to Meppen. The Sergeant +Major came with us, but did not stay in the compartment with the +guards and us. On the way the guard who had taken our photograph +showed us the proof of it, and told us he would send us one, and +had us write down our addresses. He must have been a photographer +in civil life, for he had many splendid pictures with him, and +entertained us by showing them to us. I remember one very pretty +picture of his young daughter, a lovely girl of about fourteen years +of age, standing under an apple-tree. + +Before the Sergeant Major handed us over to the military authorities +at Meppen, he told them what Edwards had said about wanting to go +back to kill Germans, but he did not tell all that Edwards had said. +However, they treated us politely and did not seem to bear us any +ill-will. + +In the civil jail at Meppen to which we were taken, and which is a +fine building with bright halls and pleasant surroundings, we were +put in clean and comfortable cells. There was a bed with mattress and +blankets, which in the daytime was locked up against the wall, toilet +accommodations, drinking-water, chair, table, wash-basin, and comb. +It looked like luxury to us, and after a bowl of good soup I went to +sleep. + +I wakened the next morning much refreshed and in good spirits. The +guard was polite and obliging, and when I said, "Guard, I like your +place," his face broke into a friendly grin which warmed my heart. +Ted had spoken truly when he said the Germans were a "spotty race." +It is a spotty country, too, and one of the pleasant spots to us was +the civil jail at Meppen. + +Of course, to men who had been sleeping in beds and eating at tables +and going in and out at their own pleasure, it would have been a +jail; but to us, dirty, tired, hungry, red-eyed from loss of sleep, +and worn with anxiety, it was not a jail--it was a haven of rest. And +in the twenty-four hours that we spent there we made the most of it, +for we well knew there were hard times coming! + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE INVISIBLE BROTHERHOOD + + +A special guard was sent from Vehnemoor to bring us back, and we had +to leave our comfortable quarters at Meppen and go back with him. + +The guard took a stout rope and tied us together, my right wrist to +Edwards's left, and when we were securely roped up, he tried to +enlighten us further by dancing around us, shouting and brandishing +his gun, occasionally putting it against our heads and pretending he +was about to draw the trigger. This was his way of explaining that he +would shoot us if we didn't behave ourselves. + +We tried to look back at him with easy indifference, and when he saw +that he had not succeeded in frightening us, he soon ceased to try. +However, from the wicked looks he gave us, we could see that he would +be glad to shoot us--if he had a reasonable excuse. + +At the station in Meppen, where he took us fully an hour before train +time, as we stood in the waiting-room with the guard beside us, the +people came and looked curiously at us. The groups grew larger and +larger, until we were the centre of quite a circle. We did not enjoy +the notoriety very much, but the guard enjoyed it immensely, for was +he not the keeper of two hardened and desperate men? + +We noticed that the majority of the women were dressed in black. Some +of them were poor, sad, spiritless-looking creatures who would make +any person sorry for them; and others I saw whose faces were as hard +as the men's. The majority of them, however, seemed to be quite +indifferent; they showed neither hostility nor friendliness to us. + +We changed cars at Leer, where on the platform a drunken German +soldier lurched against us, and, seeing us tied together, offered to +lend us his knife to cut the cord, but the guard quickly frustrated +his kind intention. + +At Oldenburg we were herded through the crowded station and taken out +on the road for Vehnemoor, the guard marching solemnly behind us. He +knew we had no firearms, and we were tied together, but when Ted put +his free hand in his pocket to find some chocolate, as we walked +along, the guard screamed at him in fear. He seemed to be afraid we +would in some way outwit him. + +But he was quite safe from us; not that we were afraid of either him +or his gun, for I think I could have swung suddenly around on him and +got his gun away from him, while Edwards cut our cords with the knife +which was in my little package. I think he knew that we could do +this, and that is why he was so frightened. + +But there was one big reason which caused us to walk quietly and +peaceably forward to take our punishment, and that was the river Ems, +with its cruel sweep of icy water and its guarded bridges. We knew it +was impossible to cross it at this season of the year, so the guard +was safe. We would not resist him, but already we were planning our +next escape when the flood had subsided and the summer had come to +warm the water. + +He had a malicious spirit, this guard, and when we came to Vehnemoor +and were put in our cells, he wanted our overcoats taken from us, +although the cells were as cold as outside. The Sergeant of the guard +objected to this, and said we were not being punished, but only held +here, and therefore we should not be deprived of our coats. Several +times that night, when we stamped up and down to keep from freezing, +I thought of the guard and his desire that our coats should be taken +from us, and I wondered what sort of training or education could +produce as mean a spirit as that! Surely, I thought, he must have +been cruelly treated, to be so hard of heart--or probably he knew +that the way of promotion in the German army is to show no softness +of spirit. + +But the morning came at last, and we were taken before the +Commandant, and wondered what he would have to say to us. We were +pretty sure that we had not "retained his friendship." + +He did not say much to us when we were ushered into his little +office and stood before his desk. He spoke, as before, through an +interpreter. He looked thin and worried, and, as usual, the questions +were put to us--"Why did we want to leave?" "What reason had we? Was +it the food, or was it because we had to work?" + +[Illustration: Friedrichsfeld Prison-Camp in Winter] + +We said it was not for either of these; we wanted to regain our +freedom; we were free men, and did not want to be held in an enemy +country; besides, we were needed! + +We could see the Commandant had no interest in our patriotic +emotions. He merely wanted to wash his hands of us, and when we said +it was not on account of the poor food, or having to work, I think he +breathed easier. Would we sign a paper--he asked us then--to show +this? And we said we would. So the paper was produced and we signed +it, after the interpreter had read and explained it to us. + +In the cells the food was just the same as we had had before, in the +regular prison-camp. They seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of +that soup. We wondered if there was a flowing well of it somewhere in +the bog. The food was no worse, but sometimes the guards forgot us. +The whole camp seemed to be running at loose ends, and sometimes the +guards did not come near us for half a day, but we were not so badly +off as they thought, for we got in things from our friends. + +On the first morning, when we were taken to the lavatory, we saw some +of the boys. They were very sorry to know we had been caught, and +told us Bromley had been sent to Oldenburg a few days before, for his +punishment. They also told us that the night we escaped, no alarm had +been given, although the guards may have noticed the hanging wires. +Several of the boys had had the notion to go when they saw the wires +down, but they were afraid of being caught. The general opinion was +that the guards knew we had gone, but did not give the alarm until +morning, because they had no desire to cross the bog at night. + +Our method of getting stuff to the cell was simple. I wore my own +overcoat to the lavatory, and hung it up inside. When I went to get +it, I found another coat was hanging beside it, which I put on and +wore back to the cell. In the pocket of the "other coat" I found +things--bread, cheese, sardines, biscuits, and books. The next day I +wore the other coat, and got my own, and found its pockets equally +well supplied. It was a fellow called Iguellden, whose coat I had +on alternate days. He watched for me, and timed his visit to the +lavatory to suit me. Of course, the other boys helped him with the +contributions. Edwards was equally well supplied. In the prison-camp +the word "friend" has an active and positive quality in it which it +sometimes lacks in normal times. + +On the second night in the cell I suffered from the cold, for it was +a very frosty night, and as the cells were not heated at all, they +were quite as cold as outside. + +I was stamping up and down, with my overcoat buttoned up to the neck +and my hands in my pockets, trying to keep warm, when the new guard +came on at seven o'clock. He shouted something at me, which I did not +understand, but I kept on walking. Then he pounded on the wall with +the butt of his rifle, crying, "Schlafen! schlafen!" + +To which I replied, "Nix schlafen!" (I can't sleep!) + +I then heard the key turn in the door, and I did not know what might +be coming. + +When he came in, he blew his breath in the frosty air, and asked, +"Kalt?" + +I did not think he needed to take my evidence--it certainly was +"kalt." + +Then he muttered something which I did not understand, and went out, +returning about twenty minutes later with a blanket which he had +taken from one of the empty beds in the _Revier_. I knew he was +running a grave risk in doing this, for it is a serious offense for +a guard to show kindness to a prisoner, and I thanked him warmly. He +told me he would have to take it away again in the morning when he +came on guard again, and I knew he did not want any of the other +guards to see it. My word of thanks he cut short by saying, "Bitte! +bitte! Ich thue es gerne" (I do it gladly); and his manner indicated +that his only regret was that he could not do more. + +I thought about him that night when I sat with the blanket wrapped +around me, and I wondered about this German soldier. He evidently +belonged to the same class as the first German soldier I had met +after I was captured, who tried to bandage my shoulder when the +shells were falling around us; to the same class as good old Sank +at Giessen, who, though he could speak no English, made us feel his +kindness in a hundred ways; to the same class as the German soldier +who lifted me down from the train when on my way to Roulers. This +man was one of them, and I began to be conscious of that invisible +brotherhood which is stronger and more enduring than any tie of +nationality, for it wipes out the differences of creed or race +or geographical boundary, and supersedes them all, for it is a +brotherhood of spirit, and bears no relation to these things. + +To those who belong to it I am akin, no matter where they were born +or what the color of their uniform! + +Then I remembered how bitterly we resented the action of a British +Sergeant Major at Giessen, who had been appointed by the German +officer in charge to see after a working party of our boys. Working +parties were not popular--we had no desire to help the enemy--and one +little chap, the Highland bugler from Montreal, refused to go out. +The German officer was disposed to look lightly on the boy's offense, +saying he would come all right, but the British Sergeant Major +insisted that the lad be punished--and he was. + +I thought of these things that night in the cell, and as I slept, +propped up in the corner, I dreamed of that glad day when the +invisible brotherhood will bind together all the world, and men will +no more go out to kill and wound and maim their fellow-men, but their +strength will be measured against sin and ignorance, disease and +poverty, and against these only will they fight, and not against each +other. + +When I awakened in the morning, stiff and cramped and shivering, my +dream seemed dim and vague and far away--but it had not entirely +faded. + +That day the guard who brought me soup was a new one whom I had not +seen before, and he told me he was one of the twenty-five new men who +had been sent down the night we escaped. I was anxious to ask him +many things, but I knew he dared not tell me. However, he came in and +sat down beside me, and the soup that he brought was steaming hot, +and he had taken it from the bottom of the pot, where there were +actual traces of meat and plenty of vegetables. Instead of the usual +bowlful, he had brought me a full quart, and from the recesses of his +coat he produced half a loaf of white bread--"Swiss bread" we called +it--and it was a great treat for me. I found out afterwards that Ted +had received the other half. The guard told me to keep hidden what I +did not eat then, so I knew he was breaking the rules in giving it +to me. + +He sat with his gun between his knees, muzzle upwards, and while I +ate the soup he talked to me, asking me where I came from, and what +I had been doing before the war. + +When I told him I had been a carpenter, he said he was a +bridge-builder of Trieste, and he said, "I wish I was back at it; +it is more to my liking to build things than to destroy them." + +I said I liked my old job better than this one, too, whereupon he +broke out impatiently, "We're fools to fight each other. What spite +have you and I at each other?" + +I told him we had no quarrel with the German people, but we knew the +military despotism of Germany had to be literally smashed to pieces +before there could be any peace, and, naturally enough, the German +people had to suffer for having allowed such a tyrant to exist in +their country. We were all suffering in the process, I said. + +"It's money," he said, after a pause. "It is the money interests that +work against human interests every time, and all the time. The big +ones have their iron heel on our necks. They lash us with the whip +of starvation. They have controlled our education, our preachers, +government, and everything, and the reason they brought on the war is +that they were afraid of us--we were getting too strong. In the last +election we had nearly a majority, and the capitalists saw we were +going to get the upper hand, so to set back the world, they brought +on the war--to kill us off. At first we refused to fight--some of +us--but they played up the hatred of England which they have bred +in us; and they stampeded many of our people on the love of the +Fatherland. Our ranks broke; our leaders were put in jail and some +were shot; it's hard to go back on your country, too. + +"But I don't believe in nationalities any more; nationalities are a +curse, and as long as we have them, the ruling class will play us +off, one against the other, to gain their own ends. There is only one +race--the human race--and only two divisions of it; there are those +who represent money rights and special privileges, and those who +stand for human rights. The more you think of it, the more you will +see the whole fabric of society resolving itself into these two +classes. The whole military system is built on the sacrifice of human +rights." + +I looked at him in astonishment. + +"Who are you?" I asked. + +"I am just a bridge-builder," he answered, "but I'm a follower of +Liebknecht... We can't do much until the Prussian system is defeated. +There are just a few of us here--the guard who got you the blanket +is one of us. We do what we can for the prisoners; sometimes we are +caught and strafed.... There is no place for kindness in our army," +he added sadly. + +"I must go now," he said; "I heard one of the guards say we were +going to be moved on to another camp. I may not see you again, but +I'll speak to a guard I know, who will try to get the good soup for +you. The Sergeant of the guard is all right, but some of them are +devils; they are looking for promotion, and know the way to get it is +to excel in cruelty. We shall not meet, but remember, we shall win! +Germany's military power will be defeated. Russia's military power +is crumbling now, the military power of the world is going down to +defeat, but the people of all nations are going to win!" + +We stood up and shook hands, and he went out, locking me in the cell +as before. + +I have thought long and often of the bridge-builder of Trieste and +his vision of the victory which is coming to the world, and I, too, +can see that it is coming, not by explosions and bombardments, with +the shrieks of the wounded and the groans of the dying--not that way +will it come--but when these have passed there shall be heard a +still, small voice which will be the voice of God, and its words +shall be-- + +"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself!" + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE CELLS AT OLDENBURG + + +It was on February 3d that we were taken from Vehnemoor to Oldenburg, +and when we started out on the road along the canal, roped together +as before, Ted and I knew we were going up against the real thing as +far as punishment goes, for we should not have Iguellden and the rest +of the boys to send us things. We came out of the Vehnemoor Camp with +somewhat of a reluctant feeling, for we knew we were leaving kind +friends behind us. Ted had received the same treatment that I had in +the matter of the blankets and the good soup--thanks to the friendly +guard. + +It was in the early morning we started, and as Vehnemoor was almost +straight west of Oldenburg, we had the sun in our faces all the way +in. It was good to be out again--and good to look at something other +than board walls. + +Our road lay along the canal which connected Vehnemoor with +Oldenburg. Peat sheds, where the peat was put to dry after it was +cut, were scattered along the canal, and we passed several +flat-bottomed canal-boats carrying the peat into Oldenburg. They +were drawn by man-power, and naturally made slow progress. + +The canal furnished a way of transportation for the small farmers +living near it, too, whose little farms had been reclaimed from the +bog, and their produce was brought into Oldenburg on the canal-boats. +We could see better-looking buildings back farther, where the land +was more fertile. At one place we saw a canal-boat with sails, but as +the day was still it lay inactive, fastened to an iron post. + +The settlement seemed to be comparatively recent, judging by the +small apple-trees around the buildings, and it looked as if this +section of the country had all been waste land until the canal had +been put through. + +When we arrived at Oldenburg, which we did early in the morning, we +were marched through its narrow streets to the military prison. We +could see that the modern part of the city was very well built and up +to date, with fine brick buildings, but the old part, which dates +back to the eleventh century, was dirty and cheerless. + +The prison to which we were taken was a military prison before the +war, where the German soldiers were punished, and from the very first +we could see that it was a striking example of German efficiency--in +the way of punishment. Nothing was left to chance! + +We were searched first, and it was done by removing all our clothing. +Then, piece by piece, the guard looked them over. He ran his hand +under the collar of our shirts; he turned our pockets inside out; he +patted the lining of our coats; he turned out our stockings and shook +them; he looked into our boots. As he finished with each article, +it was thrown over to us and we dressed again. Our caps, overcoats, +braces, belts, and knives were taken away from us. They were careful +to see that we should not be tempted to commit suicide. + +When I saw my cap go, I wondered if my maps, which I had sewed in the +pasteboard, would escape this man's hawk eyes. I thought I had lost +my other maps, and wondered how we should ever replace them. But it +would be time enough to think of that--when we got out. + +The guard's manner was typical of the management at Oldenburg. It had +no element of humanity in it. It was a triumph of _Kultur_. The men +might as well have been dummies, set by a clock and run by +electricity. + +There was a blackboard on the wall which told how many prisoners were +in the institution and what they were getting. The strongest and +worst punishment given is called "Streng Arrest," and the number who +were getting it was three. The guard, while we were there, rubbed out +the 3 and put in a 5. + +Ted and I looked at each other. + +"That's us," he said. + +Our two little parcels were deposited in a locker downstairs, where +other parcels of a like nature were bestowed, and we were conducted +up a broad stair and along a passage, and saw before us a long hall, +lined with doors sheeted with steel. + +The guard walked ahead; Ted and I followed. At last he unlocked a +door, and we knew one of us had reached his abiding-place. + +"I always did like a stateroom in the middle of the boat," Ted said, +as the guard motioned to him to go in. That was the last word I heard +for some time, for the guard said not a word to me. He came into the +cell with me, and shut the iron door over the window, excluding every +particle of light. + +I just had time to see that the cell was a good-sized one--as cells +go. In one corner there was a steam coil, but it was stone cold, and +remained so all the time I was there. There was a shelf, on which +stood a brown earthen pitcher for drinking-water--but nothing else. +Our footsteps rang hollow on the cement floor, which had a damp +feeling, like a cellar, although it was above the ground floor. + +Without a word the guard went out, and the key turned in the lock +with a click which had a sound of finality about it that left no room +for argument. + +Well, it has come, I thought to myself--the real hard German +punishment... they had me at last. The other time we had outwitted +them and gained many privileges of which they knew nothing, and +Malvoisin had cheered me through the dark hours. + +Here there was no Malvoisin, no reading-crack, no friends, nothing to +save us. + +They had us! + +We had staked the little bit of freedom we had on the chance of +getting full freedom. It was a long chance, but we had taken it--and +lost! + +I knew the object of all their punishment was to break our wills and +make us docile, pliable, and week-kneed like the Russians we had seen +in the camps--poor, spiritless fellows who could give no trouble. + +Well--we would show them they could not break ours! + + * * * + +The eight-mile walk had tired me, and I lay down on the platform to +try to sleep, but it was a long time before I could close my eyes: +the darkness was so heavy, so choking and horrible. If there had been +even one gleam of light it wouldn't have been so bad, but I couldn't +even see a gleam under the door, and every time I tried to sleep the +silence bothered me--if I could only hear one sound, to tell me some +one was alive and stirring about! Still, I kept telling myself, I +must put it in, some way--I must--I must--I must. + + * * * + +When I awakened, my first thought was that it was still night! Then I +remembered it was all night for me, and the thought set me shivering. +My hands were stiff and cold, and I missed my overcoat. + +The waking-up was the worst time of all, for my teeth chattered and +my knees trembled, so it was hard to stand. But when I had stamped +up and down for a while, I felt better. It must be near morning, I +thought. I should know when it was morning, because the guard would +come and let me have ten minutes to sweep my cell, and then I should +see Ted. I should perhaps get a chance to speak to him--even a wink +would help! + +It was a larger cell than the one at Giessen, and after sitting still +for a while I got up and walked up and down. I could take four steps +each way, by not stepping too far. My steps echoed on the cement +floor, and I quite enjoyed seeing how much noise I could make, and +wondered if anybody heard me. But when I stopped and leaned up +against the wall, I could hear nothing. Then I sat down again and +waited. + +I remembered how, after the cells, the Strafe-Barrack did not seem +too bad, for we could see people and talk occasionally; and after the +Strafe-Barrack the prison-camp was comparative freedom, for we could +get our parcels and read, and see the boys, so I thought I will +pretend now that my punishment was sitting still.... I can't move a +muscle; the cut-throat guard that was over us in the Strafe-Barrack +is standing over me with his bayonet against my chest--I must not +move--or he'll drive it in.... I wish I could change my position--my +neck is cramped.... + +Then I jumped up and walked up and down, and tried to tell myself it +was good to be able to move! But I caught myself listening all the +time--listening for the guard to come and open the door! + + * * * + +It seemed a whole day since we came, and still there was no sound at +the door. The guard must have forgotten us, I thought.... The guards +at Vehnemoor forgot to bring us soup sometimes.... These mechanical +toys may have run down; the power may have gone off, and the whole +works have shut down. Certainly the lights seem to have gone out. I +laughed at that. Well, I would try to sleep again; that was the best +way to get the time in. + +I tried to keep myself thinking normally, but the thought would come +pushing in upon me, like a ghostly face at a window, that the guard +had forgotten us. I told myself over and over again that we had come +in at noon, and this was the first day; it was bound to be long, I +must wait! They--had--not--forgotten us. + + * * * + +I knew exactly what I should look like when they found me. My hair +would be long, falling over my shoulders, and my beard--not red, +but white--would be down to my waist,--for people live for weeks on +water, and my nails would be so long they would turn back again... +and my hands would be like claws, with the white bones showing +through the skin, and the knuckles knotted and bruised. I remembered +seeing a cat once that had been forgotten in a cellar... It had worn +its claws off, scratching at the wall. + +Then a chill seized me, and I began to shiver. That frightened me, so +I made a bargain with myself--I must not think, I must walk. Thinking +is what sends people crazy. + +I got up then and began to pace up and down. Twelve feet each way was +twenty-four feet. There were five thousand two hundred and eighty +feet in a mile--so I would walk a mile before I stopped--I would walk +a mile, and I would not think! + +I started off on my mile walk, and held myself to it by force of +will, one hundred and ten rounds. Once I lost the count and had to go +back to where I did remember, and so it was really more than a mile. +But when it was done, and I sat down, beyond a little healthy +tingling in my legs I did not feel at all different. I was +listening--listening just the same. + +Ted and I had agreed that if we were side by side, we would pound on +the wall as a sign. Four knocks would mean "I--am--all--right." I +pounded the wall four times, and listened. There was no response. + +Then, for a minute, the horror seized me--Ted was dead--every one was +dead--I was the only one left! + +If the authorities in our prisons could once feel the horror of the +dark cell when the overwrought nerves bring in the distorted +messages, and the whole body writhes in the grip of fear,--choking, +unreasoning, panicky fear,--they would abolish it forever. + + * * * + +After an eternity, it seemed, the key sounded in the lock and the +guard came in, letting in a burst of light which made me blink. He +came over to the window, swung open the iron door, and the cell was +light! + +"What time is it?" I asked him in German. + +He knew his business--this guard. He answered not a word. What has a +prisoner to do with time--except "do" it. He handed me a broom--like +a stable broom--and motioned me to sweep. It was done all too soon. + +He then took me with him along the hall to the lavatory. At the far +end of the hall and coming from the lavatory, another prisoner was +being brought back with a guard behind him. His clothes hung loose on +him, and he walked slowly. The light came from the end of the hall +facing me, and I could not see very well. + +When we drew near, a cry broke from him-- + +"Sim!" he cried. "Good God!... I thought you were in Holland." + +It was Bromley! + +Then the guard poked him in the back and sent him stumbling past me. +I turned and called to him, but my guard pushed me on. + + * * * + +I put in as much time washing as I could, hoping that Ted would be +brought out, but I did not see him that day or the next. + +At last I had to go back, and as the guard shoved me in again to that +infernal hole of blackness, he gave me a slice of bread. I had filled +my pitcher at the tap. + +This was my daily ration the first three days. I was hungry, but I +was not sick, for I had considerable reserve to call upon, but when +the fourth day came I was beginning to feel the weariness which is +not exactly a pain, but is worse than any pain. I did not want to +walk--it tired me, and my limbs ached as if I had _la grippe._ I soon +learned to make my bread last as long as it would, by eating it in +instalments, and it required some will-power to do this. + +Thoughts of food came to torture me--when I slept, my dreams were all +of eating. I was home again, and mother was frying doughnuts.... Then +I was at the Harvest-Home Festival in the church, and downstairs in +the basement there were long tables set. The cold turkey was heaped +up on the plates, with potatoes and corn on the cob; there were rows +of lemon pies, with chocolate cakes and strawberry tarts. I could +hear the dishes rattling and smell the coffee! I sat down before a +plate of turkey, and was eating a leg, all brown and juicy--when I +awakened. + +There is a sense in which hunger sharpens a man's perceptions, and +makes him see the truth in a clearer light--but starvation, the slow, +gnawing starvation, when the reserve is gone, and every organ, every +muscle, every nerve cries out for food--it is of the devil. The +starving man is a brute, with no more moral sense than the gutter +cat. His mind follows the same track--he wants food... + +Why do our authorities think they can reform a man by throwing him +into a dark cell and starving him? + + * * * + +There was a hole in the door, wide on the inside and just big enough +on the outside for an eye, where the guards could spy on us. We could +not get a gleam of light through it, though, for it was covered with +a button on the outside. + +On the fourth day I had light in my cell, and it was aired. Also, I +got soup that day, and more bread, and I felt better. I saw Ted for +a few seconds. He was very pale, but bearing it well. Though the +sunburn was still on his face, the pallor below made it ghastly; but +he walked as straight as ever. + +I climbed up to the window, by standing on the platform, and could +just see over. Down below in the courtyard soldiers were gathering +for roll-call, and once I saw recruits getting their issue of +uniforms.... Sometimes the courtyard was empty, but I kept on +watching until the soldiers came. At least they were something--and +alive! During the light day, probably as a result of the additional +food, I slept nearly all day. + +When I awakened, the cell was getting dark. I have heard people say +the sunset is a lonely time, when fears come out, and apprehensions +creep over them... and all their troubles come trooping home. I +wonder what they would think of a sunset which ushered in eighty-four +hours of darkness!... I watched the light fading on the wall, a +flickering, sickly glow that paled and faded and died, and left my +eyes, weakened now by the long darkness, quite misty and dim. + +And then the night, the long night came down, without mercy. + + * * * + +On one of my light days the guard forgot to bring my soup. He brought +the coffee in the morning, and went out again at once. I thought +he had gone for the bread, but when he did not come, I drank the +coffee--which was hot and comforting. He did not come near me all +day. It may have been the expectation of food, together with the hot +coffee, which stimulated my stomach, for that day I experienced what +starving men dread most of all--the hunger-pain. It is like a +famished rat that gnaws and tears. I writhed on the floor and cried +aloud in my agony, while the cold sweat dripped from my face and +hands. I do not remember what I said... I do not want to remember... + +That night when I saw the light growing dim in the cell, and the long +black night setting in, I began to think that there was a grave +possibility that this sentence might finish me. I might die under it! +And my people would never know--"Died--Prisoner of War No. 23445, +Pte. M. C. Simmons"--that is all they would see in the casualty list, +and it would not cause a ripple of excitement here. The guard would +go back for another one, and a stretcher... I shouldn't be much of a +carry, either! + +Then I stood up and shook my fist at the door, including the whole +German nation! I was not going to die! + +Having settled the question, I lay down and slept. + +When I awakened, I knew I had slept a long time. My tongue was +parched and dry, and my throat felt horribly, but my pain was gone. +I wasn't hungry now--I was just tired. + +Then I roused myself. "This is starvation," I whispered to myself; +"this is the way men die--and that's what--I am not going to do!" + +The sound of my own voice gave me courage. I then compelled my +muscles to do their work, and stood up and walked up and down, though +I noticed the wall got in my road sometimes. I had a long way to go +yet, and I knew it depended now on my will-power. + +My beard was long and my hair tangled and unkempt. I should have +liked a shave and a hair-cut, but this is part of the punishment and +has a depressing effect on the prisoner. It all helps to break a man +down. + + * * * + +I kept track of the days by marking on the wall each day with my +finger-nail, and so I knew when the two weeks were drawing to a +close. The expectation of getting out began to cheer me--and the last +night I was not able to sleep much, for I thought when the key turned +next time I should be free! I wondered if we could by any chance hear +what had happened on the battle-front. Right away I began to feel +that I was part of the world again--and a sort of exultation came to +me... + +They--had--not--broken me! + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +PARNEWINKEL CAMP + + +The key turned at last! + +Entering, the guard, with face as impassive as ever, motioned to me +to sweep out. I wondered if I could have mistaken the number of days, +or if... we were going to get longer than the two weeks. + +He did not enlighten me! I was taken out to wash, and filled my brown +pitcher at the tap--just as usual. Then came the moment of tense +anxiety.... Would he lock me in? + +He gave me the usual allowance of bread, which I put in my pocket, as +a man who was going on a journey and wants to be on his way, without +waiting to eat. + +Then he motioned to me to come out, and I knew we were free! Ted was +at the door of his cell, and we followed the guard downstairs without +speaking. + +In the room below our things were given back to us. I dared not +examine my cap to see if my maps had been touched, but I could not +keep from turning it around as if to be sure it was mine. Certainly +it looked all right. Our two little parcels, still unopened, were +returned to us, and the guard from Vehnemoor who had come for us had +brought one of the prisoners with him to carry our stuff that had +been left there, blankets, wash-basin, clogs, etc. + +[Illustration: Map which Private Simmons got from the Canadian Artist +at Giessen, and which was sewed inside the Pasteboard of his Cap / His +successful journey from Selsingen to Holland is indicated by the dotted +line ............ / The unsuccessful attempt is shown ---------- from +Oldenburg] + +From the prisoner we got the news of the camp. + +"How are the folks at home?" we asked him. + +"Ninety of the worst ones--since you two fellows and Bromley +left--were taken to another camp, and when they were moving them +McKinnon and another fellow beat it--but we're afraid they were +caught." + +"Why?" we asked him. + +"They catch them all; nobody gets out of Germany alive." + +"You talk like a guard!" Ted said. + +"Well," said the boy (I am sorry I forget his name), "look here. Who +do you know that has got away? You didn't; Bromley didn't; the two +Frenchmen who went the night before you went didn't. Do you hear of +any who did?" + +"Keep your ear to the ground and you will!" said Ted. + +"They'll shoot you the next time," he said earnestly. "If I were you, +I wouldn't try it." + +Then the guard came, and we could say no more. + +Again we were taken to the station and put on the train. Our hands +were not tied this time; we were just ordinary prisoners now--we had +done ours. Besides, I suppose they knew we shouldn't run far--that +had been taken out of us by the "cells." + +But our good spirits came back when the train started. We went east +towards Rotenburg, through the same sort of low, marshy country we +had travelled before, with scrubby trees and plenty of heather moor. + +We passed through Bremen again, where we got a glimpse of white +sails, and then on to Rotenburg, where we changed cars and had to +wait for two hours. + +Of course we were hungry--the Oldenburg prison had not sent us out +well fed to meet the world, and the one slice of bread had gone. But +we had prison-stamps, and our guard took us to the lunch-counter at +Rotenburg, where we got a cup of real coffee, some bread, and an +orange. The guard paid for what we got with his own money, accepting +our stamps in payment. Our stamps were good only at Vehnemoor Camp, +having the name "Vehnemoor" stamped on them. + +I suppose we were two tough-looking characters. The people seemed to +think so, for they looked at us with startled faces, and a little +girl who was crossing the platform ran back in alarm to her mother +when she saw us coming. + +We arrived at Dienstedt after nightfall, and walked out a mile along +a rough road to the camp, which was one of the Cellelager +group--Cellelager I. + +We saw that it consisted of two huts, and when we entered the hut +to which we were taken, we saw nothing but Russians, pale-faced, +dark-eyed, bearded Russians. They were sitting around, hardly +speaking to each other, some mending their clothes, some reading, +some staring idly ahead of them. We were beginning to be afraid they +had sent us to a camp where there was no one but Russians, until we +saw some British, at the other end. + +"By Jove, I'll bet you're hungry," a big fellow said, reaching up +into his bunk and bringing out a pasteboard parcel. "Here you are, +matey; there's a bit of cheese and biscuits. I've a bit of water +heatin', too; we'll get you something to drink. Get something into +you; we ain't bad done for 'ere with our parcels comin' reglar." + +The other men brought out boxes, too,--currant-loaf, sardines, +fruit-cake, and chocolate. There were three coal-stoves in the room, +and on one of these a pan of water was steaming. They had condensed +milk and cocoa, and made us up mugs of it, and I never, anywhere, +tasted anything so good. + +There were two tiers of bunks in the room, but around the wall there +was an open space where there were some little tables. Two of the +Englishmen, who were playing cards, put them away and offered us +their table. + +"Here, boys, be comfortable; sit right down here and let us see you +eat." + +We let them see us! We ate like wolf-hounds. We ate, not until we +were satisfied, but until we were ashamed! And still the invitations +to eat were heard on every side. We were welcome to the last crumb +they had! + +When at last we stopped, they began to tell us about the camp. It +seemed that the distinguishing feature was _lice!_ It had never been +fumigated, and the condition was indescribable. "We're bad enough," +one of the Englishmen said, "but the Russians are in holes." + +Then they told us what they had done to attract the attention of the +authorities. The branch camps are never inspected or visited, as +are the main camps such as Cellelager itself and Giessen, and so +conditions in the out-of-the-way camps have been allowed to sink far +below the level of these. + +"We each wrote a card to some one in England, telling them about the +lice. We would have stretched it--if we could--but we couldn't. We +drew pictures, and told what these lice could do; especially we told +about the Russians, and how bad they were. There are twenty-one of +us, and there went out twenty-one cards all dealing with the same +subject. The censor began to feel crawly, I'll bet, before he got far +into reading them, and he would not let one of those cards out of +Germany. It wouldn't have sounded very good to the neutral countries. +So along came one of the head officers. He came in swaggering, but, +by George, he went out scratching! And he certainly got something +moving. We're all going down to Cellelager to-morrow to be fumigated; +and while we're out, there's going to be a real old-fashioned +house-cleaning! You're just in time, boys. Have you got any?" + +"We did not have any," we said, "when we came." + +"Well, you'll get them here, just sitting around. They're all over +the floor and crawl up the leg of your chair; they crawl up the wall +and across the ceiling and drop down on your head and down the back +of your collar; they're in the walls and in the beds now. But their +days are numbered, for we are all going up to Cellelager to-morrow to +be fumigated. They're running a special train, and taking us all." + +That night Ted and I slept on two benches in the middle of the room, +but we found that what the boys said was true. They had crawled up on +us, or else had fallen from the ceiling, or both. We had them! + +But the next day we made the trip to Cellelager by special +train--"The Louse Train" it was called. + +The fumigator was the same as at Giessen, and it did its work well. +While the clothes were baking, we stood in a well-heated room to wait +for them. The British and French, having received parcels, were in +good condition, but the Russians, who had to depend entirely on the +prison-fare, were a pitiful sight. They looked, when undressed, like +the India famine victims, with their washboard ribs and protruding +stomachs, dull eyes and parched skin. The sores caused by the lice +were deep and raw, and that these conditions, together with the bad +water and bad food, had had fatal results, could be seen in the +Russian cemetery at Cellelager I, where the white Russian crosses +stand, row on row. The treatment of Russian prisoners will be a hard +thing for Germany to explain to the nations when the war is over. + +Parnewinkel was the name of the village near Cellelager I, and this +name was printed on the prison-stamps which we used. The camp was +built on a better place than the last one, and it was well drained, +but the water was bad and unfit to drink unless boiled. + +As the spring came on, many of the Russians went out to work with the +farmers, and working parties, mostly made up of Russians, were sent +out each day. Their work was to dig ditches through the marshes, to +reclaim the land. To these working parties soup was sent out in the +middle of the day, and I, wishing to gain a knowledge of the country, +volunteered for "Suppentragen." + +A large pot, constructed to hold the heat by having a smaller one +inside which held the soup, was carried by two of us, with a stick +through the handle, to the place where the Russians were working, and +while they were attending to the soup, we looked around and learned +what we could of the country. I saw a method of smoking meat which +was new to me, at a farmhouse near where the Russians were making a +road. Edwards and I, with some others, had carried out the soup. The +Russians usually ate their soup in the cow-stable part of the house, +but the British and Canadians went right into the kitchen. In this +house everything was under one roof--that is, cows, chickens, +kitchen, and living-room--and from the roof of the kitchen the hams +were hung. The kitchen stove had two or three lengths of pipe, just +enough to start the smoke in the right direction, but not enough to +lead it out of the house. Up among the beams it wound and curled and +twisted, wrapping the hams round and round, and then found its way +out in the best way it could. Of course some of it wandered down to +the kitchen where the women worked, and I suppose it bothered them, +but women are the suffering sex in Germany; a little smoke in their +eyes is not here or there. + +The houses we saw had thatched roofs, with plastered walls, and I +think in every case the cow-stable was attached. Dairying was the +chief industry; that and the raising of pigs, for the land is poor +and marshy. Still, if the war lasts long enough, the bad lands of +Germany will be largely reclaimed by the labor of Russian prisoners. +It's cheap and plentiful. There were ninety thousand of them bagged +in one battle in the early days of the war, at the Mazurian Lakes! +The Russians are for the most part simple, honest fellows, very sad +and plaintive, and deserving of better treatment than they have had. + +When the Russians had gone out to work, leaving only the sick ones, +and the English and French, sometimes there were not enough well +prisoners for "Suppentragen," for the British were clever in the +matter of feigning sickness. The _Revier_ was in charge of a doctor +and a medical Sergeant, who gave exemption from work very easily. +Then there were ways of getting sick which were confusing to doctors. + +Some one found out how to raise a swelling, and there was quite an +epidemic of swollen wrists and ankles. A little lump of earth in a +handkerchief, pounded gently on the place, for twenty minutes or so, +will bring the desired result. Soap-pills will raise the temperature. +Tobacco, eaten, will derange the heart. These are well-known methods +of achieving sick-leave. + +I had a way all my own. I had a loose toe-nail, quite ready to come +off, but I noticed it in time, and took great care not to let it come +off. Then I went to the doctor to have it removed. On that I got +exemption till the nail grew. + + * * * + +One day at Parnewinkel, Edwards and I were called into the +Commandant's office, whither we went with many misgivings--we did not +know how much he knew of us and our plans. + +But the honest man only wanted to pay us. Edwards had worked quite a +bit at Vehnemoor, but I couldn't remember that I had worked at all. +However, he insisted that I had one and a half days to my credit, +and paid me twenty-seven pfennigs, or six and three quarter cents! I +remembered then that I had volunteered for work on the bog, for the +purpose of seeing what the country was like around the camp. I signed +a receipt for the amount he gave me, and the transaction was entered +in a book, and the receipt went back to the head camp. + +"Look at that," said Ted; "they starve us, but if we work they will +pay us, even taking considerable pains to thrust our wages upon us. +Of a truth they are a 'spotty' people." + +However, the reason for paying us for our work was not so much their +desire to give the laborer his hire as that the receipts might be +shown to visitors, and appear in their records. + + * * * + +The Russians had a crucifix at the end of the hut which they +occupied, and a picture of the Virgin and the Holy Child before which +they bowed and crossed themselves in their evening devotions. Not all +of them took part. There were some unbelieving brothers who sat +morosely back, and took no notice, wrapped in their own sad thoughts. +I wondered what they thought of it all! The others humbly knelt and +prayed and cried out their sorrows before the crucifix. Their hymns +were weird and plaintive, yet full of a heroic hope that God had not +forgotten. + +One of them told me that God bottles up the tears of his saints, +hears their cry, and in His own good time will deliver all who +trust in Him. That deliverance has already come to many of them +the white-crossed graves, beyond the marsh, can prove. But surely, +somewhere an account is being kept of their sorrows and their wrongs, +and some day will come the reckoning! Germany deserves the contempt +of all nations, if it were for nothing else than her treatment of the +Russian prisoners. + +When my toe-nail began to grow on, I got permanent exemption from +work because of my shoulder, and was given the light task of keeping +clear the ditches that ran close beside the huts. + +I often volunteered on parcel parties, for I liked the mile and a +half walk down the road through the village of Parnewinkel to +Selsingen, where there was a railway station and post-office. Once in +a while I saw German women sending parcels to soldiers at the front. + +The road lay through low-lying land, with scrubby trees. There was +little to see, but it was a pleasure to get out of the camp with its +depressing atmosphere. In Parnewinkel there was an implement dealer +who sold "Deering" machinery, mowers and rakes, and yet I never saw +either a mower or a rake working. I saw women cutting hay with +scythes, and remember well, on one trip to the post-office, I saw +an old woman, bare-legged, with wooden clogs, who should have been +sitting in a rocking-chair, swinging her scythe through some hay, and +she was doing it well, too. The scarcity of horses probably accounted +for the mowers and rakes not being used, cows being somewhat too slow +in their gait to give good results. Although Hanover is noted for its +horses, the needs of the army seem to have depleted the country, and +I saw very few. Every one rides a bicycle. I think I saw less than a +dozen automobiles. + + * * * + +Having been exempted from work, I was around the camp all day, and +one day found a four-legged affair with a ring on the top big enough +to hold a wash-basin. In this I saw a possibility of making a stove. +Below, I put a piece of tin--part of a parcel-box--to hold the fire, +with a couple of bricks under it to save the floor, and then, using +the wooden parcel-boxes for fuel, I was ready to look about for +ingredients to make "mulligan." + +There is nothing narrow or binding about the word "mulligan"; +mulligan can be made of anything. It all depended on what we had! +On this stove I made some very acceptable mulligan out of young +turnip-tops (they had been brought to the camp when very small +seedlings, from a farmer's field where one of our boys had been +working, and transplanted in the prison-yard,--I only used the +outside leaves, and let them go on growing), potatoes (stolen from +the guards' garden), oxo cubes (sent in a parcel), oyster biscuits +(also sent in a parcel), salt and pepper, and water. The turnip-tops +I put in the bottom of the dish, then laid on the potatoes, covering +with water and adding salt. I then covered this with another +wash-basin, and started my fire. We were not allowed to have fires, +and this gave the mulligan all the charm of the forbidden. + +When it was cooked, I added the oxo cubes and the oyster biscuit, and +mashed all together with part of the lid of a box, and the mulligan +was ready. The boys were not critical, and I believe I could get from +any one of them a recommendation for a cook's position. In the winter +we had had no trouble about a fire, for the stoves were going, and we +made our mulligan and boiled water for tea on them. + +Our guards were ordinary soldiers--sometimes those who had been +wounded or were sick and were now convalescent--and we had all sorts. +Usually the N.C.O.'s were the more severe. The privates did not +bother much about us: they had troubles enough of their own. + +At the school garden, where the Commandant lived, I went to work one +day, and made the acquaintance of his little son, a blue-eyed cherub +of four or five years, who addressed me as "Englisches Schwein," +which was, I suppose, the way he had heard his father speak of us. He +did it quite without malice, though, and no doubt thought that was +our proper name. He must have thought the "Schwein" family rather a +large one! + + * * * + +It was about May, I think, that a letter came from my brother Flint, +telling me he was sending me some of the "cream cheese I was so fond +of"--and I knew my compass was on the way. + +In about three weeks the parcel came, and I was careful to open the +cheese when alone. The lead foil had every appearance of being +undisturbed, but in the middle of it I found the compass! + +After that we talked over our plans for escape. Edwards and I were +the only Canadians in the camp, and we were determined to make a +break as soon as the nights got longer. In the early summer, when the +daylight lasts so long, we knew we should have no chance, for there +were only four or five hours of darkness, but in August we hoped to +"start for home." + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE BLACKEST CHAPTER OF ALL + + +When the days were at their longest, some of the Russians who had +been working for the farmers came into camp, refusing to go back +because the farmers made them work such long hours. There is +daylight-saving in Germany, which made the rising one hour earlier, +and the other end of the day was always the "dark." This made about a +seventeen-hour day, and the Russians rebelled against it. The farmers +paid so much a day (about twenty-five cents) and then got all the +work out of the prisoners they could; and some of them were worked +unmercifully hard, and badly treated. + +Each night, a few Russians, footsore, weary, and heavy-eyed from lack +of sleep, trailed into camp with sullen faces, and we were afraid +there was going to be trouble. + +On the night of July 3d, three tired Russians came into camp from +the farms they had been working on after we had had our supper. The +N.C.O. was waiting for them. The trouble had evidently been reported +to Headquarters, and the orders had come back. The Commandant was +there, to see that the orders were carried out. + +In a few minutes the N.C.O. started the Russians to run up and +down the space in front of the huts. We watched the performance in +amazement. The men ran, with dragging footsteps, tired with their +long tramp and their long day's work, but when their speed slackened, +the N.C.O. threatened them with his bayonet. + +For an hour they ran with never a minute's breathing-spell, sweating, +puffing, lurching in their gait, and still the merciless order was +"Marsch!" "Marsch!" and the three men went struggling on. + +When the darkness came, they were allowed to stop, but they were so +exhausted they had to be helped to bed by their friends. + +We did not realize that we had been witnessing the first act in the +most brutal punishment that a human mind could devise, and, thinking +that the trouble was over, we went to sleep, indignant at what we had +seen. + +In the morning, before any of us were awake, and about a quarter of +an hour before the time to get up, a commotion started in our hut. +German soldiers, dozens of them, came in, shouting to everybody to +get up, and dragging the Russians out of bed. I was sleeping in an +upper berth, but the first shout awakened me, and when I looked down +I could see the soldiers flourishing their bayonets and threatening +everybody. The Russians were scurrying out like scared rabbits, but +the British, not so easily intimidated, were asking, "What's the +row?" + +One of the British, Walter Hurcum, was struck by a bayonet in the +face, cutting a deep gash across his cheek and the lower part of his +ear. Tom Morgan dodged a bayonet thrust by jumping behind the stove, +and escaped without injury. + +When I looked down, I caught the eyes of one of our guards, a decent +old chap, of much the same type as Sank, and his eyes were full of +misery and humiliation, but he was powerless to prevent the outbreak +of frightfulness. + +I dressed myself in my berth--the space below was too full already, +and I thought I could face it better with my clothes on. When I got +down, the hut was nearly empty, but a Gordon Highlander who went out +of the door a few feet ahead of me was slashed at by one of the +N.C.O.'s and jumped out of the way just in time. + +All this was preliminary to roll-call, when we were all lined up +to answer to our names. That morning the soup had lost what small +resemblance it had had to soup--it had no more nourishment in it than +dishwater. We began then to see that they were going to starve every +one into a desire to work. + +We had not been taking soup in the morning, for it was, even at its +best, a horrible dish to begin the day with. We had made tea or +coffee of our own, and eaten something from our parcels. But this +morning we were lined up with the Russians and given soup--whether +we wanted it or not. + +After the soup, the working parties were despatched, and then the +three unhappy Russians were started on their endless journey again, +racing up and down, up and down, with an N.C.O. standing in the +middle to keep them going. They looked pale and worn from their hard +experience of the night before, but no Bengal tiger ever had less +mercy than the N.C.O., who kept them running. + +The distance across the end of the yard was about seventy-five feet, +and up and down the Russians ran. Their pace was a fast trot, but +before long they were showing signs of great fatigue. They looked +pitifully at us as they passed us, wondering what it was all about, +and so did we. We expected every minute it would be over; surely they +had been punished enough. But the cruel race went on. + +In an hour they were begging for mercy, whimpering pitifully, as they +gasped out the only German word they knew--"Kamerad--Kamerad"--to +the N.C.O., who drove them on. They begged and prayed in their own +language; a thrust of the bayonet was all the answer they got. + +Their heads rolled, their tongues protruded, their lips frothed, +their eyes were red and scalded--and one fell prostrate at the feet +of the N.C.O., who, stooping over, rolled back his eyelid to see if +he were really unconscious or was feigning it. His examination proved +the latter to be the case, and I saw the Commandant motion to him to +kick the Russian to his feet. This he did with right good will, and +the weary race went on. + +But the Russian's race was nearly ended, for in another half-dozen +rounds he fell, shuddering and moaning, to the ground--and no kick or +bayonet thrust could rouse him... + +Another one rolled over and over in a fit, purple in the face, and +twitching horribly. He rolled over and over until he fell into the +drain, and lay there, unattended. + +The last one, a very wiry fellow, kept going long after the other +two, his strength a curse to him now, for it prolonged his agony, +but he fell out at last, and escaped their cruelty, at least for the +time, through the black door of unconsciousness. + +Then they were gathered up by some of the prisoners, and carried into +the _Revier_. + + * * * + +Just as the three unconscious ones were carried away, three other +Russians, not knowing what was in store for them, came in. We did +not see them until they walked in at the gate. They also had been on +farms, and were now refusing to work longer. They came into the hut, +where their frightened countrymen were huddled together, some praying +and some in tears. The newcomers did not know what had happened. But +they were not left long in doubt. An N.C.O. called to them to +"heraus," and when they came into the yard, he started them to run. +The men were tired and hungry. They had already spent months on the +farms, working long hours: that did not save them. They had dared to +rebel, so their spirits must be broken. + +Our hearts were torn with rage and pity. We stormed in and out of the +huts like crazy men, but there was nothing we could do. There were +so few of us, and of course we were unarmed. There was no protest +or entreaty we could make that would have made any appeal. Orders +were orders! It was for the good of Germany--to make her a greater +nation--that these men should work--the longer hours the better--to +help to reclaim the bad land, to cultivate the fields, to raise more +crops to feed more soldiers to take more prisoners to cultivate more +land to raise more crops. + +It was perfectly clear to the Teutonic mind. No link in the chain +must be broken. Deutschland über Alles! + +At noon the Russians were still running--it is astonishing what the +human machine can stand! The N.C.O. impatiently snapped his watch +and slashed at the one who was passing him, to speed them up, and so +hasten the process. He was getting hungry and wanted his dinner. Then +an order came from the Commandant that it was to be stopped--and we +hoped again, as we had the night before, that this was the end. + +We brought the three poor fellows, pale and trembling, to our end of +the hut, and gave them as good a meal as our parcels would afford. +One of them had a bayonet wound in his neck, which the N.C.O. had +given him. He had jabbed him with the point of his bayonet, to +quicken his speed. In spite of their exhaustion, they ate ravenously, +and fell asleep at once, worn out with the long hours of working as +well as by the brutal treatment they had received. + +But there was no sleep for the poor victims--until the long, black +sleep of unconsciousness rolled over them and in mercy blotted out +their misery--for the N.C.O.'s came for them and dragged them away +from us, and the sickening spectacle began again. + +There were just eleven of us, British and Canadians, in the camp +at this time, twelve of the British having been sent away; and it +happened that this was the day, July 4th, that we wrote our cards. We +remembered that when the men had written cards about the lice it had +brought results: we had no other way of communication with the world, +and although this was a very poor one, still it was all we had. We +knew our cards would never get out of Germany; indeed, we were afraid +they would never leave the camp, but we would try. + +We went to the place where the cards were kept, which was in charge +of a Polish Jew, who also acted as interpreter. He had been in the +Russian Army, and had been taken prisoner in the early days of the +war. There was a young Russian with him who did clerical work in the +camp. They were both in tears. The Jew walked up and down, wringing +his hands and calling upon the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of +Jacob! Sometimes he put his hands over his ears... for the cries of +his countrymen came through the window. + +When we got our cards, we wrote about what had happened. Some of the +cards were written to John Bull; some to the British War-Office; some +to the newspapers; some to friends in England, imploring them to +appeal to the United States Government at Washington, to interfere +for humanity's sake. We eased our minds by saying, as far as we could +say it on a card, what we thought of the Germans. Every card was full +of it, but the subject was hardly touched. I never knew before the +full meaning of that phrase, "Words are inadequate." + +Words were no relief!--we wanted to kill--kill--kill. + + * * * + +The running of the Russians went on for days. Every one of them who +came in from the farm got it--without mercy.... Different N.C.O.'s +performed the gruesome rites... + + * * * + +We had only one hope of quick results. The Commandant of the camp at +Celle--that is the main Cellelager--had an English wife, and had, +perhaps for that reason, been deprived of his command as an Admiral +of the fleet. We hoped he would hear of our cards--or, better still, +that his wife might hear. + +The first indication we had that our cards had taken effect was the +change in the soup. Since the first day of the trouble, it had been +absolutely worthless. Suddenly it went back to normal--or a little +better. + +Suddenly, too, the running of the Russians stopped, although others +of them had come in. A tremendous house-cleaning began--they had us +scrubbing everything. The bunks were aired; the blankets hung on the +fence; the windows cleaned; the yard was polished by much sweeping. +Evidently some one was coming, and we hoped it was "the Admiral." At +the same time, the N.C.O.'s grew very polite to us, and one of them, +who had been particularly vicious with the Russians, actually bade me +"good-morning"--something entirely without precedent. + +Every day, I think, they expected the Admiral, but it was two weeks +before he came. His visit was a relief to the Germans, but a distinct +disappointment to us. Apparently, the having of an English wife does +not change the heart of a German. It takes more than that. He did +not forbid the running of the Russians; only the bayonet must not be +used. The bayonet was bad form--it leaves marks. Perhaps the Admiral +took this stand in order to reinstate himself again in favor with the +military authorities, and anxious to show that his English wife had +not weakened him. He had the real stuff in him still--blood and iron! + + * * * + +The running of the Russians began again--but behind the trees, where +we could not see them... but we could hear... + +There are some things it were well we could forget! + +The running of the Russians ceased only when no more came in from the +farms. Those who had been put out came out of the _Revier_ in a day +or so--some in a few hours--pale and spiritless, and were sent back +to work again. They had the saddest-looking faces I ever saw--old +and wistful, some of them; others, gaping and vacant; some, wild and +staring. They would never resist again--they were surely broken! And +while these men would not do much for the "Fatherland" in the way of +heavy labor, they would do very well for exchanges! + +[Illustration: Friedrichsfeld Prison-Camp in Summer] + + + +CHAPTER XX + +ONCE AGAIN! + + +As the days began to shorten, Edwards and I began to plan our escape. +We had the maps, the one he had bought at Vehnemoor and the one I had +made. We had the compass, which we had kept hidden in a very small +crack in the sloping roof of the hut, and the Red Cross suits had +come, and were dark blue and quite unnoticeable except for the piece +of brown cloth sewed on the sleeve. Mine had Russian buttons on it, +which I had put on to have for souvenirs--and which I have since had +made into brooches for my sisters. + +On the map which Edwards had bought at Vehnemoor, the railways were +marked according to their kind: the double-tracked, with rock +ballast, were heavily lined; single-tracked with rock ballast, were +indicated by lighter lines; single-tracked, with dirt ballast, by +lighter lines still. I knew, from the study of maps, every stream and +canal and all the towns between us and the border. On the map which I +had drawn myself, from one I got from the Canadian artist at Giessen, +I had put in all the railways and the short spur lines of which there +are so many in northern Germany. + +We knew that when a railway line ended without reaching another line, +it was a good indication that the soil was valueless, and therefore +there would be no settlement of any account. Through such districts +we would direct our way. + +We began to prepare for our flight by adopting a subdued manner, such +as becomes discouraged men. We were dull, listless, sad, rarely +speaking to each other--when a guard was present. We sat around the +hut, morose and solemn, sighing often, as men who had lost hope. + +But we were thinking, all the time, and getting ready. + +I had a fine toffee tin, with a water-tight lid, which had come to +me in a parcel from Mr. Robert McPherson, Aberdeen, Scotland, whose +brother-in-law, Mr. Alec Smith, of Koch Siding, was a friend of mine. +This can, being oval in shape, fitted nicely into my pocket, and we +decided to use it for matches. + +Edwards had a sun-glass, which we thought we would use for lighting +our pipes when the sun was shining, and thus conserve our supply of +matches. + +Our first plan was to cut our way through the wires, as we had done +at Vehnemoor, but, unfortunately, three Russians, early in the +spring, did this--and after that no cat ever watched a mouse-hole +with greater intentness than the guards at Parnewinkel watched the +wires. We saw this was hopeless! + +We then thought we would volunteer for work on farms as we had done +before at Rossbach, but although French and Russians were taken, +"Engländers" were not wanted! The Englishmen in the camp not wanting +to work had given themselves a bad name, hoping that the Russians and +French would carry it on to the farmers for whom they were working, +so that they would be afraid to employ such desperate characters. One +of them had "et an ear off'n" the last man he worked for. Another one +never took orders from any one--"the last man that tried it, woke +up in the middle of a long fit of sickness!--and had since died." +Another one admitted he had a terrible temper, but he had had it +"from a child and couldn't help it--he turned blind when he was mad, +and never knew where he was hittin'!" + +This all worked well for them, but when Ted and I wanted to get out, +we were refused. "Engländers" were not wanted! + +The first working party that was made up to go out and work with a +guard did not give either Ted or me a chance, although we wanted to +go, but four other Englishmen volunteered. They were not anxious to +have us go with them, for they knew we were thinking of escaping, +and when there is an escape, those who were present at the time have +embarrassing questions asked them and various privileges are likely +to be curtailed afterwards. + +On Saturday morning, at roll-call, a working party was asked for, and +Ted and I volunteered, and with a Welshman and some Frenchmen, we +walked out to a small village called Seedorf, about four miles away, +where we were turned loose in a field of turnips from which the weeds +had not been taken out since the turnips were planted. There were +about a dozen of us, and we were taken into the house at noon to be +fed. The farmhouse was one of the best I had seen in this section of +the country, for the pig-pen, chickens, and cow-stable were in a +separate building. + +The two daughters of the house were true daughters of Germany and did +not eat the bread of idleness; the biggest one, bare-legged and with +sleeves rolled up, was attending to the stock, without pausing for +anything. She looked as strong as a man, and was absorbed in her +work--not even stopping a second to look at us. The other one worked +in the house at meal-times, but no doubt joined her sister +afterwards. + +The dinner consisted of soup, potatoes, bread, and coffee, and the +soup was a real treat, entirely different from the kind we were +used to. After dinner we went back to the field and put in a fine +afternoon's work. We were anxious to establish a good record before +we left there. + +We had saved up a lot of things from our parcels, thinking that our +manner of escape might be such that we could take them with us. +A working party such as we were on made it impossible to carry +anything, for we were in great danger of being searched. Whenever the +Commandant thought of it, he ordered a search. Just as the Commandant +at Giessen was keen on rings, so this one went in for searching. We +were searched at unexpected times--going out to work or coming in--at +meal-times or at bedtime. + +The following day--Sunday--we sat around with our saddest, most +dejected air, like two men in whose hearts all hope had died. We had +everything ready--razor, tobacco, matches, toffee tin, toothbrush, +comb, pocket-knife, watch, soap, strong safety-pins, and some strong +string. Edwards had the sun-glass, shaving-soap and brush, and other +things to correspond with mine. + +It was quite a grief to us to have to leave behind us all the things +we had been saving from our parcels. The people of Trail, British +Columbia, had sent parcels to all their prisoners, and one of mine +had followed me from Giessen to Vehnemoor and from Vehnemoor to +Parnewinkel, and at last had found me. It contained, among other +things, hard-tack biscuits, just the thing for carrying in our +pockets, and my aunts in Ontario had sent me some line dried beef and +tins of jam. At this time, also, an exceptionally good box came from +Miss Ray, of London, England, and home-made candy from Miss Dorothy +Taylor, of New Westminster, British Columbia. We had a regular +blow-out on Sunday, but were too much afraid of being searched to +risk taking anything with us beyond the necessary things, and so had +to leave our precious stores behind. Oh, well--they wouldn't go to +waste! + +Monday morning we dragged our tired feet along the four miles to the +turnip-patch--with every appearance of complete submission. I had the +compass in the middle of a package of tobacco; my maps were still in +the pay-book case in my pocket. + +We gave ourselves up to the joy of labor, and pulled weeds all day +with great vigor. We wanted to behave so well that they wouldn't +notice us. Of course we were not sure that any chance would come. We +might have to carry our stuff for several days before we should get +a chance. + +That night we came into the kitchen again and sat down at the long +table. Every one was hungry and fell to eating without a word. No +wonder the guard thought he had a quiet, inoffensive gang whose only +thought at that moment was fried potatoes. The potatoes were good, +hot from the frying-pan, and we ate as many as we could, for we +believed it might be a long time before we again sat at a table. + +The guard, at last, satisfied that we were all right, strolled into +the next room--a sort of dining- and living-room, where the family +were eating. We could hear fragments of conversation and some +laughter, and it seemed a good time to slip away! We crowded down a +few more fried potatoes, and then leisurely left the table and looked +out of the window. + +A big black cloud had come up from the west, and although it was +still early in the evening it was beginning to grow dusk. Outside +there was no one stirring but the young lady feeding the pigs, and +she was not taking any notice of any one. She was a fine example of +the absorbed worker. We lit our pipes and strolled out to enjoy the +cool of the evening. + +The pigs were gathered about the trough, protesting the distribution +of their evening meal, squealing "Graft" and calling for a commission +to settle it. The lady took no notice of them. They could settle it +among themselves. They did not need to eat at all if they didn't want +to. She should worry. It was take it or leave it--for all she cared! +She had gone as far as she was going to, in bringing it to them. + +We looked back at the kitchen. Fried potatoes still held the +attention of the prisoners, and the guard was not to be seen. + +We turned around the front of the house and found ourselves on the +shaded street. There was a row of trees along each side of the street +and the houses were built well back. It was not the main street of +the village and had more the appearance of a lane. We had concluded +that even if the alarm were given, we should only have the one guard +to deal with, for the prisoners would not pursue us, neither would +the farmer. + +The big danger was in the fact that the guard had his gun, and if he +saw us would shoot, but the shady lane was deserted and still, and we +pushed on with an unconcerned stride that covered the ground, but +would not attract the attention of the casual observer. + +When we came to the edge of the village, we saw the wood which we +had observed when coming in from work both days, and which seemed to +promise shelter, although the trees were small. We passed through it +quickly, and kept it between us and the village until we reached a +ditch two and a half or three feet deep and overgrown with heather. +By this time it was beginning to rain, for which we were glad, for it +would discourage travelling and drive indoors those who had any place +to go to. We crawled on our hands and knees along the ditch, whose +bottom was fairly dry and grassy, until we found a place where the +heather hung well over the edge and made a good protection. We could +look through the heather at the village, which was about six hundred +yards away! + +We stayed here until it was quite dark. There did not seem to be any +search made for us. The guard would be afraid to leave the other +prisoners to come looking for us himself, and we knew none of the +village people would be keen on coming out in the rain. But there +was a telegraph station at Seedorf, and it gave us an uncomfortable +feeling to remember that the guard could wire to Selsingen and get +some one there to telephone to the camp. But the rain, which was +falling heavily, was our best hope that we were unpursued. It beat +into my ear as I lay in the heather, until I put my cap over the side +of my head. + +At dark we stole out, after taking our direction with the compass +while we were in the ditch. When we came out, we observed the +direction of the wind, and started straight south. We would follow +this course until we rounded Bremen, and then it was our purpose to +go west to the Holland boundary. From our maps we knew that to strike +straight across from where we were would bring us to a well-settled +country, and the chief desire of our lives now was for solitude! + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +TRAVELLERS OF THE NIGHT + + +The country we travelled over in the first hours of the night was +poor and evidently waste land, for we saw no cultivation until near +morning, when we crossed through a heavy oat-field, soaking wet with +the night's rain. When we came out we were as wet as if we had fallen +into the ocean. We took some of the oats with us, to nibble at as we +went along. + +We came to a wide stream, with wooded banks, which looked deep and +dangerous. So we made a pack of our clothes, and cautiously descended +into it, expecting to have to swim over. However, we found we could +easily wade it, for we had made our crossing at a ford. + +On the other side we found ourselves stumbling over a turnip-field, +and very gladly helped ourselves, and carried away two of them for +provisions for the next day. When morning came we took cover in a +thin wood. + +On the other attempts we had been able to carry something to eat, and +an extra pair of socks. This time we had nothing but what we had on. +I had selected from the stockings I had a pair knit by Miss Edna +McKay, of Vancouver, which were the first pair she had knit, but were +very fine and well made. We removed our socks the first thing each +morning, and rubbed our feet and put the socks in a tree to dry, +being careful not to have them so high they would be seen. We were +trying to take every precaution this time! + +The first day we were near some farm-buildings, and as we lay in the +woods, pretty chilly and wet, we could hear the hens scolding and +cackling. Cackling hens always bring me back to the pleasant days +of childhood, and I was just enjoying a real heartsome visit to +the old home at Delmer... and was chasing Willie Fewster around a +straw-stack... when the farmer's dog, an interfering, vicious-looking +brute, came peering through the woods and gave us heart spasms, +barking at us for a few minutes. But we did not move a muscle, and, +seeing that he couldn't start a row with us, he went away, muttering +to himself about suspicious characters being around. + +A woman passed through the wood, too, going over to one of the +neighbors--I think to borrow something, for she carried a plate. But +she did not see us, as we lay low in the scrub. + + * * * + +We certainly found plenty of unsettled country to travel through in +the first days of our journey, for we seemed to go through one marsh +after another, covered with coarse, long hay, which would have been +cut, no doubt, but for the soft bottoms which make it impossible +to use a mower. To drain this land would furnish more work for the +Russian prisoners! In one place we suddenly stepped down a couple of +feet into a bog filled with water, but with grass on the top. We +discovered that it was a place from which the peat had been removed, +and it was the only sign of human activity that we saw all night. + +On the evening of August 23d, when we started out after a fairly good +day in a spruce thicket, we could see the lights of Bremen reflected +in the sky. The lights of a city, with its homes, its stores, its +eating-places, its baths, should be a welcome sight to wayfaring men +who have been living on oats and turnips, but not for us, to whom a +city meant only capture. So when we noticed the rosy glow in the +southern sky we steered our course farther west, but still taking +care to avoid the city, which we intended to pass on the south and +east side. + +Our troubles were many that night. A good-sized river got in our way +and had to be crossed. There was no bridge in sight, and we had +determined to waste no time looking for one. So we undressed on the +marshy bank and made bundles of our clothes, pinning our tunics about +everything with the safety-pins which we carried. We also used the +cord around the bundles. Ted was doubtful about swimming and carrying +his clothes, so I said I would try it first, with mine. I went down +through the coarse grass, which was harsh and prickly to my feet, and +full of nettles or something which stung me at every step, and was +glad to reach the open water. The moon was in the last quarter, and +clouded over, so the night was of the blackest. I made the shore +without much trouble, and threw my bundle on a grassy bank. + +I called over to Ted that the going was fine, and that I would come +back for his clothes. At that, he started in to meet me, swimming on +his back and holding his clothes with both hands, using only his +feet, but when he got into the current, it turned him downstream. I +swam toward him as fast as I could, but by the time I reached him he +had lost the grip of his clothes, and when I got them they were wet +through. As we were nearer to the bank from which he had started, we +went back to it, for we were both pretty well blown. However, in a +few minutes we were able to strike out again, and reached the other +bank in safety. Poor Ted was very cold and miserable, but put on his +soaking garments, without a word, and our journey continued. + +This was another ditch country--ditches both wide and deep, and many +of them treacherous things, for their sides were steep and hard to +climb. The darkness made it doubly hard, and sometimes we were pretty +well frightened as we let ourselves down a greasy clay bank into the +muddy water. Later on we found some corduroy bridges that the +hay-makers had put over the ditches. + +All night we had not found anything to eat, and when we arrived at +a wood near morning, we decided to stay, for we could see we were +coming into a settlement, and the German farmers rise early in +harvest-time. So, hungry, muddy, wet, and tired, we lay down in the +wood, and spent a long, uncomfortable day! + +My watch stopped that day, and never went again. Edwards's watch was +a better one, and although it stopped when it got wet, it went again +as soon as it had dried out. + +That day we had not a mouthful of anything. But we comforted +ourselves with the thought that in this settled country there would +be cows, and unless these farmers sat up all night watching them, we +promised ourselves a treat the next night. + +At nightfall we stole out and began again to get over the distance +that separated us from freedom. The country was drier and more +settled, but the cows, we saw, were all in farmyards, and we were +afraid to risk going near them. About midnight we almost stumbled +over a herd of them, and one fine old whiteface arose at our request +and let us milk her. Ted stood at her head, and spoke kind words to +her and rubbed her nose, while I filled our tin again and again. She +was a Holstein, I think, though we could not see if she was black or +red--it was so dark, we could only see the white markings. We were +sorry to leave her. She was another of the bright spots in my memory +of Germany. + +We crossed a railroad, a double-tracked one with rock ballast, which +my map showed to be a line which runs to Bremen, and a little later +we came to the Weser. This river brought up pleasant recollections of +the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who drowned the rats in the Weser by the +magic of his pipe. But there was no romance in it as we came upon it +in a gray and misty dawn. It was only another barrier to our freedom. + +There were bunches of willows on the water's edge, and some fine +beeches, whose leaves were slightly tinged with yellow, farther back. +We selected a close bunch of willows for our hiding-place, and after +spending a short time looking for a boat, we gave up the quest, and +took cover. + +We were feeling well, and were in a cheerful mood,--no doubt the +result of our pleasant meeting with the Holstein,--and when we saw +some straw in a field not far from the willows, we went over and got +two armfuls of it, and made beds for ourselves. Fresh, clean straw, +when dry, makes a good bed, and no Ostermoor mattress was ever more +comfortable. We burrowed into it like moles, and although it rained +we had a good day. + +Waking up in the afternoon, we decided on a general clean-up, and, +dipping water from the Weser in a rusty tin pail without a handle, we +washed our faces, cleaned our teeth, shaved, and combed our hair. + +My socks were in fine shape, but Ted's began to show signs of +dissolution. The heels were gone, and the toe of one was broken and +going. His feet were sore and blistered, and he sat long looking +at the perfidious socks which had failed him so soon. Then he had +a plan--he would make himself a pair out of the sleeves of his +undershirt. To me was given the delicate task of cutting off the +sleeves with rather a dull knife, which I managed to do with some +difficulty, and, with a thorn for a needle and wool from the socks +for thread, a pair of socks were constructed. The thorn was too soft +and doubled back, so Ted sharpened a piece of hard wood, and with it +made the holes for the yarn. + +From our shelter in the willows we could see a ferry-boat carrying +people across the river, and sometimes people passed along the sandy +shore quite near to us, but the willows were thick and we were not +discovered. Two big freight steamers also passed by us. + +That night we went cautiously down the bank looking for a boat. We +could swim the river, but a boat would suit us better, for the night +was chilly and dark. Before we had gone far, we found one tied in the +rushes. But the oars were locked to the bottom of the boat, and we +had to cut them loose with our pen-knives, which took quite awhile, +for the wood was hard! + +When we got across the Weser we found plenty of cows. Some of them +were fickle jades who would let us almost touch them, and would then +sniff at us in disapproval and leave us. Others would not consider +our case for a moment. They were not going to run any danger of +giving aid and comfort to the enemy! But one good old one with a +crooked horn took pity on us, and again we felt better. + +The fields were divided by hedges, made of a closely-leaved green +shrub, somewhat resembling--in the leaf--our buckthorn. It was very +thick and very green, and we crawled into one of these on the morning +of the fourth day, glad of such a good shelter. However, there was no +room to move--or stand up. The hedge being low made it necessary to +lie down all day. Still, we were well satisfied with the hot milk, +and slept most of the day. + +Waking up suddenly, I heard a whistle, and, without moving, could see +a man's legs coming toward us. Then a dog, white with black markings, +darted past him, and, to my horror, stood not six feet from me. We +stopped breathing--we shut our eyes for fear we might wink--we +effaced ourselves--we ceased to be--I mean we wished we could. + +The dog came nearer--I could hear his soft footfalls--I knew the +brute was stepping high--as they do when they see something. I knew +his tail was going straight out behind--he was pointing! + +The man walked by, whistling--but the dog stayed! + +Then I heard the man call him--insisting that he come--making remarks +about his lack of sense. It sounded like "Come here, you fool!" The +dog, with a yelp of disapproval, did as he was told, but I could hear +him barking as he ran along--in a hurt tone. His professional pride +had been touched! + +That afternoon as we lay in the hedge, we saw a company of +school-children running toward us. I think it was the afternoon +recess, and they came running and shouting straight for the hedge. I +could only see their feet from where I lay, but it seemed to me that +there were a large number. They stopped in the field on the right of +where we lay, and played some game--I was too excited to notice what +it was. Sometimes it brought them close to the hedge, and then they +ran away again. It may have been a ball-game. + +We were cold and hot by turns, watching the feet that advanced and +receded, and were coming at us again, racing this time as if to see +who would reach the hedge first, when a sudden downpour of rain came +on--and they ran back! We heard the voices growing fainter in the +distance, and registered a vow that if we got out of this place alive +we would not trust in a hedge again. Dogs and children seemed to be +our greatest dangers! + +When we began our journey that night, we crossed a light railway, one +of those which on the map was indicated with light lines, and which, +sure enough, had only dirt ballast. Ahead of us was another railway +track with lights, which we determined to leave alone. The lights of +the two towns, Delmenhorst and Gunderksee, shone against the western +sky, and we kept to the south to avoid them. The going was difficult +on account of the settlement, and we had to be watching all the time +for travellers. There were a lot of people out that night who might +better have been at home--and in bed! + +We were glad to take refuge before daylight in an extensive wood. We +had a few turnips, which we ate. The day was spent as usual trying to +dry our socks and get our feet in shape for the night, but the rain +came down hard, and when we started out at dusk we were soaking wet. + +We at once got into a forest, a great dark, quiet forest, where +fugitives could hide as long as they liked, but which furnished +no food of any kind. In the small clearings we came upon herds of +cattle, but they were all young, with not a cow among them. This was +one of the planted forests of Germany, where a sapling is put in when +a big tree is taken out, to conserve the timber supply. No one would +know that it had been touched by man, except for the roads which ran +through it. There was no waste wood; there were no stumps, no hacked +trees, no evidences of fire--such as I have often seen in our forests +in British Columbia. The Germans know how to conserve their +resources! + +There was no wind or stars, and there were so many roads crossing +and dividing, that it was hard for us to keep our direction. Toward +morning it began to rain, and soon the wet bushes, as well as the +falling rain, had us wet through. + +We stopped at last to wait for daylight, for the forest was so dense +we believed we could travel by day with safety. We lit our pipes in +the usual way, to conserve our matches. One match would light both, +when we followed this order. The lighted one was inverted over the +unlighted one. Into the lighted one Ted blew, while I drew in my +breath from the unlighted one. This morning, something went wrong. +Either the tobacco was soggy or I swallowed nicotine, for in a few +minutes I had all the symptoms of poisoning, I wanted to lie down, +but the ground was too wet. So I leaned against a tree, and was very +sorry for myself. Ted felt much the same as I did. + +Then we tried to light a fire--we were so cold and wet, and, besides, +we had a few potatoes, carried from a garden we passed the night +before, which we thought we could roast. Hunger and discomfort +were making us bold. Our matches would not light the damp wood, +and we could find no other. We chewed a few oats, and were very +down-hearted. It looked as if lack of food would defeat us this time! + +We had so far come safely, but at great expense of energy and time. +We had avoided travelled roads, bridges, houses, taking the smallest +possible risk, but with a great expense of energy. Our journey had +been hard, toilsome, and slow. We were failing from lack of food. +Our clothes hung in folds on us, and we were beginning to feel weak. +The thought of swimming the Ems made us shudder! One thing seemed +clear--we must get food, even if to get it imposed a risk. There was +no use in starving to death.... The recklessness of the slum-cat was +coming to us. + +The weather had no mercy that day, for a cold, gray, driving rain +came down as we leaned against a tree, two battered hulks of men, +with very little left to us now but the desire to be free. + + * * * + +If this were a book of fiction, it would be easy to lighten and +vary the narrative here and there with tales of sudden attacks and +hair's-breadth escapes. But it is not a fancy story--it is a plain +tale of two men's struggle, with darkness, cold, and hunger, in a +land of enemies. It may sound monotonous to the reader at times, but +I assure you, we never, for one minute, got accustomed to the pangs +of hunger, the beat of the rain, or the ache of our tired legs, and +the gripping, choking fear that through some mishap we might be +captured. + +The country was so full of bogs and marshes that we had to stick to +the road that night, but we met no person, and had the good fortune +to run into a herd of cows, and drank all the milk we could hold. +Unfortunately we had nothing in which to carry milk, so had to drink +all we could, and go on, in the hope of meeting more cows. + +While we were helping ourselves, the storm which had been threatening +all night came on in great fury, and the lightning seemed to tear the +sky apart. We took refuge in an old cow-shed, which saved us from the +worst of it. + +That morning we hid in a clump of evergreens, thick enough to make a +good shelter, but too short for comfort, for we could not stand up! +Ted was having a bad time with his feet, for his improvised socks +did not work well. They twisted and knotted and gave him great +discomfort. This day he removed his undershirt, which was of wool, +and, cutting it into strips five or six inches wide, wound them round +and round his feet, and then put his boots on. He had more comfort +after that, but as the weather was cold the loss of his shirt was a +serious one. + +That night we came to a river, which we knew to be the Hunte, and +looked about for a means of crossing it. We knew enough to keep away +from bridges, but a boat would have looked good to us. However, there +did not seem to be any boat, and we decided to swim it without loss +of time, for this was a settled district, and therefore not a good +place to hesitate. + +On account of our last experience in crossing a river, we knew a raft +to carry our clothes on would keep them dry and make it easier for +us. So, failing to find any stuff with which to make a raft, we +thought of a gate we had passed a short time back. It was a home-made +affair, made of a big log on the top, whose heavy root balanced the +gate on the post on which it swung. We went back, found it, and +lifted it off, and although it was a heavy carry, we got it to the +river, and, making two bundles of our clothes, floated them over on +it. I swam ahead, pushing it with one hand, while Ted shoved from +behind. Our clothes were kept dry, and we dragged the gate up on the +bank. We hope the farmer found it, and also hope he thought it was an +early Hallowe'en joke! + +That day, August 31st, we took refuge in the broom, which was still +showing its yellow blossom, and, as the, sun came out occasionally, +we lit our pipes with Ted's sun-glass. The sun and wind dried our +tobacco and our socks, and we started off that night feeling rather +better. + +It was a fine night for our purpose, for there was considerable wind, +and we kept going all night, mostly on the roads. At daylight we took +refuge in an open wood. The day was cloudy and chilly, and we found +it long. At night, we had not gone far when we found three cows in a +small field. We used all our blandishments on them, but the lanky one +with straight horns was unapproachable and aloof in her manner, and +would not let us near her. One of the others was quiet enough, but +was nearly dry. The third one was the best, and we filled and drank, +and filled and drank, until her supply was exhausted too. On account +of the field being near the house, we were careful not to let the +stream of milk make a sound in the empty can, so left some milk in +the can each time, to deaden the sound. However, the owners of the +cows were safe in bed, and asleep. We wondered if they would think +the cows were bewitched when they found they would give nothing next +morning! + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM + + +When we had taken all the milk we could extract from the cows, we +moved off quietly to the corner of the field farthest from the +buildings, to get back to the road. We were going over the fence as +gently as possible, when we saw two men whom we knew from their +uniforms to be French prisoners. They were evidently escaping, like +ourselves, but had been more fortunate than we, for they had packs on +their backs. We tried to get their attention by calling to them, but +the French word for "friend" did not come to us, only the German +"Kamerad," and when they heard that, they took us for Germans and ran +with all speed. We dared not pursue them, or even call, for fear of +being heard; so had to see the two big packs, which no doubt had +chocolate, sardines, bread, and cheese in them, disappear in the +darkness. However, it may have been just as well--two escaping +prisoners are enough, for safety. + +September 2d was a fine day, with several hours of sunshine. From +where we had taken refuge in a high spruce thicket, we could look out +across a wide heather moor, all in bloom and a glorious blaze of +color, amethyst, purple, mauve, with the bright September sun pouring +down upon it. Our spirits always rose when the sun came out, and sank +again when the day grew dark. + +[Illustration: A Prison Post-Card from Friedrichsfeld bei Wesel / +The group includes soldiers from Canada, Newfoundland, England, +Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, +France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Serbia, and Roumania.] + +Since these experiences of battling bare-handed with the elements I +can understand why primeval man fell into sun-worship, for on the +caprice of the sun with its power to give or withhold, the happiness +and well-being of the roofless traveller depends. + +We stayed closely in the dark shadows of the heavy evergreens that +day, although just beyond was the golden sunlight with its warmth and +comfort, for we were afraid to show ourselves in the open. That night +we came upon a potato garden, and dug out some with our fingers, +filling our pockets and our handkerchiefs with them. We had a good +night, and shoved the miles behind us. We had promised ourselves a +fire just at dawn, and the thought of it, and the potatoes we should +bake, was wonderfully cheering. + +Just at the beginning of the dawn, in that gray, misty light, a fire +can scarcely be seen, for the air is something the color of smoke, +and there is enough light to hide the fire. At night the fire shows, +and in the daylight, the smoke, but in the gray dawn it is not easy +to see either. So on the morning of September 3d, we gathered dry +sticks and made our first fire. There was a blue veil of haze on the +horizon, and a ragged gray mist hung over the low places. The air was +sweet with the autumn smell of fallen leaves and wood bark, and as we +sat over our tiny fire, we almost forgot that we were in a world of +enemies. The yellow beeches and the dark green spruces bent over us +in friendliest fashion, and a small bird chased a hawk above the +trees. + +Still, we were not beguiled by the friendliness of our surroundings +to take any chances, and, instead of waiting for ashes or coal to +roast our potatoes, we put them right on the fire. What if they were +burnt on the outside? We scraped off part of the charcoal and ate the +rest. We knew about charcoal tablets being good for digestion, and we +believed ours could stand a little assistance, for green apples and +new milk are not a highly recommended combination. + +We kept track of the number of potatoes we ate that morning. It was +twenty-five! What we couldn't eat we put in our pockets, and held in +our hands--for the warmth. That day, September 3d, was the brightest +and warmest day we had. + +Toward evening we crept out to the edge of the wood to see what sort +of country we were in--and found there was a village quite near +us. But as we had heard not a sound all day, and as there was not +a flutter around it now,--not a soul stirring or a cow-bell +tinkling,--we thought it must be a deserted hamlet. The old and now +almost indistinct paths through the wood where we sat seemed to tell +of a departed people. + +We sat in one of these old paths, watching the shafts of sunlight +which filtered through the woods as we waited for the dark. Then Ted +began to fix the strips of cloth around his feet, and I lay down upon +my back, across the path, looking up at the sky, which was shot over +with mackerel-back clouds, giving promise of settled weather. + +Suddenly, around a bend in the path, came a man and a dog. The man +carried a gun across his shoulder, and evidently had been shooting +birds. I swung myself off the path and motioned to him to go by--for +he had stopped in surprise. Ted did the same. Our gestures were +polite--but I think had something suggestive in them too--almost +commanding. + +He passed by, merely bidding us "good-evening," and remarking in +German that Ted's feet were sore! + +He walked on, as a peaceable old fellow who had no desire to get into +trouble, and although he must have seen the yellow stripe down the +seams of our trousers, and the prison numbers on our tunics, he kept +on going. + +We watched him through the trees, as far as we could see him, but +only once did he turn and look back--and then only for a minute. He +was not going toward the village, but we decided to keep away from +it, anyway, and at nightfall we made a wide detour to avoid it. The +night clouded up, too, and we pushed along with thankful hearts that +the old man with the dog knew when to keep quiet. + +A rare piece of good luck came to us that night. We came to a +settlement, evidently a new one, for the houses were of modern +design, and the farm-buildings, too, were fresh and newly built. +There was evidently a creamery somewhere near, and beside the road we +found a can full of milk set out, to be gathered up in the morning. +The cream had risen to the top of it, and with our toffee tin we +helped ourselves. Later on, we found others, and helped ourselves +again. It was a very satisfactory arrangement for us to have the +refreshment booths scattered like this along the way. Then we ate +some of the burnt potatoes and an apple or two, had a few drinks of +cream from another can, and the night passed pleasantly. From the +apple-trees beside the road we replenished our pockets, and felt this +had been a good night. + +It was a good thing for us that the night had started so well, for +along toward morning, probably two hours before daylight, we crossed +a peat-bog. There was a road at first which helped us, but it ran +into a pile of cut peat, drying for the winter. There were also other +roads leading to peat-piles, but these were very misleading, and as +the night was of inky blackness, with scarcely any breeze, it became +harder and harder to keep our direction. Consulting the compass so +often was depleting our match supply, and I tried to depend on +the faint breath of a breeze which sometimes seemed to die away +altogether. This bog, like all the others, had tufts of grass and +knolls of varying size coming in the most unexpected places. Over +these we stumbled, and fell, many times, and as we felt fairly safe +from being heard, it was some relief to put into language what we +thought of the country and all its people, past, present, and future. +I believe we were especially explicit about the future! + +It was nearly morning when we got off the bog, and as the rain was +falling we took refuge in a tumble-down hut which had probably been a +cowherd's. We soon saw that it was a poor shelter, and when a woman +came along and looked straight at us, we began to get gooseflesh! She +actually smiled at us, and we tried to smile back reassuringly, but I +am afraid there was a lack of mirth in our smiles which detracted +from their charm. + +She walked away--stopped--looked back at us--and smiled again, and +went on, nodding her head as if she knew something. We were rather +afraid she did, and hastily decided to push on. We were afraid of +the lady's patriotism, and determined to be moving. There was a +thick-looking wood just ahead, and to it we went with all speed, +taking with us two large gunnysacks which we found in the hut. They +were stamped "Utrecht" and had the name of a dealer there. + +All that day we were afraid of the lady who smiled and nodded her +head, but perhaps we wronged her in our thoughts, for the day passed +without any disturbance. Probably she, too, like the old man with the +dog, knew that silence does not often get one into trouble. + +That day we shaved, but, there being no stream near, we had to empty +the rain-drops off the leaves into the top of the box which held +Ted's shaving-stick. It took time, of course, but what was time to +us? We had more time than anything else. + +Although we tried to reassure ourselves with the thought that there +were probably no soldiers near, and that the civilians were not +likely to do any searching, still we were too apprehensive to sleep, +and started away at nightfall, with eyes that burned and ached from +our long vigil. + +The night was cloudy at first, with sprinkling rain, but cleared up +about midnight into a clear, cold autumn night. The cold kept me from +getting sleepy, but when I got warm from walking my sleepiness grew +overpowering. Ted was more wakeful than I, and took the lead, while +I stumbled along behind, aching in every joint with sleepiness. The +night was clear and starry, and Ted steered our course by the stars. + +No one who has gone through it needs to be told about the misery of +sleepiness. I fought against it--I pulled open my eyes--I set my +will with all the force I could command, but in spite of all I could +do, my eyes would close and I would fall over, and in the fall would +awaken and go on, only to fall again. At last we stopped and lay +down, sorry to lose so much of the darkness, but the cold soon +awakened us, and, chilled and shivering, with numb fingers, we +struggled to our feet and went on. But when, with the walking, we +were warmed again, with the warmth came the sleepiness. + +At dawn we crept into a thick bush, but the ground was damp and cold, +and our sleepiness had left us. We ate some of our cold roast +potatoes, and tried to sleep, for we dreaded to spend another night +like the last one. In the afternoon the sun came out and warmed the +air, so we had a fairly good sleep and started away at nightfall. + +The night was clear and starlight, so the peat-bog which we +encountered did not bother us so much, for we could see the holes and +ridges. After the bog, we came into a settlement, but the people were +in villages and had their cows stabled, so there was no chance for +thirsty and hungry travellers. To the north we could see the huge +searchlights above Oldenburg, and we thought of the cells--and +shuddered! But our hunger was making us cold again, and we determined +to go into the next village we came to, to find some apples. + +The first one we came to was a large one, and compactly built. The +night was lit by the stars, and therefore not quite so good for our +purpose, but we had to have something. We cautiously entered a garden +gate which some one had obligingly left open, but when we got in, we +found that the trees were high, and apparently well looked-after, for +not an apple could be found! We were only a few yards from the house, +behind whose darkened windows the family slept, not knowing that the +alien enemy were so near. + +We slipped out of the open gate--we could see now why it had been +left open--and went into the next garden--with the same result. Every +apple had been gathered. We started down the street again, walking +cautiously on the grass, and slipping along as quickly as possible. +We carried the sacks, which we had split open, over our shoulders, +and as they were of a neutral shade, they were not so easily seen as +our dark-blue suits would have been. + +Suddenly there was the sound of a door opening, ahead of us, on the +other side of the street, and two soldiers came out! We lay flat on +the street where we were, and "froze." The sacks which were wrapped +about us helped to conceal us, or at least made us look less like +men. The soldiers passed along the middle of the street, chatting and +laughing; we could hear their spurs clanking! Coming out of the light +had probably dulled their sight, and they did not see us. We lay +there until their footsteps had died away. Then we got up, and got +out! + +We were not hungry any more--at least we were so much more frightened +than hungry that we only knew we were frightened, and we pushed our +way on as fast as we could. That night was the first on which we had +seen the moon. The shelter we found was another group of Christmas +trees, and as we still had a couple of roast potatoes we ate them, +and got a little sleep. + +The next night the villages kept getting in our way. When we tried to +avoid one, we got into another, and in one we saw a light twinkling +in an upstairs window, where some woman, probably, sat late at her +work or watched by the bedside of a sick child. As usual, there were +no street lamps, and I think the light inside was a coal-oil lamp! +But not a dog barked, and we came safely out on a road which led in a +westerly direction. + +In the morning, when the east began to redden, we got shelter in a +thin wood, and, having found some potatoes outside of one of the +villages, we determined to run the risk of having a fire to roast +them. We didn't roast many, though, for the dawn came on too swiftly, +and we had to extinguish our fire, for there was a farmhouse not a +hundred yards away, and the people were beginning to stir. + +That day there were people working all around us, and one old chap, +with a red shirt on, was so ambitious about getting his turnips +lifted that I don't believe he even knocked off for noon. We thought +he would never quit at night either. We called him the "work-hog!" + +In the afternoon, as we lay in the woods, an old man, a shepherd, +came with a flock of white sheep which followed close behind him. +The old man wore a velvet cloak, knee breeches, and buckles on his +shoes, and he had a sheep dog with him--a small-sized tricolored, +rough-haired collie. It was exactly like a picture! We were not in +any mood to enjoy the beauty of it, for some of the sheep wandered +through the wood, almost stepping on us, and when the shepherd came +after them, he must have seen us. But the old man belonged to the +peaceful past, and knew nothing of wars and prisoners, so went out of +the wood as quietly as he came. He was as innocent-looking as the +sunshine, or the white clouds in the blue sky! + +Still, we were two suspicious men who trusted no one, and we thought +it best to move. I took the potatoes in my sack, and Ted, to be ready +for emergencies, provided a stout, knotted club for himself, and we +stole out of the wood, being careful to keep it between us and the +"work-hog," who never lifted his eyes--but still we took no chances, +even on him! + +There was a better wood a short distance away, and to it we came. We +saw nobody, and, coming into a dark cover, lit a fire, for we thought +the smoke would not rise to the tops of the trees. On it we roasted +our remaining potatoes, and we got a drink in a narrow, trickling +stream. + +We started again, at dark, and before long came to a railway, which, +according to our map, was the line which runs parallel to the river +Ems. We knew we were coming near the Ems, and at the thought of it, +drew a long breath. It seemed a long time since we had stood on its +bank before and heard the sounds from across the Holland border. We +kept going all night, avoiding the roads, and about three o'clock +reached the river. There it was!--a much smaller river than when +we had last seen it, but plenty large enough yet to fill us with +apprehension. We found a good hiding-place before daylight, and then +went back to a potato-field we had passed, and put about a pailful in +our sacks before settling down for the day in the wood. + +Just before dawn we made our fire and roasted the potatoes. They +tasted fine, and as the day was warm and bright, we began to feel +more cheerful. That day we heard the deep-booming whistles of +steamboats, and the shriller notes of the canal-boats. Although we +knew the river boats were passing up and down just below us, we +restrained our curiosity and stayed closely hidden. + +Just before it got dark we crept to the edge of the high ground +overlooking the river. The other side of the river was flat, and +seemed to be settled. I knew from a map I had seen that there was +a canal a short distance beyond the river, and that it, too, would +have to be crossed. + +Looking down to the water's edge, we saw a fence enclosing some +pasture land, and were glad to see another gate, for we wanted a +raft for our clothes, and we thought this would do. It was a heavy +brute of a gate. We could hardly launch it. Perhaps we were getting +weaker--that may have been the reason it seemed so heavy. Anyway, +when we got it to the water's edge, we had to rest before undertaking +to swim the river. The current was not so strong as we had feared, +and we reached the other side in safety. + +We did not pull up the gate, but let it go drifting down the stream. +Perhaps this also is accounted for by the fact that we were getting +weaker: also, we considered that we were harder pressed for time than +the German farmer--he could make another gate. + +After we had dressed and had walked for about an hour, we came to the +canal. Unfortunately for our purpose, the night was clear and the +stars were out in thousands, and, to make matters worse, the young +moon, just a crescent, but still capable of giving some light, came +out. We had been longer than we expected on our journey, and now, at +the most critical time of it, when there was the greatest need of +caution, we had moonlight nights to face! Still, every night was +getting worse than the last, so we must go forward with all speed. + +The canal was about sixty feet wide, and I felt certain it would be +guarded, for it was so near the border. We went to the edge, and +looked across--and then up and down--to see if we could find any +trace of a guard; everything was quiet. + +We knew it was a time for great haste. We went back quickly and +undressed. I grabbed my bundle and let myself cautiously into the +water, taking care not to make the slightest splash. When I reached +the other side, I threw my clothes on the sand and came back far +Ted--he was waiting for me. I took his clothes, and together we swam +across! + +We got quietly out of the water. I picked up my own bundle, and we +started for the trees on the other side of the road. There was an +excavation there where sand had been taken out. Seeing it, we slipped +into it noiselessly. We were not a moment too soon, for when we stood +still and listened, we heard the regular footsteps of a man, and in +twenty seconds the patrol marched by! Then we dressed and got out of +our fortunate hiding-place, and went on. + +We still had a couple of hours before daylight, but the danger was +growing greater every minute, for we knew we were approaching the +border. At that thought our hearts beat wild with hope. The border +would be guarded--there was nothing surer--any minute we might be +challenged. We had talked it over, and were determined to make a dash +for it if that happened. The patrol would shoot, but there was a +chance he might not shoot straight; he would hardly get us both! + +Soon we came to a marsh, with an edge of peat, and as we advanced we +saw the peat was disappearing, and it did not look good ahead. The +moonlight showed us a grassy mat, level as the top of a lake, and +without a shrub or tree to indicate a solid bottom. It was evidently +a quaking bog, a hidden lake, and only the fear behind us drove us +on. It swayed beneath our feet, falling as we stepped on it fully a +foot, and rising again behind us. There would be little danger of +guards here, for the place would be considered impassable--and maybe +it was--we should see! + +Our feet were light--fear gave them wings--and we raced over the +bending, swaying, springing surface! The moon was not bright enough +for us to pick our steps--there was no picking, anyway--it was a +matter of speed! At every step the grass mat went below the surface +of the water, and we could feel it rising over our boot-tops--cold +and horrible. If we had hesitated a second, I know we should have +gone through; but we had every reason for haste. Behind us was the +enemy--cruel, merciless, hateful--with their stolid faces and their +black cells. Under us--was death. Before us--was freedom--home--and +the ones we love! + +At the other side there was more peat, some of it cut and piled. +We were puffing hard from our exertions, but were afraid to rest a +second. The border must be near! + +In a few minutes after leaving the bog we came to a small canal, +which surprised me--there had been no other canal indicated on any +map I had seen. It puzzled me for a minute; then a great joy swept +over me! The maps I had seen were maps of Germany. This canal must be +in Holland! + +But I did not say this to Ted, for I wasn't sure. We undressed +again--the third time that night--and swam the canal, and, dressing +again, went on. Soon we found a finely settled country, with roads +which improved as we went on, all the time. There were no trees, but +the darkness still held, and we kept going. Toward morning we took +refuge in a thicket, and spent the day. + +That day was September 9th, and although we thought we were in +Holland, we were not sure enough to come out and show ourselves. So +we lay low, and ate the green apples that we had found on a tree +between the river and the canal the night before. We slept a little, +though too excited to sleep much. + +Beside the thicket where we were hidden, a boy worked in a field with +a fine team of horses, ploughing stubble. We tried to listen to what +he said to his team, to see if there was any change from the German +"Burrrrrrsh," but he was a silent youth, and so far as we could make +out, said never a word all day. So we could not prove it by him! + +But the good horses gave us hope--horses were scarce in Germany! + +At dusk we started out again, and kept going straight west, for one +fear still tormented us. Our maps showed us that one part of Germany +projects into Holland, and for this reason we kept straight west, to +avoid all danger of running into it; for the uncomfortable thought +would come that to escape from Germany and then walk into it again +would make us feel foolish--not to mention other emotions. + +It seemed to be a fine country that we were going through, and the +walking was easy, although we were not on a road. I had been telling +Ted that the first railway we came to would be a single-tracked one, +with dirt ballast, and then we should be sure we were in Holland. I +had seen this railroad on the map, and knew it was a few miles from +the border. To me, this would be sufficient proof that we were safely +out of Germany. + +Soon we saw a fringe of houses ahead, and we thought we were coming +near a canal, for we were in the country of canals now, and the +houses are built on their banks. There were lights in a few of the +houses, for it was only about eleven o'clock, and some of the people +were still up. The houses looked to be rather good ones, and they +were built in a row. It was the backs of them we were approaching, +which we did with extreme caution, for we had no desire to have some +snarling dog discover us and give the alarm. + +So intent were we, watching the houses for any sign of life, that we +did not see what was just before us until we had walked up to it. +Then we saw-- + +It was a railroad, single-tracked, with dirt ballast! + +Without a word, Ted and I shook hands! We were in Holland! + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +OUT + + +Immediately we set out to find a road. There would be no more +skulking through fields for us. We were free again, entitled to all +the privileges of road and bridge. + +We soon found a good wagon-road leading to a bridge over the canal. +Across the bridge we boldly went, caring nothing for the houses at +our right and left, whose windows were lighted and whose dogs may +have been awake for all we cared. It seemed wonderful to be able to +walk right in the middle of the road again! Ted said he wanted to +sing, but I advised him to curb the desire. We were a little hazy as +to the treatment accorded prisoners by a neutral country. + +We still kept west, thinking of the bulge in the German boundary to +the south of us. The road was smooth and hard, and we felt so good +that we seemed to be able to go as fast as we liked. Fatigue and +hunger were forgotten. A man on a bicycle rode past us and shouted +a greeting to us, to which we replied with a good, honest English +"Good-night," instead of the sullen grunt we had hitherto been using +to hide our nationality. + +Cows were plentiful that night, and we got apples, too, from the +orchards near the road. The only thing that troubled us was that our +road had turned southwest, and we were afraid that it might lead +us into the little strip of Germany. However, we went on a short +distance. + +Then we came to a place where there were many canals, some of them +very large, and the straggling houses seemed to indicate a town. +Afterwards we knew it was the town called Nieuwstadskanaal. + +We took a poor road, leading west, and followed it over a heather +moor, which changed after a mile or two into a peat-bog with piles of +peat recently cut. We kept on going, until about five o'clock in the +morning we came to a house. It looked desolate and unoccupied, and +when we got close to it we found that it had been badly damaged by +fire. But it made a good shelter for us, and we went into what had +been the living-room, and lay down and slept. The floor was even and +dry; it was the best bed we had had for twenty nights, and, relieved +as we were from the fear of detection, we slept for hours. + + * * * + +When we awakened, the sun was pouring in at the curtainless windows, +and we were as hungry as bears. "Now for a potato-feed," Ted said, +looking out of the window at a fine field of potatoes across the +road. The field had been reclaimed from the peat-bog, and some of the +potatoes had already been dug and put into pits. + +In looking around for material to light a fire, I saw scraps of +newspapers, which I examined closely and found they were Dutch papers, +one bearing the name of "Odoorn" and the other "Nieuwstadskanaal." +This supported us in our belief that we were in Holland. + +We got potatoes from the field and roasted them in the fire which we +built in the fireplace. + +A young Hollander, fired with curiosity, came to the door and looked +in at us. We hailed him with delight and asked him to come right +in, and be one of us! He came in rather gingerly, looking at us +wide-eyed, and we were sorry to find he could not speak English. +There were certain things we wanted to know! + +We were drying our matches by the fire, for they had become rather +damp, and our supply was getting low. Also our tobacco was done. So +we said, "Tabac," showing him our empty pipes, and from the pocket +of his coat he brought out a pouch, and we filled our pipes. I don't +know whether he knew we had been prisoners or not. He drifted out in +a few minutes, but I think he told others about us, for after we had +had our smoke, and had gone to the canal to fix up, we found some +interested spectators. + +At the canal we washed, shaved, cleaned our teeth, combed our hair, +and went as far as we could in getting ready to see people. Ted had +his Canadian soldier's tunic, with the regular prisoner's dark-blue +trousers such as the British Red Cross supplies. His tunic was torn +in several places and his hair was unkempt and in need of cutting. He +had cut the heels out of his boots, several days before, because they +hurt him. I had the regular prisoner's suit, dark-blue cloth, and had +cut off the yellow stripe which had been sewed down the legs of the +trousers; I had also cut off my prison number. My boots had held +well, and there was not even a hole in my socks. My hair was getting +shaggy, and I suppose we were both looking fairly tough. Our clothes +were wrinkled and crushed and dirty. + + * * * + +There was one older man who watched us, with many exclamations of +friendliness, who, when we had concluded our efforts, made us +understand that he wanted us to come with him to have something to +eat. He could speak no English, but he made us understand. We went +back to the deserted house, gathered up our things, and went with +him. Two young fellows came along, too, and we were taken to a +canal-boat near by. + +The woman who waited on the breakfast table in the canal-boat, and +served us with rye-bread, margarine, and coffee, gave us hard +looks, which made us think her heart was still in the fatherland. +Conversation was naturally difficult, because no one of them could +speak English, but we began to ask about Rotterdam, for we knew that +that would be the port from which we should sail, and we were anxious +to know how to get there. One of the young men, a fine-looking fellow +with a frank, pleasing countenance, said something and made gestures, +which made us think he would take us there in his boat. + +We started out with him and his companion, not sorry to leave the +sour-faced lady who glared at us, and walked along the road beside +the canal. We were on the outskirts of Odoorn, a town whose chief +industry is the shipping of peat. It being Sunday, nobody was +working, and the people, especially the children, came out to see +us. The young man took us to one of the houses and introduced us to +his father and mother, who welcomed us kindly and wanted us to have +something to eat. But we declined. + +We were then taken by him along the road, and the crowd of children +that followed us seemed to be growing bigger every minute. Our +friend, anxious apparently to do the proper thing, took out his +mouth-organ and played "It's a Long Way to Tipperary"--and it +certainly hit the spot with us. + +He conducted us to the home of the gendarme--and for a minute our +old fear of being interned came back to us! The gendarme was plainly +bored--he had been having a Sunday-afternoon sleep, and had not +finished it. He yawned as he spoke. + +The young man talked to him very earnestly, and at last he invited +us in. Up to this time we had not heard a word of English. The +gendarme's wife, a nice-looking, well-dressed woman, brought in a +tray and gave us tea, and little cakes with seeds on them, and soon +a young man who could speak English came in to act as interpreter. + +He began to question us, but we soon turned the conversation by +questioning him. We asked him if there was any danger of our being +interned? He told us we could be interned if we liked, but we +hastened to assure him we should not like it. + +Then he said we could stay in Holland and work, but again we +declined. We wanted to go to England, we said. + +He tried to dissuade us. Why go to England? That would mean going +back into the army. Holland was the best and safest place! + +We insisted that we wanted to go to England, and he warned us that if +we wanted to change our minds we must do it now; because we couldn't +change after we had "signed the paper." We were still sure we wanted +to go! + +The gendarme then went upstairs and came down in his uniform and took +us out with him. We didn't know where he was taking us, but supposed +it was to some place to make arrangements for our passage to England. +When we came out of the house we found some women gathered there +waiting for us, and a very poorly dressed woman, with a fine face, +stepped up and gave us a small sum of money, which she had evidently +collected for us. We thanked her warmly, and with sincere gratitude. +Then we set out across country about four miles to Borger, where we +were taken to the Burgomaster's house. + +The Burgomaster's house was one of the best in the little town, and +when we went in, we found there a young man, evidently calling on the +daughter of the house, and he could speak English. + +We were taken downtown to the Burgomaster's office, and official +papers were made out, and we signed them. This was what the +gendarme's interpreter had been telling us, about not being able to +change our minds after we had signed the paper! + +The Burgomaster evidently told the gendarme to take us to the hotel +and have us fed, and by this time, after our walk, we were quite +ready for something. When we offered them money for our meal--which +was a good one--it was politely refused. + +We were then taken to the home of one of the Borgen gendarmes where +we stayed for the night. His name was H. Letema. We ate with the +family and were treated with great kindness. The white bread and +honey which we had for tea were a great treat to us. One of the other +gendarmes gave Ted a pair of socks, and he was able to discard the +strips of underwear. We had a bed made of straw, with good blankets, +and it seemed like luxury to us. + +The next morning Mr. Letema gave us each a postal-card addressed to +himself, and asked us to write back telling him when we had safely +reached England. Then another gendarme walked with us to Assen, which +seemed to be a sort of police headquarters. We stayed there all day. + +In the afternoon a Belgian girl came to see us, and although I tried +hard to understand what she said, she talked so fast I could not +follow her, although I knew a little French. She brought us some +cigars, and we could see she wanted to show us her friendliness. When +she went away, I deeply regretted my ignorance of the French +language. But the Belgian girl came back in a little while, +accompanied by a Holland woman who could speak English, and then we +found out about her. + +She had fled from Antwerp at the time of the bombardment, and was +supporting herself by needlework at Assen, where she was the only +Belgian person, and I suppose she was tired of "neutrals" and wanted +to see us because we were of the Allies. She urged us to tell her +what she could do for us, and we asked her for some postal-cards, so +we could tell our friends that we had escaped. She sent them to us by +her friend the interpreter, who also gave us some English books and a +box of cigars. + +That night a young gendarme took us upstairs to his room, which was +nicely decorated with flags and pennants, and he told us the Germans +could never conquer Holland, for they would cut the dykes--as they +had done before. He showed us the picture of his fiancée, and proudly +exhibited the ring she had given him. + +The next day we were taken by another gendarme to Rotterdam by train, +passing through Utrecht and in sight of the Zuider Zee. Arriving +there, we were taken to the alien officer, who questioned us and +wrote down what we told him. Then the gendarme took us to the British +Consul, and left us there. The Consul shook hands with us and +congratulated us on our escape, and put us in charge of a +Vice-Consul, who was a Hollander. + +We stayed at the "Seaman's Rest," which was in the same building as +the British Consulate. There we met two Americans, who were very +friendly and greatly interested in our escape. They encouraged us to +talk about the prison-camps, and of what we had seen in Germany, but +it was not long until we became suspicious and careful in our +answers. One of them had an American passport, which seemed to let +him have the freedom of the city; the other one had no passport, and +complained that he could not get one, and it was causing him no end +of inconvenience, for he found it impossible to get a job at his +trade, which was that of "trimmer" on a vessel. He went every day to +the docks, looking for a job, and acquired considerable information +about ships and their time of sailing. At night, he and his friend +were together, and the knowledge was no doubt turned over. + +Mr. Neilson, Superintendent of the Sailors' Institute, very kindly +invited us to go with him to The Hague, to see the Peace Temple, and +it was then that we made bold to ask for some spending money. The +Vice-Consul, the Hollander, was a thrift-fiend so far as other people +were concerned, and it was only after Mr. Neilson had presented our +claim, and we had used all the arguments we could think of, that we +got about two dollars each. + +Our clothes--too--had not yet been replaced with new ones, and we +felt very shabby in our soiled uniforms. We mentioned this to the +Vice-Consul, and told him that we believed the Canadian Government +would stand by us to the extent of a new suit of clothes. He murmured +something about the expenses being very heavy at this time. We +ventured to remind him that the money would be repaid--Canada was +still doing business! + +The next day our American friends invited us to go to a picture show +with them. We went, but at the door a gorgeously uniformed gentleman, +who looked like a cross between a butler and an admiral, turned us +back--that is, Ted and me. We had no collars on! The public had to be +protected--he was sorry, but these were his orders. + +Then we sought the Vice-Consul and told him if he did not get us +decent clothes, we should go to the Consul. The next morning we got +the clothes! + + * * * + +On the sixth night we sailed from Rotterdam, and the next morning, in +a hazy dawn, we sighted, with glad hearts, the misty shores of +England. + +As we sailed up the Tyne, we saw war shops being built, and women +among the workmen, looking very neat and smart in their working +uniforms. They seemed to know their business, too, and moved about +with a speed and energy which indicated an earnest purpose. Here was +another factor which Germany had not counted on--the women of the +Empire! Germany knew exactly how many troops, how many guns, how many +ships, how much ammunition England had; but they did not know--never +could know--the spirit of the English people! + +They saw a country which seethed with discontent--Hyde Park agitators +who railed at everything British, women who set fire to empty +buildings, and destroyed mail-boxes as a protest against unfair +social conditions--and they made the mistake of thinking that these +discontented citizens were traitors who would be glad of the chance +to stab their country to the heart. They knew that the average +English found golf and cricket much more interesting than foreign +affairs, so they were not quite prepared for that rush of men to the +recruiting offices at the first call for volunteers! Englishmen may +abuse their own country, but it is a different matter when the enemy +is at the door. So they came,--the farmer, the clerk, the bank boy, +the teacher, the student, the professional man, the writer, the +crossing-sweeper, the cab-man,--high and low, rich and poor, old and +young, they flocked to the offices, like the land-seekers in the West +who form queues in front of the Homestead offices, to enter their +land. + +I thought of these first recruits--the "contemptible little +army"--who went over in those first terrible days, and, +insufficiently equipped as they were, went up against the +overwhelming hosts of Germany with their superior numbers and +equipment that had been in preparation for forty years.... and how +they held back the invaders--though they had but one shell to the +Germans' hundred--by sheer force of courage and individual bravery... +and with such losses. I thought of these men as I stepped on the +wharf at Newcastle, and it seemed to me that every country lane in +England and every city street was hallowed by the unseen presence of +the glorious and unforgotten dead! + + + +CONCLUSION + + +I have been at home for more than a year now, and cannot return to +the front. Apparently the British Government have given their word to +the neutral countries that prisoners who escape from Germany, and are +assisted by the neutral countries, will not be allowed to return to +the fighting line. So even if my shoulder were well again, I could +not go back to fight. + +Ted and I parted in London, for I came back to Canada before he did. +He has since rejoined his family in Toronto. I have heard from a +number of the boys in Germany. Bromley tried to escape again, but was +captured, and is now at a camp called Soltau. John Keith and Croak +also tried, but failed. Little Joe, the Italian boy who enlisted with +me at Trail, has been since exchanged--insane! Percy Weller, Sergeant +Reid, and Hill, brother of the British Reservist who gave us our +first training, have all been exchanged. + + * * * + +I am sorry that I cannot go back. Not that I like fighting--for I do +not; but because I believe every man who is physically fit should +have a hand in this great clean-up--every man is needed! From what +I have seen of the German people, I believe they will resist +stubbornly, and a war of exhaustion will be a long affair with a +people so well trained and organized. The military class know well +that if they are forced to make terms unfavorable to Germany, their +power will be gone forever, and they would rather go down to defeat +before the Allied nations than be overthrown by their own people. +There is no doubt that the war was precipitated by the military class +in Germany because the people were growing too powerful. So they +might as well fight on, with a chance of victory, as to conclude an +unsatisfactory peace and face a revolution. + +The German people have to be taught one thing before their real +education can begin. They have to be made to see--and the Allied +armies are making it plainer every day--that war is unprofitable; +that their army, great though it is, may meet a greater; that heavy +losses may come to their own country. They need to be reminded that +he that liveth by the sword may die by the sword! + +The average German thinks that only through superior military +strength can any good thing come to a nation. All their lives they +have been taught that, and their hatred of England has been largely +a result of their fear of England's superior strength. They cannot +understand that England and the other Allies have no desire to +dominate German affairs. They do not believe that there is an ethical +side to this war. The Germans are pitifully dense to ethical values. +They are not idealists or sentimentalists, and their imagination is +not easily kindled. + +Added to this, they have separated themselves from religion. Less +than two per cent of the men attend church, and if the extracts we +read from the sermons preached in their churches is a fair sample +of the teaching given there, the ninety-eight who stay at home are +better off than the two who go! + +[Illustration: Post-Card sent by Private Bromley from the Prison-Camp +of Soltau, Germany, in July, 1918 / The crosses mark the graves of +prisoners who have died at this camp] + +All these things have helped to produce a type of mind that is not +moved by argument or entreaty, a national character that has shown +itself capable of deeds of grave dishonesty and of revolting cruelty; +which cannot be forgotten--or allowed to go unpunished! + +But if their faith in the power of force can be broken--and it may be +broken very soon--the end of the war will come suddenly. + + * * * + +The people at home are interested and speculative as to the returned +soldiers' point of view. Personally, I believe that as the soldiers +went away with diversity of opinions, so will they come home, though +in a less degree. There will be a tendency to fusion in some +respects. One will be in the matter of coöperation; the civilian's +ideas are generally those of the individual--he brags about his +rights and resents any restriction of them. He is strong on grand old +traditions, and rejoices in any special privileges which have come to +him. + +The soldier learns to share his comforts with the man next him; in +the army each man depends on the other--and cannot do without him: +there is no competition there, but only coöperation. If loss comes to +one man, or misfortune, it affects the others. If one man is poorly +trained, or uncontrolled, or foolish, all suffer. If a badly trained +bomber loses his head, pulls the pin of his bomb, and lets it drop +instead of throwing it, the whole platoon is endangered. In this way +the soldier unconsciously absorbs some of the principles of, and can +understand the reason for, discipline, and acquires a wholesome +respect for the man who knows his job. + +He sees the reason for stringent orders in regard to health and +sanitation. He does not like to get into a dirty bath himself, and +so he leaves it clean for the next man. In other words, the soldier, +consciously or unconsciously, has learned that he is a part of a +great mass of people, and that his own safety, both commercially and +socially, depends on the proper disciplining of the whole people. + +The returned soldier will take kindly to projects which tend to a +better equalization of duties, responsibilities, and pleasures. He +will be a great stickler for this; if he has to work, every one else +must work too. He will be hard against special privileges. He will be +strong in his insistence that our natural resources be nationalized. +He will go after all lines of industry now in the hands of large +corporations, and insist on national supervision if not actual +ownership. + +In religion, he will not care anything about form. Denominationalism +will bore him, but the vital element of religion, brotherly love and +helping the other fellow, will attract him, wherever he finds it. He +knows that religion--he believes in it. + +The political parties will never be able to catch him with their +worn-out phrases. Politicians had better begin to remodel their +speeches. The iniquities of the other party will not do. There must +be a breaking-out of new roads--old things have passed away! + +The returned man will claim, above all things, honest dealing, and +for this reason the tricky politicians who "put it over" in the +pre-war days will not have so easy a time. "Guff" will not be well +received. The leaders on the battle-field have been men who could +look death in the face without flinching, so the political leaders +at home must be men of heroism, who will travel the path of +righteousness even though they see it leads by the way of the Cross! + + * * * + +There is a hard road ahead of us, a hard, steep road of sacrifice, +and in it we must as a nation travel, although our feet are heavy and +our eyes are dim. The war must be won; human liberty is worth the +price--whatever the price may be! + +We do not travel as those who have no hope, for we know, though we +cannot see it, that at the top of the mountain the sun is shining +on a cleaner, fairer, better world. + +THE END + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Three Times and Out, by Nellie L. 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McClung</title> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- + body { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; } +p { margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } +hr { width: 50%; } +hr.full { width: 100%; } +.poem { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; } +.toc { margin-left: 8%; margin-bottom: 0em;} +center { padding: 0.8em;} +// --> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Times and Out, by Nellie L. McClung + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Three Times and Out + +Author: Nellie L. McClung + +Release Date: July 11, 2004 [EBook #12880] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE TIMES AND OUT *** + + + + +Thanks to A Celebration of Women Writers +http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/ +for providing the source text. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div style="height: 8em;"><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h1>THREE TIMES AND OUT</h1> +<h3>TOLD BY</h3> +<h3>PRIVATE SIMMONS</h3> +<h3>WRITTEN BY</h3> +<h2>NELLIE L. M<small>C</small>CLUNG</h2> + +<center> +Author of SOWING SEEDS IN DANNY, IN TIMES LIKE THESE, +and THE NEXT OF KIN +</center> +<center>With Illustrations</center> +<center>TORONTO</center> +<center>THOMAS ALLEN</center> +<center>BOSTON AND NEW YORK</center> +<center>HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</center> +<center>1918</center> +<center> + To the companion who failed<br> + through no fault of his and<br> + no lack of courage<br> + TOM BROMLEY<br> + loyal friend and best of com-<br> + rades, this book is dedicated.<br> +</center> +<a name="2H_PREF"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + + +<center> +<img src="images/front-page.jpg" alt="Private Simmons"> +<br><i>Frontispiece: Private Simmons</i> +</center> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +PREFACE +</h2> +<p> +When a young man whom I had not seen until that day came to see me +in Edmonton, and told me he had a story which he thought was worth +writing, and which he wanted me to write for him, I told him I could +not undertake to do it for I was writing a story of my own, but that +I could no doubt find some one who would do it for him.</p> +<p> +Then he mentioned that he was a returned soldier, and had been for +sixteen months a prisoner in Germany, and had made his escape—</p> +<p> +That changed everything!</p> +<p> +I asked him to come right in and tell me all about it—for like every +one else I have friends in the prison-camps of Germany, boys whom I +remember as little chaps in knickers playing with my children, boys +I taught in country schools in Manitoba, boys whose parents are my +friends. There are many of these whom we know to be prisoners, and +there are some who have been listed as "missing," who we are still +hoping against long odds may be prisoners!</p> +<p> +I asked him many questions. How were they treated? Did they get +enough to eat? Did they get their parcels? Were they very lonely? +Did he by any chance know a boy from Vancouver called Wallen Gordon, +who had been "Missing" since the 2d of June, 1916? Or Reg Black from +Manitou? or Garnet Stewart from Winnipeg?</p> +<p> +Unfortunately, he did not.</p> +<p> +Then he began his story. Before he had gone far, I had determined to +do all I could to get his story into print, for it seemed to me to be +a story that should be written. It gives at least a partial answer +to the anxious questionings that are in so many hearts. It tells us +something of the fate of the brave fellows who have, temporarily, +lost their freedom—to make our freedom secure!</p> +<p> +Private Simmons is a close and accurate observer who sees clearly +and talks well. He tells a straightforward, unadorned tale, every +sentence of which is true, and convincing. I venture to hope that +the reader may have as much pleasure in the reading of it as I had +in the writing.</p> +<p> +NELLIE L. McCLUNG</p> +<p> +Edmonton, October 24, 1918</p> + + + + +<hr> +<a name="2H_TOC"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<p><b>Contents</b></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0002"> +THREE TIMES AND OUT +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0001">CHAPTER I. HOW IT STARTED +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0002">CHAPTER II. THROUGH BELGIUM +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0003">CHAPTER III. INTO GERMANY +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0004">CHAPTER IV. THE LAZARET +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0005">CHAPTER V. THE PRISON-CAMP +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0006">CHAPTER VI. ROSSBACH +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0007">CHAPTER VII. THE ESCAPE +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0008">CHAPTER VIII. OFF FOR SWITZERLAND! +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0009">CHAPTER IX. CAUGHT! +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0010">CHAPTER X. THE CELLS! +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0011">CHAPTER XI. THE STRAFE-BARRACK +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0012">CHAPTER XII. BACK TO CAMP +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0013">CHAPTER XIII. CELLELAGER +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0014">CHAPTER XIV. OFF FOR HOLLAND! +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0015">CHAPTER XV. CAUGHT AGAIN +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0016">CHAPTER XVI. THE INVISIBLE BROTHERHOOD +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0017">CHAPTER XVII. THE CELLS AT OLDENBUBG +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0018">CHAPTER XVIII. PARNEWINKEL CAMP +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0019">CHAPTER XIX. THE BLACKEST CHAPTER OF ALL +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0020">CHAPTER XX. ONCE AGAIN! +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0021">CHAPTER XXI. TRAVELLERS OF THE NIGHT +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0022">CHAPTER XXII. THE LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0023">CHAPTER XXIII. OUT +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_CONC">CONCLUSION +</a></p> +<hr> +<p><b>List of Illustrations</b></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0001"> +Officers' Quarters in a German Military Prison +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0002"> +Giessen Prison-camp +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0003"> +Tom Bromley / in Red Cross Overcoat With Prison Number +And Marked Sleeve +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0004"> +German Prison Stamp +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0005"> +Two Pages from Private Simmons's Diary +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0006"> +Map Made by Private Simmons of the First Attempt +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0007"> +The Christmas Card Which the Giessen Prison +Authorities Supplied to the Prisoners +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0008"> +Map Made from Paper Which Came in a Parcel, Wrapped +Around a Fruit-cake / Notice the Stain Caused by The Cake. This Is +The Map That Was Hidden in the Cigarette-box +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0009"> +Friedrichsfeld Prison-camp in Winter +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0010"> +Map Which Private Simmons Got from the Canadian Artist +At Giessen, and Which Was Sewed Inside the Pasteboard of his Cap / His +Successful Journey from Selsingen to Holland is Indicated by the Dotted +Line ............ / the Unsuccessful Attempt is Shown ————— From +Oldenburg +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0011"> +Friedrichsfeld Prison-camp in Summer +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0012"> +A Prison Post-card from Friedrichsfeld Bei Wesel / +The Group Includes Soldiers from Canada, Newfoundland, England, +Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, +France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Serbia, and Roumania. +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0013"> +Post-card Sent by Private Bromley from the Prison-camp +Of Soltau, Germany, in July, 1918 / the Crosses Mark The Graves Of +Prisoners Who Have Died at This Camp +</a></p> +<hr> + + + + +<a name="2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +THREE TIMES AND OUT +</h2> +<a name="2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER I +</h2> +<h3> +HOW IT STARTED +</h3> + +<p>"England has declared war on Germany!"</p> + +<p>We were working on a pumphouse, on the Columbia River, at Trail, +British Columbia, when these words were shouted at us from the door +by the boss carpenter, who had come down from the smelter to tell us +that the news had just come over the wire.</p> + +<p>Every one stopped work, and for a full minute not a word was spoken. +Then Hill, a British reservist who was my work-mate, laid down his +hammer and put on his coat. There was neither haste nor excitement in +his movements, but a settled conviction that gave me a queer feeling. +I began to argue just where we had left off, for the prospect of war +had been threshed out for the last two days with great thoroughness. +"It will be settled," I said. "Nations cannot go to war now. It would +be suicide, with all the modern methods of destruction. It will be +settled by a war council—and all forgotten in a month."</p> + +<p>Hill, who had argued so well a few minutes ago and told us all the +reasons he had for expecting war with Germany, would not waste a word +on me now. England was at war—and he was part of England's war +machine.</p> + +<p>"I am quitting, George," he said to the boss carpenter, as he pulled +his cap down on his head and started up the bank.</p> + +<p>That night he began to drill us in the skating-rink.</p> + +<p>I worked on for about a week, but from the first I determined to go +if any one went from Canada. I don't suppose it was all patriotism. +Part of it was the love of adventure, and a desire to see the world; +for though I was a steady-going carpenter chap, I had many dreams as +I worked with hammer and saw, and one of them was that I would travel +far and see how people lived in other countries. The thought of war +had always been repellent to me, and many an argument I had had +with the German baker in whose house I roomed, on the subject of +compulsory military training for boys. He often pointed out a +stoop-shouldered, hollow-chested boy who lived on the same street, +and told me that if this boy had lived in Germany he would have +walked straighter and developed a chest, instead of slouching through +life the way he was doing. He and his wife and the grown-up daughter +were devoted to their country, and often told us of how well the +working-people were housed in Germany and the affairs of the country +conducted.</p> + +<p>But I think the war was as great a surprise to them as to us, and +although the two women told us we were foolish to go to fight—it was +no business of ours if England wanted to get into a row—it made no +difference in our friendly relations, and the day we left Clara came +to the station with a box of candy. I suppose if we had known as much +then as we do now about German diplomacy, we shouldn't have eaten it, +but we only knew then that Clara's candy was the best going, and so +we ate it, and often wished for more.</p> + +<p>I have since heard, however, of other Germans in Canada who knew more +of their country's plans, and openly spoke of them. One of these, +employed by the Government, told the people in the office where he +worked that when Germany got hold of Canada, she would straighten out +the crooked streets in our towns and not allow shacks to be built on +the good streets, and would see to it that houses were not crowded +together; and the strangest part of it is that the people to whom he +spoke attached no importance whatever to his words until the war came +and the German mysteriously disappeared.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>I never really enlisted, for we had no recruiting meetings in Trail +before I left. We went to the skating-rink the first night, about +fifteen of us, and began to drill. Mr. Schofield, Member of the +Provincial Parliament, and Hill were in charge, and tested our +marksmanship as well. They graded us according to physical tests, +marksmanship, and ability to pick up the drill, and I was quite +pleased to find I was Number "One" on the list.</p> + +<p>There was a young Italian boy named Adolph Milachi, whom we called +"Joe," who came to drill the first night, and although he could not +speak much English, he was determined to be a soldier. I do not know +what grudge little Joe had against the Germans, whether it was just +the love of adventure which urged him on, but he overruled all +objections to his going and left with the others of us, on the last +day of August.</p> + +<p>I remember that trip through the mountains in that soft, hazy, +beautiful August weather; the mountain-tops, white with snow, were +wrapped about with purple mist which twisted and shifted as if never +satisfied with their draping. The sheer rocks in the mountain-sides, +washed by a recent rain, were streaked with dull reds and blues and +yellows, like the old-fashioned rag carpet. The rivers whose banks +we followed ran blue and green, and icy cold, darting sometimes so +sharply under the track that it jerked one's neck to follow them; and +then the stately evergreens marched always with us, like endless +companies of soldiers or pilgrims wending their way to a favorite +shrine.</p> + +<p>When we awakened the second morning, and found ourselves on the wide +prairie of Alberta, with its many harvest scenes and herds of cattle, +and the gardens all in bloom, one of the boys said, waving his hand +at a particularly handsome house set in a field of ripe wheat, "No +wonder the Germans want it!"</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>My story really begins April 24, 1915. Up to that time it had been +the usual one—the training in England, with all the excitement of +week-end leave; the great kindness of English families whose friends +in Canada had written to them about us, and who had forthwith sent +us their invitations to visit them, which we did with the greatest +pleasure, enjoying every minute spent in their beautiful houses; and +then the greatest thrill of all—when we were ordered to France.</p> + +<p>The 24th of April was a beautiful spring day of quivering sunshine, +which made the soggy ground in the part of Belgium where I was fairly +steam. The grass was green as plush, and along the front of the +trenches, where it had not been trodden down, there were yellow +buttercups and other little spring flowers whose names I did not +know.</p> + +<p>We had dug the trenches the day before, and the ground was so marshy +and wet that water began to ooze in before we had dug more than three +feet. Then we had gone on the other side and thrown up more dirt, +to make a better parapet, and had carried sand-bags from an old +artillery dug-out. Four strands of barbed wire were also put up +in front of our trenches, as a sort of suggestion of barbed-wire +entanglements, but we knew we had very little protection.</p> + +<p>Early in the morning of the 24th, a German aeroplane flew low over +our trench, so low that I could see the man quite plainly, and could +easily have shot him, but we had orders not to fire—the object of +these orders being that we must not give away our position.</p> + +<p>The airman saw us, of course, for he looked right down at us, and +dropped down white pencils of smoke to show the gunners where we +were. That big gray beetle sailing serenely over us, boring us with +his sharp eyes, and spying out our pitiful attempts at protection, is +one of the most unpleasant feelings I have ever had. It gives me the +shivers yet! And to think we had orders not to fire!</p> + +<p>Being a sniper, I had a rifle fixed up with a telescopic sight, which +gave me a fine view of what was going on, and in order not to lose +the benefit of it, I cleaned out a place in a hedge, which was just +in front of the part of the trench I was in, and in this way I could +see what was happening, at least in my immediate vicinity.</p> + +<p>We knew that the Algerians who were holding a trench to our left had +given way and stampeded, as a result of a German gas attack on the +night of April 22d. Not only had the front line broken, but, the +panic spreading, all of them ran, in many cases leaving their rifles +behind them. Three companies of our battalion had been hastily sent +in to the gap caused by the flight of the Algerians. Afterwards I +heard that our artillery had been hurriedly withdrawn so that it +might not fall into the hands of the enemy; but we did not know that +at the time, though we wondered, as the day went on, why we got no +artillery support.</p> + +<p>Before us, and about fifty yards away, were deserted farm buildings, +through whose windows I had instructions to send shots at intervals, +to discourage the enemy from putting in machine guns. To our right +there were other farm buildings where the Colonel and Adjutant were +stationed, and in the early morning I was sent there with a message +from Captain Scudamore, to see why our ammunition had not come up.</p> + +<p>I found there Colonel Hart McHarg, Major Odlum (now Brigadier-General +Odlum), and the Adjutant in consultation, and thought they looked +worried and anxious. However, they gave me a cheerful message for +Captain Scudamore. It was very soon after that that Colonel Hart +McHarg was killed.</p> + +<p>The bombardment began at about nine o'clock in the morning, almost +immediately after the airman's visit, and I could see the heavy +shells bursting in the village at the cross-roads behind us. They +were throwing the big shells there to prevent reinforcements from +coming up. They evidently did not know, any more than we did, that +there were none to come, the artillery having been withdrawn the +night before.</p> + +<p>Some of the big shells threw the dirt as high as the highest trees. +When the shells began to fall in our part of the trench, I crouched +as low as I could in the soggy earth, to escape the shrapnel bullets. +Soon I got to know the sound of the battery that was dropping the +shells on us, and so knew when to take cover. One of our boys to my +left was hit by a pebble on the cheek, and, thinking he was wounded, +he fell on the ground and called for a stretcher-bearer. When the +stretcher-bearer came, he could find nothing but a scratch on his +cheek, and all of us who were not too scared had a laugh, including +the boy himself.</p> + +<p>I think it was about one o'clock in the afternoon that the Germans +broke through the trench on our right, where Major Bing-Hall was in +command; and some of the survivors from that trench came over to +ours. One of them ran right to where I was, and pushed through the +hole I had made in the hedge, to get a shot at the enemy. I called +to him to be careful, but some sniper evidently saw him, for in less +than half a minute he was shot dead, and fell at my side.</p> + +<p>An order to "retreat if necessary" had been received before this, but +for some reason, which I have never been able to understand, was not +put into effect until quite a while after being received. When the +order came, we began to move down the trench as fast as we could, but +as the trench was narrow and there were wounded and dead men in it, +our progress was slow.</p> + +<p>Soon I saw Robinson, Smith, and Ward climbing out of the trench and +cutting across the field. This was, of course, dangerous, for we were +in full view of the enemy, but it was becoming more and more evident +that we were in a tight corner. So I climbed out, too, and ran across +the open as fast as I could go with my equipment. I got just past the +hedge when I was hit through the pocket of my coat. I thought I was +wounded, for the blow was severe, but found out afterwards the bullet +had just passed through my coat pocket.</p> + +<p>I kept on going, but in a few seconds I got a bullet right through +my shoulder. It entered below my arm at the back, and came out just +below the shoulder-bone, making a clean hole right through.</p> + +<p>I fell into a shallow shell-hole, which was just the size to take me +in, and as I lay there, the possibility of capture first came to me. +Up to that time I had never thought of it as a possible contingency; +but now, as I lay wounded, the grave likelihood came home to me.</p> + +<p>I scrambled to my feet, resolved to take any chances rather than be +captured. I have an indistinct recollection of what happened for the +next few minutes. I know I ran from shell-hole to shell-hole, +obsessed with the one great fear—of being captured—and at last +reached the reserve trench, in front. I fell over the parapet, among +and indeed right on top of the men who were there, for the trench was +packed full of soldiers, and then quickly gathered myself together +and climbed out of the trench and crawled along on my stomach to the +left, following the trench to avoid the bullets, which I knew were +flying over me.</p> + +<p>Soon I saw, looking down into the trench, some of the boys I knew, +and I dropped in beside them. Then everything went from me. A great +darkness arose up from somewhere and swallowed me! Then I had a +delightful sensation of peace and warmth and general comfort. +Darkness, the blackest, inkiest darkness, rolled over me in waves +and hid me so well no Jack Johnson or Big Bertha could ever find me. +I hadn't a care or a thought in the world. I was light as a feather, +and these great strong waves of darkness carried me farther and +farther away.</p> + +<p>But they didn't carry me quite far enough, for a cry shot through me +like a knife, and I was wide awake, looking up from the bottom of a +muddy trench. And the cry that wakened me was sounding up and down +the trench, "The Germans are coming!"</p> + +<p>Sergeant Reid, who did not seem to realize how desperate the +situation was, was asking Major Bing-Hall what he was going to do. +But before any more could be said, the Germans were swarming over the +trench. The officer in charge of them gave us a chance to surrender, +which we did, and then it seemed like a hundred voices—harsh, +horrible voices—called to us to come out of the trench. "Raus" is +the word they use, pronounced "rouse."</p> + +<p>This was the first German word I had heard, and I hated it. It is the +word they use to a dog when they want him to go out, or to cattle +they are chasing out of a field. It is used to mean either "Come +out!"—or "Get out!" I hated it that day, and I hated it still more +afterward.</p> + +<p>There were about twenty of us altogether, and we climbed out of the +trench without speaking. There was nothing to be said. It was all up +with us.</p> + + +<a name="2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER II +</h2> +<h3> +THROUGH BELGIUM +</h3> + +<p>It is strange how people act in a crisis. I mean, it is strange how +quiet they are, and composed. We stood there on the top of the +trench, without speaking, although I knew what had happened to us was +bitterer far than to be shot. But there was not a word spoken. I +remember noticing Fred McKelvey, when the German who stood in front +of him told him to take off his equipment. Fred's manner was halting, +and reluctant, and he said, as he laid down his rifle and unbuckled +his cartridge bag, "This is the thing my father told me never to let +happen."</p> + +<p>Just then the German who stood by me said something to me, and +pointed to my equipment, but I couldn't unfasten a buckle with my +useless arm, so I asked him if he couldn't see I was wounded. He +seemed to understand what I meant, and unbuckled my straps and took +everything off me, very gently, too, and whipped out my bandage and +was putting it on my shoulder with considerable skill, I thought, and +certainly with a gentle hand—when the order came from their officer +to move us on, for the shells were falling all around us.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately for me, my guard did not come with us, nor did I ever +see him again. One of the others reached over and took my knife, +cutting the string as unconcernedly as if I wanted him to have +it, and I remember that this one had a saw-bayonet on his gun, as +murderous and cruel-looking a weapon as any one could imagine, and +he had a face to match it, too. So in the first five minutes I saw +the two kinds of Germans.</p> + +<p>When we were out of the worst of the shell-fire, we stopped to rest, +and, a great dizziness coming over me, I sat down with my head +against a tree, and looked up at the trailing rags of clouds that +drifted across the sky. It was then about four o'clock of as pleasant +an afternoon as I can ever remember. But the calmness of the sky, +with its deep blue distance, seemed to shrivel me up into nothing. +The world was so bright, and blue, and—uncaring!</p> + +<p>I may have fallen asleep for a few minutes, for I thought I heard +McKelvey saying, "Dad always told me not to let this happen." Over +and over again, I could hear this, but I don't know whether McKelvey +had repeated it. My brain was like a phonograph that sticks at one +word and says it over and over again until some one stops it.</p> + +<p>I think it was Mudge, of Grand Forks, who came over to see how I was. +His voice sounded thin and far away, and I didn't answer him. Then I +felt him taking off my overcoat and finishing the bandaging that the +German boy had begun.</p> + +<p>Little Joe, the Italian boy, often told me afterwards how I looked +at that time. "All same dead chicken not killed right and kep' long +time."</p> + +<p>Here those who were not so badly wounded were marched on, but there +were ten of us so badly hit we had to go very slowly. Percy Weller, +one of the boys from Trail who enlisted when I did, was with us, and +when we began the march I was behind him and noticed three holes +in the back of his coat; the middle one was a horrible one made by +shrapnel. He staggered painfully, poor chap, and his left eye was +gone!</p> + +<p>We passed a dead Canadian Highlander, whose kilt had pitched forward +when he fell, and seemed to be covering his face.</p> + +<p>In the first village we came to, they halted us, and we saw it was +a dressing-station. The village was in ruins—even the town pump +had had its head blown off!—and broken glass, pieces of brick, and +plaster littered the one narrow street. The dressing was done in +a two-room building which may have been a store. The walls were +discolored and cracked, and the windows broken.</p> + +<p>On a stretcher in the corner there lay a Canadian Highlander, from +whose wounds the blood dripped horribly and gathered in a red pool +on the dusty floor. His eyes were glazed and his face was drawn with +pain. He talked unceasingly, but without meaning. The only thing I +remember hearing him say was, "It's no use, mother—it's no use!"</p> + +<p>Weller was attended to before I was, and marched on. While I sat +there on an old tin pail which I had turned up for this purpose, two +German officers came in, whistling. They looked for a minute at the +dying Highlander in the corner, and one of them went over to him. He +saw at once that his case was hopeless, and gave a short whistle as +you do when blowing away a thistledown, indicating that he would soon +be gone. I remember thinking that this was the German estimate of +human life.</p> + +<p>He came to me and said, "Well, what have you got?"</p> + +<p>I thought he referred to my wound, and said, "A shoulder wound." At +which he laughed pleasantly and said, "I am not interested in your +wound; that's the doctor's business." Then I saw what he meant; it +was souvenirs he was after. So I gave him my collar badge, and in +return he gave me a German coin, and went over to the doctor and said +something about me, for he flipped his finger toward me.</p> + +<p>My turn came at last. The doctor examined my pay-book as well as my +wound. I had forty-five francs in it, and when he took it out, I +thought it was gone for sure. However, he carefully counted it before +me, drawing my attention to the amount, and then returned it to me.</p> + +<p>After my wound had been examined and a tag put on me stating what +sort of treatment I was to have, I was taken away with half a dozen +others and led down a narrow stone stair to a basement. Here on the +cement floor were piles of straw, and the place was heated. The walls +were dirty and discolored. One of the few pleasant recollections +of my life in Germany has been the feeling of drowsy content that +wrapped me about when I lay down on a pile of straw in that dirty, +rat-infested basement. I forgot that I was a prisoner, that I was +badly winged, that I was hungry, thirsty, dirty, and tired. I forgot +all about my wounded companions and the Canadian Highlander, and all +the suffering of the world, and drifted sweetly out into the wide +ocean of sleep.</p> + +<p>Some time during the night—for it was still dark—I felt some one +kicking my feet and calling me to get up, and all my trouble and +misery came back with a rush. My shoulder began to ache just where it +left off, but I was so hungry that the thought of getting something +to eat sustained me. Surely, I thought, they are going to feed us!</p> + +<p>We were herded along the narrow street, out into a wide road, where +we found an open car which ran on light rails in the centre of the +road. It was like the picnic trolley cars which run in our cities +in the warm weather. There were wounded German soldiers huddled +together, and we sat down among them, wherever we could find the +room, but not a word was spoken. I don't know whether they noticed +who we were or not—they had enough to think about, not to be +concerned with us, for most of them were terribly wounded. The one +I sat beside leaned his head against my good shoulder and sobbed as +he breathed. I could not help but think of the irony of war that had +brought us together. For all I knew, he may have been the machine +gunner who had been the means of ripping my shoulder to pieces—and +it may have been a bullet from my rifle which had torn its way along +his leg which now hung useless. Even so, there was no hard feeling +between us, and he was welcome to the support of my good shoulder!</p> + +<p>Some time through the night—my watch was broken and I couldn't tell +the time exactly—we came to another village and got off the car. A +guard came and carried off my companion, but as I could walk, I was +left to unload myself. The step was high, and as my shoulder was very +stiff and sore, I hesitated about jumping down. A big German soldier +saw me, understood what was wrong, and lifted me gently down.</p> + +<p>It was then nearly morning, for the dawn was beginning to show in the +sky, and we were taken to an old church, where we were told to lie +down and go to sleep. It was miserably cold in the church, and my +shoulder ached fearfully. I tried hard to sleep, but couldn't manage +it, and walked up and down to keep warm. I couldn't help but think +of the strange use the church—which had been the scene of so many +pleasant gatherings—was being put to, and as I leaned against the +wall and looked out of the window, I seemed to see the gay and +light-hearted Belgian people who so recently had gathered there. +Right here, I thought, the bashful boys had stood, waiting to walk +home with the girls... just the way we did in British Columbia, where +one church I know well stands almost covered with the fragrant +pines...</p> + +<p>I fell into a pleasant reverie then of sunny afternoons and dewy +moonlit nights, when the sun had gone over the mountains, and the +stars came out in hundreds. My dream then began to have in it the +brightest-eyed girl in the world, who gave me such a smile one Sunday +when she came out of church... that I just naturally found myself +walking beside her.... She had on a pink suit and white shoes, and +wore a long string of black beads...</p> + +<p>Then somebody spoke to me, and a sudden chill seized me and sent me +into a spasm of coughing, and the pain of my shoulder shot up into my +head like a knife... and I was back—all right—to the ruined church +in Belgium, a prisoner of war in the hands of the Germans!</p> + +<p>The person who spoke to me was a German cavalry officer, who quite +politely bade me good-morning and asked me how I felt. I told him I +felt rotten. I was both hungry and thirsty—and dirty and homesick. +He laughed at that, as if it were funny, and asked me where I came +from. When I told him, he said, "You Canadians are terrible fools to +fight with us when you don't have to. You'll be sick of it before you +are through. Canada is a nice country, though," he went on; "I've +been in British Columbia, too, in the Government employ there—they +treated me fine—and my brother is there now, engineer in the +Dunsmuir Collieries at Ladysmith. Great people—the Canadians!"</p> + +<p>And he laughed again and said something in German to the officer who +was with him.</p> + +<p>When the sun came up and poured into the church, warming up its cold +dreariness, I lay down and slept, for I had not nearly finished the +sleep so comfortably begun in the basement the night before.</p> + +<p>But in what seemed like three minutes, some one kicked my feet and +called to me to get up. I got to my feet, still spurred by the hope +of getting something to eat. Outside, all those who could walk were +falling in, and I hastened to do the same. Our guards were mounted +this time, and I noticed that their horses were small and in poor +condition. We were soon out of the village and marching along a +splendid road.</p> + +<p>The day was bright and sunny, but a searching wind blew straight +in our faces and made travelling difficult. It seemed to beat +unmercifully on my sore shoulder, and I held my right wrist with +my left hand, to keep the weight off my shoulder all I could.</p> + +<p>I had not gone far when I began to grow weak and dizzy. The thirst +was the worst; my tongue was dry and swollen, and it felt like a +cocoa doormat. I could see rings of light wherever I looked, and +the ground seemed to come up in waves. A guard who rode near me had +a water-bottle beside him which dripped water. The cork was not in +tight as it should have been, and the sight of these drops of water +seemed to madden me. I begged him for a drink, and pointed to my +parched tongue; but he refused, and rode ahead as if the sight of +me annoyed him!</p> + +<p>Ahead of us I could see the smoke of a large town, and I told myself +over and over again that there would be lots of water there, and food +and clean clothes, and in this way I kept myself alive until we +reached Roulers.</p> +<a name="2HCH0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER III +</h2> +<h3> +INTO GERMANY +</h3> + +<p>Roulers is a good-sized town in West Flanders, of about thirty +thousand population, much noted for its linen manufacture; and has a +great church of St. Michael with a very high tower, which we could +see for miles. But I do not remember much about the look of the town, +for I could hardly drag my feet. It seemed as if every step would be +my last. But I held on some way, until we reached the stopping-place, +which happened to be an unused school. The men who had not been +wounded had arrived several hours ahead of us.</p> + +<p>When, at last, I sat down on one of the benches, the whole place +seemed to float by me. Nothing would stand still. The sensation was +like the water dizziness which makes one feel he is being rapidly +propelled upstream. But after sitting awhile, it passed, and I began +to recognize some of our fellows. Frost, of my own battalion, was +there, and when I told him I had had nothing to eat since the early +morning of the day before, he immediately produced a hardtack biscuit +and scraped out the bottom of his jam tin. They had been served with +a ration of war-bread, and several of the boys offered me a share of +their scanty allowance, but the first mouthful was all I could take. +It was sour, heavy, and stale.</p> + +<p>The school pump had escaped the fate of the last pump I had seen, and +was in good working order, and its asthmatic creaking as it brought +up the stream of water was music in my ears. We went out in turns and +drank like thirsty cattle. I drank until my jaws were stiff as if +with mumps, and my ears ached, and in a few minutes my legs were tied +in cramps.</p> + +<p>While I was vainly trying to rub them out with my one good hand, Fred +McKelvey came up and told me a sure cure for leg-cramp. It is to turn +the toes up as far as possible, and straighten out the legs, and it +worked a cure for me. He said he had taken the cramps out of his legs +this way when he was in the water.</p> + +<p>I remember some of the British Columbia boys who were there. +Sergeants Potentier, George Fitz, and Mudge, of Grand Forks; Reid, +Diplock, and Johnson, of Vancouver; Munroe and Wildblood, of +Rossland; Keith, Palmer, Larkins, Scott, and Croak. Captain +Scudamore, my Company Captain, came over to where I sat, and kindly +inquired about my wounds. He wrote down my father's address, too, +and said he would try to get a letter to him.</p> + +<p>There was a house next door—quite a fine house with a neat paling +and long, shuttered windows, at which the vines were beginning to +grow. It looked to be in good condition, except that part of the +verandah had been torn away. The shutters were closed on its long, +graceful windows, giving it the appearance of a tall, stately woman +in heavy mourning.</p> + +<p>When we were at the pump, we heard a gentle tapping, and, looking up, +we saw a very handsome dark-eyed Belgian woman at one of the windows. +Instinctively we saluted, and quick as a flash she held a Union Jack +against the pane!</p> + +<p>A cheer broke from us involuntarily, and the guards sprang to +attention, suspecting trouble. But the flag was gone as quickly as +it came, and when we looked again, the shutters were closed and the +deep, waiting silence had settled down once more on the stately house +of shutters.</p> + +<p>But to us it had become suddenly possessed of a living soul! The +flash of those sad black eyes, as well as the glimpse of the flag, +seemed to call to us to carry on! They typified to us exactly what +we were fighting for!</p> + +<p>After the little incident of the flag, it was wonderful how bright +and happy we felt. Of course, I know, the ministrations of the pump +helped, for we not only drank all we wanted, but most of the boys had +a wash, too; but we just needed to be reminded once in awhile of what +the real issues of the war were.</p> + +<p>Later in the day, after we had been examined by another medical man, +who dressed our wounds very skillfully, and gently, too, we came back +to the school, and found there two heavily veiled Belgian women. They +had bars of chocolate for us, for which we were very grateful. They +were both in deep mourning, and seemed to have been women of high +social position, but their faces were very pale and sad, and when +they spoke their voices were reedy and broken, and their eyes were +black pools of misery. Some of the boys afterwards told me that their +daughters had been carried off by the Germans, and their husbands +shot before their eyes.</p> + +<p>I noticed the absence of children and young girls on the streets. +There were only old men and women, it seemed, and the faces of these +were sad beyond expression. There were no outbursts of grief; they +seemed like people whose eyes were cried dry, but whose spirits were +still unbroken.</p> + +<p>Later in the day we were taken to the station, to take the train for +the prison-camp at Giessen. Of course, they did not tell us where we +were going. They did not squander information on us or satisfy our +curiosity, if they could help it.</p> + +<p>The station was full of people when we got there, and there seemed +to be a great deal of eating done at the stations. This was more +noticeable still in German stations, as I saw afterwards.</p> + +<p>Our mode of travelling was by the regular prisoner train which had +lately—quite lately—been occupied by horses. It had two small, +dirty windows, and the floor was bare of everything but dirt. We were +dumped into it—not like sardines, for they fit comfortably together, +but more like cordwood that is thrown together without being piled. +If we had not had arms or legs or heads, there would have been just +room for our bodies, but as it was, everybody was in everybody's way, +and as many of us were wounded, and all of us were tired and hungry, +we were not very amiable with each other.</p> + +<p>I tried to stand up, but the jolting of the car made me dizzy, and +so I doubled up on the floor, and I don't know how many people sat +on me. I remember one of the boys I knew, who was beside me on the +floor, Fairy Strachan. He had a bad wound in his chest, given him by +a dog of a German guard, who prodded him with a bayonet after he was +captured, for no reason at all. Fortunately the bayonet struck a rib, +and so the wound was not deep, but not having been dressed, it was +very painful.</p> + +<p>I could not sleep at all that night, for the air was stifling, and +somebody's arm or foot or head was always bumping into me. I wonder +if Robinson Crusoe ever remembered to be thankful for fresh air and +room to stretch himself! We asked the guards for water, for we soon +grew very thirsty, and when we stopped at a station, one of the boys, +looking out, saw the guard coming with a pail of water, and cried +out, "Here's water—boys!" The thought of a drink put new life in us, +and we scrambled to our feet. It was water, all right, and plenty +of it, but it was boiling hot and we could not drink it; and we +could not tell from the look of opaque stupidity on the face of the +guard whether he did it intentionally or not. He may have been a +boiling-water-before-meals advocate. He looked balmy enough for +anything!</p> +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/24.jpg" alt="Officers' Quarters in a German Military Prison"> +<br><i>Officers' Quarters in a German Military Prison</i> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> + +<p>At some of the stations the civilians standing on the platform filled +our water-bottles for us, but it wasn't enough. We had only two +water-bottles in the whole car. However, at Cologne, a boy came +quickly to the car window at our call, and filled our water-bottles +from a tap, over and over again. He would run as fast as he could +from the tap to the window, and left a bottle filling at the tap +while he made the trip. In this way every man in the car got enough +to drink, and this blue-eyed, shock-headed lad will ever live in +grateful memory.</p> + +<p>The following night after midnight we reached Giessen, and were +unloaded and marched through dark streets to the prison-camp, which +is on the outskirts of the city. We were put into a dimly lighted +hut, stale and foul-smelling, too, and when we put up the windows, +some of our own Sergeants objected on account of the cold, and shut +them down. Well, at least we had room if we hadn't air, and we +huddled together and slept, trying to forget what we used to believe +about the need of fresh air.</p> + +<p>As soon as the morning came, I went outside and watched a dull red, +angry sky flushing toward sunrise. Red in the morning sky denotes +wind, it is said, but we didn't need signs that morning to proclaim a +windy day, for the wind already swept the courtyard, and whipped the +green branches of the handsome trees which marked the driveway. My +spirits rose at once when I filled my lungs with air and looked up at +the scudding clouds which were being dogged across the sky by the wind.</p> + +<p>A few straggling prisoners came out to wash at the tap in the +courtyard, and I went over to join them, for I was grimy, too, with +the long and horrible ride. With one hand I could make but little +progress, and was spreading the dirt rather than removing it, until a +friendly Belgian, seeing my difficulty, took his cake of soap and his +towel, and washed me well.</p> + +<p>We were then given a ration of bread about two inches thick, and a +drink of something that tasted like water boiled in a coffee-pot, and +after this we were divided into ten groups. Those of us who knew each +other tried hard to stay together, but we soon learned to be careful +not to appear to be too anxious, for the guards evidently had +instructions to break up previous acquaintanceships.</p> + +<p>The wounded were marched across the compound to the "Revier," a dull, +gray, solid-looking building, where again we were examined and +graded. Those seriously wounded were sent to the lazaret, or hospital +proper. I, being one of the more serious cases, was marched farther +on to the lazaret, and we were all taken to a sort of waiting-room, +and taken off in groups to the general bathroom to have a bath, +before getting into the hospital clothes.</p> + +<p>With me was a young bugler of the Fifth Royal Highlanders, Montreal, +a little chap not more than fifteen, whose pink cheeks and curly hair +would have made an appeal to any human being: he looked so small and +lonesome and far from home. A smart young military doctor jostled +against the boy's shattered arm, eliciting from him a cry of pain, +whereupon he began to make fun of the little bugler, by marching +around him, making faces. It gave me a queer feeling to see a +grown-up man indulging in the tactics of a spoiled child, but I have +heard many people express the opinion, in which I now heartily agree, +that the Germans are a childish sort of people. They are stupidly +boastful, inordinately fond of adulation and attention, and peevish +and sulky when they cannot have their own way. I tried to imagine how +a young German boy would have been treated by one of our doctors, and +laughed to myself at the absurdity of the thought that they would +make faces at him!</p> + +<p>The young bugler was examined before I was, and as he was marched out +of the room, the doctor who had made the faces grabbed at his kilt +with an insulting gesture, at which the lad attempted to kick him. +The doctor dodged the kick, and the Germans who were in the room +roared with laughter. I hated them more that minute than I had up to +that time.</p> + +<p>The Belgian attendants who looked after the bathing of us were kind +and polite. One of them could speak a little English, and he tried +hard to get information regarding his country from us.</p> + +<p>"Is it well?" he asked us eagerly. "My country—is it well?"</p> + +<p>We thought of the shell-scarred country, with its piles of +smouldering ashes, its pallid women with their haunted faces, the +deathlike silence of the ruined streets. We thought of these things, +but we didn't tell him of them. We told him the war was going on in +great shape: the Allies were advancing all along the line, and were +going to be in Berlin by Christmas. It was worth the effort to see +his little pinched face brighten. He fairly danced at his work +after that, and when I saw him afterwards, he eagerly asked—"My +country—is it well?" I do not know why he thought I knew, or maybe +he didn't think so. But, anyway, I did my best. I gave him a glowing +account of the Allied successes, and painted a gloomy future for the +Kaiser, and I again had my reward, in his glowing face.</p> + +<p>Everything we had was taken from us except shoes, socks, cap, and +handkerchief, and we did not see them again: neither did we get +another bath, although I was six weeks in the hospital.</p> + +<p>The hospital clothes consisted of a pajama suit of much-faded +flannelette, but I was glad to get into it, and doubly glad to get +rid of my shirt and tunic, which were stiff on one side with dried +blood. From the lazaret, where I had my bath, I could see the gun +platform with its machine guns, commanding every part of the Giessen +Prison. The guard pointed it out to me, to quiet my nerves, I +suppose, and to scare me out of any thought of insubordination. +However, he need not have worried—I was not thinking of escaping +just then or starting an insurrection either. I was quite content to +lie down on the hard straw bed and pull the quilt over me and take +a good long rest.</p> +<a name="2HCH0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER IV +</h2> +<h3> +THE LAZARET +</h3> + +<p>The lazaret in which I was put was called "M.G.K.," which is to say +Machine Gun Company, and it was exactly like the other hospital huts. +There were some empty beds, and the doctor seemed to have plenty of +time to attend to us. For a few days, before my appetite began to +make itself felt, I enjoyed the rest and quiet, and slept most of the +time. But at the end of a week I began to get restless.</p> + +<p>The Frenchman whose bed was next to mine fascinated me with his +piercing black eyes, unnaturally bright and glittering. I knew +the look in his eyes; I had seen it—after the battle—when the +wounded were coming in, and looked at us as they were carried by on +stretchers. Some had this look—some hadn't. Those who had it never +came back.</p> + +<p>And sometimes before the fighting, when the boys were writing home, +the farewell letter that would not be mailed unless—"something +happened"—I've seen that look in their faces, and I knew... just as +they did... the letter would be mailed!</p> + +<p>Emile, the Frenchman, had the look!</p> + +<p>He was young, and had been strong and handsome, although his face was +now thin and pinched and bloodless, like a slum child's; but he hung +on to life pitifully. He hated to die—I knew that by the way he +fought for breath, and raged when he knew for sure that it was going +from him.</p> + +<p>In the middle of his raging, he would lean over his bed and peer +into my face, crying "L'Anglaise—l'Anglaise," with his black eyes +snapping like dagger points. I often had to turn away and put my +pillow over my eyes.</p> + +<p>But one afternoon, in the middle of it, the great silence fell on +him, and Emile's struggles were over.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>Our days were all the same. Nobody came to see us; we had no books. +There was a newspaper which was brought to us every two weeks, +printed in English, but published in German, with all the German fine +disregard for the truth. It said it was "printed for Americans in +Europe." The name of it was "The Continental Times," but I never +heard it called anything but "The Continental Liar." Still, it was +print, and we read it; I remember some of the sentences. It spoke of +an uneasy feeling in England "which the presence of turbaned Hindoos +and Canadian cowboys has failed to dispel." Another one said, "The +Turks are operating the Suez Canal in the interests of neutral +shipping." "Fleet-footed Canadians" was an expression frequently +used, and the insinuation was that the Canadians often owed their +liberty to their speed.</p> + +<p>But we managed to make good use of this paper. I got one of the +attendants, Ivan, a good-natured, flat-footed Russian, to bring me +a pair of scissors, and the boy in the cot next to mine had a stub +of pencil, and between us we made a deck of cards out of the white +spaces of the paper, and then we played solitaire, time about, on +our quilts.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>I got my first parcel about the end of May, from a Mrs. Andrews whose +son I knew in Trail and who had entertained me while I was in London. +I had sent a card to her as soon as I was taken. The box was like a +visit from Santa Claus. I remember the "Digestive Biscuits," and how +good they tasted after being for a month on the horrible diet of +acorn coffee, black bread, and the soup which no word that is fit for +publication could describe.</p> + +<p>I also received a card from my sister, Mrs. Meredith, of Edmonton, +about this time. I was listed "Missing" on April 29th, and she sent a +card addressed to me with "Canadian Prisoner of War, Germany," on it, +on the chance that I was a prisoner. We were allowed to write a card +once a week and two letters a month; and we paid for these. My people +in Canada heard from me on June 9th.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>I cannot complain of the treatment I received in the lazaret. The +doctor took a professional interest in me, and one day brought in two +other doctors, and proudly exhibited how well I could move my arm. +However, I still think if he had massaged my upper arm, it would be +of more use to me now than it is.</p> + +<p>Chloroform was not used in this hospital; at least I never saw any +of it. One young Englishman, who had a bullet in his thigh, cried +out in pain when the surgeon was probing for it. The German doctor +sarcastically remarked, "Oh, I thought the English were <i>brave</i>."</p> + +<p>To which the young fellow, lifting his tortured face, proudly +answered, "The English <i>are</i> brave—and <i>merciful</i>—and they use +chloroform for painful operations, and do this for the German +prisoners, too."</p> + +<p>But there was no chloroform used for him, though the operation was +a horrible one.</p> + +<p>There was another young English boy named Jellis, who came in after +the fight of May 8th, who seemed to be in great pain the first few +days. Then suddenly he became quiet, and we hoped his pain had +lessened; but we soon found out he had lock-jaw, and in a few days +he died.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>From the pasteboard box in which my first parcel came, I made a +checker-board, and my next-door neighbor and I had many a game.</p> + +<p>In about three weeks I was allowed to go out in the afternoons, and +I walked all I could in the narrow space, to try to get back all my +strength, for one great hope sustained me—I would make a dash for +liberty the first chance I got, and I knew that the better I felt, +the better my chances would be. I still had my compass, and I guarded +it carefully. Everything of this nature was supposed to be taken from +us at the lazaret, but I managed, through the carelessness of the +guard, to retain the compass.</p> + +<p>The little corral in which we were allowed to walk had a barbed-wire +fence around it—a good one, too, eight strands, and close together. +One side of the corral was a high wall, and in the enclosure on the +other side of the wall were the lung patients.</p> + +<p>One afternoon I saw a young Canadian boy looking wistfully through +the gate, and I went over and spoke to him. He was the only one who +could speak English among the "lungers." The others were Russians, +French, and Belgians. The boy was dying of loneliness as well as +consumption. He came from Ontario, though I forget the name of the +town.</p> + +<p>"Do you think it will be over soon?" he asked me eagerly. "Gee, I'm +sick of it—and wish I could get home. Last night I dreamed about +going home. I walked right in on them—dirt and all—with this +tattered old tunic—and a dirty face. Say, it didn't matter—my +mother just grabbed me—and it was dinner-time—they were eating +turkey—a great big gobbler, all brown—and steaming hot—and I sat +down in my old place—it was ready for me—and just began on a leg +of turkey..."</p> + +<p>A spasm of coughing seized him, and he held to the bars of the gate +until it passed.</p> + +<p>Then he went on: "Gee, it was great—it was all so clear. I can't +believe that I am not going! I think the war must be nearly over—"</p> + +<p>Then the cough came again—that horrible, strangling cough—and I +knew that it would be only in his dreams that he would ever see his +home! For to him, at least, the war was nearly over, and the day of +peace at hand.</p> + +<p>Before I left the lazaret, the smart-Alec young German doctor who had +made faces at the little bugler blew gaily in one day and breezed +around our beds, making pert remarks to all of us. I knew him the +minute he came in the door, and was ready for him when he passed my +bed.</p> + +<p>He stopped and looked at me, and made some insulting remark about +my beard, which was, I suppose, quite a sight, after a month of +uninterrupted growth. Then he began to make faces at me.</p> + +<p>I raised myself on my elbow, and regarded him with the icy composure +of an English butler. Scorn and contempt were in my glance, as much +as I could put in; for I realized that it was hard for me to look +dignified and imposing, in a hospital pajama suit of dirt-colored +flannelette, with long wisps of amber-colored hair falling around +my face, and a thick red beard long enough now to curl back like a +drake's tail.</p> + +<p>I knew I looked like a valentine, but my stony British stare did the +trick in spite of all handicaps, and he turned abruptly and went out.</p> + +<p>The first week of June, I was considered able to go back to the +regular prison-camp. A German guard came for me, and I stepped out in +my pajamas to the outer room where our uniforms were kept. There were +many uniforms there—smelling of the disinfectants—with the owners' +names on them, but mine was missing. The guard tried to make me take +one which was far too short for me, but I refused. I knew I looked +bad enough, without having elbow sleeves and short pants; and it +began to look as if I should have to go to bed until some good-sized +patient came in.</p> + +<p>But my guard suddenly remembered something, and went into another +hut, bringing back the uniform of "D. Smith, Vancouver." The name +was written on the band of the trousers. D. Smith had died the day +before, from lung trouble. The uniform had been disinfected, and hung +in wrinkles. My face had the hospital pallor, and, with my long hair +and beard, I know I looked "snaggy" like a potato that has been +forgotten in a dark corner of the cellar.</p> + +<p>When we came out of the lazaret, the few people we met on the road to +the prison-camp broke into broad grins; some even turned and looked +after us.</p> +<a name="2HCH0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER V +</h2> +<h3> +THE PRISON-CAMP +</h3> + +<p>The guard took me to Camp 6, Barrack A, where I found some of the +boys I knew. They were in good spirits, and had fared in the matter +of food much the same as I had. We agreed exactly in our diagnosis +of the soup.</p> + +<p>I was shown my mattress and given two blankets; also a metal bowl, +knife, and fork.</p> + +<p>Outside the hut, on the shady side, I went and sat down with some of +the boys who, like myself, were excused from labor. Dent, of Toronto, +was one of the party, and he was engaged in the occupation known as +"reading his shirt"—and on account of the number of shirts being +limited to one for each man, while the "reading" was going on, he sat +in a boxer's uniform, wrapped only in deep thought.</p> + +<p>Now, it happened that I did not acquire any "cooties" while I was in +the army, and of course in the lazaret we were kept clean, so this +was my first close acquaintanceship with them. My time of exemption +was over, though, for by night I had them a-plenty.</p> + +<p>I soon found out that insect powder was no good. I think it just made +them sneeze, and annoyed them a little. We washed our solitary shirts +regularly, but as we had only cold water, it did not kill the eggs, +and when we hung the shirt out in the sun, the eggs came out in full +strength, young, hearty, and hungry. It was a new generation we had +to deal with, and they had all the objectionable qualities of their +ancestors, and a few of their own.</p> + +<p>Before long, the Canadian Red Cross parcels began to come, and I got +another shirt—a good one, too, only the sleeves were too long. I +carefully put in a tuck, for they came well over my hands. But I soon +found that these tucks became a regular rendezvous for the "cooties," +and I had to let them out. The Red Cross parcels also contained +towels, toothbrushes, socks, and soap, and all these were very +useful.</p> + +<p>After a few weeks, with the lice increasing every day, we raised such +a row about them that the guards took us to the fumigator. This was +a building of three rooms, which stood by itself in the compound. +In the first room we undressed and hung all our clothes, and our +blankets too, on huge hooks which were placed on a sliding framework. +This framework was then pushed into the oven and the clothes were +thoroughly baked. We did not let our boots, belts, or braces go, as +the heat would spoil the leather. We then walked out into the next +room and had a shower bath, and after that went into the third room +at the other side of the oven, and waited until the framework was +pushed through to us, when we took our clothes from the hooks and +dressed.</p> + +<p>This was a sure cure for the "cooties," and for a few days, at least, +we enjoyed perfect freedom from them. Every week after this we had a +bath, and it was compulsory, too.</p> +<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/38.jpg"alt="Giessen Prison-camp"> +<br><i>Giessen Prison-Camp</i> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> + +<p>As prison-camps go, Giessen is a good one. The place is well drained; +the water is excellent; the sanitary conditions are good, too; the +sleeping accommodations are ample, there being no upper berths such +as exist in all the other camps I have seen. It is the "Show-Camp," +to which visitors are brought, who then, not having had to eat the +food, write newspaper articles telling how well Germany treats her +prisoners. If these people could see some of the other camps that I +have seen, the articles would have to be modified.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>News of the trouble in Ireland sifted through to us in the +prison-camp. The first I heard of it was a letter in the "Continental +Times," by Roger Casement's sister, who had been in Germany and +had visited some of the prison-camps, and was so pleased with the +generous treatment Germany was according her prisoners. She was +especially charmed with the soup!!! And the letter went on to tell +of the Irish Brigade that was being formed in Germany to fight the +tyrant England. Every Irish prisoner who would join was to be given +the privilege of fighting against England. Some British prisoners +who came from Limburg, a camp about thirty miles from Giessen, told +us more about it. Roger Casement, himself, had gone there to gather +recruits, and several Irishmen had joined and were given special +privileges accordingly. However, there were many Irishmen who did +<i>not</i> join, and who kept a list of the recruits—for future +reference, when the war was over!</p> + +<p>The Irishmen in our camp were approached, but they remained loyal.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>The routine of the camp was as follows: Reveille sounded at six. We +got up and dressed and were given a bowl of coffee. Those who were +wise saved their issue of bread from the night before, and ate it +with the coffee. There was a roll-call right after the coffee, when +every one was given a chance to volunteer for work. At noon there was +soup, and another roll-call. We answered the roll-call, either with +the French word "Présent" or the German word "Hier," pronounced the +same as our word. Then at five o'clock there was an issue of black +bread made mostly from potato flour.</p> + +<p>I was given a light job of keeping the space between A Barrack and B +Barrack clean, and I made a fine pretense of being busy, for it let +me out of "drill," which I detested, for they gave the commands in +German, and it went hard with us to have to salute their officers.</p> + +<p>On Sundays there was a special roll-call, when every one had to give +a full account of himself. The prisoners then had the privilege of +asking for any work they wanted, and if the Germans could supply it, +it was given.</p> + +<p>None of us were keen on working; not but what we would much rather +work than be idle, but for the uncomfortable thought that we were +helping the enemy. There were iron-works near by, where Todd, +Whittaker, Dent, little Joe, and some others were working, and it +happened that one day Todd and one of the others, when going to have +teeth pulled at the dentist's, saw shells being shipped away, and +upon inquiry found the steel came from the iron mines where they were +working. When this became known, the boys refused to work! Every sort +of bullying was tried on them for two days at the mines, but they +still refused. They were then sent back to Giessen and sentenced to +eighteen months' punishment at Butzbach—all but Dent, who managed +some way to fool the doctor pretending he was sick!</p> + +<p>That they fared badly there, I found out afterwards, though I never +saw any of them.</p> + +<p>Some of the boys from our hut worked on the railroad, and some went +to work in the chemical works at Griesheim, which have since been +destroyed by bombs dropped by British airmen.</p> + +<p>John Keith, who was working on the railroad,—one of the best-natured +and inoffensive boys in our hut,—came in one night with his face +badly swollen and bruised. He had laughed, it seemed, at something +which struck him as being funny, and the guard had beaten him over +the head with the butt of his rifle. One of our guards, a fine old, +brown-eyed man called "Sank," told the guard who had done this what +he thought of him. "Sank" was the "other" kind of German, and did all +he could to make our lives pleasant. I knew that "Sank" was calling +down the guard, by his expression and his gestures, and his frequent +use of the word "blödsinnig."</p> + +<p>Another time one of the fellows from our hut, who was a member of a +working party, was shot through the legs by the guard, who claimed he +was trying to escape, and after that there were no more working +parties allowed for a while.</p> + +<p>Each company had its own interpreter, Russian, French, or English. +Our interpreter was a man named Scott from British Columbia, an +Englishman who had received part of his education at Heidelberg. From +him I learned a good deal about the country through which I hoped +to travel. Heidelberg is situated between Giessen and the Swiss +boundary, and so was of special interest to me. I made a good-sized +map, and marked in all the information I could dig out of Scott.</p> + +<p>The matter of escaping was in my mind all the time, but I was careful +to whom I spoke, for some fellows' plans had been frustrated by their +unwise confidences.</p> + +<p>The possession of a compass is an indication that the subject of +"escaping" has been thought of, and the question, "Have you a +compass?" is the prison-camp way of saying, "What do you think of +making a try?"</p> + +<p>One day, a fellow called Bromley who came from Toronto, and who was +captured at the same time that I was, asked me if I had a compass. He +was a fine big fellow, with a strong, attractive face, and I liked +him, from the first. He was a fair-minded, reasonable chap, and we +soon became friends. We began to lay plans, and when we could get +together, talked over the prospects, keeping a sharp lookout for +eavesdroppers.</p> +<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/42.jpg" alt="Tom Bromley / in Red Cross Overcoat With Prison Number And Marked Sleeve"> +<br><i>Tom Bromley In Red Cross overcoat with prison number and marked sleeve</i> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> + +<p>There were difficulties!</p> + +<p>The camp was surrounded by a high board fence, and above the boards, +barbed wire was tightly drawn, to make it uncomfortable for reaching +hands. Inside of this was an ordinary barbed-wire fence through which +we were not allowed to go, with a few feet of "No Man's Land" in +between.</p> + +<p>There were sentry-boxes ever so often, so high that the sentry could +easily look over the camp. Each company was divided from the others +by two barbed-wire fences, and besides this there were the sentries +who walked up and down, armed, of course.</p> + +<p>There were also the guns commanding every bit of the camp, and +occasionally, to drive from us all thought of insurrection, the +Regular Infantry marched through with fixed bayonets. At these times +we were always lined up so we should not miss the gentle little +lesson!</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>One day, a Zeppelin passed over the camp, and we all hurried out +to look at it. It was the first one I had seen, and as it rode +majestically over us, I couldn't help but think of the terrible use +that had been made of man's mastery of the air. We wondered if it +carried bombs. Many a wish for its destruction was expressed—and +unexpressed. Before it got out of sight, it began to show signs of +distress, as if the wishes were taking effect, and after considerable +wheeling and turning it came back.</p> + +<p>Ropes were lowered and the men came down. It was secured to the +ground, and floated serenely beside the wood adjoining the camp.... +The wishes were continued....</p> + +<p>During the afternoon, a sudden storm swept across the camp—rain and +wind with such violence that we were all driven indoors....</p> + +<p>When we came out after a few minutes—probably half an hour—the +Zeppelin had disappeared. We found out afterwards that it had broken +away from its moorings, and, dashing against the high trees, had been +smashed to kindling wood; and this news cheered us wonderfully!</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>A visitor came to the camp one day, and, accompanied by three or four +officers, made the rounds. He spoke to a group of us who were outside +of the hut, asking us how many Canadians there were in Giessen. He +said he thought there were about nine hundred Canadians in Germany +altogether. He had no opportunity for private conversation with us, +for the German officers did not leave him for a second; and although +he made it clear that he would like to speak to us alone this +privilege was not granted. Later we found out it was Ambassador James +W. Gerard.</p> + +<p>It soon became evident that there were spies in the camp. Of course, +we might have known that no German institution could get along +without spies. Spies are the bulwark of the German nation; so in the +Giessen camp there were German spies of all nationalities, including +Canadian.</p> + +<p>But we soon saw, too, that the spies were not working overtime on +their job; they just brought in a little gossip once in a while—just +enough to save their faces and secure a soft snap for themselves.</p> + +<p>One of these, a Frenchman named George Clerque, a Sergeant Major in +the French Army, was convinced that he could do better work if he +had a suit of civilian clothes; and as he had the confidence of the +prison authorities, the suit was given him. He wore it around for a +few days, wormed a little harmless confidence out of some of his +countrymen, and then one day quietly walked out of the front +gate—and was gone!</p> + +<p>Being in civilian dress, it seemed quite likely that he would reach +his destination, and as days went on, and there was no word of him, +we began to hope that he had arrived in France.</p> + +<p>The following notice was put up regarding his escape:</p> +<blockquote> +NOTICE! +</blockquote> + +<blockquote>Owing to the evasions recently done, we beg to inform the prisoners +of war of the following facts. Until present time, all the prisoners +who were evased, have been catched. The French Sergt. Major George +Clerque, speaking a good German and being in connection in Germany +with some people being able to favorise his evasion, has been +retaken. The Company says again, in the personal interests of the +prisoners, that any evasion give place to serious punition (minima) +fortnight of rigourous imprisonment after that they go in the +"Strafbaracke" for an indeterminate time.</blockquote> + +<blockquote>GIESSEN, den 19th July, 1915.</blockquote> + +<p>Although the notice said he had been captured we held to the hope +that he had not, for we knew the German way of using the truth only +when it suits better than anything they can frame themselves. They +have no prejudice against the truth. It stands entirely on its own +merits. If it suits them, they will use it, but the truth must not +expect any favors.</p> + +<p>The German guards told us quite often that no one ever got out of +Germany alive, and we were anxious to convince them that they were +wrong. One day when the mail came in, a friend of George Clerque +told us he had written from France, and there was great, but, of +necessity, quiet rejoicing.</p> + +<p>That night Bromley and I decided that we would volunteer for farm +service, if we could get taken to Rossbach, where some of the other +boys had been working, for Rossbach was eighteen miles south of +Giessen—on the way to Switzerland. We began to save food from our +parcels, and figure out distances on the map which I had made.</p> + +<p>The day came when we were going to volunteer—Sunday at roll-call. Of +course, we did not wish to appear eager, and were careful not to be +seen together too much. Suddenly we were called to attention, and a +stalwart German soldier marched solemnly into the camp. Behind him +came two more, with somebody between them, and another soldier +brought up the rear. The soldiers carried their rifles and full +equipment, and marched by in front of the huts.</p> + +<p>We pressed forward, full of curiosity, and there beheld the tiredest, +dustiest, most woe-begone figure of a man, whose clothes were in +rags, and whose boots were so full of holes they seemed ready to drop +off him. He was handcuffed and walked wearily, with downcast eyes—</p> + +<p>It was George Clerque!</p> +<a name="image-0004"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/47.jpg" alt="German Prison Stamp"> +<br><i>German Prison Stamp</i> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<a name="2HCH0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER VI +</h2> +<h3> +ROSSBACH +</h3> + +<p>It was September 25th that we left the prison-camp and came to +Rossbach—eighteen miles south on the railway. The six of us, with +the German guard, had a compartment to ourselves, and as there was +a map on the wall which showed the country south of Rossbach, over +which we hoped to travel, I studied it as hard as I could without +attracting the attention of the guard, and afterwards entered on my +map the information I had gained.</p> + +<p>It was rather a pretty country we travelled through, with small farms +and fairly comfortable-looking buildings. The new houses are built of +frame or brick, and are just like our own, but the presence of the +old stone buildings, gray and dilapidated, and old enough to belong +to the time of the Crusaders, kept us reminded that we were far from +home.</p> + +<p>However, we were in great humor that morning. Before us was a Great +Adventure; there were dangers and difficulties in the way, but at +the end of the road was Liberty! And that made us forget how rough +the going was likely to be. Besides, at the present time we were +travelling south—toward Switzerland. We were on our way.</p> + +<p>At Wetzlar, one of the stations near Giessen, a kind-faced old German +came to the window and talked to us in splendid English.</p> + +<p>"I would like to give you something, boys," he said, "but"—he +shrugged his shoulders—"you know—I daren't."</p> + +<p>The guard pretended not to hear a word, and at that moment was waving +his hand to a group of girls—just the regular station-goers, who +meet the trains in Canada. This was, I think, the only place I saw +them, for the women of Germany, young and old, are not encouraged to +be idle or frivolous.</p> + +<p>"I just wish I could give you something," the old man repeated, +feeling in his pocket as if looking for a cigar.</p> + +<p>Then Clarke, one of our boys, leaned out of the window and said, +"I'll tell you what we would like best of all, old man—if you +happen to have half a dozen of them on you—we'll take tickets to +Canada—six will do—if you happen to have them right with you! +And we're ready to start right now, too!"</p> + +<p>The German laughed and said, "You'd better try to forget about +Canada, boys."</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>The guards who brought us to Rossbach went straight back to Giessen, +after handing us over to the guards there, and getting, no doubt, an +official receipt for us, properly stamped and signed.</p> + +<p>Rossbach has a new town and an old, and, the station being in the new +town, we were led along the road to the old town, where the farming +people live. It is an old village, with the houses, pig-pens, and +cow-stables all together, and built so close that it would be quite +possible to look out of the parlor window and see how the pigs are +enjoying their evening meal or whether the cow has enough bedding.</p> + +<p>There have been no improvements there for a hundred years, except +that they have electric lighting everywhere, even in the pig-pens. +There were no lights in the streets, though, I noticed, and I saw +afterwards that a street light would be a foolish extravagance, +for the people go to bed at dark. They have the real idea of +daylight-saving, and do not let any of it escape them.</p> + +<p>The guards took us around to the houses, and we created considerable +interest, for strangers are a sensation at Rossbach; and, besides, +prisoners are cheap laborers, and the thrifty German farmer does not +like to miss a bargain.</p> + +<p>The little fellows were the first choice, for they looked easier to +manage than those of us who were bigger. Clarke was taken by a woman +whose husband was at the front, and who had five of as dirty children +as I ever saw at one time. We asked one little boy his age, which he +said was "fünf," but we thought he must be older—no child could get +as dirty as that in five years!</p> + +<p>I was left until almost the last, and when a pleasant-looking old +gentleman appeared upon the scene, I decided I would take a hand in +the choosing, so I said, "I'll go with you."</p> + +<p>I was afraid there might be another large family, all with colds in +their heads, like the five which Clarke had drawn, waiting for me, so +that prompted me to choose this benevolent-looking old grandfather.</p> + +<p>The old man took me home with him to one of the best houses in the +village, although there was not much difference between them. His +house was made of plaster which had been whitewashed, and had in it a +good-sized kitchen, where the family really lived, and an inner room +which contained a large picture of the Royal Family, all in uniform, +and very gorgeous uniforms, too. Even the young daughter had a +uniform which looked warlike enough for a Lieutenant-Colonel's. There +was also a desk in this room, where the father of the family—for +the old man who brought me in was the grandfather—conducted his +business. He was some sort of a clerk, probably the reeve of the +municipality, and did not work on the farm at all. There was a fine +home-made carpet on the floor, but the room was bare and cheerless, +with low ceiling, and inclined to be dark.</p> + +<p>When we entered the kitchen, the family greeted me cordially, and I +sat down to dinner with them. There were three girls and one brother, +who was a soldier and home on leave.</p> + +<p>Bromley went to work for a farmer on the other side of the +village, but I saw him each night, for we all went back to a large +three-storied building, which may once have been a boarding-house, to +sleep each night, the guard escorting us solemnly both to and from +work each day. This was a very good arrangement for us, too, for we +had to be through work and have our supper over by eight o'clock each +night.</p> + +<p>After our prison diet, the meals we had here were ample and almost +epicurean. We had soup—the real thing—made from meat, with plenty +of vegetables; coffee with milk, but no sugar; cheese, homemade but +very good; meat, both beef and pork; eggs in abundance; but never any +pastry; and lots of potatoes, boiled in their skins, and fried.</p> + +<p>There were plenty of fruit-trees, too, in Rossbach, growing along the +road, and, strange to say, unmolested by the youngsters. The trees +appear to belong to the municipality, and the crop is sold by auction +each year to the highest bidder. They are quite ornamental, too, +standing in a straight row on each side of the road.</p> + +<p>The farmers who lived in this village followed the oldest methods of +farming I had ever seen, though I saw still more primitive methods in +Hanover. Vegetables, particularly potatoes and mangels, were grown in +abundance, and I saw small fields of stubble, though what the grain +was I do not know. I saw a threshing-machine drawn by a tractor going +along the road, and one of the girls told me it was made in England. +The woman who had the farm next to the one I was on was a widow, +her husband having been killed in the war, and she had no horses at +all, and cultivated her tiny acres with a team of cows. It seems +particularly consistent with German character to make cows work! They +hate to see anything idle, and particularly of the female sex.</p> + +<p>Each morning we rode out to the field, for the farms are scattered +over a wide area, and three-acre and five-acre fields are the average +size. The field where we went to work digging potatoes was about +a mile distant from the house, and when I say we rode, I mean the +brother and I—the girls walked. I remonstrated at this arrangement, +but the girls themselves seemed to be surprised that it should be +questioned, and the surly young brother growled something at me which +I knew was a reflection on my intelligence.</p> + +<p>When we got into the field and began to dig potatoes, good, +clear-skinned yellow ones, Lena Schmidt, one of the girls, who was a +friend of the family, though not a relation, I think, began to ask me +questions about Canada (they put the accent on the third syllable). +Lena had been to Sweden, so she told me proudly, and had picked up +quite a few English words. She was a good-looking German girl, with +a great head of yellow hair, done in braids around her head. The +girls were all fairly good-looking though much tanned from outdoor +work. Lena had heard women worked in the house, and not outside, in +Canada—was it true?</p> + +<p>I assured her it was true.</p> + +<p>"But," said Lena, "what do they do in house—when bread is made and +dish-wash?"</p> + +<p>I told her our women read books and played the piano and made +themselves pretty clothes and went visiting and had parties, and +sometimes played cards.</p> + +<p>Of course it was not all told as easily as this sounds.</p> + +<p>I could see that Lena was deeply impressed, and so were the two +others when she passed it on. Then she began to question me again.</p> + +<p>"Are there many women in Canada—women in every house—like here?"</p> + +<p>I told her there were not nearly so many women in Canada as here; +indeed, there were not enough to go around, and there were lots of +men who could not get married for that reason.</p> + +<p>When Lena passed that on, excitement reigned, and German questions +were hurled at me! I think the three girls were ready to leave home! +I gently reminded them of the war and the complications it had caused +in the matter of travelling. They threw out their hands with a +gesture of despair—there could be no Canada for them. "Fertig," they +said—which is the word they use to mean "no chance," "no use to try +further."</p> + +<p>Lena, however, having travelled as far as Sweden, and knowing, +therefore, something of the world's ways, was not altogether without +hope.</p> + +<p>"The war—will be some day done!" she said—and we let it go at that.</p> + +<p>Lena began to teach me German, and used current events as the basis +of instruction. Before the end of the first day I was handling +sentences like this—"Herr Schmidt expects to have his young child +christened in the church next Sunday at 2 o'clock, God willing."</p> + +<p>Helene Romisch, the daughter of the house, had a mania for knowing +every one's age, and put the question to me in the first ten minutes +of our acquaintance. She had evidently remembered every answer she +had ever received to her questions, for she told me the age of every +one who passed by on the road, and when there was no one passing she +gave me a list of the family connections of those who had gone, or +those who were likely to go, with full details as to birthdays.</p> + +<p>I think it was Eliza, the other girl, who could speak no English and +had to use Lena as interpreter, who first broached the tender subject +of matrimony.</p> + +<p>Was I married?</p> + +<p>I said, "No."</p> + +<p>Then, after a few minutes' conference—</p> + +<p>Had I a girl?</p> + +<p>"No—I hadn't," I told them.</p> + +<p>Then came a long and heated discussion, and Lena was hard put to it, +with her scanty store of English words, and my recently acquired +German, to frame such a delicate question. I thought I knew what it +was going to be—but I did not raise a hand to help.</p> + +<p>Why hadn't I a girl? Did I not like girls? or what?</p> + +<p>I said I did like girls; that was not the reason. Then all three +talked at once, and I knew a further explanation was going to be +demanded if Lena's English could frame it. This is the form in which +the question came:</p> + +<p>"You have no girl, but you say you like girls; isn't it all right to +have a girl?"</p> + +<p>Then I told them it was quite a proper thing to have a girl; I had no +objections at all; in fact, I might some day have a girl myself.</p> + +<p>Then Lena opened her heart, seeing that I was not a woman-hater, and +told me she had a beau in Sweden; but I gathered from her manner of +telling it that his intentions were somewhat vague yet. Eliza had +already admitted that she had a "fellow," and had shown me his +picture. Helene made a bluff at having one, too, though she did not +seem able to give names or dates. Then Lena, being the spokeswoman, +told me she could get a girl for me, and that the young lady was +going to come out to the potato digging. "She see you carry +water—she like you," declared Lena. This was interesting, too, and +I remembered that when I was carrying water from the town pump the +first day I was there, I had seen a black-eyed young lady of about +sixteen standing in the road, and when I passed she had bade me +"Good-day" in splendid English.</p> + +<p>On Saturday, Fanny Hummel, for that was the black-eyed one's name, +did come out. The three girls had a bad attack of giggles all the +time Fanny and I were talking, for Fanny could speak a little +English, having studied a year at Friedberg. She had a brother in +the army who was an officer, and she told me he could speak English +"perfect." As far as her English would go, she told me about +Friedberg and her studies there, but when I tried to find out what +she thought about the war, I found that Fanny was a properly trained +German girl, and didn't think in matters of this kind.</p> + +<p>When the day's work was over, Fanny and I walked back to town with +the three girls following us in a state of partial collapse from +giggles. That night, Lena wanted to know how things stood. Was Fanny +my girl? I was sorry to break up such a pleasant little romance, but +was compelled to state with brutal frankness that Fanny was not my +girl!</p> + +<p>I do not know how Fanny received this report, which I presumed would +be given to her the next day, for the next day was the one we had +selected for our departure.</p> +<a name="2HCH0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER VII +</h2> +<h3> +THE ESCAPE +</h3> + +<p>Sunday, October 3d, was the day we had chosen as our "going-away" +day. We did no work on Sundays, and so had a full day's rest. +Besides, we had a chance for a bath on Sunday, and knew we needed +every advantage we could get, for it was a long way to Switzerland.</p> + +<p>The day had been sunny and bright, but toward evening big, heavy +clouds rolled up from the southwest, and the darkness came on early. +This. suited our purpose, and it was hard for Bromley and me to keep +our accustomed air of unconcern.</p> + +<p>By a fortunate arrangement, we were occupying a room downstairs in +the old boarding-house, which made our escape less difficult. The +upstairs sleeping-place would hold only three more when the six of us +arrived from Giessen the week previous, and that left three of us for +a downstairs room. For this, Bromley and I, and a young Englishman +called Bherral were chosen.</p> + +<p>The walls of the house were of plaster, and the windows had a double +barring of barbed wire, stapled in; but plaster does not make a very +secure bedding for staples, and we figured it would not be hard to +pry them out.</p> +<a name="image-0005"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/58.jpg" alt="Two Pages from Private Simmons's Diary"> +<br><i>Two Pages from Private Simmons's Diary</i> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> + +<p>There was a light outside which burned all night at the corner of the +house, and by it the windows were brightly illumined. This made our +exit rather difficult. The doors were all locked, and there were +about a dozen guards who slept in another room adjoining ours. Some +of them slept, we knew, and we hoped they all did.</p> + +<p>None of the prisoners at this place had ever attempted to escape, and +so the guard had become less vigilant. I suppose they figured it out +that if any of us were determined to go, we would make the start from +the field where we were working, and where there were no guards at +all.</p> + +<p>But they made a fine bluff at being awake all night, for we heard +them walking up and down in the early evening. However, we reasoned +that they were not any keener on sitting up than any of the rest of +us would be if we didn't have to; and it turned out that our faith +in them was justified.</p> + +<p>Although we did not have to work on Sunday, those who had to work in +the mines had no seventh day of rest, and the night-shift went out +each night about ten-thirty when the day-shift men came in. We had +decided on eleven-thirty as the hour for our departure, giving the +guard one hour in which to settle down after this disturbance.</p> + +<p>We were lying on our mattresses, apparently wrapped in a heavy +slumber, but in reality eagerly listening to every sound.... We heard +the night-workers going out, and the day-men coming in and going +heavily to rest.... A guard seemed restless for a while and tramped +up and down the creaking floor... but at last the only sound to be +heard was the deep breathing of tired men.</p> + +<p>I heard Bromley gently reaching for his clothes, and I did not lose +any time in getting into mine. Bherral and a little Frenchman, who +were in our room, were wide awake and full of fear. They had tried +to dissuade us.</p> + +<p>But the guards, all unsuspecting, slept on.</p> + +<p>They slept the sweet sleep of childhood while we pushed out the +strands of barbed wire which protected the window; they slept while +Bromley slipped cautiously to the ground, and while I handed him down +the overcoats, boots, and parcels of food (which we had been saving +for a month); they slept while I slid through the window and dropped +to the ground, too.</p> + +<p>Just then the wind caught the window, which was on a hinge, and +slammed it noisily against the wall.</p> + +<p>We grabbed our belongings, and ran!</p> +<a name="2HCH0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER VIII +</h2> +<h3> +OFF FOR SWITZERLAND! +</h3> + +<p>We ran as if the whole German Army were in pursuit. Our feet did not +seem to touch the ground. I believe if we could have held that pace +we should have been in Switzerland in the morning!</p> + +<p>Reaching a little hollow, we slackened our pace and listened. There +was not a sound from behind. Either there was no more wind, or the +boys had closed the window from within. We figured that they would do +this, and open it before morning so they could claim they had not +heard us go. Then we put on our boots.</p> + +<p>The night was at its blackest, and a drizzling rain began to fall. +This was in our favor, for nobody was likely to be about on such a +night. When we saw we were not pursued, we took time to arrange our +packs. I carried my compass, which I had been able to secrete during +numerous searchings, and my map, a pair of socks, pipe, tobacco, +matches in a tin box, an empty beer-bottle, and several things to +eat, saved from our parcels,—chocolate, tinned meat, biscuits, +cheese, and bread. Bromley had a pack similar to mine, and when +we got them ready and our overcoats on, we started off in a +southeasterly direction, guided by the light from the place we had +left. We walked as fast as we could in the darkness, which was heavy +enough to hide in, but made progress very difficult, for we could not +see each other or one step before us. We tripped over a railway track +once, and if there had been any one near they might have heard us.</p> + +<p>But in spite of the rain, which fell with steady insistence and began +to weigh down our overcoats; in spite of the blackness which made the +travelling unbelievably difficult; in spite of the fact that we were +in a land of enemies, playing a desperate game against terrible odds, +we were happier than either of us had been since being taken to +Germany, for a weight had been rolled off our souls. We were on our +way to freedom!</p> + +<p>When we found it necessary to consult the compass, I took off my +overcoat and lay flat on the ground with my compass and matches +ready. Bromley put my coat over my head and shoulders, tucking it +well in around me, so no light could shine through. Then I struck +a match, and in its light made the observation, always taking into +consideration the fact that in that part of Europe the compass points +sixteen or seventeen degrees west of due north.</p> + +<p>We were careful to avoid the main roads and to seek out the +seldom-travelled, ones, for we knew that our only chance was in not +being seen at all, as we wore our own Canadian uniforms, which would +brand us at once for what we were. Added to that, we could not form +a single German sentence if we were challenged. Of course, I could +say "that Herr Schmidt expected to have his young child baptized in +the church next Sunday, God willing," but I felt that that was not +altogether the proper reply to make to the command—"Halt! Wer da?"</p> + +<p>The villages were very thick here, and our chief difficulty was to +keep out of them. Once we ventured rather close to the road which ran +near the railroad, and heard a number of people talking. They were +travellers who had alighted from the train which had raced past us +in the darkness a few minutes before. The station is often quite a +distance from the village, and these were the passengers walking back +to their homes—the village which we had been avoiding.</p> + +<p>We dropped to the ground, and the people went by, one old man +singing. I knew he was old, for his voice was cracked and thin, but +of great sweetness, and he sang an aria from a musical comedy which +was popular then, called "The Joy of Life." I had heard a doctor in +the lazaret singing it.</p> + +<p>When the sound had grown fainter in the distance, we came out of our +hiding-place and went on.</p> + +<p>"It seems hard," said Bromley, "to be fighting with people who can +sing like that. I can't work up any ill-will to that good old soul, +going home singing—and I don't believe he has any ill-will to us. +I couldn't fight the Germans if they were all like this old chap +and Sank!"</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't need to," I said. "There would not have been any +fighting."</p> + +<p>And then we strained our ears to listen to the song, not a word of +which we understood, though to us the music was full of good-will +and joy.</p> + +<p>"We've got to keep farther out," I said at last. "We are sure to run +into some one and then it will be all up with us!"</p> + +<p>We found, at last, after much stumbling over rough ground, a road +quite grass-grown and apparently abandoned. We followed it for about +a mile, making good progress, until we came to a stream over which +there was a bridge. We hesitated a minute before going over, but the +place was as silent as a cemetery, and seemed perfectly safe. So we +cautiously went over, keeping a sharp outlook all the time. When we +were over the bridge, we found ourselves in the one street of another +village.</p> + +<p>We stopped for a minute and listened. There was not a sound. We then +went forward. Most of the streets of the villages are paved with +cobblestones, but these were not, and our boots made no sound on the +dirt road. Not even a dog barked, and just as we were at the farther +end of it, the village clock rang the hour of three!</p> + +<p>"That's all right for once," I said, "but it's risky; I don't think +we'd better try it again. Some barking dog is sure to awake."</p> + +<p>Soon after that the east grew red with morning, and we struck +straight into the woods to find shelter. We soon found ourselves in +high rushes growing out of swampy ground, and as we plunged along, we +came to a high woven-wire fence, which we supposed marked the bounds +of a game preserve.</p> + +<p>We quickened our pace, although the going was bad, for the light was +growing and we knew these German peasants are uncomfortably early in +their habits. We came on a garden, carefully fenced with rails, and +helped ourselves to a few carrots and turnips to save our supply of +food, and, finding near there a fairly thick wood, decided to camp +for the day.</p> + +<p>That was Monday, October 4th, and was a miserable day with sudden +bursts of sunshine that made our hearts light with the hope of +getting both warm and dry; but the sunshine no sooner came than it +was gone, and then a shower of rain would beat down on us.</p> + +<p>However, we managed to make our feet comfortable with the extra pair +of socks, and we ate some carrots, bread, and cheese. But it was so +cold, we could not sleep.</p> + +<p>We were glad when it grew dark enough for us to start out again. We +found we were in a well-cultivated district; almost every acre was in +garden, potatoes and sugar beets, whose stalks rustled and crackled +as we went through them, and this made our going slower than it +otherwise would have been. There were a few late apples on the trees, +but they were poor, woody ones. I do not know whether they were a +sample of the crop or just the culls that were not considered worth +picking. But we were glad of them, and filled our pockets.</p> + +<p>The streams which we came to gave us considerable trouble. We were +not exactly dry, but then we could have been wetter, and so we hunted +for bridges, thereby losing much time and taking grave chances of +being caught. We were new in the matter of escaping, and had a lot +to learn. Now we know we should have waded through without losing a +minute.</p> + +<p>That morning, just before stopping-time, in crossing a railway +Bromley tripped over a signal wire, which rang like a burglar alarm +and seemed to set a dozen bells ringing. We quickened our pace, and +when the railway man came rushing out of his house and looked wildly +up and down the track, we were so far away he could not see us!</p> + +<p>We kept well to the east, for we knew the location of Frankfort +and that we must avoid it. Bromley had difficulty in keeping his +direction, and I began to suspect that he thought I was lost, too. So +I told him the direction the road ran, and then made an observation +with the compass to convince him, but many a time in the long, black +middle of the night, I thought I detected a disposition to doubt in +his remarks.</p> + +<p>When the North Star shone down on us, we could find our way without +trouble, but when the night was clouded, as most of the nights were, +it became a difficult matter.</p> + +<p>The third night there was a faintly light patch in the sky, by which +I guided my course and did not use my compass at all. Bromley had +evidently not noticed this, and declared that no human being could +keep his direction on as black a night as this. The faint light in +the sky continued to hold, and I guided our course by it until we +came to a road. Here Bromley insinuated that I had better use my +compass (I was thinking the same thing, too). I assured him it was +not necessary, for I knew the road was running east and west. It was, +I knew, if the light patch in the sky had not shifted.</p> + +<p>When we made the observation with the compass, we found it was so; +and Bromley asked me, wonderingly, how I could do it. I told him it +was a sort of sixth sense that some people had. After that he trusted +me implicitly. This saved him a lot of anxiety, and also made it +easier for me.</p> + +<p>Soon after this we got into a miry part of the country, with the +woods so thick and the going so bad that we knew we could not make +any progress. It was a veritable dismal swamp, where travellers could +be lost forever.</p> + +<p>As we stumbled along in this swampy place, we came to a narrow-gauge +railway, which we gladly followed until we saw we were coming to a +city. This we afterwards knew to be the city of Hanau. Just in the +gray dawn, we left the track and took refuge in a thick bush, where +we spent the day. This was October 5th.</p> + +<p>Our first work was to change our socks, spreading the ones we took +off on a tree to dry. We then carefully rubbed our feet until they +were dry, and put on the dry socks. We soon learned that we must +leave our boots off for a while each day, to keep our feet in good +condition. The pressure of the boots, especially with the dampness, +made the feet tender and disposed to skin.</p> + +<p>This day was a showery one, too, but the sun shone for about an hour +in the morning, and when Bromley lay down to sleep, I decided to go +out and see what sort of country we were in. I wanted to check up my +map, too, for if it were correct, we should be near the Main River.</p> + +<p>I made my way cautiously to the edge of the wood, marking the way by +breaking the top of a twig here and there, to guide me safely back +to Bromley. Ordinary travellers can call to each other, but the ways +of escaping prisoners must all be ways of quietness, although their +paths are not all paths of peace!</p> + +<p>I saw a beautiful little lodge, vine-covered, with a rustic fence +around it, with blue smoke curling out of its red-brick chimney, and +I just knew they were having bacon and eggs and coffee for breakfast.</p> + +<p>Two graceful deer, with gentle eyes, looked out at me from a tangle +of willows, and then I knew the brown lodge was the game-keeper's +house. A hay meadow, green with after-grass, stretched ahead of me, +but there was no sign of the Main River.</p> + +<p>I had kept well under cover, I thought, but before long I had the +uncomfortable feeling that some one was following me; the crackling +of the bushes, which ceased when I stopped, and began again when I +went on, seemed very suspicious. I abruptly changed my course, making +a wide circle, and was able to elude my pursuer and find my way back +to Bromley.</p> + +<p>I had an uneasy feeling that I had been too careless, and that some +one had seen me. However, I lay down to sleep, for I was dead tired, +and we had a splendid hiding-place in the thick bush.</p> + +<p>I do not know how long I slept; it seemed only a few minutes when a +bugle-call rang out. We wakened with a start, for it went through us +like a knife.</p> + +<p>We heard loud commands, and knew there was a company of soldiers +somewhere near, and I gathered from my recent observations that +these sounds came from the hay meadow in front of us.</p> + +<p>We did not connect the demonstration with our presence until the +soldiers began shouting and charging the wood where we lay. Then we +knew we were what the society papers call the "raison d'être" for +all this celebration.</p> + +<p>We lay close to the earth and hardly dared to breathe. The soldiers +ran shouting and firing (probably blank cartridges) in every +direction. Through the brush I saw their feet as they passed—not +ten feet from where we lay.</p> + +<p>The noise they made was deafening; evidently they thought if they +beat the bushes sufficiently hard, they could scare us out like +rabbits, and I knew they were watching the paths and thin places +in the woods. But we lay tight, knowing it was our only safety.</p> + +<p>Soon the noise grew fainter, and they passed on to try the woods we +had just come through, and we, worn with fatigue, fell asleep.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon they gave our woods another combing. They seemed +pretty sure we were somewhere near! But they did not come quite so +close to us as they had in the morning.</p> + +<p>However, we had heard enough to convince us that this was a poor +place to linger, and when it got real dark, we pushed on south across +the hay meadow. This meadow was full of ditches which were a little +too wide to jump and were too skwudgy in the bottom to make wading +pleasant. They delayed us and tired us a great deal, for it was a +tough climb getting out of them.</p> + +<p>At last we decided to take the road, for the night was dark enough to +hide us, and by going slowly we thought we could avoid running into +any one.</p> + +<p>We had not gone very far when we heard the sound of wagons, and when +we stopped to listen we could hear many voices, and knew our road was +bringing us to a much-used thoroughfare. In the corner formed by the +intersecting roads there was a thick bush of probably ten acres, and +I could not resist the desire to scout and see what sort of country +we were in. So I left Bromley, carefully marking where he was by all +the ways I could, and then went out to the edge of the bush. I went +along the edge of the road, keeping well into the bush. It was too +dark to see much, but I could make out that there was a well-wooded +country ahead of us. I came back to the exact place where I had left +Bromley, or at least where I thought I had left him, but not a trace +of him could I see. Of course, I dared not call, so I gave a soft +whistle, as near like a bird-call as I could. Bromley reached out his +hand and touched me! He was right beside me. That gave me the comfort +of knowing how well the darkness and bushes hide one if he is +perfectly still.</p> + +<p>We thought this road led to the river Main, and decided to keep close +to it so we could get across on the bridge. We followed along the +road until it branched into two roads. We took the right branch +first, but as it turned more and more sharply to the west, we +concluded it was the road to Frankfort, and retraced our steps to the +place where we had picked it up, and went the other way. There was +heavy forest along the road, and it seemed to us to run southeast by +east. We wanted to go south, so we turned off this road through a +chance hay meadow, and then through the forest, until we found a sort +of road which ran south.</p> + +<p>All German forests have roads, more or less distinct, traversing them +according to some definite plan, but they do not necessarily follow +the cardinal points of the compass. We followed the south road, which +was little used, until we came to a stream. There was no way of +getting across it, so we followed its bank until it flowed into the +Kinzig River. We knew by our map this must be the Kinzig River.</p> + +<p>We tried to find a path along the Kinzig, but there did not seem +to be any, and the underbrush was impenetrable. We decided to wait +until morning came, took some chocolate and biscuits and filled our +beer-bottle in the stream. Then we found a comfortable bank, and put +some brush under our heads and slept. But not very soundly, for we +did not want to miss that misty light which comes about an hour +before sunrise.</p> + +<p>We wakened just as the light began to show in the east, and, stiff +and cold, with our teeth chattering, we started on our way to find +some means of getting across the Kinzig. Bridge, boat, or raft, +anything would do us, provided only it came soon, before the +daylight.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes we came to a foot-bridge, with a well-beaten path +running down to it and up the opposite bank. So we made a dash across +it. We knew enough, though, to get off the path at once, for we could +see it was a well-travelled one. We struck into the wood, keeping our +southerly direction, but soon came out on another road, and as the +light was too strong now for us, we went back into the woods and kept +hidden.</p> + +<p>That was Wednesday, October 6th. Again it rained; not in showers this +time with redeeming shots of sunshine, but a dull, steady, miserable +rain that wet us clear through to the skin. Still, we ate our cheese +and bread, and opened a tin of sardines, and managed to put the +day in. We were near a town, and could hear people driving by all +day long. We were kept so on the alert that we had no time to feel +uncomfortable. However, we were very glad when the darkness came and +we could stretch our legs and get warm again.</p> + +<p>We had great difficulty to clear the town and the railway yards +ahead of us, but at last found a road leading south, and followed it +through the forest. In one place, as I was going along ahead, intent +on keeping the road, which seemed to be heaped up in the middle, +I heard a cry behind me, and almost jumped across the road in my +excitement. Instinctively I began to run, but a second cry arrested +me, for it was Bromley's voice. I ran back and found he had fallen +into a hole in the road. The heaped-up appearance I had noticed was +the dirt thrown out of a six-foot drain, in which they were laying +water-pipes, and into this Bromley had fallen. He was not hurt at +all, but jarred a little by the fall.</p> + +<p>We knew we had passed the Hesse boundary, and were now in Bavaria.</p> + +<p>Our one beer-bottle did not hold nearly enough water, and in our long +walk through the forest on this night we suffered from thirst. We had +thought we should be able to find cows to milk, but on account of the +people living in villages, there was but little chance of this.</p> + +<p>When we got out of the forest we found ourselves in an open country. +We came to a good-sized stream, and crossed the bridge and to our +horror found ourselves in a town of considerable size. The streets +were dark, but from one or two windows lights shone. We pushed +rapidly on, and thought we were nearly through, when a little upstart +of a fox-terrier came barking out at us from a doorway. We stepped +into a space between two houses, and just then a cat crossed the +street and he transferred his attentions to her.</p> + +<p>"I always did like cats," Bromley whispered.</p> + +<p>We came out again and went on, breathing out our condemnation of all +German dogs. And we were not done with them yet! For before we got +out another cur flew at us and raised enough noise to alarm the town. +I believe the only thing that saved us was this dog's bad character. +Nobody believed he had anything—he had fooled them so often—and so, +although he pursued us until we slipped down an alley and got into a +thick grove, there was not even a blind raised. He ran back, yelping +out his disappointment, and the bitterest part of it would be that no +one would ever believe him—but that is part of the liar's +punishment.</p> + +<p>We got out of the town as soon as we could, and pushed on with all +haste; we were afraid that news of our escape had been published, and +that these people might be on the lookout for us. The telephone poles +along the roads we were travelling kept us reminded of the danger we +were in.</p> + +<p>Loaded apple-trees growing beside the road tempted us to stop and +fill our pockets, and as we were doing so a man went by on a bicycle. +We stepped behind the tree just in time to avoid being seen, and +although he slackened his pace and looked hard at the place where we +were, he evidently thought it best to keep going.</p> + +<p>We met two other men later in the night, but they apparently did not +see us, and we went on.</p> + +<p>We left the road after that, and plunged into the woods, for the +daylight was coming.</p> + +<p>During the day of October 7th we stayed close in the woods, for we +knew we were in a thickly settled part of the country. Lying on the +ground, we could see a German farmer gathering in his sugar beets, +ably assisted by his women-folk. We could also hear the children from +a school near by, playing "Ring-a-ring-a-röselein."</p> + +<p>The rain that day was the hardest we had yet encountered, but in the +afternoon the sun came out and we got some sleep. At dusk we started +out again, on a road which had forest on one side and open country on +the other. We could see the trains which ran on the main line from +Hanau to Aschaffenburg. The Main River was at our right. Soon the +forest ended abruptly, and we found ourselves in an open country, and +with a railroad to cross.</p> + +<p>As we drew near, the dog at the station gave the alarm. We stepped +into a clump of trees and "froze." The man at the station came +rushing out and looked all around, but did not see us, and went back. +We then made a wide detour and crawled cautiously over the road on +our hands and knees, for this road had rock ballast which would have +crunched under our feet.</p> + +<p>We then went on through the village, where another dog barked at us, +but couldn't get any support from his people, who slept on. We were +worried about the time, for neither of us had a watch, and we +suspected that it was near morning. We hurried along, hoping to find +a shelter, but the country seemed to be open and treeless. A thick +mist covered the ground and helped to hide us, but it might lift at +any minute.</p> + +<p>We struck straight east at last, in the hope of finding woods. +Through the mist we saw something ahead of us which when we came +nearer proved to be a hill. Hoping it might be wooded on the top, we +made for it with all haste. When we reached the top we found no +woods, but an old cellar or an excavation of a building. It was seven +or eight feet deep, and the bottom was covered with rubbish. Into it +we went, glad of any sort of shelter.</p> + +<p>When daylight came, we looked cautiously over the edge, and saw we +were near a village; also we saw that about two hundred yards away +there was a good thick wood, but it was too late now to think of +changing our position. There was a potato patch on the face of the +hill, with evidence of recent digging. About eight o'clock we heard +voices. Women were digging the potatoes.</p> + +<p>Our feet were very sore that day, on account of the rain and of our +not being able to keep our boots off enough each day, but we lay +perfectly lifeless and did not even speak, for fear of attracting +the attention of the potato-diggers. We wished it would rain and +drive the potato-diggers in. But about nine o'clock a worse danger +threatened us. We heard firing, and could hear commands given to +soldiers. Soon it dawned on us that they were searching the wood for +us.</p> + +<p>The hours dragged on. We were cramped and sore of feet, hungry, and +nervous from lack of sleep, but managed to remain absolutely +motionless.</p> + +<p>About three o'clock a five-year-old boy belonging to the +potato-digging party, strolled up to the top of the hill. Bromley saw +him first, and signed to me. He loitered around the top of the cellar +a few minutes, threw some stones and dirt down, and then wandered +away. There was nothing to indicate that he had seen us.</p> + +<p>But in a few moments a woman and little girl came. The woman looked +straight at us, and made away at full speed. We knew she had seen us. +Then we heard the soldiers coming, shouting. It was not a pleasant +time to think of.</p> + +<p>When they surrounded the place, we stood up, and surrendered.</p> + +<p>There was nothing else to do.</p> +<a name="2HCH0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER IX +</h2> +<h3> +CAUGHT! +</h3> + +<p>At first it seemed as if there were a platoon of soldiers: they were +everywhere I looked, and there were more coming! They were, for the +most part, young fellows from the training camp at Aschaffenburg, +and it was not every day they got a chance to catch a couple of +prisoners. So it was done with a flourish!</p> + +<p>The Captain instructed us to put up our hands, and two of the +soldiers searched us. They were welcome to my map, because already I +was thinking of making another, but I did not like to see my compass +go—I kept wondering how I would ever get another.</p> + +<p>There was no hostility in their attitude toward us, either from the +soldiers or the civilians. The potato-diggers, mostly women, went +straight back to their work as if they had done their share and +now some one else could "carry on." Prisoners or no prisoners, the +potatoes had to be dug.</p> + +<p>A few children gathered around us, but they kept back at a respectful +distance and made no remarks. Where the military are concerned, the +civilian population do not interfere, even by words or looks.</p> + +<p>The village women who gathered around us had most apathetic, +indifferent, sodden faces; I don't believe they knew what it was all +about. They were no more interested in what was going on than the +black-and-white Holstein cows that grazed in the meadow near by.</p> +<a name="image-0006"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/78.jpg" alt="Map Made by Private Simmons of the First Attempt"> +<br><i>Map made by Private Simmons of the First Attempt</i> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> + +<p>I spoke of this afterwards to Bromley.</p> + +<p>"But you must remember," he said, "they knew enough to go and tell on +us. That wasn't so slow."</p> + +<p>We could see that the soldiers were greatly pleased with their catch, +by the way they talked and gesticulated. Every one was pleased but +us! Then the commander, addressing his men in what we took to be a +congratulatory speech, called for volunteers. We knew the word.</p> + +<p>I looked at Bromley, and saw the same thought in his face, but his +sense of humor never failed him.</p> + +<p>"Cheer up, Sim!" he said. "They are just calling for volunteers to +shoot us. The boys must have something to practise on."</p> + +<p>We laughed about it afterwards, but I must say I did not see much +fun in it that minute. But it was only volunteers to take us into +Aschaffenburg. The commander wished to spread the joy and gladness as +far as it would go, and I think it was fully a dozen who escorted us +to Aschaffenburg, about a mile and a half away.</p> + +<p>They marched us through the principal streets, where I saw the sign +"Kleiderfabrik" many times. The people stopped to look at us, but I +saw no evidence of hostility. I am not sure that the majority of the +people knew who we were, though of course they knew we were +foreigners.</p> + +<p>There was one person, however, who recognized us, for as we were +marching past one of the street-corners, where a group had gathered, +a voice spoke out in excellent English, "Canadians, by Jove! And two +fine big chaps, too!"</p> + +<p>The voice was friendly, but when I turned to look I could not see who +had spoken.</p> + +<p>Their pride in showing us off was "all right for them," but pretty +hard on us, for it was a long time since we had slept, and we did not +enjoy being paraded through the city just for fun. We knew we were in +for it, and wanted to know just what they were going to do with us.</p> + +<p>At last they drew up with great ceremony before the Military +Headquarters, where there was more challenging, by more guards. I +think another guard fell in behind to see that we did not bolt, and +we were conducted into the presence of the Supreme Commander of that +Military District.</p> + +<p>He sat at a high desk in the centre of the room. There were several +clerks or secretaries in the room, all in uniform, and there seemed +to be considerable business going on when we came in, for numerous +typewriters were going and messengers were moving about. I noticed +there was not a woman in the room.</p> + +<p>When we entered and were swung up to the Commander's desk, with a few +words of introduction, there was complete silence.</p> + +<p>The soldiers who brought us in stepped back in a straight line, all +in step, and waited to be congratulated, with that conscious air of +work well done that a cat has when she throws down a mouse and stands +around to hear the kind words which will be spoken.</p> + +<p>The Supreme Commander was a grizzled man, with bushy gray eyebrows +which were in great need of being barbered, red cheeks, and a +curled-up mustache. He spoke through an interpreter.</p> + +<p>We were asked our names, ages, previous occupation, when captured, +and the most important questions of all, "Why were we fighting +against Germany?" and, "Why did we want to leave Germany?"</p> + +<p>I was questioned first, and after I had answered all the minor +questions, I told him I enlisted in the Canadian Army because we +considered ourselves part of the British Empire, and besides, Great +Britain's share in the war was an honorable one which any man might +well be proud to fight for. I said we were fighting for the little +nations and their right to live and govern themselves. I told him it +was the violation of Belgium that had set Canada on fire.</p> + +<p>When this was passed on by the interpreter, I could see it was not +well received, for the old man's eyebrows worked up and down and he +said something which sounded like "Onions."</p> + +<p>Then he asked me what did Canada hope to get out of the war? I said, +"Nothing"—Canada would gain nothing—but we had to maintain our +self-respect, and we couldn't have kept that if we had not fought. +"But," I said, "the world will gain a great deal from the war, for +it will gain the right to live at peace."</p> + +<p>At the mention of peace, some of the officers laughed in contempt, +but at a glance from the Supreme Commander, the laugh was checked +with great suddenness!</p> + +<p>He then asked me why I wanted to get out of Germany.</p> + +<p>I told him no free man enjoyed being a prisoner, and besides, I was +needed in the army.</p> + +<p>All these answers were taken down by two secretaries, and Bromley was +put through the same list of questions.</p> + +<p>He told them no one in Canada had to fight, no one wanted to fight, +because we are peaceable people, but we believe a little nation had a +right to live, and we had been taught that the strong must defend the +weak.</p> + +<p>When they asked him why he wanted to get away from Germany, he told +them he had a wife and two children in Canada, and he wanted to see +them: whereupon the Commander broke out impatiently, "This is no time +for a man to think of his wife and children!"</p> + +<p>When the Supreme Commander was through with us, we were taken to the +station and put on the train for Giessen, escorted by a Sergeant +Major, who had an iron cross ribbon on his coat, and two privates.</p> + +<p>We got a drink at a tap in the station and ate some bread and cheese +from our pack, which they had not taken away from us, but they did +not offer us anything to eat.</p> + +<p>On the train, where we had a compartment to ourselves, one of the +privates bought some fruit, and gave us a share of it. Our German +money had been taken away from us when they searched us, and we +had nothing but prison-stamps, which are of no use outside the +prison-camp. One of the privates was a university man, and in broken +English tried to tell us why Germany had to enter the war, to save +herself from her enemies. I thought his reasoning was more faulty +than his English, but believed in his sincerity.</p> + +<p>He told us that every nation in the whole world hated Germany and +was jealous of "him," and that England was the worst of all. He said +England feared and hated the Bavarians most of all, and that all +Bavarian prisoners were shot. I tried to convince him that this was +not so; but he was a consistent believer and stuck to it. He said +when Germany won the war "he" would be very kind to all the countries +"he" conquered, and do well for them. He told us he hated England, +but not all "Engländers" were bad!</p> + +<p>At Hanau we changed cars and had a few minutes to wait, and our +guards walked up and down with us. The station was crowded with +people, and the lunch-tables were crowded, although it was getting +late in the evening.</p> + +<p>At Friedberg we had an hour's wait, and we saw the same thing. +Beer-drinking and eating was going on in a big lunch-room, but the +patrons were ninety per cent men. The Sergeant Major with the iron +cross did not bother us at all, and at Friedberg he devoted himself +to the young lady who sold cigars, beer, and post-cards in the +station.</p> + +<p>We asked our friend who could speak a little English what they were +saying, but he, being a university man and of high degree socially, +gave us to understand that the Sergeant Major was lowering his +dignity to flirt with the girl behind the counter. He said it was all +"verrücktheit" (craziness). We were of the opinion that it was the +girl who was stepping down!</p> + +<p>When we got into Giessen, they took us on the street-car to the +prison-camp, and we were glad, for it had been a long day for us, and +the thought of longer ones ahead was not cheering.</p> + +<p>We were taken to the hut where the prison-guards sleep, and were +given a room at the very end, where we would surely be safe. We were +tired enough not to give any trouble, and when they left us, we threw +ourselves down without undressing and slept till morning.</p> + +<p>At nine o'clock we were taken before the officers of our own Company, +and put through the same questions. The answers were written down, as +before. We were then marched away to the Strafe-Barrack.</p> + +<p>The Strafe-Barrack had in it about thirty prisoners, but it was not +nearly full. These were all kept at one end of the hut, and at the +other end there were three men whose official standing was somewhat +of a mystery to us at first. Two of them were Belgians, a private and +a Sergeant, and one was a British Sergeant. They were dressed like +ordinary prisoners, but seemed to be able to go about at will.</p> + +<p>We soon caught on to the fact that they were spies, whose business +it was to watch the prisoners and repeat anything that would be of +interest to the authorities. During the five days we were kept there, +waiting for "cells," we found them quite friendly.</p> +<a name="2HCH0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER X +</h2> +<h3> +THE CELLS! +</h3> + +<p>On the morning of the fifth day two cells were reported empty, and +we were taken to them.</p> + +<p>The cells are in a wooden building inside the camp, and in the +building we were in there were ten of them, divided from each other +by wooden partitions whose cracks are battened with strips of wood to +prevent light from coming through. There are two windows, one over +the door and one in the outside wall. These have a solid wooden door +which can be shut over them, excluding every ray of light.</p> + +<p>The cells are about six feet by eight in size, and have a wooden +platform to sleep on. There is no bedding of any kind. There is one +shelf, on which a pitcher of drinking-water stands, and there is an +electric button by which the guard can be called.</p> + +<p>We were allowed to keep all our clothing, including our overcoats, +and I managed to hold on to a stub of a pencil and a piece of stout +string.</p> + +<p>When the guard brought me in and told me to "make myself at home" or +words to that effect, and went out, locking the door, I sat down on +the wooden platform, and looked around.</p> + +<p>It was as black as the infernal regions—I might as well have had my +eyes shut, for all I could see. However, I kept on looking. There was +no hurry—I had time to spare. I had more time than I had ever had +before.</p> + +<p>Soon I noticed that in the partition at my right there was a place +where the darkness was broken, and a ray of light filtered through. +As I watched it, into the light spot there came two glistening points +which looked very much like a pair of eyes.</p> + +<p>I did not move, for I could hear the guards moving up and down the +gangway, but I could hardly wait until I heard the gates of the +gangway close. Then I went to the crack and whispered.</p> + +<p>"Hello!"</p> + +<p>"Hello!" came back the answer; and looking through the crack I saw +a lighted cell, and in it a man, the owner of the two bright eyes I +had seen.</p> + +<p>"What are you?" came a whisper.</p> + +<p>"Canadian," I answered; "in for trying to escape."</p> + +<p>By putting my ear to the crack, I could hear when he whispered.</p> + +<p>"I am a Frenchman," he said in perfect English; "Malvoisin is my +name, and this is my second attack of cells—for escaping—but I'll +make it yet. Have you the rings? No? Well, you'll get them. Look at +me."</p> + +<p>I could see that his uniform had stripes of bright red wagon paint +on the seams, and circles of it on the front of the tunic and on +his trousers, with a large one on the back of the tunic between the +shoulders.</p> + +<p>"You'll get these when you get into the Strafe-Barrack," he said.</p> + +<p>"How long shall I be there?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Nobody knows," he answered. "If they like you, they may keep you! +It's an indeterminate sentence.... That's a good cell you have. I was +in that cell the last time, and I fixed it up a little."</p> + +<p>"What did you do to it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"There's a built-in cupboard over at the other side, where you can +keep your things!"</p> + +<p>"Things!" I said—"what things? I've nothing but a pencil and a +string."</p> + +<p>"The boys will bring you stuff," he said; and then he gave me +instructions.</p> + +<p>"Write a note," he said. "Here's a piece of paper," shoving a +fragment of newspaper through the crack. "Write a note addressed to +one of your friends, tell him you are in cells, but get out every day +to lavatory in Camp 8—they'll bring you food, and books."</p> + +<p>"Books!" I said. "What good would books be to me in this black hole?"</p> + +<p>"I am just coming to that," he whispered back; "there's a crack like +this with a movable batten over on the other side. You can stand on +the platform, pull down the strip of wood, and get in quite a decent +light from the other cell. It is a light cell like mine; and right +above it you'll find the board that is loose in the ceiling; you can +pull it down and slip your book into the space and then let it up +again."</p> + +<p>I stepped over to the other side, and found everything just as he +said. Life grew brighter all at once, and the two weeks of "cells" +were robbed of a great part of their terror.</p> + +<p>I set to work to pull a nail with my cord, and was able to do +it after considerable labor, but there was no hurry at all. It +all helped to put the long hours in! With the nail I made the +reading-crack larger, in anticipation of the books which were to +come, but was careful not to have it too big for the strip of wood +to cover when it was swung back into place.</p> + +<p>When morning came I got my issue of bread, the fifth part of a small +round loaf, which was my allowance for the day. Then for ten minutes +we all swept out our cells and were taken out to the lavatory. I had +my note ready, and when the guard was not looking, slipped it into +the hand of a Frenchman who was standing near me.</p> + +<p>The lavatory was in the same building as Camp 8 Lavatory, and was +divided from theirs by a wall with an opening in it, through which +parcels might be passed between the strands of barbed wire.</p> + +<p>The Frenchman delivered my note quite safely, and the next morning I +found several little packages on the floor of the lavatory. Bromley +and I managed to get out at the same time, and as the guard did not +understand English, we were able to say a few words to each other.</p> + +<p>The boys sent us things every day—chocolate, biscuits, cheese, +cigarettes, matches, and books. We wore our overcoats to the lavatory +each day, so we could use the pockets to carry back our parcels +without detection. We were also careful to leave nothing in the cell +that would attract the attention of the guard, and Malvoisin and I +conserved matches by lighting one cigarette with the other one, +through the crack.</p> + +<p>Bromley had no reading-crack in his room, but with a nail and string +soon made himself one.</p> + +<p>Standing on the platform, I could open the reading-crack and get +several inches of light on my book. I read three or four books in +this way, too, making them last just as long as I could.</p> + +<p>On the fourth day I had light in my cell. The two windows were opened +and the cell was aired. On the light day I got more to eat, too, +coffee in the morning, and soup in the evening. On that night I had +a mattress and blankets, too.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of my two weeks I had hard luck. The cell next to +mine, on which I depended for the light to read by, was darkened. I +was right in the middle of "The Harvester." I tried it by the crack +between my cell and that of Malvoisin, but the light was too dim and +made my eyes ache. However, after two days a light-cell prisoner was +put in, and I was able to go on with my story.</p> + +<p>Malvoisin did all he could to make my punishment endurable. On +account of his cell being lighted, he could tell, by the sunlight +on the wall, what time it was, and passed it on to me, and when I +couldn't read because the cell next to mine was dark, he entertained +me with the story of his adventures—and they were many!</p> + +<p>His last escape had been a marvellous one—all but the end. When +outside of the grounds, on a digging party, he had entertained the +guards so well, by showing them fancy steps in dancing, that they had +not noticed that he was circling closer and closer to a wood. Then, +when he had made some grotesque movement, which sent the staid +German guards into paroxysms of laughter, he had made a dash for the +wood. The soldiers at once surrounded the place, but Malvoisin had +gone up a tree. The guards fired through the woods, calling on him +to surrender, while he sat safe and happy in one of the highest +branches, watching the search for him. The searching of the wood +continued for two days, but he remained in his nest in the tree, +coming down at night to get the food he had buried in the ground +while on the digging party.</p> + +<p>They gave up the search then, and he started for Switzerland. He got +a suit of painter's clothes at one place—overalls and smock—by +going through a window where the painters had been working, and with +his knowledge of German was passing himself off for a painter, and +working toward home. But his description was in the newspapers, and +a reward offered for his capture. His brilliant black eyes and the +scar on his cheek gave him away, and one of his fellow-workmen became +suspicious, and for the sake of the reward notified the military.</p> + +<p>But he said he would be sure to reach home next time!</p> + +<p>He had a week longer punishment than we had, and so when our two +weeks were up we left him there.</p> + +<p>When I said "Good-bye" to him through the crack, and tried to tell +him how much he had done for me, he laughed light-heartedly and +called back, "Good-bye, old man, I'll meet you in Paris—if not +sooner!"</p> +<a name="2HCH0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XI +</h2> +<h3> +THE STRAFE-BARRACK +</h3> + +<p>When they took us to the Strafe-Barrack, the Company painter was +summoned and put on our rings, which stamped us as desperate +characters who would have to be watched. There was something to me +particularly distasteful about the rings, for I hated to have my +Canadian uniform plastered with these obnoxious symbols. But I did +not let the guards see that it bothered me at all, for we knew that +the object of all their punishment was to break our spirits.</p> + +<p>The Strafe-Barrack was supposed to finish the work begun in the +cells. It followed up the weakening of our bodies and minds, caused +by the fourteen days' solitude and starvation, and was intended to +complete the job with its deadly monotony and inaction.</p> + +<p>We got no parcels; so the joy of expectation was eliminated. We did +not know how long we were in for, so we could not even have the +satisfaction of seeing the days pass, and knowing we were nearing +the end! We had no books or papers; even the "Continental Times" was +denied us! We got the same food as they had in the prison-camp, and +we had a mattress to sleep on, and two blankets.</p> + +<p>So far as physical needs were concerned, we were as well off as any +of the fellows, but the mental stagnation was calculated, with real +German scientific reasoning, to break us down to the place where we +could not think for ourselves. They would break down our initiative, +they thought, and then we should do as they told us. As usual in +dealing with spiritual forces, they were wrong!</p> + +<p>In the morning we swept the floor of the hut, and spread up our +beds and had our breakfast. Then we sat on stools for an indefinite +period, during which time we were not supposed to speak or move. It +was the duty of the guards to see that we obeyed these rules. It is +a mean way to treat a human being, but it sent us straight back upon +our own mental resources, and I thought things out that I had never +thought about before. Little incidents of my childhood came back to +me with new significance and with a new meaning, and life grew richer +and sweeter to me, for I got a longer view of it.</p> + +<p>It had never occurred to me, any more than it does to the average +Canadian boy, to be thankful for his heritage of liberty, of free +speech, of decency. It has all come easy to us, and we have taken all +the apples which Fortune has thrown into our laps, without thinking.</p> + +<p>But in those long hours in the Strafe-Barrack I thought of these +things: I thought of my father and mother... of the good times we had +at home... of the sweet influences of a happy childhood, and the +inestimable joy of belonging to a country that stands for fair play +and fair dealing, where the coward and the bully are despised, and +the honest and brave and gentle are exalted.</p> + +<p>I thought and thought and thought of these things, and my soul +overflowed with gratitude that I belonged to a decent country. What +matter if I never saw it again? It was mine, I was a part of it, and +nothing could ever take it from me!</p> + +<p>Then I looked at the strutting, cruel-faced cut-throat who was our +guard, and who shoved his bayonet at us and shook his dirty fist in +our faces to try to frighten us. I looked at his stupid, leering face +and heavy jowl, and the sloped-back forehead which the iron heel had +flattened with its cruel touch. He could walk out of the door and out +of the camp, at will, while I must sit on a chair without moving, his +prisoner!</p> + +<p>Bah! He, with the stupid, <i>verboten</i> look in his face, was the +bondsman! I was free!</p> + +<p>There were other guards, too, decent fellows who were glad to help +us all they dared. But the fear of detection held them to their +distasteful work. One of them, when left in charge of us as we +perched on our chairs, went noisily out, in order to let us know he +was going, so that we could get off and walk about and talk like +human beings, and when he came back—he had stayed out as long as +he dared—I think he rattled the door to warn us of his coming!</p> + +<p>Then the head spy, the Belgian private, who had his headquarters in +the Strafe-Barrack, showed us many little kindnesses. He had as his +batman one of the prisoners whose term of punishment had expired, +and Bromley, who was always quick-witted and on the alert, offered +himself for the job, and was taken, and in that way various little +favors came to us that we should not otherwise have had.</p> + +<p>Being ring-men, there were no concessions for us, and the full rigor +of the <i>strafe</i> would have fallen on us—and did at first; but when +Bromley got to be batman, things began to loosen a little for us and +we began to get <i>part</i> of our parcels.</p> + +<p>The head spy claimed more than the usual agent's commission for all +these favors, but we did not complain, for according to the rules we +were not entitled to any.</p> + +<p>The process regarding the parcels was quite simple. Spies in the +parcel party, working under the Belgian, brought our parcels to his +room at the end of the Strafe-Barrack. He opened them and selected +what he wanted for himself, giving Bromley what was left.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, in his work of batman, Bromley got "tired," and wanted +help, suggesting that a friend of his be brought in to assist him. +I was the friend, and in this way I was allowed to go up to the +Belgians' room to sweep, or do something for them, and then got +a chance at our parcels. At night, too, when the guard had gone +and the lights were out, we got a chance to eat the things we had +secreted under the mattress; but generally we kept our supplies in +the Belgians' room, which was not in danger of being searched.</p> + +<p>Bromley, as usual, made a great hit in his new position of batman. +He had a very smooth tongue, and, finding the British Sergeant +susceptible to flattery, gave him plenty of it, and when we got +together afterwards, many a laugh I had over his description of the +British Sergeant's concern for his appearance, and of how he sent +home to England for his dress uniform.</p> + +<p>We got out together when we went back to our own Company to get extra +clothes. We stayed out about as long as we liked, too, and when we +came back, we had the Belgian with us, so nothing was said. The +strafe-barrack keepers, even the bayonet man, had a wholesome fear +of the Belgian.</p> + +<p>This Belgian was always more or less of a mystery to us. He was +certainly a spy, but it was evident he took advantage of his position +to show many kindnesses to the other prisoners.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>There was one book which we were allowed to read while in +Strafe-Barrack, and that was the Bible. There were no Bibles +provided, but if any prisoner had one, he might retain it. I don't +think the Germans have ever got past the Old Testament in their +reading, and when they read about the word of the Lord coming to some +one and telling him to rise up early and go out and wipe out an enemy +country—men, women, and children—they see themselves, loaded with +<i>Kultur</i>, stamping and hacking their way through Belgium.</p> + +<p>I read the Books of the Kings and some other parts of the Old +Testament, with a growing resentment in my heart every time it said +the "Lord had commanded" somebody to slay and pillage and steal. I +knew how much of a command they got. They saw something they wanted, +a piece of ground, a city, perhaps a whole country. The king said, +"Get the people together; let's have a mass-meeting; I have a message +from God for the people!" When the people were assembled, the king +broke the news: "God wants us to wipe out the Amalekites!" The king +knew that the people were incurably religious. They would do anything +if it can be made to appear a religious duty. Then the people gave a +great shout and said: "The Lord reigneth. Let us at the Amalekites! +If you're waking, call me early"—and the show started.</p> + +<p>The Lord has been blamed for nearly all the evil in the world, and +yet Christ's definition of God is love, and He goes on to say, "Love +worketh no ill to his neighbor."</p> + +<p>I can quite understand the early books in the Bible being written by +men of the same cast of mind as the Kaiser, who solemnly and firmly +believed they were chosen of God to punish their fellow-men, and +incidentally achieve their ambitions.</p> + +<p>But it has made it hard for religion. Fair-minded people will not +worship a God who plays favorites. I soon quit reading the Old +Testament. I was not interested in fights, intrigues, plots, and +blood-letting.</p> + +<p>But when I turned to the teachings of Christ, so fair and simple, +and reasonable and easy to understand, I knew that here we had the +solution of all our problems. Love is the only power that will +endure, and when I read again the story of the Crucifixion, and +Christ's prayer for mercy for his enemies because he knew they did +not understand, I knew that this was the principle which would bring +peace to the world. It is not force and killing and bloodshed and +prison-bars that will bring in the days of peace, but that Great +Understanding which only Love can bring.</p> + +<p>I was thinking this, and had swung around on my chair, contrary to +rules, when the guard rushed up to me with his bayonet, which he +stuck under my nose, roaring at me in his horrible guttural tongue.</p> + +<p>I looked down at the point of his bayonet, which was about a quarter +of an inch from my tunic, and let my eyes travel slowly along its +length, and then up his arm until they met his!</p> + +<p>I thought of how the image of God had been defaced in this man, by +his training and education. It is a serious crime to destroy the +king's head on a piece of money; but what word is strong enough to +characterize the crime of taking away the image of God from a human +face!</p> + +<p>The veins of his neck were swollen with rage; his eyes were red like +a bull's, and he chewed his lips like a chained bulldog. But I was +sorry for him beyond words—he was such a pitiful, hate-cursed, +horrible, squirming worm, when he might have been a man. As I looked +at him with this thought in my mind the red went from his eyes, his +muscles relaxed, and he lowered his bayonet and growled something +about "Englishe schwein" and went away.</p> + +<p>"Poor devil," I thought. I watched him, walking away.... "Poor +devil,... it is not his fault."...</p> + +<p>Malvoisin came to the Strafe-Barrack a week after we did, and I could +see that the guards had special instructions to watch him.</p> + +<p>None of the ring-men were allowed to go out on the digging parties +from the Strafe-Barrack, since Malvoisin had made his get-away in +front of the guards, and for that reason, during the whole month we +were there, we had no chance at all for exercise.</p> + +<p>Malvoisin was thin and pale after his three weeks' confinement in +cells, but whenever I caught his eye he gave me a smile whose +radiance no prison-cell could dim. When he came into the room, every +one knew it. He had a presence which even the guards felt, I think. +We went out a week before him, and we smuggled out some post-cards +which he had written to his friends and got them posted, but whether +they got by the censor, I do not know. The last I saw of him was the +day he got out of Strafe-Barrack. He walked by our hut, on the way +to his Company. He was thinner and paler still, but he walked as +straight as ever, and his shoulders were thrown back and his head +was high! His French uniform was in tatters, and plastered with +the obnoxious rings. A guard walked on each side of him. But no +matter—he swung gaily along, singing "La Marseillaise."</p> + +<p>I took my hat off as he went by, and stood uncovered until he +disappeared behind one of the huts, for I knew I was looking at +something more than a half-starved, pale, ragged little Frenchman. +It was not only little Malvoisin that had passed; it was the +unconquerable spirit of France!</p> +<a name="2HCH0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XII +</h2> +<h3> +BACK TO CAMP +</h3> + +<p>After the monotony of the cells and the Strafe-Barrack, the camp +seemed something like getting home for Christmas. All the boys, +McKelvey, Keith, Clarke, Johnston, Graham, Walker, Smith, Reid, +Diplock, Palmer, Larkins, Gould, Salter, Mudge, and many others whom +I did not know so well, gathered around us and wanted to know how we +had fared, and the story of our attempt and subsequent punishment +formed the topic of conversation for days.</p> + +<p>All the time we had been in retirement, we were not allowed to write +letters or cards, and I began to fear that my people would be very +anxious about me. I had given cards to returning "strafers" to post, +but I was not sure they had ever got out of Germany. Many parcels had +come for me from other friends, too, and the big problem before me +now was to find some way to acknowledge them. A card a week, and a +letter twice a month, does not permit of a very flourishing +correspondence.</p> + +<p>A decent German guard consented to take Bromley and me to the +building where the parcels were kept for men who were in punishment, +and we, being strong in faith, took a wheelbarrow with us. Of course, +we had received a number of parcels through our friend the spy, but +we hoped there would be many more. However, I got only one, a good +one from G. D. Ellis, Weston, England, and that saved me from a hard +disappointment. I saw there, stacked up in a pile, numerous parcels +for Todd, Whittaker, Little Joe, and others, who were serving their +sentences at Butzbach. I reported this to our Sergeant Major, and the +parcels were opened. Some of the stuff was spoiled, but what was in +good condition was auctioned off among us and the money sent to them.</p> + +<p>A letter came to me from my sister, Mrs. Ralph Brown, of Buchanan, +Saskatchewan, saying they were worried about me because they had not +heard from me, and were afraid I was not receiving my parcels. Then +I decided I would have to increase my supply of cards. The Russian +prisoners had the same number of cards we had, but seldom wrote any. +Poor fellows, they had nobody to write to, and many of them could not +write. So with the contents of my parcels I bought up a supply of +cards. I had, of course, to write them in a Russian's name, for if +two cards went into the censor's hands from M. C. Simmons, No. 69, +Barrack A, Company 6, something would happen.</p> + +<p>So cards went to my friends from "Pte. Ivan Romanoff" or "Pte. Paul +Rogowski," saying he was quite well and had seen M. C. Simmons +to-day, who was grateful for parcel and had not been able to write +lately, but would soon. These rather mystified some of the people who +received them, who could not understand why I did not write directly. +My cousin, Mamie Simmons, and Mrs. Lackie, of Dereham Centre, +Ontario, wrote a letter back to the Russian whose card they had +received, much to his joy and surprise.</p> + +<p>One of my great desires at this time was to have a compass, for +Bromley and I were determined to make another attempt at escape, just +as soon as we could, and many an hour I spent trying to find a way +to get the information out to my friends that I wanted a compass. At +last, after considerable thinking, I sent the following card to a +friend of mine with whom I had often worked out puzzles, and who I +felt would be as likely to see through this as any one I could think +of.</p> + +<p>This was the message:</p> + +<p>DEAR JIM:—I send you this card along with another to come later, +which please pass on to Fred. In next parcel, send cheese, please.</p> + +<p>Yours as ever</p> +<center> +M. C. SIMMONS +</center> + +<p>In the address I slipped in the words—"Seaforth Wds." This I hoped +the censor would take to mean—"Seaforth Woods"; and which I hoped my +friend would read to mean—"See fourth words"; and would proceed to +do so.</p> + +<p>After I had sent this away, I began to fear it might miscarry and +resolved to try another one. I wrote a letter to my brother Flint, +at Tillsonburg, Ontario, in which I used these words, "I want you +to look into this for me"; later on in the letter, when speaking of +quite innocent matters which had nothing to do with "compasses," I +said, "Look into this for me and if you cannot manage it alone, get +Charley Bradburn to help you."</p> + +<p>I took the envelope, which had a bluish tint inside and steamed it +open, both the ends and bottom flap, and when it was laid open, I +wrote in it in a very fine hand, these words: "I tried to escape, but +was caught and my compass taken away from me. Send me another; put it +in a cream cheese."</p> + +<p>When the envelope was closed, this was almost impossible to see. I +knew it was risky, for if I had been found out, I would have been +"strafed" for this, just as hard as if I had tried to escape. +However, I posted my letter and heard nothing more about it.</p> + +<p>I had, through the kindness of friends, received a number of books, +Mr. Brockington, of Koch Siding, British Columbia, and Miss Grey, +of Wimbledon, England, having been very good to me in this way; +and as many of the parcels of the other boys contained books, too, +we decided to put our books together, catalogue them, and have a +library. One of the older men became our librarian, and before we +left Giessen I think we had a hundred volumes.</p> + +<p>The people who sent these books will never know the pleasure they +gave us! The games, too, which the Red Cross sent us were never idle, +and made many a happy evening for us.</p> + +<p>At night we had concerts, and many good plays and tableaux put on by +the boys. There was a catchy French love song, "Marie," which was a +great favorite with the boys. From this we began to call the Kilties +"Marie," and there were several harmless fights which had this for a +beginning. The Kilties had a hard time of it, and had to get another +dress before they could be taken on a working party. The Germans did +not consider the kilt a "decent dress" for a man.</p> + +<p>The parcels were an endless source of delight, and I was especially +fortunate in having friends who knew just what to send. Mrs. Palmer, +of Plymouth, sent me bacon; Mrs. Goodrich, my sister, and Mrs. +Goodrich, Sr., of Vancouver, sent fruit-cakes; Mrs. Hill, wife of +the British reservist who gave me my first drill in British Columbia, +sent oatmeal, and his sisters, Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Hamer, made candy. +Lee Davison, of Trail, whose brother is now a prisoner in Germany, +sent me tobacco, and so did Harold Andrews, of Trail, and Billy +Newell, of Koch Siding.</p> + +<p>The distribution of the mails was a time of thrills. One of the +Sergeants called it out, while every one crowded eagerly around.</p> + +<p>Poor Clarke, one of the brightest, merriest-hearted boys we had, +seldom got a letter, but he was right on hand every time, and when +there was no letter for him, would tear his hair dramatically and +cry,—</p> + +<p>"Gott strafe England."</p> + +<p>Clarke had the good gift of making everybody laugh. I remember once +seeing him patching his trousers with a Union Jack, and singing, +"We'll never let the Old Flag fall!"</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>The German respect for the military caste was well shown in the +punishment of a Russian officer who had offended them by something he +had done or had not done. He was sent to our hut—as a punishment. He +had a room to himself, a batman, the privilege of sending out to buy +food, as much as he liked. His punishment consisted in having to live +under the same roof and breathe the same air as common soldiers. He +was a very good fellow, and told us many things about his country. +Incidentally we found out that his wages as a Lieutenant in the +Russian Army were one hundred and fifty dollars a year!</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>Bromley and I had not worked at all since coming out of +Strafe-Barrack. Being ring-men gave us immunity from labor. They +would not let us outside of the compound. Even if we volunteered +for a parcel party, the guard would cry "Weg!"—which is to say, +"Go back."</p> + +<p>This made all our time leisure time, and I put in many hours making +maps, being as careful as possible not to let the guards see me. I +got the maps in a variety of ways. Some of them had been smuggled in +in parcels, and some of the prisoners had brought them in when they +came.</p> + +<p>A Canadian soldier, who was a clever artist, and had a room to +himself where he painted pictures for some of the Germans, gave me +the best one, and from these I got to know quite a lot about the +country. From my last experience I knew how necessary it was to have +detailed knowledge of the country over which we must travel to reach +the border.</p> + +<p>My interest in maps caused the boys to suspect that I was determined +to escape, and several broached the subject to me. However, I did not +wish to form an alliance with any one but Bromley. We considered two +was enough, and we were determined to go together.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>One day, in the late fall, when the weather was getting cold, an +American, evidently connected with the Embassy, came to see us, and +asked us about our overcoats. The German officers in charge of the +camp treated him with scant courtesy, and evidently resented his +interference. But as a result of his visit every person who did not +already have a Red Cross or khaki coat got a German coat.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>Just before Christmas Day we got overcoats from the Red Cross, dark +blue cloth, full length and well lined. They had previously sent each +of us a blanket.</p> + +<p>The treatment of overcoats was to cut a piece right out of one +sleeve, and insert a piece of yellowish-brown stuff, such as is shown +in Bromley's photograph. We knew that coats were coming for us, and +were particularly anxious to get them before they were disfigured +with the rings which they would put on or with this band of cloth. If +we could get the coats as they came from the Red Cross, they would +look quite like civilian's coats, and be a great help to us when we +made our next escape. Bromley and I had spent hard thinking on how we +could save our coats.</p> + +<p>Larkins, one of the boys who worked in the parcels office, watched +for our overcoats, and when they came he slipped them into the stack +which had been censored, and in that way we got them without having +them interfered with. But even then we were confronted with a greater +difficulty. The first time we wore them the guards would notice we +had no rings, and that would lead to trouble. The piece of cloth on +the arm was not so difficult to fix. Two of the boys whose coats were +worn out gave us the pieces out of their coats, which we <i>sewed on</i>, +instead of inserting. The rings had been put on in brown paint lately +instead of red, and this gave Bromley an idea. We had a tin of cocoa, +saved from our parcels, and with it we painted rich brown rings on +our new coats. We were careful not to wear these coats, for we knew +the cocoa rings were perishable, but we had our old overcoats to wear +when we needed one. This saw us past the difficulty for a while.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>On Christmas Day we had the privilege of boiling in the cook-house +the puddings which came in our parcels, and we were given a Christmas +card to send instead of the ordinary cards—that was the extent of +the Christmas cheer provided for us.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>Soon after Christmas there was a party of about four hundred picked +out to be sent away from Giessen; the ring-men were included, and all +those who had refused to work or given trouble. Bromley and I were +pretty sure we should be included, and in anticipation of the journey +touched up the cocoa rings on our coats. They were disposed to flake +off. I also prepared for the projected move by concealing my maps.</p> + +<p>I put several in the pasteboard of my cap and left no trace, thanks +be to the needle and thread I had bought in the army canteen, and +my big one I camouflaged as a box of cigarettes. A box of Players' +Cigarettes had been sent to me, which I had not yet broken into. I +carefully removed the seal, being careful to break it so that it +could be put back again without detection. Then I cut my map into +pieces corresponding to the size of a cigarette, and, emptying out +the tobacco from a few, inserted the section of map instead, and put +them carefully in with the label showing. I then closed the box and +mended the band so that it looked as if it had not been broken. I +felt fairly safe about this.</p> +<a name="image-0007"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/110.jpg" alt="The Christmas Card Which the Giessen Prison Authorities Supplied to the Prisoners"> +<br><i>The Christmas Card which the Giessen Prison Authorities supplied to the Prisoners</i> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> + +<p>The day came when we were to leave. Sometimes Bromley and I were on +the list, sometimes we were not. We did not really know until our +names were called.</p> + +<p>Our cocoa rings were fresh and fine, and we walked out with innocent +faces. I don't know why they suspected me, but the Company officer, +with two soldiers, came over to me where I stood at the end of a +double line. At the word from the officer, the soldiers tore off my +pack, opened my coat, examined the rings on my tunic which were, +fortunately, of the durable red paint, guaranteed not to crock or +run. I thought for sure they would search me, which I did not fear at +all, for my maps I considered safe, but I did not want them fooling +around me too much, for my cocoa rings would not stand any rough +treatment. I wished then I had put sugar in the cocoa to make them +stick better.</p> + +<p>But after considerable argument, they left me. Just before the +officer walked away, he shook a warning finger at me and said, +"Fini—dead—fertig," which was his French, English, and German for +the game idea: "If you don't behave yourself, you are a dead man!"</p> + +<p>He directed the soldiers to keep a strict watch on us, and one of +them volunteered the opinion that we should have rings in our noses!</p> +<a name="2HCH0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XIII +</h2> +<h3> +CELLELAGER +</h3> + +<p>The attention given to me by the prison-guards would have been +disconcerting to a less modest man than I am. A soldier sat with me +all the way on the train. I could not lose him! He stuck to me like +a shadow. When I stood up, he stood up. When I changed my seat, he +changed his. And he could understand English, too, so Bromley and I +could not get a word in. He seemed to me—though I suppose that was +simply imagination—to be looking at my rings, and I knew my pack's +string was rubbing them. I hardly knew what to do. At last I hastily +removed my pack, folded my overcoat so that the rings would not show, +and hung it up, but as the train lurched and rolled, I was fearful +of the effect this would have on the rings. I fancied I smelled dry +cocoa, and seemed to see light brown dust falling on the seat. Why +hadn't I thought to put sugar in it when I mixed it up?</p> + +<p>When we reached the camp, which was called Cellelager, we found we +had come to one which was not in the same class as Giessen. The +sleeping-accommodations were insufficient for the crowd of men, and +there was one bunk above the other. There was one canteen for the +whole camp (instead of one in each hut as we had in Giessen), and +here we could buy cakes, needles, thread, and buttons, also apples. +The food was the same, except that we had soup in the morning instead +of coffee, and it was the worst soup we had yet encountered. As an +emetic, it was an honest, hard-working article which would bring +results, but it lacked all the qualifications of a good soup. I tried +it only once.</p> + +<p>We were delighted to see no rings except what we had in our party. +The Commandant of the camp did not take any notice of them, so we +were able to remove all traces of them from our new overcoats, and +when Steve Le Blanc, from Ottawa, gave me a nice navy-blue civilian +coat, I gave my ringed tunic to one of the boys, who forthwith passed +himself off for a ring-man, to avoid being sent out to work.</p> + +<p>I found, however, he only enjoyed a brief exemption, for his record, +all written down and sent along with him, showed his character had +been blameless and exemplary, and the rings on his coat could not +save him. It was "Raus in!" and "Raus out!" every day for him! In +this manner did his good deeds find him out.</p> + +<p>There was a football ground at this camp, and a theatre for the +prisoners to use, but in the week we were there I saw only one game +of football.</p> + +<p>At the end of a week we were moved again, most of us. They did not, +of course, tell us where we were going, but as they picked out all +of us who had ever tried to escape—and all those who had refused to +work—we were pretty sure it was not a "Reward of Merit" move.</p> + +<p>We were awakened at a very early hour and were started off to the +station, loaded with stuff. We had blankets, wash-basin, empty +mattress, and wooden clogs. The boys did not take kindly to the +wooden clogs, and under cover of the darkness—for it was long before +daylight—they threw them away. The road to the station the next +morning must have looked as if a royal wedding party had gone by.</p> + +<p>This time we were glad to be able to see where we were going, +although it was a dismal, barren country we travelled through, +with many patches of heather moor and marsh. The settlements were +scattered and the buildings poor. But even if we did not think much +of the country, we liked the direction, for it was northwest, and +was bringing us nearer Holland.</p> + +<p>At Bremen, the second largest seaport in Germany, we stayed a couple +of hours, but were not let out of our car, so saw nothing of the +city.</p> + +<p>At about four o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived in Oldenburg, and +began our eight-mile march to Vehnemoor Camp, which is one of the +Cellelager group and known as Cellelager VI. We were glad to dispose +of our packs by loading them on a canal-boat, which we pulled along +by ropes, and we arrived at the camp late in the evening.</p> + +<p>This camp had but a few prisoners in it when we came, but there were +nearly four hundred of us, and we filled it to overflowing. There +were three tiers of bunks where the roof was high enough to admit +of it, and that first night we were there we slept on our empty +mattresses. However, we still had our Red Cross blanket and the two +German blankets apiece, and we managed to keep warm. There were two +rooms with two peat stoves in each room.</p> + +<p>The camp was built beside a peat bog, on ground from which the peat +had been removed, and there was no paving of any kind around it. One +step from the door brought us to the raw mud, and the dirt inside the +camp was indescribable. There were no books or papers; the canteen +sold nothing but matches, notepaper, and something that tasted +remotely like buckwheat honey.</p> + +<p>The first morning the Commandant addressed us, through an +interpreter. He told us he had heard about us. There was dead +silence at that; we were pretty sure we knew what he had heard. Then +he told us that some of us had refused to work and some had tried +to escape; he was grieved to hear these things! He hoped they would +not happen again. It was foolish to act this way, and would meet +with punishment (we knew that). If we would retain his friendship, +we must do as we were told. There was no other way to retain his +friendship. He repeated that. Some of us felt we could get along +without his friendship better than without some other things. We +noticed from the first that he didn't seem sure of himself.</p> + +<p>Then came roll-call!</p> + +<p>None of us like the thought of getting out to work in this horrible +climate, cold, dark, and rainy, and the roll-call brought out the +fact that we had very few able-bodied men. He had a list of our +names, and we were called in groups into an office. Bromley and I +gave our occupations as "farmers," for we hoped to be sent out to +work on a farm and thus have an opportunity of getting away.</p> + +<p>Most of the Canadians were "trappers," though I imagine many of them +must have gained their experience from mouse-traps. Many of the +Englishmen were "boxers" and "acrobats." There were "musicians," +"cornetists," and "trombone artists," "piano-tuners," "orchestra +leaders," "ventriloquists," "keepers in asylums," "corsetiers," +"private secretaries," "masseurs," "agents," "clerks," "judges of +the Supreme Court," and a fine big fellow, a Canadian who looked as +if he might have been able to dig a little, gave his occupation as +a "lion-tamer."</p> + +<p>The work which we were wanted to do was to turn over the sod on the +peat bogs. It looked as if they were just trying to keep us busy, +and every possible means was tried by us to avoid work.</p> + +<p>The "lion-tamer" and three of his companions, fine, vigorous young +chaps, stayed in bed for about a week, claiming to be sick. They got +up for a while every afternoon—to rest. The doctor came three times +a week to look us over, but in the intervening days another man, not +a doctor, who was very good-natured, attended to us.</p> + +<p>One day nine went on "sick parade"; that is, lined up before the +medical examiner and were all exempted from work. The next day there +were ninety of us numbered among the sick, and we had everything from +galloping consumption to ingrowing toe-nails, and were prepared to +give full particulars regarding the same. But they were not asked +for, for armed guards came in suddenly and we were marched out to +work at the point of the bayonet.</p> + +<p>Steve Le Blanc, one of the party, who was a splendid actor, spent the +morning painfully digging his own grave. He did it so well, and with +such faltering movements and so many evidences of early decay, that +he almost deceived our own fellows. He looked so drawn and pale that +I was not sure but what he was really sick, until it was all over. +When he had the grave dug down to the distance of a couple of feet, +the guard stopped him and made him fill it in again, which he did, +and erected a wooden cross to his own memory, and delivered a +touching funeral oration eulogizing the departed.</p> + +<p>We all got in early that day, but most of us decided we would not try +the "sick parade" again.</p> + +<p>This was in the month of January, which is the rainy season, and +there was every excuse for the boys' not wanting to work—besides the +big reason for not wanting to help the Germans.</p> + +<p>One night, when some of our fellows came in from work, cold, wet, and +tired, and were about to attack their supper of black bread and soup, +the mail came in, and one of the boys from Toronto got a letter from +a young lady there who had been out on the Kingston Road to see an +Internment Camp. He let me read the letter. She had gone out one +beautiful July day, she said, and found the men having their evening +meal under the beeches, and they did so enjoy their strawberries and +ice-cream; and they had such lovely gardens, she said, and enough +vegetables in them to provide for the winter. The conclusion of the +letter is where the real sting came: "I am so glad, dear Bert, that +you are safe in Germany out of the smoke and roar and dirt of the +trenches. It has made me feel so satisfied about you, to see these +prisoners. I was worrying a little about you before I saw them. But +now I won't worry a bit. I am glad to see prisoners can be so happy. +I will just hope you are as well cared for as they are.... Daddy and +Mother were simply wild about Germany when they were there two years +before the war. They say the German ways are so quaint and the +children have such pretty manners, and I am afraid you will be +awfully hard to please when you come back, for Daddy and Mother were +crazy about German cooking."</p> + +<p>I handed the letter back, and Bert and I looked at each other. He +rolled his eyes around the crowded room, where five hundred men were +herded together. Two smoking stoves, burning their miserable peat, +made all the heat there was. The double row of berths lined the +walls. Outside, the rain and sleet fell dismally. Bert had a bowl of +prison soup before him, and a hunk of bread, black and heavy. He was +hungry, wet, tired, and dirty, but all he said was, "Lord! What <i>do</i> +they understand?"</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>Every day we devised new ways of avoiding going to work. "Nix arbide" +(no work) was our motto. The Russians, however, never joined us in +any of our plans, neither did they take any part in the fun. They +were poor, melancholy fellows, docile and broken in spirit, and the +guards were much harsher with them than with us, which was very +unjust, and we resented it.</p> + +<p>We noticed, too, that among our own fellows those who would work were +made to work, while the "lion-tamer" and his husky followers lay in +bed unmolested. His latest excuse was that the doctor told him to lie +in bed a month—for he had a floating kidney. Of course the doctor +had not said anything of the kind, but he bluffed it out.</p> + +<p>One morning when the guards were at their difficult task of making up +a working party, they reported that they were twenty-five men short. +Every one had been at roll-call the night before, the guards were on +duty, no one could have got away. Wild excitement reigned. Nobody +knew what had happened to them. After diligent searching they were +found—rolled up in their mattresses.</p> + +<p>They were all quickly hauled forth and sent out to work. The mattress +trick had worked well until too many had done it, on this morning.</p> + +<p>The morning was a troublesome time, and we all felt better when it +had passed; that is, if we had eluded or bluffed the guard. Bromley +and I had a pretty successful way of getting very busy when the +digging party was being made up. We would scrub the table or grab a +gadbroom and begin to sweep, and then the guards, thinking this work +had been given to us, would leave us alone!</p> + +<p>As time went on, the Commandant became more and more worried. I think +he realized that he had a tough bunch to handle. If he had understood +English, he could have heard lots of interesting things about his +Kaiser and his country—particularly in the songs. The "lion-tamer" +and his three followers generally led the singing, sitting up in +their bunks and roaring out the words.</p> + +<p>The singing usually broke out just after the guards had made an +unsuccessful attempt to pull the bedclothes off some of the boys who +had determined to stay in bed all day; and when the few docile ones +had departed for the peat bog, the "shut-ins" grew joyful to the +point of singing.</p> + +<p>This was a hot favorite:</p> +<p class="poem"> +"O Germany, O Germany;<br> +Your fate is sealed upon the sea.<br> +Come out, you swine, and face our fleet;<br> +We'll smash you into sausage-meat."<br> +</p> + +<p>Another one had a distinctly Canadian flavor:</p> +<p class="poem"> +"Kaiser Bill, Kaiser Bill, you'd better be in hell, be in hell!<br> +When Borden's beauties start to yell, start to yell,<br> +We'll hang you high on Potsdam's palace wall—<br> +You're a damned poor Kaiser after all."<br> +</p> + +<p>They had another song telling how they hated to work for the Germans, +the refrain of which was "Nix arbide" (I won't work).</p> + +<p>The Commandant came in one day to inspect the huts. The "bed-ridden" +ones were present in large numbers, sitting up enjoying life very +well for "invalids." The Commandant was in a terrible humor, and +cried out "Schweinstall"—which is to say "pig-pen"—at the sight of +the mattresses. He didn't like anything, and raged at the way the +fellows had left their beds. It might have seemed more reasonable, if +he had raged at the way some of them had not left their beds! The men +he was calling down were the gentle ones, those who were out working. +But to the "lion-tamer" and his followers, who were lazily lying in +their beds, laughing at him, he said never a word.</p> + +<p>We knew enough about Germany and German methods to know this sort +of a camp could not last. Something was going to happen; either we +should all be moved, or there would be a new Commandant and a new set +of guards sent down. This Commandant had only handled Russians, I +think, and we were a new sort of Kriegsgefangenen (prisoners of war). +Bromley and I wanted to make our get-away before there was a change, +but we had no compass—my card had not been answered.</p> + +<p>There was a man named Edwards, who was captured May 8th, a Princess +Pat, who once at Giessen showed me his compass and suggested that we +go together next time. He was at Vehnemoor, too, and Bromley and I, +in talking it over, decided to ask Edwards and his friend to join us. +Then the four of us got together and held many conferences. Edwards +had a watch and a compass; I had maps, and Edwards bought another +one. We talked over many plans, and to Edwards belongs the honor of +suggesting the plan which we did try.</p> + +<p>The difficulties in the way of escaping were many. The camp-ground +was about three hundred feet long and seventy-five feet wide, +surrounded by a barbed-wire fence about ten feet high. The fence had +been built by putting strong, high posts in the ground and stretching +the wire on with a wire-stretcher, so that it could not be sprung +either up or down. The bottom wires were very close together. Inside +of this was an ordinary barbed-wire fence with four or five strands, +through which we were forbidden to go.</p> + +<p>Outside the camp at the northwest corner was the hut where the guards +lived when not on duty, and beside this hut was the kennel where the +watch-dog was kept. He was a big dog, with a head like a husky! The +camp was lighted by great arc-lights about sixty feet apart. German +soldiers were stationed outside and all around the camp, and were +always on the alert.</p> + +<p>We planned to go on Friday night, but an unforeseen event made that +impossible. A very dull German soldier had taken out about a dozen +Frenchmen to work on the moor. Two of them had slipped away some time +during the afternoon, and he did not notice he was short until he +got in. Then great excitement prevailed, and German soldiers were +sent out in pursuit. We watched them going out, dozens of them, and +decided this was a poor time to go abroad. The moon was nearly full +and the clouds which had filled the sky all day, were beginning to +break, all of which was against us.</p> + +<p>On Saturday, just as we feared, an extra guard of about twenty-five +men was sent in from Oldenburg, and as the guard changed every two +hours, and this was about 5.30 o'clock in the evening when they came, +we reasoned that the double guard would go on at seven. After the +guard had been doubled, there would be but little chance for us.</p> + +<p>It was now or never!</p> +<a name="2HCH0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XIV +</h2> +<h3> +OFF FOR HOLLAND! +</h3> + +<p>The eastern fence was the one we had marked as our point of +departure, and, Saturday being wash-day, there was nothing suspicious +in the fact that we had hung our clothes there to dry. They had to be +hung somewhere.</p> + +<p>The boys were expecting parcels that night, for a canal-boat had come +up from Oldenburg, and every one was out in the yard. Several of the +boys were in our confidence, and we had asked them to stroll up and +down leisurely between the hut and the east fence.</p> + +<p>Just at the last minute the fourth man, Edwards's friend, came to me +and said:—</p> + +<p>"Sim, we will never make it. The guards will see us, and they'll +shoot us—you know they'll just be glad to pot us to scare the +others. It is madness to think we can get away from here with these +lights shining."</p> + +<p>I told him I thought we had a chance, but did not try to persuade +him. Of course, we all knew we were taking a grave risk, but then, +why shouldn't we? It was the only way out.</p> + +<p>"Don't go, Sim," he said earnestly.</p> + +<p>I told him we were going, but if he felt as he said, it would be +better for him not to come, and already I could see that Edwards, who +was in the group of strollers, had dropped on his stomach and was +filing the lower wire of the inner fence, and when the wire broke he +crawled through to the other fence.</p> + +<p>I joined the party of strollers then, and walking toward the fence, +could see what Edwards was doing.</p> + +<p>With his left hand he held the bottom wire and filed it close to the +post, which did much to deaden the sound, but when the wire broke, to +my strained ears the crack was loud enough to alarm the guard. But +the sound of our voices must have covered it over, for all went well.</p> + +<p>We walked back again leisurely, though to my excited imagination the +sound of the filing deadened every other sound. We were back to the +fence again when I heard the whang of the second wire, and at that I +dropped to the ground and began to crawl after Edwards.</p> + +<p>The light from the arc-lights caught the horseshoes on the heels of +Edwards's boots, and they flashed to my eyes and seemed to me to +shine like the headlights of an engine! It seemed to me as if the +guards must see them.</p> + +<p>On he went—on—and on I followed, and behind me came Bromley. I +could hear him breathe above the beating of my own heart.</p> + +<p>Crawling is a slow and terrible way to travel when every instinct +cries out to run. But for about twenty yards we crawled like +snakes—changing then to the easier method of creeping on hands +and knees.</p> + +<p>Then three shots rang out, and it seemed as if our hearts stopped +beating—but we kept on going! Our first thought was, of course, that +we had been discovered. But no other sound came to us, and, looking +back to the <i>Lager</i>, we could still see the men moving carelessly +about.</p> + +<p>The bog was traversed by many ditches, and had a flat but uneven +surface, with tufts of grass here and there. It gave us no shelter, +but the winter night had fallen, and we were glad of the shelter +afforded by the darkness. We knew the moon would be up before long, +and we wanted to be as far away from the camp as possible before that +happened.</p> + +<p>I had gone out to work for a couple of days, to get a knowledge of +the country, and I knew from my map that there was a railway at the +edge of the bog, and as this would be the place where they would +expect to catch us, we wanted to get past it as soon as possible. But +the ditches, filled with water cold as ice, gave us great trouble. +Generally we could jump them, but sometimes they were too wide and we +had to scramble through the best we could.</p> + +<p>About eight o'clock the moon came up, a great ball of silver in a +clear blue sky, and turned the stagnant water of the bog to pools of +silver. It was a beautiful night to look at, but a bad night for +fugitives. Bromley, being a little heavier than either Edwards or I, +broke through the crust of the bog several times, and had difficulty +in getting out.</p> + +<p>About midnight, with the heavy going, he began to show signs of +exhaustion. His underwear, shrunken with cold-water washing, bound +his limbs, and he told us he could not keep up. Then we carried his +overcoat and told him we would stop to rest just as soon as we +crossed the track, if we could find a bush, and he made brave efforts +to keep up with us.</p> + +<p>"You'll be all right, Tom, when we get out of the swamp," we told +him.</p> + +<p>About half-past two we reached the railroad, and finding a close +thicket of spruce on the other side, we went in and tried to make +Bromley comfortable. He fell fast asleep as soon as he got his head +down, and it was evident to Edwards and me that our comrade was in +poor shape for a long tramp. Still we hoped that a day's rest would +revive him. He slept most of the day and seemed better before we +started out.</p> + +<p>The day was dry and fine, but, of course, we were wet from the hard +going across the bog, and it was too cold to be comfortable when not +moving.</p> + +<p>We could hear the children playing, and the wagons passing on a road +near by, and once we heard the whistle of a railway train—but no one +came near the wood.</p> + +<p>At nightfall we stole out and pushed off again. Bromley made a brave +attempt to keep going, but the mud and heavy going soon told on him, +and he begged us to go on and leave him.</p> + +<p>"If you don't go on, boys," he said, "we'll all be taken. Leave me, +and you two will have a chance. I can't make it, boys; I can only +crawl along."</p> + +<p>We came to a road at last and the going was easier. Bromley found he +could get along more easily, and we were making pretty fair time when +we saw something dark ahead of us. I was of the opinion that we +should go around it, but Bromley could not stand any more travelling +across country, and we pushed on.</p> + +<p>The dark object proved to be a house, and it was only one of many, +for we found ourselves in a small town. Then we took the first road +leading out of the town, and, walking as fast as we could, pushed +quietly out for the country, Edwards ahead, I next, and Bromley +behind.</p> + +<p>I heard some one whistling and thought it was Bromley, and waited for +him to come up to tell him to keep quiet, but when he came beside me, +he whispered, "They are following us."</p> + +<p>We went on.</p> + +<p>Soon a voice behind us called, "Halt!"</p> + +<p>"It's no use, Sim—they have us," Bromley whispered.</p> + +<p>Ahead of us was a little bush, toward which we kept going. We did not +run, because we thought that the people who were following us were +not sure who we were, and therefore would not be likely to shoot. +Bromley knew he could not stand a race for it in his condition, but, +knowing him as I do, I believe he would have made the effort; but I +think he saw that if he went back and surrendered, it would give us +more time to get away.</p> + +<p>"Go on, Sim," he whispered to me.</p> + +<p>We had agreed that if anything happened to one of us, the others were +to go on. We could not hope to help each other against such numbers.</p> + +<p>When we got opposite the wood, we made a dash for it.</p> + +<p>I think it was then that Bromley went back and gave himself up. I +often wondered what he told them about the other men they had seen. +Whatever he thought was best for our safety, I am sure of that, for +Bromley was a loyal comrade and the best of chums.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>We lay there for a while, wondering what to do. We were about in the +middle of a very small grove, and knew it was a poor place to stay +in, for it was a thin wood, and the daylight was not far distant.</p> + +<p>Edwards, who was right beside me, whispered that he had just seen a +soldier climb a tree and another one handing him a gun. This decided +us to crawl to the edge of the wood again. But when we reached it, +Edwards, who was ahead, whispered back to me that he saw three +civilians right in front of us.</p> + +<p>This began to look like a tight corner.</p> + +<p>We determined to take a chance on the civilians' not being armed, and +make a dash for it. We did, and "the civilians" turned out to be a +group of slim evergreens. We saw a forest ahead, and made for it. The +ground was sandy and poor, and the trees were scattered and small, +and grew in clumps. The going was not hard, but the loss of Bromley +had greatly depressed us.</p> + +<p>Once we met a man—ran right into him—and probably scared him just +as much as he did us. He gave us a greeting, to which we grunted a +reply, a grunt being common to all languages.</p> + +<p>We saw the headlight of a train about three o'clock in the morning, +reminding us of the railroad to the south of us.</p> + +<p>Coming to a thick spruce grove, we decided to take cover for the day. +The morning was red and cloudy, with a chilly wind crackling the +trees over our heads, but as the day wore on, the wind went down and +the sun came out. It was a long day, though, and it seemed as if the +night would never come. It was too cold to sleep comfortably, but we +got a little sleep, some way.</p> + +<p>When we started out at night, we soon came to a ditch too wide to +jump, and as our feet were dry we did not want to wet our socks, so +took them off and went through. January is a cold month for wading +streams, and a thin crust of ice was hard on the feet. They felt +pretty numb for a while, but when we had wiped them as dry as we +could and got on our socks and boots again, they were soon all right. +But our care for our feet did not save them, for the muddy ground, +full of bog-holes, which we next encountered, made us as wet and +miserable as we could be.</p> + +<p>One large town—it may have been Sögel—gave us considerable trouble +getting around it.</p> + +<p>The time of year made the going bad. There were no vegetables in the +gardens or apples on the trees; no cows out at pasture. Even the +leaves were gone from the trees, thus making shelter harder to find. +The spruce trees and Scotch fir were our stronghold, and it was in +spruce thickets we made our hiding-places by day.</p> + +<p>The advantage of winter travel was the longer nights, and although +it had been raining frequently, and the coldest, most disagreeable +rains, the weather was dry during the time we were out. But the going +was heavy and bad, and when the time came to rest, we were completely +done out.</p> + +<p>We had put ourselves on short rations because we had not been able to +save much; we had no way of carrying it except in our pockets, and we +had to be careful not to make them bulge. We had biscuits, chocolate, +and cheese, but not being able to get even a raw turnip to supplement +our stores, we had to save them all we could.</p> + +<p>On January 25th, our third day out, the bush was so short we had to +lie all day to remain hidden. We could not once stand up and stretch, +and the day was interminably long. A bird's nest, deserted now, of +course, and broken, hung in a stunted Scotch fir over my head, and as +I lay looking at it I thought of the hard struggle birds have, too, +to get along, and of how they have to be on the watch for enemies.</p> + +<p>Life is a queer puzzle when a person has time to figure it out. We +make things hard for each other. Here we were, Ted and I, lying all +day inactive, not because we wanted to, but because we had to, to +save our lives. Lying in a patch of scrub, stiff, cold, and hungry, +when we might have been clearing it out and making of it a farm which +would raise crops and help to feed the people! Hunger sharpens a +man's mind and gives him a view of things that will never come when +the stomach is full; and as we lay there under scrub, afraid even +to speak to each other, afraid to move, for a crackling twig might +attract some dog who would bark and give the alarm, I took a short +course in sociology.... The Catholics are right about having the +people come fasting to mass, for that is the time to get spiritual +truths over to them!</p> + +<p>Hunger would solve all the capital and labor troubles in the world; +that is, if the employers could be starved for a week—well, not a +whole week—just about as long as we had—say, two biscuits a day for +three days, with nothing better ahead. But hunger is just a word of +two syllables to most people. They know it by sight, they can say it +and write it, but they do not know it.</p> + +<p>At these times the thought of liberty became a passion with us. +Still, we never minimized the danger nor allowed ourselves to become +too optimistic. We knew what was ahead of us if we were caught: the +cells and the Strafe-Barrack, with incidentals.</p> + +<p>On the fourth day we crossed an open patch of country, lightly +wooded, and then came to a wide moor which offered us no protection +whatever. Our only consolation was that nobody would be likely to +visit such a place. There was not even a rabbit or a bird, and the +silence was like the silence of death.</p> + +<p>I knew from my map that we had to cross the river Ems, and I also +knew that this would probably be the deciding factor in our escape. +If we got over the Ems, we should get the rest of the way.</p> + +<p>About two o'clock in the morning we reached the Ems. It is a big +river in normal times, but it was now in flood, as we could see by +the trees which stood in the water, as well as by the uprooted ones +that floated down the stream. Swimming was out of the question.</p> + +<p>We hunted along the bank that morning, but could find nothing, and as +daylight was coming, we had to take cover.</p> + +<p>All day we remained hidden in a clump of spruce and looked out upon +the cruel sweep of water that divided us from liberty. The west wind +came softly to us, bringing sounds from the Holland border, which we +knew from our map was only four or five miles away! We heard the +shunting of cars and the faint ringing of bells.</p> + +<p>We discussed every plan. We would search the riverbank for a boat, +though we were afraid the German thoroughness would see to it that +there was no boat on this side of any of their border rivers. Still, +they could not watch everything, and there might be one.</p> + +<p>Failing that, we would make a raft to carry our clothes, and swim it. +We had a knife, but no rope. I remember in "Swiss Family Robinson" +how easily things came to hand when they were needed, and I actually +looked in the dead grass at my feet to see if by any chance I might +find a rope or wire—or something.</p> + +<p>But there were no miracles or fairies—no fortunate happenings for +us; and when night came on again we scoured the bank for a boat, but +in vain. Never a boat could we see.</p> + +<p>We then drew together some of the driftwood that lay on the shore, +but when we tried it in the water it would hardly float its own +weight. I felt the hopelessness of this plan, but Ted worked on like +a beaver, and I tried to believe he had more hope than I had. But +suddenly he looked at me, as he stopped, and I felt that our last +plan was gone!</p> + +<p>"It's no use," he said.</p> + +<p>There was only the bridge left, and that, we knew, was very +dangerous. Still, there was a chance. It might not be guarded—the +guard might be gone for a few minutes. And all the time the murmurs +came to us on the wind from the Holland border, and sounded friendly +and welcoming.</p> + +<p>We started out to find the bridge.</p> + +<p>We were better dressed than Bromley and I had been, for we had on the +dark blue overcoats, but not being able to speak the language was +dead against us.</p> + +<p>"Even if they do get us, Sim," Ted said, "we'll try it again—if we +live through the punishment."</p> + +<p>"All right," I said, "I'm game."</p> +<a name="2HCH0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XV +</h2> +<h3> +CAUGHT AGAIN +</h3> + +<p>The bridge was a fine iron one without lights. The road which led +to it was not much travelled, and it looked as if it might carry us +over—without accident. Anyway, it was our only chance.</p> + +<p>We walked on to the bridge, taking care to make no noise, and +striking a gait that was neither slow nor fast.</p> + +<p>We were nine tenths of the way over the bridge, with hope springing +in our tired hearts at each step. Away to the west, straight ahead of +us, distant lights twinkled. We thought they were in Holland, and +they beckoned to our tired hearts like the lights of home.</p> + +<p>We were only about ten feet from the other side of the bridge, +when... suddenly a light was flashed on us, a great dazzling light +that seemed to scorch and wither us. It seemed to burn our +prison-clothes into our very souls. I'm sure the rings on my knees +showed through my overcoat!</p> + +<p>Into the circle of light three German soldiers came, with rifles +levelled.</p> + +<p>They advanced upon us until their bayonets were touching us. And +again we saw our dream of freedom fade!</p> + +<p>The soldiers took us in charge and marched us to Lathen, a town near +by, where part of the hotel was used as barracks. They showed us no +hostility; it was just part of their day's work to gather in escaping +prisoners.</p> + +<p>There was a map on the wall, and when they asked us where we came +from, we showed them Canada on the map of the North American +Continent. They were decent-looking young fellows and asked us many +questions about Canada.</p> + +<p>Although it was about midnight there seemed to be people on the +streets, which were brilliantly lighted. A Sergeant Major came in, +with a gendarme, who had two women with him. They were well-dressed +looking women, but I kept wondering what they were doing out so late.</p> + +<p>The Sergeant Major and the policeman lacked the friendliness of the +privates, and the former began the conversation by saying, "England +ist kaputt." The Sergeant Major repeated his statement, with greater +emphasis, and I put more emphasis on my reply, and there we stuck! It +did not seem that we could get any farther. It seemed a place to say, +"Time will tell."</p> + +<p>The gendarme was a coarse, beer-drinking type, and I kept wondering +how two such fine-looking women came to be with him. The younger and +handsomer one was not his wife, I knew—he was so attentive to her. +The other one may have been, though she was evidently his superior +in every way. Still, even in our own country very fine women are +sometimes careless about whom they marry.</p> + +<p>The Sergeant Major poured out a volume of questions in German, to +which we replied, "Nix forstand."</p> + +<p>Then the gendarme thought something was being overlooked, and he +suggested that we be searched. I was afraid of that, and had taken +the precaution of hiding the compass as well as I could, by putting +it in the bottom of the pasteboard box that held our shaving-stick. +The stick had been worn down, leaving room for the compass at the +bottom of the box.</p> + +<p>The soldier who searched us did not notice the compass, and handed +the shaving-stick back to me, and I breathed easier. But the gendarme +had probably done more searching than the soldier, and asked me for +it. He immediately let the stick fall out, and found the compass, +which he put in his pocket, with a wink at the others... and it was +gone.</p> + +<p>All our little articles were taken from us and put into two parcels, +which we were allowed to carry, but not keep, and which were +eventually returned to us, and, whether it was done by carelessness +or not I do not know, but by some fortunate circumstance my maps were +left in my pay-book case and put in the package, but I did not see +them until after my punishment was over.</p> +<a name="image-0008"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/138.jpg" +alt="Map Made from Paper Which Came in a Parcel, Wrapped +Around a Fruit-cake. Notice the Stain Caused by The Cake. This Is +The Map That Was Hidden in the Cigarette-box"> +<br><i>Map made from Paper which came in a Parcel, wrapped around a Fruit-Cake. +Notice the stain caused by the cake. This is the map that was hidden in the cigarette-box</i> + + +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> + +<p>My notebook attracted the attention of the gendarme, and he took +it from me. I had made entries each day, and these he read aloud, +translating them into German as he went, much to the apparent +entertainment of the two women, who laughed at him, with a forced +gaiety which confirmed my diagnosis of their relationship. I think +he was crediting me with entries I had never made, for the central +figure seemed to be one "Rosie Fräulein," whom I did not have the +pleasure of meeting.</p> + +<p>We could see that although the privates were friendly, there was no +semblance of friendliness in either the gendarme or the Sergeant +Major. I think they would have gladly shot us on the spot—if they +had dared. They were pronounced cases of anglophobia.</p> + +<p>The gendarme at last broke out into English, cutting his words off +with a snarl:</p> + +<p>"What do you fellows want to get back for anyway? England is no good! +England is a liar, and a thief."</p> + +<p>When he said this, I could see Edwards's face grow white and his eyes +glitter. He was breathing hard, like a man going up a steep hill, and +his hands were opening and closing. He walked over to the gendarme +and glared in his face,—"What do I want to get back for?" he +repeated in a steady voice, stretched tight like a wire, "I'll tell +you—this is not any ordinary war, where brave men fight each other. +This is a war against women and children and old men. I have fought +with the Boers in Africa, but I bore them no ill-will—they fought +like men and fought with men. I've been through Belgium—I've seen +what you have done. I have boys of my own—little fellows—just +like the ones you cut the hands off—and I will tell you why I want +to get back—I want to serve my country and my God—by killing +Germans—they're not fit to live!"</p> + +<p>The women drew back in alarm, though I do not think they understood +the words. Instinctively I drew up beside Edwards, for I thought it +was the end; but to our surprise the brutal face of the gendarme +relaxed into a broad grin, and he turned to the women and Sergeant +Major and made some sort of explanation. We did not know what was +coming, and then a controversy took place between the two men as to +what should be done with us. The gendarme wanted to take us, but the +ladies protested, and at last we were led away by the two privates, +carrying our two little packages of belongings.</p> + +<p>We went into an adjoining room, where a coal fire burned in a small +round heater, whose glow promised comfort and warmth. The privates +very kindly brought us a drink of hot coffee and some bread, and +pulled two mattresses beside the stove and told us to go to sleep. +Then they went out and brought back blankets, and with friendly looks +and smiles bade us good-night, incidentally taking our shoes with +them.</p> + +<p>"The Germans are a spotty race," said Ted, as we lay down. "Look at +these two fellows—and then think of those two mugs that any decent +man would want to kill at sight!"—He pointed to the room where we +had left the gendarme and the Sergeant Major. "Oh—wouldn't I enjoy +letting a bit of daylight through that policeman's fat carcass!"</p> + +<p>Next morning, when we awakened, our guards came again and brought us +some more coffee and bread. It was a bright morning, of sunshine, +with a frost which glistened on the pavement and the iron railing +surrounding the building we were in.</p> + +<p>The streets were full of people, and streamers of bunting festooned +the buildings. Children were on the streets, carrying flags, and the +place had a real holiday appearance.</p> + +<p>"Suppose this is all in our honor, Sim," Ted said as he looked out of +the window. "I wonder how they knew we were coming—we really did not +intend to."</p> + +<p>One of the guards, who had a kodak and was taking pictures of the +celebration, asked us if he could take our pictures. So we went out +to the front door, which was hung with flags, and had a picture +taken.</p> + +<p>"What are the flags up for?" we asked him.</p> + +<p>"It is the birthday of the All-Highest," he replied proudly.</p> + +<p>Ted said to me, so the guard could not hear, "Well, the old man has +my sincere wishes—that it may be his last."</p> + +<p>During the forenoon we were taken by rail to Meppen. The Sergeant +Major came with us, but did not stay in the compartment with the +guards and us. On the way the guard who had taken our photograph +showed us the proof of it, and told us he would send us one, and +had us write down our addresses. He must have been a photographer +in civil life, for he had many splendid pictures with him, and +entertained us by showing them to us. I remember one very pretty +picture of his young daughter, a lovely girl of about fourteen years +of age, standing under an apple-tree.</p> + +<p>Before the Sergeant Major handed us over to the military authorities +at Meppen, he told them what Edwards had said about wanting to go +back to kill Germans, but he did not tell all that Edwards had said. +However, they treated us politely and did not seem to bear us any +ill-will.</p> + +<p>In the civil jail at Meppen to which we were taken, and which is a +fine building with bright halls and pleasant surroundings, we were +put in clean and comfortable cells. There was a bed with mattress and +blankets, which in the daytime was locked up against the wall, toilet +accommodations, drinking-water, chair, table, wash-basin, and comb. +It looked like luxury to us, and after a bowl of good soup I went to +sleep.</p> + +<p>I wakened the next morning much refreshed and in good spirits. The +guard was polite and obliging, and when I said, "Guard, I like your +place," his face broke into a friendly grin which warmed my heart. +Ted had spoken truly when he said the Germans were a "spotty race." +It is a spotty country, too, and one of the pleasant spots to us was +the civil jail at Meppen.</p> + +<p>Of course, to men who had been sleeping in beds and eating at tables +and going in and out at their own pleasure, it would have been a +jail; but to us, dirty, tired, hungry, red-eyed from loss of sleep, +and worn with anxiety, it was not a jail—it was a haven of rest. And +in the twenty-four hours that we spent there we made the most of it, +for we well knew there were hard times coming!</p> +<a name="2HCH0016"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XVI +</h2> +<h3> +THE INVISIBLE BROTHERHOOD +</h3> + +<p>A special guard was sent from Vehnemoor to bring us back, and we had +to leave our comfortable quarters at Meppen and go back with him.</p> + +<p>The guard took a stout rope and tied us together, my right wrist to +Edwards's left, and when we were securely roped up, he tried to +enlighten us further by dancing around us, shouting and brandishing +his gun, occasionally putting it against our heads and pretending he +was about to draw the trigger. This was his way of explaining that he +would shoot us if we didn't behave ourselves.</p> + +<p>We tried to look back at him with easy indifference, and when he saw +that he had not succeeded in frightening us, he soon ceased to try. +However, from the wicked looks he gave us, we could see that he would +be glad to shoot us—if he had a reasonable excuse.</p> + +<p>At the station in Meppen, where he took us fully an hour before train +time, as we stood in the waiting-room with the guard beside us, the +people came and looked curiously at us. The groups grew larger and +larger, until we were the centre of quite a circle. We did not enjoy +the notoriety very much, but the guard enjoyed it immensely, for was +he not the keeper of two hardened and desperate men?</p> + +<p>We noticed that the majority of the women were dressed in black. Some +of them were poor, sad, spiritless-looking creatures who would make +any person sorry for them; and others I saw whose faces were as hard +as the men's. The majority of them, however, seemed to be quite +indifferent; they showed neither hostility nor friendliness to us.</p> + +<p>We changed cars at Leer, where on the platform a drunken German +soldier lurched against us, and, seeing us tied together, offered to +lend us his knife to cut the cord, but the guard quickly frustrated +his kind intention.</p> + +<p>At Oldenburg we were herded through the crowded station and taken out +on the road for Vehnemoor, the guard marching solemnly behind us. He +knew we had no firearms, and we were tied together, but when Ted put +his free hand in his pocket to find some chocolate, as we walked +along, the guard screamed at him in fear. He seemed to be afraid we +would in some way outwit him.</p> + +<p>But he was quite safe from us; not that we were afraid of either him +or his gun, for I think I could have swung suddenly around on him and +got his gun away from him, while Edwards cut our cords with the knife +which was in my little package. I think he knew that we could do +this, and that is why he was so frightened.</p> + +<p>But there was one big reason which caused us to walk quietly and +peaceably forward to take our punishment, and that was the river Ems, +with its cruel sweep of icy water and its guarded bridges. We knew it +was impossible to cross it at this season of the year, so the guard +was safe. We would not resist him, but already we were planning our +next escape when the flood had subsided and the summer had come to +warm the water.</p> + +<p>He had a malicious spirit, this guard, and when we came to Vehnemoor +and were put in our cells, he wanted our overcoats taken from us, +although the cells were as cold as outside. The Sergeant of the guard +objected to this, and said we were not being punished, but only held +here, and therefore we should not be deprived of our coats. Several +times that night, when we stamped up and down to keep from freezing, +I thought of the guard and his desire that our coats should be taken +from us, and I wondered what sort of training or education could +produce as mean a spirit as that! Surely, I thought, he must have +been cruelly treated, to be so hard of heart—or probably he knew +that the way of promotion in the German army is to show no softness +of spirit.</p> + +<p>But the morning came at last, and we were taken before the +Commandant, and wondered what he would have to say to us. We were +pretty sure that we had not "retained his friendship."</p> + +<p>He did not say much to us when we were ushered into his little +office and stood before his desk. He spoke, as before, through an +interpreter. He looked thin and worried, and, as usual, the questions +were put to us—"Why did we want to leave?" "What reason had we? Was +it the food, or was it because we had to work?"</p> +<a name="image-0009"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/146.jpg" alt="Friedrichsfeld Prison-camp in Winter"> +<br><i>Friedrichsfeld Prison-Camp in Winter</i> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> + +<p>We said it was not for either of these; we wanted to regain our +freedom; we were free men, and did not want to be held in an enemy +country; besides, we were needed!</p> + +<p>We could see the Commandant had no interest in our patriotic +emotions. He merely wanted to wash his hands of us, and when we said +it was not on account of the poor food, or having to work, I think he +breathed easier. Would we sign a paper—he asked us then—to show +this? And we said we would. So the paper was produced and we signed +it, after the interpreter had read and explained it to us.</p> + +<p>In the cells the food was just the same as we had had before, in the +regular prison-camp. They seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of +that soup. We wondered if there was a flowing well of it somewhere in +the bog. The food was no worse, but sometimes the guards forgot us. +The whole camp seemed to be running at loose ends, and sometimes the +guards did not come near us for half a day, but we were not so badly +off as they thought, for we got in things from our friends.</p> + +<p>On the first morning, when we were taken to the lavatory, we saw some +of the boys. They were very sorry to know we had been caught, and +told us Bromley had been sent to Oldenburg a few days before, for his +punishment. They also told us that the night we escaped, no alarm had +been given, although the guards may have noticed the hanging wires. +Several of the boys had had the notion to go when they saw the wires +down, but they were afraid of being caught. The general opinion was +that the guards knew we had gone, but did not give the alarm until +morning, because they had no desire to cross the bog at night.</p> + +<p>Our method of getting stuff to the cell was simple. I wore my own +overcoat to the lavatory, and hung it up inside. When I went to get +it, I found another coat was hanging beside it, which I put on and +wore back to the cell. In the pocket of the "other coat" I found +things—bread, cheese, sardines, biscuits, and books. The next day I +wore the other coat, and got my own, and found its pockets equally +well supplied. It was a fellow called Iguellden, whose coat I had +on alternate days. He watched for me, and timed his visit to the +lavatory to suit me. Of course, the other boys helped him with the +contributions. Edwards was equally well supplied. In the prison-camp +the word "friend" has an active and positive quality in it which it +sometimes lacks in normal times.</p> + +<p>On the second night in the cell I suffered from the cold, for it was +a very frosty night, and as the cells were not heated at all, they +were quite as cold as outside.</p> + +<p>I was stamping up and down, with my overcoat buttoned up to the neck +and my hands in my pockets, trying to keep warm, when the new guard +came on at seven o'clock. He shouted something at me, which I did not +understand, but I kept on walking. Then he pounded on the wall with +the butt of his rifle, crying, "Schlafen! schlafen!"</p> + +<p>To which I replied, "Nix schlafen!" (I can't sleep!)</p> + +<p>I then heard the key turn in the door, and I did not know what might +be coming.</p> + +<p>When he came in, he blew his breath in the frosty air, and asked, +"Kalt?"</p> + +<p>I did not think he needed to take my evidence—it certainly was +"kalt."</p> + +<p>Then he muttered something which I did not understand, and went out, +returning about twenty minutes later with a blanket which he had +taken from one of the empty beds in the <i>Revier</i>. I knew he was +running a grave risk in doing this, for it is a serious offense for +a guard to show kindness to a prisoner, and I thanked him warmly. He +told me he would have to take it away again in the morning when he +came on guard again, and I knew he did not want any of the other +guards to see it. My word of thanks he cut short by saying, "Bitte! +bitte! Ich thue es gerne" (I do it gladly); and his manner indicated +that his only regret was that he could not do more.</p> + +<p>I thought about him that night when I sat with the blanket wrapped +around me, and I wondered about this German soldier. He evidently +belonged to the same class as the first German soldier I had met +after I was captured, who tried to bandage my shoulder when the +shells were falling around us; to the same class as good old Sank +at Giessen, who, though he could speak no English, made us feel his +kindness in a hundred ways; to the same class as the German soldier +who lifted me down from the train when on my way to Roulers. This +man was one of them, and I began to be conscious of that invisible +brotherhood which is stronger and more enduring than any tie of +nationality, for it wipes out the differences of creed or race +or geographical boundary, and supersedes them all, for it is a +brotherhood of spirit, and bears no relation to these things.</p> + +<p>To those who belong to it I am akin, no matter where they were born +or what the color of their uniform!</p> + +<p>Then I remembered how bitterly we resented the action of a British +Sergeant Major at Giessen, who had been appointed by the German +officer in charge to see after a working party of our boys. Working +parties were not popular—we had no desire to help the enemy—and one +little chap, the Highland bugler from Montreal, refused to go out. +The German officer was disposed to look lightly on the boy's offense, +saying he would come all right, but the British Sergeant Major +insisted that the lad be punished—and he was.</p> + +<p>I thought of these things that night in the cell, and as I slept, +propped up in the corner, I dreamed of that glad day when the +invisible brotherhood will bind together all the world, and men will +no more go out to kill and wound and maim their fellow-men, but their +strength will be measured against sin and ignorance, disease and +poverty, and against these only will they fight, and not against each +other.</p> + +<p>When I awakened in the morning, stiff and cramped and shivering, my +dream seemed dim and vague and far away—but it had not entirely +faded.</p> + +<p>That day the guard who brought me soup was a new one whom I had not +seen before, and he told me he was one of the twenty-five new men who +had been sent down the night we escaped. I was anxious to ask him +many things, but I knew he dared not tell me. However, he came in and +sat down beside me, and the soup that he brought was steaming hot, +and he had taken it from the bottom of the pot, where there were +actual traces of meat and plenty of vegetables. Instead of the usual +bowlful, he had brought me a full quart, and from the recesses of his +coat he produced half a loaf of white bread—"Swiss bread" we called +it—and it was a great treat for me. I found out afterwards that Ted +had received the other half. The guard told me to keep hidden what I +did not eat then, so I knew he was breaking the rules in giving it +to me.</p> + +<p>He sat with his gun between his knees, muzzle upwards, and while I +ate the soup he talked to me, asking me where I came from, and what +I had been doing before the war.</p> + +<p>When I told him I had been a carpenter, he said he was a +bridge-builder of Trieste, and he said, "I wish I was back at it; +it is more to my liking to build things than to destroy them."</p> + +<p>I said I liked my old job better than this one, too, whereupon he +broke out impatiently, "We're fools to fight each other. What spite +have you and I at each other?"</p> + +<p>I told him we had no quarrel with the German people, but we knew the +military despotism of Germany had to be literally smashed to pieces +before there could be any peace, and, naturally enough, the German +people had to suffer for having allowed such a tyrant to exist in +their country. We were all suffering in the process, I said.</p> + +<p>"It's money," he said, after a pause. "It is the money interests that +work against human interests every time, and all the time. The big +ones have their iron heel on our necks. They lash us with the whip +of starvation. They have controlled our education, our preachers, +government, and everything, and the reason they brought on the war is +that they were afraid of us—we were getting too strong. In the last +election we had nearly a majority, and the capitalists saw we were +going to get the upper hand, so to set back the world, they brought +on the war—to kill us off. At first we refused to fight—some of +us—but they played up the hatred of England which they have bred +in us; and they stampeded many of our people on the love of the +Fatherland. Our ranks broke; our leaders were put in jail and some +were shot; it's hard to go back on your country, too.</p> + +<p>"But I don't believe in nationalities any more; nationalities are a +curse, and as long as we have them, the ruling class will play us +off, one against the other, to gain their own ends. There is only one +race—the human race—and only two divisions of it; there are those +who represent money rights and special privileges, and those who +stand for human rights. The more you think of it, the more you will +see the whole fabric of society resolving itself into these two +classes. The whole military system is built on the sacrifice of human +rights."</p> + +<p>I looked at him in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I am just a bridge-builder," he answered, "but I'm a follower of +Liebknecht... We can't do much until the Prussian system is defeated. +There are just a few of us here—the guard who got you the blanket +is one of us. We do what we can for the prisoners; sometimes we are +caught and strafed.... There is no place for kindness in our army," +he added sadly.</p> + +<p>"I must go now," he said; "I heard one of the guards say we were +going to be moved on to another camp. I may not see you again, but +I'll speak to a guard I know, who will try to get the good soup for +you. The Sergeant of the guard is all right, but some of them are +devils; they are looking for promotion, and know the way to get it is +to excel in cruelty. We shall not meet, but remember, we shall win! +Germany's military power will be defeated. Russia's military power +is crumbling now, the military power of the world is going down to +defeat, but the people of all nations are going to win!"</p> + +<p>We stood up and shook hands, and he went out, locking me in the cell +as before.</p> + +<p>I have thought long and often of the bridge-builder of Trieste and +his vision of the victory which is coming to the world, and I, too, +can see that it is coming, not by explosions and bombardments, with +the shrieks of the wounded and the groans of the dying—not that way +will it come—but when these have passed there shall be heard a +still, small voice which will be the voice of God, and its words +shall be—</p> + +<p>"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself!"</p> +<a name="2HCH0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XVII +</h2> +<h3> +THE CELLS AT OLDENBURG +</h3> + +<p>It was on February 3d that we were taken from Vehnemoor to Oldenburg, +and when we started out on the road along the canal, roped together +as before, Ted and I knew we were going up against the real thing as +far as punishment goes, for we should not have Iguellden and the rest +of the boys to send us things. We came out of the Vehnemoor Camp with +somewhat of a reluctant feeling, for we knew we were leaving kind +friends behind us. Ted had received the same treatment that I had in +the matter of the blankets and the good soup—thanks to the friendly +guard.</p> + +<p>It was in the early morning we started, and as Vehnemoor was almost +straight west of Oldenburg, we had the sun in our faces all the way +in. It was good to be out again—and good to look at something other +than board walls.</p> + +<p>Our road lay along the canal which connected Vehnemoor with +Oldenburg. Peat sheds, where the peat was put to dry after it was +cut, were scattered along the canal, and we passed several +flat-bottomed canal-boats carrying the peat into Oldenburg. They +were drawn by man-power, and naturally made slow progress.</p> + +<p>The canal furnished a way of transportation for the small farmers +living near it, too, whose little farms had been reclaimed from the +bog, and their produce was brought into Oldenburg on the canal-boats. +We could see better-looking buildings back farther, where the land +was more fertile. At one place we saw a canal-boat with sails, but as +the day was still it lay inactive, fastened to an iron post.</p> + +<p>The settlement seemed to be comparatively recent, judging by the +small apple-trees around the buildings, and it looked as if this +section of the country had all been waste land until the canal had +been put through.</p> + +<p>When we arrived at Oldenburg, which we did early in the morning, we +were marched through its narrow streets to the military prison. We +could see that the modern part of the city was very well built and up +to date, with fine brick buildings, but the old part, which dates +back to the eleventh century, was dirty and cheerless.</p> + +<p>The prison to which we were taken was a military prison before the +war, where the German soldiers were punished, and from the very first +we could see that it was a striking example of German efficiency—in +the way of punishment. Nothing was left to chance!</p> + +<p>We were searched first, and it was done by removing all our clothing. +Then, piece by piece, the guard looked them over. He ran his hand +under the collar of our shirts; he turned our pockets inside out; he +patted the lining of our coats; he turned out our stockings and shook +them; he looked into our boots. As he finished with each article, +it was thrown over to us and we dressed again. Our caps, overcoats, +braces, belts, and knives were taken away from us. They were careful +to see that we should not be tempted to commit suicide.</p> + +<p>When I saw my cap go, I wondered if my maps, which I had sewed in the +pasteboard, would escape this man's hawk eyes. I thought I had lost +my other maps, and wondered how we should ever replace them. But it +would be time enough to think of that—when we got out.</p> + +<p>The guard's manner was typical of the management at Oldenburg. It had +no element of humanity in it. It was a triumph of <i>Kultur</i>. The men +might as well have been dummies, set by a clock and run by +electricity.</p> + +<p>There was a blackboard on the wall which told how many prisoners were +in the institution and what they were getting. The strongest and +worst punishment given is called "Streng Arrest," and the number who +were getting it was three. The guard, while we were there, rubbed out +the 3 and put in a 5.</p> + +<p>Ted and I looked at each other.</p> + +<p>"That's us," he said.</p> + +<p>Our two little parcels were deposited in a locker downstairs, where +other parcels of a like nature were bestowed, and we were conducted +up a broad stair and along a passage, and saw before us a long hall, +lined with doors sheeted with steel.</p> + +<p>The guard walked ahead; Ted and I followed. At last he unlocked a +door, and we knew one of us had reached his abiding-place.</p> + +<p>"I always did like a stateroom in the middle of the boat," Ted said, +as the guard motioned to him to go in. That was the last word I heard +for some time, for the guard said not a word to me. He came into the +cell with me, and shut the iron door over the window, excluding every +particle of light.</p> + +<p>I just had time to see that the cell was a good-sized one—as cells +go. In one corner there was a steam coil, but it was stone cold, and +remained so all the time I was there. There was a shelf, on which +stood a brown earthen pitcher for drinking-water—but nothing else. +Our footsteps rang hollow on the cement floor, which had a damp +feeling, like a cellar, although it was above the ground floor.</p> + +<p>Without a word the guard went out, and the key turned in the lock +with a click which had a sound of finality about it that left no room +for argument.</p> + +<p>Well, it has come, I thought to myself—the real hard German +punishment... they had me at last. The other time we had outwitted +them and gained many privileges of which they knew nothing, and +Malvoisin had cheered me through the dark hours.</p> + +<p>Here there was no Malvoisin, no reading-crack, no friends, nothing to +save us.</p> + +<p>They had us!</p> + +<p>We had staked the little bit of freedom we had on the chance of +getting full freedom. It was a long chance, but we had taken it—and +lost!</p> + +<p>I knew the object of all their punishment was to break our wills and +make us docile, pliable, and week-kneed like the Russians we had seen +in the camps—poor, spiritless fellows who could give no trouble.</p> + +<p>Well—we would show them they could not break ours!</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>The eight-mile walk had tired me, and I lay down on the platform to +try to sleep, but it was a long time before I could close my eyes: +the darkness was so heavy, so choking and horrible. If there had been +even one gleam of light it wouldn't have been so bad, but I couldn't +even see a gleam under the door, and every time I tried to sleep the +silence bothered me—if I could only hear one sound, to tell me some +one was alive and stirring about! Still, I kept telling myself, I +must put it in, some way—I must—I must—I must.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>When I awakened, my first thought was that it was still night! Then I +remembered it was all night for me, and the thought set me shivering. +My hands were stiff and cold, and I missed my overcoat.</p> + +<p>The waking-up was the worst time of all, for my teeth chattered and +my knees trembled, so it was hard to stand. But when I had stamped +up and down for a while, I felt better. It must be near morning, I +thought. I should know when it was morning, because the guard would +come and let me have ten minutes to sweep my cell, and then I should +see Ted. I should perhaps get a chance to speak to him—even a wink +would help!</p> + +<p>It was a larger cell than the one at Giessen, and after sitting still +for a while I got up and walked up and down. I could take four steps +each way, by not stepping too far. My steps echoed on the cement +floor, and I quite enjoyed seeing how much noise I could make, and +wondered if anybody heard me. But when I stopped and leaned up +against the wall, I could hear nothing. Then I sat down again and +waited.</p> + +<p>I remembered how, after the cells, the Strafe-Barrack did not seem +too bad, for we could see people and talk occasionally; and after the +Strafe-Barrack the prison-camp was comparative freedom, for we could +get our parcels and read, and see the boys, so I thought I will +pretend now that my punishment was sitting still.... I can't move a +muscle; the cut-throat guard that was over us in the Strafe-Barrack +is standing over me with his bayonet against my chest—I must not +move—or he'll drive it in.... I wish I could change my position—my +neck is cramped....</p> + +<p>Then I jumped up and walked up and down, and tried to tell myself it +was good to be able to move! But I caught myself listening all the +time—listening for the guard to come and open the door!</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>It seemed a whole day since we came, and still there was no sound at +the door. The guard must have forgotten us, I thought.... The guards +at Vehnemoor forgot to bring us soup sometimes.... These mechanical +toys may have run down; the power may have gone off, and the whole +works have shut down. Certainly the lights seem to have gone out. I +laughed at that. Well, I would try to sleep again; that was the best +way to get the time in.</p> + +<p>I tried to keep myself thinking normally, but the thought would come +pushing in upon me, like a ghostly face at a window, that the guard +had forgotten us. I told myself over and over again that we had come +in at noon, and this was the first day; it was bound to be long, I +must wait! They—had—not—forgotten us.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>I knew exactly what I should look like when they found me. My hair +would be long, falling over my shoulders, and my beard—not red, +but white—would be down to my waist,—for people live for weeks on +water, and my nails would be so long they would turn back again... +and my hands would be like claws, with the white bones showing +through the skin, and the knuckles knotted and bruised. I remembered +seeing a cat once that had been forgotten in a cellar... It had worn +its claws off, scratching at the wall.</p> + +<p>Then a chill seized me, and I began to shiver. That frightened me, so +I made a bargain with myself—I must not think, I must walk. Thinking +is what sends people crazy.</p> + +<p>I got up then and began to pace up and down. Twelve feet each way was +twenty-four feet. There were five thousand two hundred and eighty +feet in a mile—so I would walk a mile before I stopped—I would walk +a mile, and I would not think!</p> + +<p>I started off on my mile walk, and held myself to it by force of +will, one hundred and ten rounds. Once I lost the count and had to go +back to where I did remember, and so it was really more than a mile. +But when it was done, and I sat down, beyond a little healthy +tingling in my legs I did not feel at all different. I was +listening—listening just the same.</p> + +<p>Ted and I had agreed that if we were side by side, we would pound on +the wall as a sign. Four knocks would mean "I—am—all—right." I +pounded the wall four times, and listened. There was no response.</p> + +<p>Then, for a minute, the horror seized me—Ted was dead—every one was +dead—I was the only one left!</p> + +<p>If the authorities in our prisons could once feel the horror of the +dark cell when the overwrought nerves bring in the distorted +messages, and the whole body writhes in the grip of fear,—choking, +unreasoning, panicky fear,—they would abolish it forever.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>After an eternity, it seemed, the key sounded in the lock and the +guard came in, letting in a burst of light which made me blink. He +came over to the window, swung open the iron door, and the cell was +light!</p> + +<p>"What time is it?" I asked him in German.</p> + +<p>He knew his business—this guard. He answered not a word. What has a +prisoner to do with time—except "do" it. He handed me a broom—like +a stable broom—and motioned me to sweep. It was done all too soon.</p> + +<p>He then took me with him along the hall to the lavatory. At the far +end of the hall and coming from the lavatory, another prisoner was +being brought back with a guard behind him. His clothes hung loose on +him, and he walked slowly. The light came from the end of the hall +facing me, and I could not see very well.</p> + +<p>When we drew near, a cry broke from him—</p> + +<p>"Sim!" he cried. "Good God!... I thought you were in Holland."</p> + +<p>It was Bromley!</p> + +<p>Then the guard poked him in the back and sent him stumbling past me. +I turned and called to him, but my guard pushed me on.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>I put in as much time washing as I could, hoping that Ted would be +brought out, but I did not see him that day or the next.</p> + +<p>At last I had to go back, and as the guard shoved me in again to that +infernal hole of blackness, he gave me a slice of bread. I had filled +my pitcher at the tap.</p> + +<p>This was my daily ration the first three days. I was hungry, but I +was not sick, for I had considerable reserve to call upon, but when +the fourth day came I was beginning to feel the weariness which is +not exactly a pain, but is worse than any pain. I did not want to +walk—it tired me, and my limbs ached as if I had <i>la grippe.</i> I soon +learned to make my bread last as long as it would, by eating it in +instalments, and it required some will-power to do this.</p> + +<p>Thoughts of food came to torture me—when I slept, my dreams were all +of eating. I was home again, and mother was frying doughnuts.... Then +I was at the Harvest-Home Festival in the church, and downstairs in +the basement there were long tables set. The cold turkey was heaped +up on the plates, with potatoes and corn on the cob; there were rows +of lemon pies, with chocolate cakes and strawberry tarts. I could +hear the dishes rattling and smell the coffee! I sat down before a +plate of turkey, and was eating a leg, all brown and juicy—when I +awakened.</p> + +<p>There is a sense in which hunger sharpens a man's perceptions, and +makes him see the truth in a clearer light—but starvation, the slow, +gnawing starvation, when the reserve is gone, and every organ, every +muscle, every nerve cries out for food—it is of the devil. The +starving man is a brute, with no more moral sense than the gutter +cat. His mind follows the same track—he wants food...</p> + +<p>Why do our authorities think they can reform a man by throwing him +into a dark cell and starving him?</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>There was a hole in the door, wide on the inside and just big enough +on the outside for an eye, where the guards could spy on us. We could +not get a gleam of light through it, though, for it was covered with +a button on the outside.</p> + +<p>On the fourth day I had light in my cell, and it was aired. Also, I +got soup that day, and more bread, and I felt better. I saw Ted for +a few seconds. He was very pale, but bearing it well. Though the +sunburn was still on his face, the pallor below made it ghastly; but +he walked as straight as ever.</p> + +<p>I climbed up to the window, by standing on the platform, and could +just see over. Down below in the courtyard soldiers were gathering +for roll-call, and once I saw recruits getting their issue of +uniforms.... Sometimes the courtyard was empty, but I kept on +watching until the soldiers came. At least they were something—and +alive! During the light day, probably as a result of the additional +food, I slept nearly all day.</p> + +<p>When I awakened, the cell was getting dark. I have heard people say +the sunset is a lonely time, when fears come out, and apprehensions +creep over them... and all their troubles come trooping home. I +wonder what they would think of a sunset which ushered in eighty-four +hours of darkness!... I watched the light fading on the wall, a +flickering, sickly glow that paled and faded and died, and left my +eyes, weakened now by the long darkness, quite misty and dim.</p> + +<p>And then the night, the long night came down, without mercy.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>On one of my light days the guard forgot to bring my soup. He brought +the coffee in the morning, and went out again at once. I thought +he had gone for the bread, but when he did not come, I drank the +coffee—which was hot and comforting. He did not come near me all +day. It may have been the expectation of food, together with the hot +coffee, which stimulated my stomach, for that day I experienced what +starving men dread most of all—the hunger-pain. It is like a +famished rat that gnaws and tears. I writhed on the floor and cried +aloud in my agony, while the cold sweat dripped from my face and +hands. I do not remember what I said... I do not want to remember...</p> + +<p>That night when I saw the light growing dim in the cell, and the long +black night setting in, I began to think that there was a grave +possibility that this sentence might finish me. I might die under it! +And my people would never know—"Died—Prisoner of War No. 23445, +Pte. M. C. Simmons"—that is all they would see in the casualty list, +and it would not cause a ripple of excitement here. The guard would +go back for another one, and a stretcher... I shouldn't be much of a +carry, either!</p> + +<p>Then I stood up and shook my fist at the door, including the whole +German nation! I was not going to die!</p> + +<p>Having settled the question, I lay down and slept.</p> + +<p>When I awakened, I knew I had slept a long time. My tongue was +parched and dry, and my throat felt horribly, but my pain was gone. +I wasn't hungry now—I was just tired.</p> + +<p>Then I roused myself. "This is starvation," I whispered to myself; +"this is the way men die—and that's what—I am not going to do!"</p> + +<p>The sound of my own voice gave me courage. I then compelled my +muscles to do their work, and stood up and walked up and down, though +I noticed the wall got in my road sometimes. I had a long way to go +yet, and I knew it depended now on my will-power.</p> + +<p>My beard was long and my hair tangled and unkempt. I should have +liked a shave and a hair-cut, but this is part of the punishment and +has a depressing effect on the prisoner. It all helps to break a man +down.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>I kept track of the days by marking on the wall each day with my +finger-nail, and so I knew when the two weeks were drawing to a +close. The expectation of getting out began to cheer me—and the last +night I was not able to sleep much, for I thought when the key turned +next time I should be free! I wondered if we could by any chance hear +what had happened on the battle-front. Right away I began to feel +that I was part of the world again—and a sort of exultation came to +me...</p> + +<p>They—had—not—broken me!</p> +<a name="2HCH0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XVIII +</h2> +<h3> +PARNEWINKEL CAMP +</h3> + +<p>The key turned at last!</p> + +<p>Entering, the guard, with face as impassive as ever, motioned to me +to sweep out. I wondered if I could have mistaken the number of days, +or if... we were going to get longer than the two weeks.</p> + +<p>He did not enlighten me! I was taken out to wash, and filled my brown +pitcher at the tap—just as usual. Then came the moment of tense +anxiety.... Would he lock me in?</p> + +<p>He gave me the usual allowance of bread, which I put in my pocket, as +a man who was going on a journey and wants to be on his way, without +waiting to eat.</p> + +<p>Then he motioned to me to come out, and I knew we were free! Ted was +at the door of his cell, and we followed the guard downstairs without +speaking.</p> + +<p>In the room below our things were given back to us. I dared not +examine my cap to see if my maps had been touched, but I could not +keep from turning it around as if to be sure it was mine. Certainly +it looked all right. Our two little parcels, still unopened, were +returned to us, and the guard from Vehnemoor who had come for us had +brought one of the prisoners with him to carry our stuff that had +been left there, blankets, wash-basin, clogs, etc.</p> +<a name="image-0010"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/168.jpg" +alt="Map Which Private Simmons Got from the Canadian Artist +At Giessen, and Which Was Sewed Inside the Pasteboard of his Cap. His +Successful Journey from Selsingen to Holland is Indicated by the Dotted +Line ............ The Unsuccessful Attempt is Shown ---------- From +Oldenburg"> +<br><i>Map which Private Simmons got from the Canadian Artist at Giessen, +and which was sewed inside the Pasteboard of his Cap. His successful +journey from Selsingen to Holland is indicated by the dotted line +............ The unsuccessful attempt is shown ---------- from Oldenburg.</i> + + +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> + +<p>From the prisoner we got the news of the camp.</p> + +<p>"How are the folks at home?" we asked him.</p> + +<p>"Ninety of the worst ones—since you two fellows and Bromley +left—were taken to another camp, and when they were moving them +McKinnon and another fellow beat it—but we're afraid they were +caught."</p> + +<p>"Why?" we asked him.</p> + +<p>"They catch them all; nobody gets out of Germany alive."</p> + +<p>"You talk like a guard!" Ted said.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the boy (I am sorry I forget his name), "look here. Who +do you know that has got away? You didn't; Bromley didn't; the two +Frenchmen who went the night before you went didn't. Do you hear of +any who did?"</p> + +<p>"Keep your ear to the ground and you will!" said Ted.</p> + +<p>"They'll shoot you the next time," he said earnestly. "If I were you, +I wouldn't try it."</p> + +<p>Then the guard came, and we could say no more.</p> + +<p>Again we were taken to the station and put on the train. Our hands +were not tied this time; we were just ordinary prisoners now—we had +done ours. Besides, I suppose they knew we shouldn't run far—that +had been taken out of us by the "cells."</p> + +<p>But our good spirits came back when the train started. We went east +towards Rotenburg, through the same sort of low, marshy country we +had travelled before, with scrubby trees and plenty of heather moor.</p> + +<p>We passed through Bremen again, where we got a glimpse of white +sails, and then on to Rotenburg, where we changed cars and had to +wait for two hours.</p> + +<p>Of course we were hungry—the Oldenburg prison had not sent us out +well fed to meet the world, and the one slice of bread had gone. But +we had prison-stamps, and our guard took us to the lunch-counter at +Rotenburg, where we got a cup of real coffee, some bread, and an +orange. The guard paid for what we got with his own money, accepting +our stamps in payment. Our stamps were good only at Vehnemoor Camp, +having the name "Vehnemoor" stamped on them.</p> + +<p>I suppose we were two tough-looking characters. The people seemed to +think so, for they looked at us with startled faces, and a little +girl who was crossing the platform ran back in alarm to her mother +when she saw us coming.</p> + +<p>We arrived at Dienstedt after nightfall, and walked out a mile along +a rough road to the camp, which was one of the Cellelager +group—Cellelager I.</p> + +<p>We saw that it consisted of two huts, and when we entered the hut +to which we were taken, we saw nothing but Russians, pale-faced, +dark-eyed, bearded Russians. They were sitting around, hardly +speaking to each other, some mending their clothes, some reading, +some staring idly ahead of them. We were beginning to be afraid they +had sent us to a camp where there was no one but Russians, until we +saw some British, at the other end.</p> + +<p>"By Jove, I'll bet you're hungry," a big fellow said, reaching up +into his bunk and bringing out a pasteboard parcel. "Here you are, +matey; there's a bit of cheese and biscuits. I've a bit of water +heatin', too; we'll get you something to drink. Get something into +you; we ain't bad done for 'ere with our parcels comin' reglar."</p> + +<p>The other men brought out boxes, too,—currant-loaf, sardines, +fruit-cake, and chocolate. There were three coal-stoves in the room, +and on one of these a pan of water was steaming. They had condensed +milk and cocoa, and made us up mugs of it, and I never, anywhere, +tasted anything so good.</p> + +<p>There were two tiers of bunks in the room, but around the wall there +was an open space where there were some little tables. Two of the +Englishmen, who were playing cards, put them away and offered us +their table.</p> + +<p>"Here, boys, be comfortable; sit right down here and let us see you +eat."</p> + +<p>We let them see us! We ate like wolf-hounds. We ate, not until we +were satisfied, but until we were ashamed! And still the invitations +to eat were heard on every side. We were welcome to the last crumb +they had!</p> + +<p>When at last we stopped, they began to tell us about the camp. It +seemed that the distinguishing feature was <i>lice!</i> It had never been +fumigated, and the condition was indescribable. "We're bad enough," +one of the Englishmen said, "but the Russians are in holes."</p> + +<p>Then they told us what they had done to attract the attention of the +authorities. The branch camps are never inspected or visited, as +are the main camps such as Cellelager itself and Giessen, and so +conditions in the out-of-the-way camps have been allowed to sink far +below the level of these.</p> + +<p>"We each wrote a card to some one in England, telling them about the +lice. We would have stretched it—if we could—but we couldn't. We +drew pictures, and told what these lice could do; especially we told +about the Russians, and how bad they were. There are twenty-one of +us, and there went out twenty-one cards all dealing with the same +subject. The censor began to feel crawly, I'll bet, before he got far +into reading them, and he would not let one of those cards out of +Germany. It wouldn't have sounded very good to the neutral countries. +So along came one of the head officers. He came in swaggering, but, +by George, he went out scratching! And he certainly got something +moving. We're all going down to Cellelager to-morrow to be fumigated; +and while we're out, there's going to be a real old-fashioned +house-cleaning! You're just in time, boys. Have you got any?"</p> + +<p>"We did not have any," we said, "when we came."</p> + +<p>"Well, you'll get them here, just sitting around. They're all over +the floor and crawl up the leg of your chair; they crawl up the wall +and across the ceiling and drop down on your head and down the back +of your collar; they're in the walls and in the beds now. But their +days are numbered, for we are all going up to Cellelager to-morrow to +be fumigated. They're running a special train, and taking us all."</p> + +<p>That night Ted and I slept on two benches in the middle of the room, +but we found that what the boys said was true. They had crawled up on +us, or else had fallen from the ceiling, or both. We had them!</p> + +<p>But the next day we made the trip to Cellelager by special +train—"The Louse Train" it was called.</p> + +<p>The fumigator was the same as at Giessen, and it did its work well. +While the clothes were baking, we stood in a well-heated room to wait +for them. The British and French, having received parcels, were in +good condition, but the Russians, who had to depend entirely on the +prison-fare, were a pitiful sight. They looked, when undressed, like +the India famine victims, with their washboard ribs and protruding +stomachs, dull eyes and parched skin. The sores caused by the lice +were deep and raw, and that these conditions, together with the bad +water and bad food, had had fatal results, could be seen in the +Russian cemetery at Cellelager I, where the white Russian crosses +stand, row on row. The treatment of Russian prisoners will be a hard +thing for Germany to explain to the nations when the war is over.</p> + +<p>Parnewinkel was the name of the village near Cellelager I, and this +name was printed on the prison-stamps which we used. The camp was +built on a better place than the last one, and it was well drained, +but the water was bad and unfit to drink unless boiled.</p> + +<p>As the spring came on, many of the Russians went out to work with the +farmers, and working parties, mostly made up of Russians, were sent +out each day. Their work was to dig ditches through the marshes, to +reclaim the land. To these working parties soup was sent out in the +middle of the day, and I, wishing to gain a knowledge of the country, +volunteered for "Suppentragen."</p> + +<p>A large pot, constructed to hold the heat by having a smaller one +inside which held the soup, was carried by two of us, with a stick +through the handle, to the place where the Russians were working, and +while they were attending to the soup, we looked around and learned +what we could of the country. I saw a method of smoking meat which +was new to me, at a farmhouse near where the Russians were making a +road. Edwards and I, with some others, had carried out the soup. The +Russians usually ate their soup in the cow-stable part of the house, +but the British and Canadians went right into the kitchen. In this +house everything was under one roof—that is, cows, chickens, +kitchen, and living-room—and from the roof of the kitchen the hams +were hung. The kitchen stove had two or three lengths of pipe, just +enough to start the smoke in the right direction, but not enough to +lead it out of the house. Up among the beams it wound and curled and +twisted, wrapping the hams round and round, and then found its way +out in the best way it could. Of course some of it wandered down to +the kitchen where the women worked, and I suppose it bothered them, +but women are the suffering sex in Germany; a little smoke in their +eyes is not here or there.</p> + +<p>The houses we saw had thatched roofs, with plastered walls, and I +think in every case the cow-stable was attached. Dairying was the +chief industry; that and the raising of pigs, for the land is poor +and marshy. Still, if the war lasts long enough, the bad lands of +Germany will be largely reclaimed by the labor of Russian prisoners. +It's cheap and plentiful. There were ninety thousand of them bagged +in one battle in the early days of the war, at the Mazurian Lakes! +The Russians are for the most part simple, honest fellows, very sad +and plaintive, and deserving of better treatment than they have had.</p> + +<p>When the Russians had gone out to work, leaving only the sick ones, +and the English and French, sometimes there were not enough well +prisoners for "Suppentragen," for the British were clever in the +matter of feigning sickness. The <i>Revier</i> was in charge of a doctor +and a medical Sergeant, who gave exemption from work very easily. +Then there were ways of getting sick which were confusing to doctors.</p> + +<p>Some one found out how to raise a swelling, and there was quite an +epidemic of swollen wrists and ankles. A little lump of earth in a +handkerchief, pounded gently on the place, for twenty minutes or so, +will bring the desired result. Soap-pills will raise the temperature. +Tobacco, eaten, will derange the heart. These are well-known methods +of achieving sick-leave.</p> + +<p>I had a way all my own. I had a loose toe-nail, quite ready to come +off, but I noticed it in time, and took great care not to let it come +off. Then I went to the doctor to have it removed. On that I got +exemption till the nail grew.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>One day at Parnewinkel, Edwards and I were called into the +Commandant's office, whither we went with many misgivings—we did not +know how much he knew of us and our plans.</p> + +<p>But the honest man only wanted to pay us. Edwards had worked quite a +bit at Vehnemoor, but I couldn't remember that I had worked at all. +However, he insisted that I had one and a half days to my credit, +and paid me twenty-seven pfennigs, or six and three quarter cents! I +remembered then that I had volunteered for work on the bog, for the +purpose of seeing what the country was like around the camp. I signed +a receipt for the amount he gave me, and the transaction was entered +in a book, and the receipt went back to the head camp.</p> + +<p>"Look at that," said Ted; "they starve us, but if we work they will +pay us, even taking considerable pains to thrust our wages upon us. +Of a truth they are a 'spotty' people."</p> + +<p>However, the reason for paying us for our work was not so much their +desire to give the laborer his hire as that the receipts might be +shown to visitors, and appear in their records.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>The Russians had a crucifix at the end of the hut which they +occupied, and a picture of the Virgin and the Holy Child before which +they bowed and crossed themselves in their evening devotions. Not all +of them took part. There were some unbelieving brothers who sat +morosely back, and took no notice, wrapped in their own sad thoughts. +I wondered what they thought of it all! The others humbly knelt and +prayed and cried out their sorrows before the crucifix. Their hymns +were weird and plaintive, yet full of a heroic hope that God had not +forgotten.</p> + +<p>One of them told me that God bottles up the tears of his saints, +hears their cry, and in His own good time will deliver all who +trust in Him. That deliverance has already come to many of them +the white-crossed graves, beyond the marsh, can prove. But surely, +somewhere an account is being kept of their sorrows and their wrongs, +and some day will come the reckoning! Germany deserves the contempt +of all nations, if it were for nothing else than her treatment of the +Russian prisoners.</p> + +<p>When my toe-nail began to grow on, I got permanent exemption from +work because of my shoulder, and was given the light task of keeping +clear the ditches that ran close beside the huts.</p> + +<p>I often volunteered on parcel parties, for I liked the mile and a +half walk down the road through the village of Parnewinkel to +Selsingen, where there was a railway station and post-office. Once in +a while I saw German women sending parcels to soldiers at the front.</p> + +<p>The road lay through low-lying land, with scrubby trees. There was +little to see, but it was a pleasure to get out of the camp with its +depressing atmosphere. In Parnewinkel there was an implement dealer +who sold "Deering" machinery, mowers and rakes, and yet I never saw +either a mower or a rake working. I saw women cutting hay with +scythes, and remember well, on one trip to the post-office, I saw +an old woman, bare-legged, with wooden clogs, who should have been +sitting in a rocking-chair, swinging her scythe through some hay, and +she was doing it well, too. The scarcity of horses probably accounted +for the mowers and rakes not being used, cows being somewhat too slow +in their gait to give good results. Although Hanover is noted for its +horses, the needs of the army seem to have depleted the country, and +I saw very few. Every one rides a bicycle. I think I saw less than a +dozen automobiles.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>Having been exempted from work, I was around the camp all day, and +one day found a four-legged affair with a ring on the top big enough +to hold a wash-basin. In this I saw a possibility of making a stove. +Below, I put a piece of tin—part of a parcel-box—to hold the fire, +with a couple of bricks under it to save the floor, and then, using +the wooden parcel-boxes for fuel, I was ready to look about for +ingredients to make "mulligan."</p> + +<p>There is nothing narrow or binding about the word "mulligan"; +mulligan can be made of anything. It all depended on what we had! +On this stove I made some very acceptable mulligan out of young +turnip-tops (they had been brought to the camp when very small +seedlings, from a farmer's field where one of our boys had been +working, and transplanted in the prison-yard,—I only used the +outside leaves, and let them go on growing), potatoes (stolen from +the guards' garden), oxo cubes (sent in a parcel), oyster biscuits +(also sent in a parcel), salt and pepper, and water. The turnip-tops +I put in the bottom of the dish, then laid on the potatoes, covering +with water and adding salt. I then covered this with another +wash-basin, and started my fire. We were not allowed to have fires, +and this gave the mulligan all the charm of the forbidden.</p> + +<p>When it was cooked, I added the oxo cubes and the oyster biscuit, and +mashed all together with part of the lid of a box, and the mulligan +was ready. The boys were not critical, and I believe I could get from +any one of them a recommendation for a cook's position. In the winter +we had had no trouble about a fire, for the stoves were going, and we +made our mulligan and boiled water for tea on them.</p> + +<p>Our guards were ordinary soldiers—sometimes those who had been +wounded or were sick and were now convalescent—and we had all sorts. +Usually the N.C.O.'s were the more severe. The privates did not +bother much about us: they had troubles enough of their own.</p> + +<p>At the school garden, where the Commandant lived, I went to work one +day, and made the acquaintance of his little son, a blue-eyed cherub +of four or five years, who addressed me as "Englisches Schwein," +which was, I suppose, the way he had heard his father speak of us. He +did it quite without malice, though, and no doubt thought that was +our proper name. He must have thought the "Schwein" family rather a +large one!</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>It was about May, I think, that a letter came from my brother Flint, +telling me he was sending me some of the "cream cheese I was so fond +of"—and I knew my compass was on the way.</p> + +<p>In about three weeks the parcel came, and I was careful to open the +cheese when alone. The lead foil had every appearance of being +undisturbed, but in the middle of it I found the compass!</p> + +<p>After that we talked over our plans for escape. Edwards and I were +the only Canadians in the camp, and we were determined to make a +break as soon as the nights got longer. In the early summer, when the +daylight lasts so long, we knew we should have no chance, for there +were only four or five hours of darkness, but in August we hoped to +"start for home."</p> +<a name="2HCH0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XIX +</h2> +<h3> +THE BLACKEST CHAPTER OF ALL +</h3> + +<p>When the days were at their longest, some of the Russians who had +been working for the farmers came into camp, refusing to go back +because the farmers made them work such long hours. There is +daylight-saving in Germany, which made the rising one hour earlier, +and the other end of the day was always the "dark." This made about a +seventeen-hour day, and the Russians rebelled against it. The farmers +paid so much a day (about twenty-five cents) and then got all the +work out of the prisoners they could; and some of them were worked +unmercifully hard, and badly treated.</p> + +<p>Each night, a few Russians, footsore, weary, and heavy-eyed from lack +of sleep, trailed into camp with sullen faces, and we were afraid +there was going to be trouble.</p> + +<p>On the night of July 3d, three tired Russians came into camp from +the farms they had been working on after we had had our supper. The +N.C.O. was waiting for them. The trouble had evidently been reported +to Headquarters, and the orders had come back. The Commandant was +there, to see that the orders were carried out.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes the N.C.O. started the Russians to run up and +down the space in front of the huts. We watched the performance in +amazement. The men ran, with dragging footsteps, tired with their +long tramp and their long day's work, but when their speed slackened, +the N.C.O. threatened them with his bayonet.</p> + +<p>For an hour they ran with never a minute's breathing-spell, sweating, +puffing, lurching in their gait, and still the merciless order was +"Marsch!" "Marsch!" and the three men went struggling on.</p> + +<p>When the darkness came, they were allowed to stop, but they were so +exhausted they had to be helped to bed by their friends.</p> + +<p>We did not realize that we had been witnessing the first act in the +most brutal punishment that a human mind could devise, and, thinking +that the trouble was over, we went to sleep, indignant at what we had +seen.</p> + +<p>In the morning, before any of us were awake, and about a quarter of +an hour before the time to get up, a commotion started in our hut. +German soldiers, dozens of them, came in, shouting to everybody to +get up, and dragging the Russians out of bed. I was sleeping in an +upper berth, but the first shout awakened me, and when I looked down +I could see the soldiers flourishing their bayonets and threatening +everybody. The Russians were scurrying out like scared rabbits, but +the British, not so easily intimidated, were asking, "What's the +row?"</p> + +<p>One of the British, Walter Hurcum, was struck by a bayonet in the +face, cutting a deep gash across his cheek and the lower part of his +ear. Tom Morgan dodged a bayonet thrust by jumping behind the stove, +and escaped without injury.</p> + +<p>When I looked down, I caught the eyes of one of our guards, a decent +old chap, of much the same type as Sank, and his eyes were full of +misery and humiliation, but he was powerless to prevent the outbreak +of frightfulness.</p> + +<p>I dressed myself in my berth—the space below was too full already, +and I thought I could face it better with my clothes on. When I got +down, the hut was nearly empty, but a Gordon Highlander who went out +of the door a few feet ahead of me was slashed at by one of the +N.C.O.'s and jumped out of the way just in time.</p> + +<p>All this was preliminary to roll-call, when we were all lined up +to answer to our names. That morning the soup had lost what small +resemblance it had had to soup—it had no more nourishment in it than +dishwater. We began then to see that they were going to starve every +one into a desire to work.</p> + +<p>We had not been taking soup in the morning, for it was, even at its +best, a horrible dish to begin the day with. We had made tea or +coffee of our own, and eaten something from our parcels. But this +morning we were lined up with the Russians and given soup—whether +we wanted it or not.</p> + +<p>After the soup, the working parties were despatched, and then the +three unhappy Russians were started on their endless journey again, +racing up and down, up and down, with an N.C.O. standing in the +middle to keep them going. They looked pale and worn from their hard +experience of the night before, but no Bengal tiger ever had less +mercy than the N.C.O., who kept them running.</p> + +<p>The distance across the end of the yard was about seventy-five feet, +and up and down the Russians ran. Their pace was a fast trot, but +before long they were showing signs of great fatigue. They looked +pitifully at us as they passed us, wondering what it was all about, +and so did we. We expected every minute it would be over; surely they +had been punished enough. But the cruel race went on.</p> + +<p>In an hour they were begging for mercy, whimpering pitifully, as they +gasped out the only German word they knew—"Kamerad—Kamerad"—to +the N.C.O., who drove them on. They begged and prayed in their own +language; a thrust of the bayonet was all the answer they got.</p> + +<p>Their heads rolled, their tongues protruded, their lips frothed, +their eyes were red and scalded—and one fell prostrate at the feet +of the N.C.O., who, stooping over, rolled back his eyelid to see if +he were really unconscious or was feigning it. His examination proved +the latter to be the case, and I saw the Commandant motion to him to +kick the Russian to his feet. This he did with right good will, and +the weary race went on.</p> + +<p>But the Russian's race was nearly ended, for in another half-dozen +rounds he fell, shuddering and moaning, to the ground—and no kick or +bayonet thrust could rouse him...</p> + +<p>Another one rolled over and over in a fit, purple in the face, and +twitching horribly. He rolled over and over until he fell into the +drain, and lay there, unattended.</p> + +<p>The last one, a very wiry fellow, kept going long after the other +two, his strength a curse to him now, for it prolonged his agony, +but he fell out at last, and escaped their cruelty, at least for the +time, through the black door of unconsciousness.</p> + +<p>Then they were gathered up by some of the prisoners, and carried into +the <i>Revier</i>.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>Just as the three unconscious ones were carried away, three other +Russians, not knowing what was in store for them, came in. We did +not see them until they walked in at the gate. They also had been on +farms, and were now refusing to work longer. They came into the hut, +where their frightened countrymen were huddled together, some praying +and some in tears. The newcomers did not know what had happened. But +they were not left long in doubt. An N.C.O. called to them to +"heraus," and when they came into the yard, he started them to run. +The men were tired and hungry. They had already spent months on the +farms, working long hours: that did not save them. They had dared to +rebel, so their spirits must be broken.</p> + +<p>Our hearts were torn with rage and pity. We stormed in and out of the +huts like crazy men, but there was nothing we could do. There were +so few of us, and of course we were unarmed. There was no protest +or entreaty we could make that would have made any appeal. Orders +were orders! It was for the good of Germany—to make her a greater +nation—that these men should work—the longer hours the better—to +help to reclaim the bad land, to cultivate the fields, to raise more +crops to feed more soldiers to take more prisoners to cultivate more +land to raise more crops.</p> + +<p>It was perfectly clear to the Teutonic mind. No link in the chain +must be broken. Deutschland über Alles!</p> + +<p>At noon the Russians were still running—it is astonishing what the +human machine can stand! The N.C.O. impatiently snapped his watch +and slashed at the one who was passing him, to speed them up, and so +hasten the process. He was getting hungry and wanted his dinner. Then +an order came from the Commandant that it was to be stopped—and we +hoped again, as we had the night before, that this was the end.</p> + +<p>We brought the three poor fellows, pale and trembling, to our end of +the hut, and gave them as good a meal as our parcels would afford. +One of them had a bayonet wound in his neck, which the N.C.O. had +given him. He had jabbed him with the point of his bayonet, to +quicken his speed. In spite of their exhaustion, they ate ravenously, +and fell asleep at once, worn out with the long hours of working as +well as by the brutal treatment they had received.</p> + +<p>But there was no sleep for the poor victims—until the long, black +sleep of unconsciousness rolled over them and in mercy blotted out +their misery—for the N.C.O.'s came for them and dragged them away +from us, and the sickening spectacle began again.</p> + +<p>There were just eleven of us, British and Canadians, in the camp +at this time, twelve of the British having been sent away; and it +happened that this was the day, July 4th, that we wrote our cards. We +remembered that when the men had written cards about the lice it had +brought results: we had no other way of communication with the world, +and although this was a very poor one, still it was all we had. We +knew our cards would never get out of Germany; indeed, we were afraid +they would never leave the camp, but we would try.</p> + +<p>We went to the place where the cards were kept, which was in charge +of a Polish Jew, who also acted as interpreter. He had been in the +Russian Army, and had been taken prisoner in the early days of the +war. There was a young Russian with him who did clerical work in the +camp. They were both in tears. The Jew walked up and down, wringing +his hands and calling upon the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of +Jacob! Sometimes he put his hands over his ears... for the cries of +his countrymen came through the window.</p> + +<p>When we got our cards, we wrote about what had happened. Some of the +cards were written to John Bull; some to the British War-Office; some +to the newspapers; some to friends in England, imploring them to +appeal to the United States Government at Washington, to interfere +for humanity's sake. We eased our minds by saying, as far as we could +say it on a card, what we thought of the Germans. Every card was full +of it, but the subject was hardly touched. I never knew before the +full meaning of that phrase, "Words are inadequate."</p> + +<p>Words were no relief!—we wanted to kill—kill—kill.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>The running of the Russians went on for days. Every one of them who +came in from the farm got it—without mercy.... Different N.C.O.'s +performed the gruesome rites...</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>We had only one hope of quick results. The Commandant of the camp at +Celle—that is the main Cellelager—had an English wife, and had, +perhaps for that reason, been deprived of his command as an Admiral +of the fleet. We hoped he would hear of our cards—or, better still, +that his wife might hear.</p> + +<p>The first indication we had that our cards had taken effect was the +change in the soup. Since the first day of the trouble, it had been +absolutely worthless. Suddenly it went back to normal—or a little +better.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, too, the running of the Russians stopped, although others +of them had come in. A tremendous house-cleaning began—they had us +scrubbing everything. The bunks were aired; the blankets hung on the +fence; the windows cleaned; the yard was polished by much sweeping. +Evidently some one was coming, and we hoped it was "the Admiral." At +the same time, the N.C.O.'s grew very polite to us, and one of them, +who had been particularly vicious with the Russians, actually bade me +"good-morning"—something entirely without precedent.</p> + +<p>Every day, I think, they expected the Admiral, but it was two weeks +before he came. His visit was a relief to the Germans, but a distinct +disappointment to us. Apparently, the having of an English wife does +not change the heart of a German. It takes more than that. He did +not forbid the running of the Russians; only the bayonet must not be +used. The bayonet was bad form—it leaves marks. Perhaps the Admiral +took this stand in order to reinstate himself again in favor with the +military authorities, and anxious to show that his English wife had +not weakened him. He had the real stuff in him still—blood and iron!</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>The running of the Russians began again—but behind the trees, where +we could not see them... but we could hear...</p> + +<p>There are some things it were well we could forget!</p> + +<p>The running of the Russians ceased only when no more came in from the +farms. Those who had been put out came out of the <i>Revier</i> in a day +or so—some in a few hours—pale and spiritless, and were sent back +to work again. They had the saddest-looking faces I ever saw—old +and wistful, some of them; others, gaping and vacant; some, wild and +staring. They would never resist again—they were surely broken! And +while these men would not do much for the "Fatherland" in the way of +heavy labor, they would do very well for exchanges!</p> +<a name="image-0011"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/190.jpg" alt="Friedrichsfeld Prison-camp in Summer"> +<br><i>Friedrichsfeld Prison-Camp in Summer</i> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<a name="2HCH0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XX +</h2> +<h3> +ONCE AGAIN! +</h3> + +<p>As the days began to shorten, Edwards and I began to plan our escape. +We had the maps, the one he had bought at Vehnemoor and the one I had +made. We had the compass, which we had kept hidden in a very small +crack in the sloping roof of the hut, and the Red Cross suits had +come, and were dark blue and quite unnoticeable except for the piece +of brown cloth sewed on the sleeve. Mine had Russian buttons on it, +which I had put on to have for souvenirs—and which I have since had +made into brooches for my sisters.</p> + +<p>On the map which Edwards had bought at Vehnemoor, the railways were +marked according to their kind: the double-tracked, with rock +ballast, were heavily lined; single-tracked with rock ballast, were +indicated by lighter lines; single-tracked, with dirt ballast, by +lighter lines still. I knew, from the study of maps, every stream and +canal and all the towns between us and the border. On the map which I +had drawn myself, from one I got from the Canadian artist at Giessen, +I had put in all the railways and the short spur lines of which there +are so many in northern Germany.</p> + +<p>We knew that when a railway line ended without reaching another line, +it was a good indication that the soil was valueless, and therefore +there would be no settlement of any account. Through such districts +we would direct our way.</p> + +<p>We began to prepare for our flight by adopting a subdued manner, such +as becomes discouraged men. We were dull, listless, sad, rarely +speaking to each other—when a guard was present. We sat around the +hut, morose and solemn, sighing often, as men who had lost hope.</p> + +<p>But we were thinking, all the time, and getting ready.</p> + +<p>I had a fine toffee tin, with a water-tight lid, which had come to +me in a parcel from Mr. Robert McPherson, Aberdeen, Scotland, whose +brother-in-law, Mr. Alec Smith, of Koch Siding, was a friend of mine. +This can, being oval in shape, fitted nicely into my pocket, and we +decided to use it for matches.</p> + +<p>Edwards had a sun-glass, which we thought we would use for lighting +our pipes when the sun was shining, and thus conserve our supply of +matches.</p> + +<p>Our first plan was to cut our way through the wires, as we had done +at Vehnemoor, but, unfortunately, three Russians, early in the +spring, did this—and after that no cat ever watched a mouse-hole +with greater intentness than the guards at Parnewinkel watched the +wires. We saw this was hopeless!</p> + +<p>We then thought we would volunteer for work on farms as we had done +before at Rossbach, but although French and Russians were taken, +"Engländers" were not wanted! The Englishmen in the camp not wanting +to work had given themselves a bad name, hoping that the Russians and +French would carry it on to the farmers for whom they were working, +so that they would be afraid to employ such desperate characters. One +of them had "et an ear off'n" the last man he worked for. Another one +never took orders from any one—"the last man that tried it, woke +up in the middle of a long fit of sickness!—and had since died." +Another one admitted he had a terrible temper, but he had had it +"from a child and couldn't help it—he turned blind when he was mad, +and never knew where he was hittin'!"</p> + +<p>This all worked well for them, but when Ted and I wanted to get out, +we were refused. "Engländers" were not wanted!</p> + +<p>The first working party that was made up to go out and work with a +guard did not give either Ted or me a chance, although we wanted to +go, but four other Englishmen volunteered. They were not anxious to +have us go with them, for they knew we were thinking of escaping, +and when there is an escape, those who were present at the time have +embarrassing questions asked them and various privileges are likely +to be curtailed afterwards.</p> + +<p>On Saturday morning, at roll-call, a working party was asked for, and +Ted and I volunteered, and with a Welshman and some Frenchmen, we +walked out to a small village called Seedorf, about four miles away, +where we were turned loose in a field of turnips from which the weeds +had not been taken out since the turnips were planted. There were +about a dozen of us, and we were taken into the house at noon to be +fed. The farmhouse was one of the best I had seen in this section of +the country, for the pig-pen, chickens, and cow-stable were in a +separate building.</p> + +<p>The two daughters of the house were true daughters of Germany and did +not eat the bread of idleness; the biggest one, bare-legged and with +sleeves rolled up, was attending to the stock, without pausing for +anything. She looked as strong as a man, and was absorbed in her +work—not even stopping a second to look at us. The other one worked +in the house at meal-times, but no doubt joined her sister +afterwards.</p> + +<p>The dinner consisted of soup, potatoes, bread, and coffee, and the +soup was a real treat, entirely different from the kind we were +used to. After dinner we went back to the field and put in a fine +afternoon's work. We were anxious to establish a good record before +we left there.</p> + +<p>We had saved up a lot of things from our parcels, thinking that our +manner of escape might be such that we could take them with us. +A working party such as we were on made it impossible to carry +anything, for we were in great danger of being searched. Whenever the +Commandant thought of it, he ordered a search. Just as the Commandant +at Giessen was keen on rings, so this one went in for searching. We +were searched at unexpected times—going out to work or coming in—at +meal-times or at bedtime.</p> + +<p>The following day—Sunday—we sat around with our saddest, most +dejected air, like two men in whose hearts all hope had died. We had +everything ready—razor, tobacco, matches, toffee tin, toothbrush, +comb, pocket-knife, watch, soap, strong safety-pins, and some strong +string. Edwards had the sun-glass, shaving-soap and brush, and other +things to correspond with mine.</p> + +<p>It was quite a grief to us to have to leave behind us all the things +we had been saving from our parcels. The people of Trail, British +Columbia, had sent parcels to all their prisoners, and one of mine +had followed me from Giessen to Vehnemoor and from Vehnemoor to +Parnewinkel, and at last had found me. It contained, among other +things, hard-tack biscuits, just the thing for carrying in our +pockets, and my aunts in Ontario had sent me some line dried beef and +tins of jam. At this time, also, an exceptionally good box came from +Miss Ray, of London, England, and home-made candy from Miss Dorothy +Taylor, of New Westminster, British Columbia. We had a regular +blow-out on Sunday, but were too much afraid of being searched to +risk taking anything with us beyond the necessary things, and so had +to leave our precious stores behind. Oh, well—they wouldn't go to +waste!</p> + +<p>Monday morning we dragged our tired feet along the four miles to the +turnip-patch—with every appearance of complete submission. I had the +compass in the middle of a package of tobacco; my maps were still in +the pay-book case in my pocket.</p> + +<p>We gave ourselves up to the joy of labor, and pulled weeds all day +with great vigor. We wanted to behave so well that they wouldn't +notice us. Of course we were not sure that any chance would come. We +might have to carry our stuff for several days before we should get +a chance.</p> + +<p>That night we came into the kitchen again and sat down at the long +table. Every one was hungry and fell to eating without a word. No +wonder the guard thought he had a quiet, inoffensive gang whose only +thought at that moment was fried potatoes. The potatoes were good, +hot from the frying-pan, and we ate as many as we could, for we +believed it might be a long time before we again sat at a table.</p> + +<p>The guard, at last, satisfied that we were all right, strolled into +the next room—a sort of dining- and living-room, where the family +were eating. We could hear fragments of conversation and some +laughter, and it seemed a good time to slip away! We crowded down a +few more fried potatoes, and then leisurely left the table and looked +out of the window.</p> + +<p>A big black cloud had come up from the west, and although it was +still early in the evening it was beginning to grow dusk. Outside +there was no one stirring but the young lady feeding the pigs, and +she was not taking any notice of any one. She was a fine example of +the absorbed worker. We lit our pipes and strolled out to enjoy the +cool of the evening.</p> + +<p>The pigs were gathered about the trough, protesting the distribution +of their evening meal, squealing "Graft" and calling for a commission +to settle it. The lady took no notice of them. They could settle it +among themselves. They did not need to eat at all if they didn't want +to. She should worry. It was take it or leave it—for all she cared! +She had gone as far as she was going to, in bringing it to them.</p> + +<p>We looked back at the kitchen. Fried potatoes still held the +attention of the prisoners, and the guard was not to be seen.</p> + +<p>We turned around the front of the house and found ourselves on the +shaded street. There was a row of trees along each side of the street +and the houses were built well back. It was not the main street of +the village and had more the appearance of a lane. We had concluded +that even if the alarm were given, we should only have the one guard +to deal with, for the prisoners would not pursue us, neither would +the farmer.</p> + +<p>The big danger was in the fact that the guard had his gun, and if he +saw us would shoot, but the shady lane was deserted and still, and we +pushed on with an unconcerned stride that covered the ground, but +would not attract the attention of the casual observer.</p> + +<p>When we came to the edge of the village, we saw the wood which we +had observed when coming in from work both days, and which seemed to +promise shelter, although the trees were small. We passed through it +quickly, and kept it between us and the village until we reached a +ditch two and a half or three feet deep and overgrown with heather. +By this time it was beginning to rain, for which we were glad, for it +would discourage travelling and drive indoors those who had any place +to go to. We crawled on our hands and knees along the ditch, whose +bottom was fairly dry and grassy, until we found a place where the +heather hung well over the edge and made a good protection. We could +look through the heather at the village, which was about six hundred +yards away!</p> + +<p>We stayed here until it was quite dark. There did not seem to be any +search made for us. The guard would be afraid to leave the other +prisoners to come looking for us himself, and we knew none of the +village people would be keen on coming out in the rain. But there +was a telegraph station at Seedorf, and it gave us an uncomfortable +feeling to remember that the guard could wire to Selsingen and get +some one there to telephone to the camp. But the rain, which was +falling heavily, was our best hope that we were unpursued. It beat +into my ear as I lay in the heather, until I put my cap over the side +of my head.</p> + +<p>At dark we stole out, after taking our direction with the compass +while we were in the ditch. When we came out, we observed the +direction of the wind, and started straight south. We would follow +this course until we rounded Bremen, and then it was our purpose to +go west to the Holland boundary. From our maps we knew that to strike +straight across from where we were would bring us to a well-settled +country, and the chief desire of our lives now was for solitude!</p> +<a name="2HCH0021"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XXI +</h2> +<h3> +TRAVELLERS OF THE NIGHT +</h3> + +<p>The country we travelled over in the first hours of the night was +poor and evidently waste land, for we saw no cultivation until near +morning, when we crossed through a heavy oat-field, soaking wet with +the night's rain. When we came out we were as wet as if we had fallen +into the ocean. We took some of the oats with us, to nibble at as we +went along.</p> + +<p>We came to a wide stream, with wooded banks, which looked deep and +dangerous. So we made a pack of our clothes, and cautiously descended +into it, expecting to have to swim over. However, we found we could +easily wade it, for we had made our crossing at a ford.</p> + +<p>On the other side we found ourselves stumbling over a turnip-field, +and very gladly helped ourselves, and carried away two of them for +provisions for the next day. When morning came we took cover in a +thin wood.</p> + +<p>On the other attempts we had been able to carry something to eat, and +an extra pair of socks. This time we had nothing but what we had on. +I had selected from the stockings I had a pair knit by Miss Edna +McKay, of Vancouver, which were the first pair she had knit, but were +very fine and well made. We removed our socks the first thing each +morning, and rubbed our feet and put the socks in a tree to dry, +being careful not to have them so high they would be seen. We were +trying to take every precaution this time!</p> + +<p>The first day we were near some farm-buildings, and as we lay in the +woods, pretty chilly and wet, we could hear the hens scolding and +cackling. Cackling hens always bring me back to the pleasant days +of childhood, and I was just enjoying a real heartsome visit to +the old home at Delmer... and was chasing Willie Fewster around a +straw-stack... when the farmer's dog, an interfering, vicious-looking +brute, came peering through the woods and gave us heart spasms, +barking at us for a few minutes. But we did not move a muscle, and, +seeing that he couldn't start a row with us, he went away, muttering +to himself about suspicious characters being around.</p> + +<p>A woman passed through the wood, too, going over to one of the +neighbors—I think to borrow something, for she carried a plate. But +she did not see us, as we lay low in the scrub.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>We certainly found plenty of unsettled country to travel through in +the first days of our journey, for we seemed to go through one marsh +after another, covered with coarse, long hay, which would have been +cut, no doubt, but for the soft bottoms which make it impossible +to use a mower. To drain this land would furnish more work for the +Russian prisoners! In one place we suddenly stepped down a couple of +feet into a bog filled with water, but with grass on the top. We +discovered that it was a place from which the peat had been removed, +and it was the only sign of human activity that we saw all night.</p> + +<p>On the evening of August 23d, when we started out after a fairly good +day in a spruce thicket, we could see the lights of Bremen reflected +in the sky. The lights of a city, with its homes, its stores, its +eating-places, its baths, should be a welcome sight to wayfaring men +who have been living on oats and turnips, but not for us, to whom a +city meant only capture. So when we noticed the rosy glow in the +southern sky we steered our course farther west, but still taking +care to avoid the city, which we intended to pass on the south and +east side.</p> + +<p>Our troubles were many that night. A good-sized river got in our way +and had to be crossed. There was no bridge in sight, and we had +determined to waste no time looking for one. So we undressed on the +marshy bank and made bundles of our clothes, pinning our tunics about +everything with the safety-pins which we carried. We also used the +cord around the bundles. Ted was doubtful about swimming and carrying +his clothes, so I said I would try it first, with mine. I went down +through the coarse grass, which was harsh and prickly to my feet, and +full of nettles or something which stung me at every step, and was +glad to reach the open water. The moon was in the last quarter, and +clouded over, so the night was of the blackest. I made the shore +without much trouble, and threw my bundle on a grassy bank.</p> + +<p>I called over to Ted that the going was fine, and that I would come +back for his clothes. At that, he started in to meet me, swimming on +his back and holding his clothes with both hands, using only his +feet, but when he got into the current, it turned him downstream. I +swam toward him as fast as I could, but by the time I reached him he +had lost the grip of his clothes, and when I got them they were wet +through. As we were nearer to the bank from which he had started, we +went back to it, for we were both pretty well blown. However, in a +few minutes we were able to strike out again, and reached the other +bank in safety. Poor Ted was very cold and miserable, but put on his +soaking garments, without a word, and our journey continued.</p> + +<p>This was another ditch country—ditches both wide and deep, and many +of them treacherous things, for their sides were steep and hard to +climb. The darkness made it doubly hard, and sometimes we were pretty +well frightened as we let ourselves down a greasy clay bank into the +muddy water. Later on we found some corduroy bridges that the +hay-makers had put over the ditches.</p> + +<p>All night we had not found anything to eat, and when we arrived at +a wood near morning, we decided to stay, for we could see we were +coming into a settlement, and the German farmers rise early in +harvest-time. So, hungry, muddy, wet, and tired, we lay down in the +wood, and spent a long, uncomfortable day!</p> + +<p>My watch stopped that day, and never went again. Edwards's watch was +a better one, and although it stopped when it got wet, it went again +as soon as it had dried out.</p> + +<p>That day we had not a mouthful of anything. But we comforted +ourselves with the thought that in this settled country there would +be cows, and unless these farmers sat up all night watching them, we +promised ourselves a treat the next night.</p> + +<p>At nightfall we stole out and began again to get over the distance +that separated us from freedom. The country was drier and more +settled, but the cows, we saw, were all in farmyards, and we were +afraid to risk going near them. About midnight we almost stumbled +over a herd of them, and one fine old whiteface arose at our request +and let us milk her. Ted stood at her head, and spoke kind words to +her and rubbed her nose, while I filled our tin again and again. She +was a Holstein, I think, though we could not see if she was black or +red—it was so dark, we could only see the white markings. We were +sorry to leave her. She was another of the bright spots in my memory +of Germany.</p> + +<p>We crossed a railroad, a double-tracked one with rock ballast, which +my map showed to be a line which runs to Bremen, and a little later +we came to the Weser. This river brought up pleasant recollections of +the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who drowned the rats in the Weser by the +magic of his pipe. But there was no romance in it as we came upon it +in a gray and misty dawn. It was only another barrier to our freedom.</p> + +<p>There were bunches of willows on the water's edge, and some fine +beeches, whose leaves were slightly tinged with yellow, farther back. +We selected a close bunch of willows for our hiding-place, and after +spending a short time looking for a boat, we gave up the quest, and +took cover.</p> + +<p>We were feeling well, and were in a cheerful mood,—no doubt the +result of our pleasant meeting with the Holstein,—and when we saw +some straw in a field not far from the willows, we went over and got +two armfuls of it, and made beds for ourselves. Fresh, clean straw, +when dry, makes a good bed, and no Ostermoor mattress was ever more +comfortable. We burrowed into it like moles, and although it rained +we had a good day.</p> + +<p>Waking up in the afternoon, we decided on a general clean-up, and, +dipping water from the Weser in a rusty tin pail without a handle, we +washed our faces, cleaned our teeth, shaved, and combed our hair.</p> + +<p>My socks were in fine shape, but Ted's began to show signs of +dissolution. The heels were gone, and the toe of one was broken and +going. His feet were sore and blistered, and he sat long looking +at the perfidious socks which had failed him so soon. Then he had +a plan—he would make himself a pair out of the sleeves of his +undershirt. To me was given the delicate task of cutting off the +sleeves with rather a dull knife, which I managed to do with some +difficulty, and, with a thorn for a needle and wool from the socks +for thread, a pair of socks were constructed. The thorn was too soft +and doubled back, so Ted sharpened a piece of hard wood, and with it +made the holes for the yarn.</p> + +<p>From our shelter in the willows we could see a ferry-boat carrying +people across the river, and sometimes people passed along the sandy +shore quite near to us, but the willows were thick and we were not +discovered. Two big freight steamers also passed by us.</p> + +<p>That night we went cautiously down the bank looking for a boat. We +could swim the river, but a boat would suit us better, for the night +was chilly and dark. Before we had gone far, we found one tied in the +rushes. But the oars were locked to the bottom of the boat, and we +had to cut them loose with our pen-knives, which took quite awhile, +for the wood was hard!</p> + +<p>When we got across the Weser we found plenty of cows. Some of them +were fickle jades who would let us almost touch them, and would then +sniff at us in disapproval and leave us. Others would not consider +our case for a moment. They were not going to run any danger of +giving aid and comfort to the enemy! But one good old one with a +crooked horn took pity on us, and again we felt better.</p> + +<p>The fields were divided by hedges, made of a closely-leaved green +shrub, somewhat resembling—in the leaf—our buckthorn. It was very +thick and very green, and we crawled into one of these on the morning +of the fourth day, glad of such a good shelter. However, there was no +room to move—or stand up. The hedge being low made it necessary to +lie down all day. Still, we were well satisfied with the hot milk, +and slept most of the day.</p> + +<p>Waking up suddenly, I heard a whistle, and, without moving, could see +a man's legs coming toward us. Then a dog, white with black markings, +darted past him, and, to my horror, stood not six feet from me. We +stopped breathing—we shut our eyes for fear we might wink—we +effaced ourselves—we ceased to be—I mean we wished we could.</p> + +<p>The dog came nearer—I could hear his soft footfalls—I knew the +brute was stepping high—as they do when they see something. I knew +his tail was going straight out behind—he was pointing!</p> + +<p>The man walked by, whistling—but the dog stayed!</p> + +<p>Then I heard the man call him—insisting that he come—making remarks +about his lack of sense. It sounded like "Come here, you fool!" The +dog, with a yelp of disapproval, did as he was told, but I could hear +him barking as he ran along—in a hurt tone. His professional pride +had been touched!</p> + +<p>That afternoon as we lay in the hedge, we saw a company of +school-children running toward us. I think it was the afternoon +recess, and they came running and shouting straight for the hedge. I +could only see their feet from where I lay, but it seemed to me that +there were a large number. They stopped in the field on the right of +where we lay, and played some game—I was too excited to notice what +it was. Sometimes it brought them close to the hedge, and then they +ran away again. It may have been a ball-game.</p> + +<p>We were cold and hot by turns, watching the feet that advanced and +receded, and were coming at us again, racing this time as if to see +who would reach the hedge first, when a sudden downpour of rain came +on—and they ran back! We heard the voices growing fainter in the +distance, and registered a vow that if we got out of this place alive +we would not trust in a hedge again. Dogs and children seemed to be +our greatest dangers!</p> + +<p>When we began our journey that night, we crossed a light railway, one +of those which on the map was indicated with light lines, and which, +sure enough, had only dirt ballast. Ahead of us was another railway +track with lights, which we determined to leave alone. The lights of +the two towns, Delmenhorst and Gunderksee, shone against the western +sky, and we kept to the south to avoid them. The going was difficult +on account of the settlement, and we had to be watching all the time +for travellers. There were a lot of people out that night who might +better have been at home—and in bed!</p> + +<p>We were glad to take refuge before daylight in an extensive wood. We +had a few turnips, which we ate. The day was spent as usual trying to +dry our socks and get our feet in shape for the night, but the rain +came down hard, and when we started out at dusk we were soaking wet.</p> + +<p>We at once got into a forest, a great dark, quiet forest, where +fugitives could hide as long as they liked, but which furnished +no food of any kind. In the small clearings we came upon herds of +cattle, but they were all young, with not a cow among them. This was +one of the planted forests of Germany, where a sapling is put in when +a big tree is taken out, to conserve the timber supply. No one would +know that it had been touched by man, except for the roads which ran +through it. There was no waste wood; there were no stumps, no hacked +trees, no evidences of fire—such as I have often seen in our forests +in British Columbia. The Germans know how to conserve their +resources!</p> + +<p>There was no wind or stars, and there were so many roads crossing +and dividing, that it was hard for us to keep our direction. Toward +morning it began to rain, and soon the wet bushes, as well as the +falling rain, had us wet through.</p> + +<p>We stopped at last to wait for daylight, for the forest was so dense +we believed we could travel by day with safety. We lit our pipes in +the usual way, to conserve our matches. One match would light both, +when we followed this order. The lighted one was inverted over the +unlighted one. Into the lighted one Ted blew, while I drew in my +breath from the unlighted one. This morning, something went wrong. +Either the tobacco was soggy or I swallowed nicotine, for in a few +minutes I had all the symptoms of poisoning, I wanted to lie down, +but the ground was too wet. So I leaned against a tree, and was very +sorry for myself. Ted felt much the same as I did.</p> + +<p>Then we tried to light a fire—we were so cold and wet, and, besides, +we had a few potatoes, carried from a garden we passed the night +before, which we thought we could roast. Hunger and discomfort +were making us bold. Our matches would not light the damp wood, +and we could find no other. We chewed a few oats, and were very +down-hearted. It looked as if lack of food would defeat us this time!</p> + +<p>We had so far come safely, but at great expense of energy and time. +We had avoided travelled roads, bridges, houses, taking the smallest +possible risk, but with a great expense of energy. Our journey had +been hard, toilsome, and slow. We were failing from lack of food. +Our clothes hung in folds on us, and we were beginning to feel weak. +The thought of swimming the Ems made us shudder! One thing seemed +clear—we must get food, even if to get it imposed a risk. There was +no use in starving to death.... The recklessness of the slum-cat was +coming to us.</p> + +<p>The weather had no mercy that day, for a cold, gray, driving rain +came down as we leaned against a tree, two battered hulks of men, +with very little left to us now but the desire to be free.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>If this were a book of fiction, it would be easy to lighten and +vary the narrative here and there with tales of sudden attacks and +hair's-breadth escapes. But it is not a fancy story—it is a plain +tale of two men's struggle, with darkness, cold, and hunger, in a +land of enemies. It may sound monotonous to the reader at times, but +I assure you, we never, for one minute, got accustomed to the pangs +of hunger, the beat of the rain, or the ache of our tired legs, and +the gripping, choking fear that through some mishap we might be +captured.</p> + +<p>The country was so full of bogs and marshes that we had to stick to +the road that night, but we met no person, and had the good fortune +to run into a herd of cows, and drank all the milk we could hold. +Unfortunately we had nothing in which to carry milk, so had to drink +all we could, and go on, in the hope of meeting more cows.</p> + +<p>While we were helping ourselves, the storm which had been threatening +all night came on in great fury, and the lightning seemed to tear the +sky apart. We took refuge in an old cow-shed, which saved us from the +worst of it.</p> + +<p>That morning we hid in a clump of evergreens, thick enough to make a +good shelter, but too short for comfort, for we could not stand up! +Ted was having a bad time with his feet, for his improvised socks +did not work well. They twisted and knotted and gave him great +discomfort. This day he removed his undershirt, which was of wool, +and, cutting it into strips five or six inches wide, wound them round +and round his feet, and then put his boots on. He had more comfort +after that, but as the weather was cold the loss of his shirt was a +serious one.</p> + +<p>That night we came to a river, which we knew to be the Hunte, and +looked about for a means of crossing it. We knew enough to keep away +from bridges, but a boat would have looked good to us. However, there +did not seem to be any boat, and we decided to swim it without loss +of time, for this was a settled district, and therefore not a good +place to hesitate.</p> + +<p>On account of our last experience in crossing a river, we knew a raft +to carry our clothes on would keep them dry and make it easier for +us. So, failing to find any stuff with which to make a raft, we +thought of a gate we had passed a short time back. It was a home-made +affair, made of a big log on the top, whose heavy root balanced the +gate on the post on which it swung. We went back, found it, and +lifted it off, and although it was a heavy carry, we got it to the +river, and, making two bundles of our clothes, floated them over on +it. I swam ahead, pushing it with one hand, while Ted shoved from +behind. Our clothes were kept dry, and we dragged the gate up on the +bank. We hope the farmer found it, and also hope he thought it was an +early Hallowe'en joke!</p> + +<p>That day, August 31st, we took refuge in the broom, which was still +showing its yellow blossom, and, as the, sun came out occasionally, +we lit our pipes with Ted's sun-glass. The sun and wind dried our +tobacco and our socks, and we started off that night feeling rather +better.</p> + +<p>It was a fine night for our purpose, for there was considerable wind, +and we kept going all night, mostly on the roads. At daylight we took +refuge in an open wood. The day was cloudy and chilly, and we found +it long. At night, we had not gone far when we found three cows in a +small field. We used all our blandishments on them, but the lanky one +with straight horns was unapproachable and aloof in her manner, and +would not let us near her. One of the others was quiet enough, but +was nearly dry. The third one was the best, and we filled and drank, +and filled and drank, until her supply was exhausted too. On account +of the field being near the house, we were careful not to let the +stream of milk make a sound in the empty can, so left some milk in +the can each time, to deaden the sound. However, the owners of the +cows were safe in bed, and asleep. We wondered if they would think +the cows were bewitched when they found they would give nothing next +morning!</p> +<a name="2HCH0022"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XXII +</h2> +<h3> +THE LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM +</h3> + +<p>When we had taken all the milk we could extract from the cows, we +moved off quietly to the corner of the field farthest from the +buildings, to get back to the road. We were going over the fence as +gently as possible, when we saw two men whom we knew from their +uniforms to be French prisoners. They were evidently escaping, like +ourselves, but had been more fortunate than we, for they had packs on +their backs. We tried to get their attention by calling to them, but +the French word for "friend" did not come to us, only the German +"Kamerad," and when they heard that, they took us for Germans and ran +with all speed. We dared not pursue them, or even call, for fear of +being heard; so had to see the two big packs, which no doubt had +chocolate, sardines, bread, and cheese in them, disappear in the +darkness. However, it may have been just as well—two escaping +prisoners are enough, for safety.</p> + +<p>September 2d was a fine day, with several hours of sunshine. From +where we had taken refuge in a high spruce thicket, we could look out +across a wide heather moor, all in bloom and a glorious blaze of +color, amethyst, purple, mauve, with the bright September sun pouring +down upon it. Our spirits always rose when the sun came out, and sank +again when the day grew dark.</p> +<a name="image-0012"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/214.jpg" +alt="A Prison Post-card from Friedrichsfeld Bei Wesel. +The Group Includes Soldiers from Canada, Newfoundland, England, +Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, +France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Serbia, and Roumania."> +<br><i>A Prison Post-Card from Friedrichsfeld bei Wesel. +The group includes soldiers from Canada, Newfoundland, England, +Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, +France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Serbia, and Roumania.</i> + +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> + +<p>Since these experiences of battling bare-handed with the elements I +can understand why primeval man fell into sun-worship, for on the +caprice of the sun with its power to give or withhold, the happiness +and well-being of the roofless traveller depends.</p> + +<p>We stayed closely in the dark shadows of the heavy evergreens that +day, although just beyond was the golden sunlight with its warmth and +comfort, for we were afraid to show ourselves in the open. That night +we came upon a potato garden, and dug out some with our fingers, +filling our pockets and our handkerchiefs with them. We had a good +night, and shoved the miles behind us. We had promised ourselves a +fire just at dawn, and the thought of it, and the potatoes we should +bake, was wonderfully cheering.</p> + +<p>Just at the beginning of the dawn, in that gray, misty light, a fire +can scarcely be seen, for the air is something the color of smoke, +and there is enough light to hide the fire. At night the fire shows, +and in the daylight, the smoke, but in the gray dawn it is not easy +to see either. So on the morning of September 3d, we gathered dry +sticks and made our first fire. There was a blue veil of haze on the +horizon, and a ragged gray mist hung over the low places. The air was +sweet with the autumn smell of fallen leaves and wood bark, and as we +sat over our tiny fire, we almost forgot that we were in a world of +enemies. The yellow beeches and the dark green spruces bent over us +in friendliest fashion, and a small bird chased a hawk above the +trees.</p> + +<p>Still, we were not beguiled by the friendliness of our surroundings +to take any chances, and, instead of waiting for ashes or coal to +roast our potatoes, we put them right on the fire. What if they were +burnt on the outside? We scraped off part of the charcoal and ate the +rest. We knew about charcoal tablets being good for digestion, and we +believed ours could stand a little assistance, for green apples and +new milk are not a highly recommended combination.</p> + +<p>We kept track of the number of potatoes we ate that morning. It was +twenty-five! What we couldn't eat we put in our pockets, and held in +our hands—for the warmth. That day, September 3d, was the brightest +and warmest day we had.</p> + +<p>Toward evening we crept out to the edge of the wood to see what sort +of country we were in—and found there was a village quite near +us. But as we had heard not a sound all day, and as there was not +a flutter around it now,—not a soul stirring or a cow-bell +tinkling,—we thought it must be a deserted hamlet. The old and now +almost indistinct paths through the wood where we sat seemed to tell +of a departed people.</p> + +<p>We sat in one of these old paths, watching the shafts of sunlight +which filtered through the woods as we waited for the dark. Then Ted +began to fix the strips of cloth around his feet, and I lay down upon +my back, across the path, looking up at the sky, which was shot over +with mackerel-back clouds, giving promise of settled weather.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, around a bend in the path, came a man and a dog. The man +carried a gun across his shoulder, and evidently had been shooting +birds. I swung myself off the path and motioned to him to go by—for +he had stopped in surprise. Ted did the same. Our gestures were +polite—but I think had something suggestive in them too—almost +commanding.</p> + +<p>He passed by, merely bidding us "good-evening," and remarking in +German that Ted's feet were sore!</p> + +<p>He walked on, as a peaceable old fellow who had no desire to get into +trouble, and although he must have seen the yellow stripe down the +seams of our trousers, and the prison numbers on our tunics, he kept +on going.</p> + +<p>We watched him through the trees, as far as we could see him, but +only once did he turn and look back—and then only for a minute. He +was not going toward the village, but we decided to keep away from +it, anyway, and at nightfall we made a wide detour to avoid it. The +night clouded up, too, and we pushed along with thankful hearts that +the old man with the dog knew when to keep quiet.</p> + +<p>A rare piece of good luck came to us that night. We came to a +settlement, evidently a new one, for the houses were of modern +design, and the farm-buildings, too, were fresh and newly built. +There was evidently a creamery somewhere near, and beside the road we +found a can full of milk set out, to be gathered up in the morning. +The cream had risen to the top of it, and with our toffee tin we +helped ourselves. Later on, we found others, and helped ourselves +again. It was a very satisfactory arrangement for us to have the +refreshment booths scattered like this along the way. Then we ate +some of the burnt potatoes and an apple or two, had a few drinks of +cream from another can, and the night passed pleasantly. From the +apple-trees beside the road we replenished our pockets, and felt this +had been a good night.</p> + +<p>It was a good thing for us that the night had started so well, for +along toward morning, probably two hours before daylight, we crossed +a peat-bog. There was a road at first which helped us, but it ran +into a pile of cut peat, drying for the winter. There were also other +roads leading to peat-piles, but these were very misleading, and as +the night was of inky blackness, with scarcely any breeze, it became +harder and harder to keep our direction. Consulting the compass so +often was depleting our match supply, and I tried to depend on +the faint breath of a breeze which sometimes seemed to die away +altogether. This bog, like all the others, had tufts of grass and +knolls of varying size coming in the most unexpected places. Over +these we stumbled, and fell, many times, and as we felt fairly safe +from being heard, it was some relief to put into language what we +thought of the country and all its people, past, present, and future. +I believe we were especially explicit about the future!</p> + +<p>It was nearly morning when we got off the bog, and as the rain was +falling we took refuge in a tumble-down hut which had probably been a +cowherd's. We soon saw that it was a poor shelter, and when a woman +came along and looked straight at us, we began to get gooseflesh! She +actually smiled at us, and we tried to smile back reassuringly, but I +am afraid there was a lack of mirth in our smiles which detracted +from their charm.</p> + +<p>She walked away—stopped—looked back at us—and smiled again, and +went on, nodding her head as if she knew something. We were rather +afraid she did, and hastily decided to push on. We were afraid of +the lady's patriotism, and determined to be moving. There was a +thick-looking wood just ahead, and to it we went with all speed, +taking with us two large gunnysacks which we found in the hut. They +were stamped "Utrecht" and had the name of a dealer there.</p> + +<p>All that day we were afraid of the lady who smiled and nodded her +head, but perhaps we wronged her in our thoughts, for the day passed +without any disturbance. Probably she, too, like the old man with the +dog, knew that silence does not often get one into trouble.</p> + +<p>That day we shaved, but, there being no stream near, we had to empty +the rain-drops off the leaves into the top of the box which held +Ted's shaving-stick. It took time, of course, but what was time to +us? We had more time than anything else.</p> + +<p>Although we tried to reassure ourselves with the thought that there +were probably no soldiers near, and that the civilians were not +likely to do any searching, still we were too apprehensive to sleep, +and started away at nightfall, with eyes that burned and ached from +our long vigil.</p> + +<p>The night was cloudy at first, with sprinkling rain, but cleared up +about midnight into a clear, cold autumn night. The cold kept me from +getting sleepy, but when I got warm from walking my sleepiness grew +overpowering. Ted was more wakeful than I, and took the lead, while +I stumbled along behind, aching in every joint with sleepiness. The +night was clear and starry, and Ted steered our course by the stars.</p> + +<p>No one who has gone through it needs to be told about the misery of +sleepiness. I fought against it—I pulled open my eyes—I set my +will with all the force I could command, but in spite of all I could +do, my eyes would close and I would fall over, and in the fall would +awaken and go on, only to fall again. At last we stopped and lay +down, sorry to lose so much of the darkness, but the cold soon +awakened us, and, chilled and shivering, with numb fingers, we +struggled to our feet and went on. But when, with the walking, we +were warmed again, with the warmth came the sleepiness.</p> + +<p>At dawn we crept into a thick bush, but the ground was damp and cold, +and our sleepiness had left us. We ate some of our cold roast +potatoes, and tried to sleep, for we dreaded to spend another night +like the last one. In the afternoon the sun came out and warmed the +air, so we had a fairly good sleep and started away at nightfall.</p> + +<p>The night was clear and starlight, so the peat-bog which we +encountered did not bother us so much, for we could see the holes and +ridges. After the bog, we came into a settlement, but the people were +in villages and had their cows stabled, so there was no chance for +thirsty and hungry travellers. To the north we could see the huge +searchlights above Oldenburg, and we thought of the cells—and +shuddered! But our hunger was making us cold again, and we determined +to go into the next village we came to, to find some apples.</p> + +<p>The first one we came to was a large one, and compactly built. The +night was lit by the stars, and therefore not quite so good for our +purpose, but we had to have something. We cautiously entered a garden +gate which some one had obligingly left open, but when we got in, we +found that the trees were high, and apparently well looked-after, for +not an apple could be found! We were only a few yards from the house, +behind whose darkened windows the family slept, not knowing that the +alien enemy were so near.</p> + +<p>We slipped out of the open gate—we could see now why it had been +left open—and went into the next garden—with the same result. Every +apple had been gathered. We started down the street again, walking +cautiously on the grass, and slipping along as quickly as possible. +We carried the sacks, which we had split open, over our shoulders, +and as they were of a neutral shade, they were not so easily seen as +our dark-blue suits would have been.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was the sound of a door opening, ahead of us, on the +other side of the street, and two soldiers came out! We lay flat on +the street where we were, and "froze." The sacks which were wrapped +about us helped to conceal us, or at least made us look less like +men. The soldiers passed along the middle of the street, chatting and +laughing; we could hear their spurs clanking! Coming out of the light +had probably dulled their sight, and they did not see us. We lay +there until their footsteps had died away. Then we got up, and got +out!</p> + +<p>We were not hungry any more—at least we were so much more frightened +than hungry that we only knew we were frightened, and we pushed our +way on as fast as we could. That night was the first on which we had +seen the moon. The shelter we found was another group of Christmas +trees, and as we still had a couple of roast potatoes we ate them, +and got a little sleep.</p> + +<p>The next night the villages kept getting in our way. When we tried to +avoid one, we got into another, and in one we saw a light twinkling +in an upstairs window, where some woman, probably, sat late at her +work or watched by the bedside of a sick child. As usual, there were +no street lamps, and I think the light inside was a coal-oil lamp! +But not a dog barked, and we came safely out on a road which led in a +westerly direction.</p> + +<p>In the morning, when the east began to redden, we got shelter in a +thin wood, and, having found some potatoes outside of one of the +villages, we determined to run the risk of having a fire to roast +them. We didn't roast many, though, for the dawn came on too swiftly, +and we had to extinguish our fire, for there was a farmhouse not a +hundred yards away, and the people were beginning to stir.</p> + +<p>That day there were people working all around us, and one old chap, +with a red shirt on, was so ambitious about getting his turnips +lifted that I don't believe he even knocked off for noon. We thought +he would never quit at night either. We called him the "work-hog!"</p> + +<p>In the afternoon, as we lay in the woods, an old man, a shepherd, +came with a flock of white sheep which followed close behind him. +The old man wore a velvet cloak, knee breeches, and buckles on his +shoes, and he had a sheep dog with him—a small-sized tricolored, +rough-haired collie. It was exactly like a picture! We were not in +any mood to enjoy the beauty of it, for some of the sheep wandered +through the wood, almost stepping on us, and when the shepherd came +after them, he must have seen us. But the old man belonged to the +peaceful past, and knew nothing of wars and prisoners, so went out of +the wood as quietly as he came. He was as innocent-looking as the +sunshine, or the white clouds in the blue sky!</p> + +<p>Still, we were two suspicious men who trusted no one, and we thought +it best to move. I took the potatoes in my sack, and Ted, to be ready +for emergencies, provided a stout, knotted club for himself, and we +stole out of the wood, being careful to keep it between us and the +"work-hog," who never lifted his eyes—but still we took no chances, +even on him!</p> + +<p>There was a better wood a short distance away, and to it we came. We +saw nobody, and, coming into a dark cover, lit a fire, for we thought +the smoke would not rise to the tops of the trees. On it we roasted +our remaining potatoes, and we got a drink in a narrow, trickling +stream.</p> + +<p>We started again, at dark, and before long came to a railway, which, +according to our map, was the line which runs parallel to the river +Ems. We knew we were coming near the Ems, and at the thought of it, +drew a long breath. It seemed a long time since we had stood on its +bank before and heard the sounds from across the Holland border. We +kept going all night, avoiding the roads, and about three o'clock +reached the river. There it was!—a much smaller river than when +we had last seen it, but plenty large enough yet to fill us with +apprehension. We found a good hiding-place before daylight, and then +went back to a potato-field we had passed, and put about a pailful in +our sacks before settling down for the day in the wood.</p> + +<p>Just before dawn we made our fire and roasted the potatoes. They +tasted fine, and as the day was warm and bright, we began to feel +more cheerful. That day we heard the deep-booming whistles of +steamboats, and the shriller notes of the canal-boats. Although we +knew the river boats were passing up and down just below us, we +restrained our curiosity and stayed closely hidden.</p> + +<p>Just before it got dark we crept to the edge of the high ground +overlooking the river. The other side of the river was flat, and +seemed to be settled. I knew from a map I had seen that there was +a canal a short distance beyond the river, and that it, too, would +have to be crossed.</p> + +<p>Looking down to the water's edge, we saw a fence enclosing some +pasture land, and were glad to see another gate, for we wanted a +raft for our clothes, and we thought this would do. It was a heavy +brute of a gate. We could hardly launch it. Perhaps we were getting +weaker—that may have been the reason it seemed so heavy. Anyway, +when we got it to the water's edge, we had to rest before undertaking +to swim the river. The current was not so strong as we had feared, +and we reached the other side in safety.</p> + +<p>We did not pull up the gate, but let it go drifting down the stream. +Perhaps this also is accounted for by the fact that we were getting +weaker: also, we considered that we were harder pressed for time than +the German farmer—he could make another gate.</p> + +<p>After we had dressed and had walked for about an hour, we came to the +canal. Unfortunately for our purpose, the night was clear and the +stars were out in thousands, and, to make matters worse, the young +moon, just a crescent, but still capable of giving some light, came +out. We had been longer than we expected on our journey, and now, at +the most critical time of it, when there was the greatest need of +caution, we had moonlight nights to face! Still, every night was +getting worse than the last, so we must go forward with all speed.</p> + +<p>The canal was about sixty feet wide, and I felt certain it would be +guarded, for it was so near the border. We went to the edge, and +looked across—and then up and down—to see if we could find any +trace of a guard; everything was quiet.</p> + +<p>We knew it was a time for great haste. We went back quickly and +undressed. I grabbed my bundle and let myself cautiously into the +water, taking care not to make the slightest splash. When I reached +the other side, I threw my clothes on the sand and came back far +Ted—he was waiting for me. I took his clothes, and together we swam +across!</p> + +<p>We got quietly out of the water. I picked up my own bundle, and we +started for the trees on the other side of the road. There was an +excavation there where sand had been taken out. Seeing it, we slipped +into it noiselessly. We were not a moment too soon, for when we stood +still and listened, we heard the regular footsteps of a man, and in +twenty seconds the patrol marched by! Then we dressed and got out of +our fortunate hiding-place, and went on.</p> + +<p>We still had a couple of hours before daylight, but the danger was +growing greater every minute, for we knew we were approaching the +border. At that thought our hearts beat wild with hope. The border +would be guarded—there was nothing surer—any minute we might be +challenged. We had talked it over, and were determined to make a dash +for it if that happened. The patrol would shoot, but there was a +chance he might not shoot straight; he would hardly get us both!</p> + +<p>Soon we came to a marsh, with an edge of peat, and as we advanced we +saw the peat was disappearing, and it did not look good ahead. The +moonlight showed us a grassy mat, level as the top of a lake, and +without a shrub or tree to indicate a solid bottom. It was evidently +a quaking bog, a hidden lake, and only the fear behind us drove us +on. It swayed beneath our feet, falling as we stepped on it fully a +foot, and rising again behind us. There would be little danger of +guards here, for the place would be considered impassable—and maybe +it was—we should see!</p> + +<p>Our feet were light—fear gave them wings—and we raced over the +bending, swaying, springing surface! The moon was not bright enough +for us to pick our steps—there was no picking, anyway—it was a +matter of speed! At every step the grass mat went below the surface +of the water, and we could feel it rising over our boot-tops—cold +and horrible. If we had hesitated a second, I know we should have +gone through; but we had every reason for haste. Behind us was the +enemy—cruel, merciless, hateful—with their stolid faces and their +black cells. Under us—was death. Before us—was freedom—home—and +the ones we love!</p> + +<p>At the other side there was more peat, some of it cut and piled. +We were puffing hard from our exertions, but were afraid to rest a +second. The border must be near!</p> + +<p>In a few minutes after leaving the bog we came to a small canal, +which surprised me—there had been no other canal indicated on any +map I had seen. It puzzled me for a minute; then a great joy swept +over me! The maps I had seen were maps of Germany. This canal must be +in Holland!</p> + +<p>But I did not say this to Ted, for I wasn't sure. We undressed +again—the third time that night—and swam the canal, and, dressing +again, went on. Soon we found a finely settled country, with roads +which improved as we went on, all the time. There were no trees, but +the darkness still held, and we kept going. Toward morning we took +refuge in a thicket, and spent the day.</p> + +<p>That day was September 9th, and although we thought we were in +Holland, we were not sure enough to come out and show ourselves. So +we lay low, and ate the green apples that we had found on a tree +between the river and the canal the night before. We slept a little, +though too excited to sleep much.</p> + +<p>Beside the thicket where we were hidden, a boy worked in a field with +a fine team of horses, ploughing stubble. We tried to listen to what +he said to his team, to see if there was any change from the German +"Burrrrrrsh," but he was a silent youth, and so far as we could make +out, said never a word all day. So we could not prove it by him!</p> + +<p>But the good horses gave us hope—horses were scarce in Germany!</p> + +<p>At dusk we started out again, and kept going straight west, for one +fear still tormented us. Our maps showed us that one part of Germany +projects into Holland, and for this reason we kept straight west, to +avoid all danger of running into it; for the uncomfortable thought +would come that to escape from Germany and then walk into it again +would make us feel foolish—not to mention other emotions.</p> + +<p>It seemed to be a fine country that we were going through, and the +walking was easy, although we were not on a road. I had been telling +Ted that the first railway we came to would be a single-tracked one, +with dirt ballast, and then we should be sure we were in Holland. I +had seen this railroad on the map, and knew it was a few miles from +the border. To me, this would be sufficient proof that we were safely +out of Germany.</p> + +<p>Soon we saw a fringe of houses ahead, and we thought we were coming +near a canal, for we were in the country of canals now, and the +houses are built on their banks. There were lights in a few of the +houses, for it was only about eleven o'clock, and some of the people +were still up. The houses looked to be rather good ones, and they +were built in a row. It was the backs of them we were approaching, +which we did with extreme caution, for we had no desire to have some +snarling dog discover us and give the alarm.</p> + +<p>So intent were we, watching the houses for any sign of life, that we +did not see what was just before us until we had walked up to it. +Then we saw—</p> + +<p>It was a railroad, single-tracked, with dirt ballast!</p> + +<p>Without a word, Ted and I shook hands! We were in Holland!</p> +<a name="2HCH0023"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CHAPTER XXIII +</h2> +<h3> +OUT +</h3> + +<p>Immediately we set out to find a road. There would be no more +skulking through fields for us. We were free again, entitled to all +the privileges of road and bridge.</p> + +<p>We soon found a good wagon-road leading to a bridge over the canal. +Across the bridge we boldly went, caring nothing for the houses at +our right and left, whose windows were lighted and whose dogs may +have been awake for all we cared. It seemed wonderful to be able to +walk right in the middle of the road again! Ted said he wanted to +sing, but I advised him to curb the desire. We were a little hazy as +to the treatment accorded prisoners by a neutral country.</p> + +<p>We still kept west, thinking of the bulge in the German boundary to +the south of us. The road was smooth and hard, and we felt so good +that we seemed to be able to go as fast as we liked. Fatigue and +hunger were forgotten. A man on a bicycle rode past us and shouted +a greeting to us, to which we replied with a good, honest English +"Good-night," instead of the sullen grunt we had hitherto been using +to hide our nationality.</p> + +<p>Cows were plentiful that night, and we got apples, too, from the +orchards near the road. The only thing that troubled us was that our +road had turned southwest, and we were afraid that it might lead +us into the little strip of Germany. However, we went on a short +distance.</p> + +<p>Then we came to a place where there were many canals, some of them +very large, and the straggling houses seemed to indicate a town. +Afterwards we knew it was the town called Nieuwstadskanaal.</p> + +<p>We took a poor road, leading west, and followed it over a heather +moor, which changed after a mile or two into a peat-bog with piles of +peat recently cut. We kept on going, until about five o'clock in the +morning we came to a house. It looked desolate and unoccupied, and +when we got close to it we found that it had been badly damaged by +fire. But it made a good shelter for us, and we went into what had +been the living-room, and lay down and slept. The floor was even and +dry; it was the best bed we had had for twenty nights, and, relieved +as we were from the fear of detection, we slept for hours.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>When we awakened, the sun was pouring in at the curtainless windows, +and we were as hungry as bears. "Now for a potato-feed," Ted said, +looking out of the window at a fine field of potatoes across the +road. The field had been reclaimed from the peat-bog, and some of the +potatoes had already been dug and put into pits.</p> + +<p>In looking around for material to light a fire, I saw scraps of +newspapers, which I examined closely and found they were Dutch papers, +one bearing the name of "Odoorn" and the other "Nieuwstadskanaal." +This supported us in our belief that we were in Holland.</p> + +<p>We got potatoes from the field and roasted them in the fire which we +built in the fireplace.</p> + +<p>A young Hollander, fired with curiosity, came to the door and looked +in at us. We hailed him with delight and asked him to come right +in, and be one of us! He came in rather gingerly, looking at us +wide-eyed, and we were sorry to find he could not speak English. +There were certain things we wanted to know!</p> + +<p>We were drying our matches by the fire, for they had become rather +damp, and our supply was getting low. Also our tobacco was done. So +we said, "Tabac," showing him our empty pipes, and from the pocket +of his coat he brought out a pouch, and we filled our pipes. I don't +know whether he knew we had been prisoners or not. He drifted out in +a few minutes, but I think he told others about us, for after we had +had our smoke, and had gone to the canal to fix up, we found some +interested spectators.</p> + +<p>At the canal we washed, shaved, cleaned our teeth, combed our hair, +and went as far as we could in getting ready to see people. Ted had +his Canadian soldier's tunic, with the regular prisoner's dark-blue +trousers such as the British Red Cross supplies. His tunic was torn +in several places and his hair was unkempt and in need of cutting. He +had cut the heels out of his boots, several days before, because they +hurt him. I had the regular prisoner's suit, dark-blue cloth, and had +cut off the yellow stripe which had been sewed down the legs of the +trousers; I had also cut off my prison number. My boots had held +well, and there was not even a hole in my socks. My hair was getting +shaggy, and I suppose we were both looking fairly tough. Our clothes +were wrinkled and crushed and dirty.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>There was one older man who watched us, with many exclamations of +friendliness, who, when we had concluded our efforts, made us +understand that he wanted us to come with him to have something to +eat. He could speak no English, but he made us understand. We went +back to the deserted house, gathered up our things, and went with +him. Two young fellows came along, too, and we were taken to a +canal-boat near by.</p> + +<p>The woman who waited on the breakfast table in the canal-boat, and +served us with rye-bread, margarine, and coffee, gave us hard +looks, which made us think her heart was still in the fatherland. +Conversation was naturally difficult, because no one of them could +speak English, but we began to ask about Rotterdam, for we knew that +that would be the port from which we should sail, and we were anxious +to know how to get there. One of the young men, a fine-looking fellow +with a frank, pleasing countenance, said something and made gestures, +which made us think he would take us there in his boat.</p> + +<p>We started out with him and his companion, not sorry to leave the +sour-faced lady who glared at us, and walked along the road beside +the canal. We were on the outskirts of Odoorn, a town whose chief +industry is the shipping of peat. It being Sunday, nobody was +working, and the people, especially the children, came out to see +us. The young man took us to one of the houses and introduced us to +his father and mother, who welcomed us kindly and wanted us to have +something to eat. But we declined.</p> + +<p>We were then taken by him along the road, and the crowd of children +that followed us seemed to be growing bigger every minute. Our +friend, anxious apparently to do the proper thing, took out his +mouth-organ and played "It's a Long Way to Tipperary"—and it +certainly hit the spot with us.</p> + +<p>He conducted us to the home of the gendarme—and for a minute our +old fear of being interned came back to us! The gendarme was plainly +bored—he had been having a Sunday-afternoon sleep, and had not +finished it. He yawned as he spoke.</p> + +<p>The young man talked to him very earnestly, and at last he invited +us in. Up to this time we had not heard a word of English. The +gendarme's wife, a nice-looking, well-dressed woman, brought in a +tray and gave us tea, and little cakes with seeds on them, and soon +a young man who could speak English came in to act as interpreter.</p> + +<p>He began to question us, but we soon turned the conversation by +questioning him. We asked him if there was any danger of our being +interned? He told us we could be interned if we liked, but we +hastened to assure him we should not like it.</p> + +<p>Then he said we could stay in Holland and work, but again we +declined. We wanted to go to England, we said.</p> + +<p>He tried to dissuade us. Why go to England? That would mean going +back into the army. Holland was the best and safest place!</p> + +<p>We insisted that we wanted to go to England, and he warned us that if +we wanted to change our minds we must do it now; because we couldn't +change after we had "signed the paper." We were still sure we wanted +to go!</p> + +<p>The gendarme then went upstairs and came down in his uniform and took +us out with him. We didn't know where he was taking us, but supposed +it was to some place to make arrangements for our passage to England. +When we came out of the house we found some women gathered there +waiting for us, and a very poorly dressed woman, with a fine face, +stepped up and gave us a small sum of money, which she had evidently +collected for us. We thanked her warmly, and with sincere gratitude. +Then we set out across country about four miles to Borger, where we +were taken to the Burgomaster's house.</p> + +<p>The Burgomaster's house was one of the best in the little town, and +when we went in, we found there a young man, evidently calling on the +daughter of the house, and he could speak English.</p> + +<p>We were taken downtown to the Burgomaster's office, and official +papers were made out, and we signed them. This was what the +gendarme's interpreter had been telling us, about not being able to +change our minds after we had signed the paper!</p> + +<p>The Burgomaster evidently told the gendarme to take us to the hotel +and have us fed, and by this time, after our walk, we were quite +ready for something. When we offered them money for our meal—which +was a good one—it was politely refused.</p> + +<p>We were then taken to the home of one of the Borgen gendarmes where +we stayed for the night. His name was H. Letema. We ate with the +family and were treated with great kindness. The white bread and +honey which we had for tea were a great treat to us. One of the other +gendarmes gave Ted a pair of socks, and he was able to discard the +strips of underwear. We had a bed made of straw, with good blankets, +and it seemed like luxury to us.</p> + +<p>The next morning Mr. Letema gave us each a postal-card addressed to +himself, and asked us to write back telling him when we had safely +reached England. Then another gendarme walked with us to Assen, which +seemed to be a sort of police headquarters. We stayed there all day.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon a Belgian girl came to see us, and although I tried +hard to understand what she said, she talked so fast I could not +follow her, although I knew a little French. She brought us some +cigars, and we could see she wanted to show us her friendliness. When +she went away, I deeply regretted my ignorance of the French +language. But the Belgian girl came back in a little while, +accompanied by a Holland woman who could speak English, and then we +found out about her.</p> + +<p>She had fled from Antwerp at the time of the bombardment, and was +supporting herself by needlework at Assen, where she was the only +Belgian person, and I suppose she was tired of "neutrals" and wanted +to see us because we were of the Allies. She urged us to tell her +what she could do for us, and we asked her for some postal-cards, so +we could tell our friends that we had escaped. She sent them to us by +her friend the interpreter, who also gave us some English books and a +box of cigars.</p> + +<p>That night a young gendarme took us upstairs to his room, which was +nicely decorated with flags and pennants, and he told us the Germans +could never conquer Holland, for they would cut the dykes—as they +had done before. He showed us the picture of his fiancée, and proudly +exhibited the ring she had given him.</p> + +<p>The next day we were taken by another gendarme to Rotterdam by train, +passing through Utrecht and in sight of the Zuider Zee. Arriving +there, we were taken to the alien officer, who questioned us and +wrote down what we told him. Then the gendarme took us to the British +Consul, and left us there. The Consul shook hands with us and +congratulated us on our escape, and put us in charge of a +Vice-Consul, who was a Hollander.</p> + +<p>We stayed at the "Seaman's Rest," which was in the same building as +the British Consulate. There we met two Americans, who were very +friendly and greatly interested in our escape. They encouraged us to +talk about the prison-camps, and of what we had seen in Germany, but +it was not long until we became suspicious and careful in our +answers. One of them had an American passport, which seemed to let +him have the freedom of the city; the other one had no passport, and +complained that he could not get one, and it was causing him no end +of inconvenience, for he found it impossible to get a job at his +trade, which was that of "trimmer" on a vessel. He went every day to +the docks, looking for a job, and acquired considerable information +about ships and their time of sailing. At night, he and his friend +were together, and the knowledge was no doubt turned over.</p> + +<p>Mr. Neilson, Superintendent of the Sailors' Institute, very kindly +invited us to go with him to The Hague, to see the Peace Temple, and +it was then that we made bold to ask for some spending money. The +Vice-Consul, the Hollander, was a thrift-fiend so far as other people +were concerned, and it was only after Mr. Neilson had presented our +claim, and we had used all the arguments we could think of, that we +got about two dollars each.</p> + +<p>Our clothes—too—had not yet been replaced with new ones, and we +felt very shabby in our soiled uniforms. We mentioned this to the +Vice-Consul, and told him that we believed the Canadian Government +would stand by us to the extent of a new suit of clothes. He murmured +something about the expenses being very heavy at this time. We +ventured to remind him that the money would be repaid—Canada was +still doing business!</p> + +<p>The next day our American friends invited us to go to a picture show +with them. We went, but at the door a gorgeously uniformed gentleman, +who looked like a cross between a butler and an admiral, turned us +back—that is, Ted and me. We had no collars on! The public had to be +protected—he was sorry, but these were his orders.</p> + +<p>Then we sought the Vice-Consul and told him if he did not get us +decent clothes, we should go to the Consul. The next morning we got +the clothes!</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>On the sixth night we sailed from Rotterdam, and the next morning, in +a hazy dawn, we sighted, with glad hearts, the misty shores of +England.</p> + +<p>As we sailed up the Tyne, we saw war shops being built, and women +among the workmen, looking very neat and smart in their working +uniforms. They seemed to know their business, too, and moved about +with a speed and energy which indicated an earnest purpose. Here was +another factor which Germany had not counted on—the women of the +Empire! Germany knew exactly how many troops, how many guns, how many +ships, how much ammunition England had; but they did not know—never +could know—the spirit of the English people!</p> + +<p>They saw a country which seethed with discontent—Hyde Park agitators +who railed at everything British, women who set fire to empty +buildings, and destroyed mail-boxes as a protest against unfair +social conditions—and they made the mistake of thinking that these +discontented citizens were traitors who would be glad of the chance +to stab their country to the heart. They knew that the average +English found golf and cricket much more interesting than foreign +affairs, so they were not quite prepared for that rush of men to the +recruiting offices at the first call for volunteers! Englishmen may +abuse their own country, but it is a different matter when the enemy +is at the door. So they came,—the farmer, the clerk, the bank boy, +the teacher, the student, the professional man, the writer, the +crossing-sweeper, the cab-man,—high and low, rich and poor, old and +young, they flocked to the offices, like the land-seekers in the West +who form queues in front of the Homestead offices, to enter their +land.</p> + +<p>I thought of these first recruits—the "contemptible little +army"—who went over in those first terrible days, and, +insufficiently equipped as they were, went up against the +overwhelming hosts of Germany with their superior numbers and +equipment that had been in preparation for forty years.... and how +they held back the invaders—though they had but one shell to the +Germans' hundred—by sheer force of courage and individual bravery... +and with such losses. I thought of these men as I stepped on the +wharf at Newcastle, and it seemed to me that every country lane in +England and every city street was hallowed by the unseen presence of +the glorious and unforgotten dead!</p> +<a name="2H_CONC"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> +CONCLUSION +</h2> + +<p>I have been at home for more than a year now, and cannot return to +the front. Apparently the British Government have given their word to +the neutral countries that prisoners who escape from Germany, and are +assisted by the neutral countries, will not be allowed to return to +the fighting line. So even if my shoulder were well again, I could +not go back to fight.</p> + +<p>Ted and I parted in London, for I came back to Canada before he did. +He has since rejoined his family in Toronto. I have heard from a +number of the boys in Germany. Bromley tried to escape again, but was +captured, and is now at a camp called Soltau. John Keith and Croak +also tried, but failed. Little Joe, the Italian boy who enlisted with +me at Trail, has been since exchanged—insane! Percy Weller, Sergeant +Reid, and Hill, brother of the British Reservist who gave us our +first training, have all been exchanged.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>I am sorry that I cannot go back. Not that I like fighting—for I do +not; but because I believe every man who is physically fit should +have a hand in this great clean-up—every man is needed! From what +I have seen of the German people, I believe they will resist +stubbornly, and a war of exhaustion will be a long affair with a +people so well trained and organized. The military class know well +that if they are forced to make terms unfavorable to Germany, their +power will be gone forever, and they would rather go down to defeat +before the Allied nations than be overthrown by their own people. +There is no doubt that the war was precipitated by the military class +in Germany because the people were growing too powerful. So they +might as well fight on, with a chance of victory, as to conclude an +unsatisfactory peace and face a revolution.</p> + +<p>The German people have to be taught one thing before their real +education can begin. They have to be made to see—and the Allied +armies are making it plainer every day—that war is unprofitable; +that their army, great though it is, may meet a greater; that heavy +losses may come to their own country. They need to be reminded that +he that liveth by the sword may die by the sword!</p> + +<p>The average German thinks that only through superior military +strength can any good thing come to a nation. All their lives they +have been taught that, and their hatred of England has been largely +a result of their fear of England's superior strength. They cannot +understand that England and the other Allies have no desire to +dominate German affairs. They do not believe that there is an ethical +side to this war. The Germans are pitifully dense to ethical values. +They are not idealists or sentimentalists, and their imagination is +not easily kindled.</p> + +<p>Added to this, they have separated themselves from religion. Less +than two per cent of the men attend church, and if the extracts we +read from the sermons preached in their churches is a fair sample +of the teaching given there, the ninety-eight who stay at home are +better off than the two who go!</p> +<a name="image-0013"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/244.jpg" +alt="Post-card Sent by Private Bromley from the Prison-camp +of Soltau, Germany, in July, 1918. The Crosses Mark The Graves Of +Prisoners Who Have Died at This Camp"> +<br><i>Post-Card sent by Private Bromley from the Prison-Camp +of Soltau, Germany, in July, 1918. The crosses mark the graves +of prisoners who have died at this camp</i> + +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> + +<p>All these things have helped to produce a type of mind that is not +moved by argument or entreaty, a national character that has shown +itself capable of deeds of grave dishonesty and of revolting cruelty; +which cannot be forgotten—or allowed to go unpunished!</p> + +<p>But if their faith in the power of force can be broken—and it may be +broken very soon—the end of the war will come suddenly.</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>The people at home are interested and speculative as to the returned +soldiers' point of view. Personally, I believe that as the soldiers +went away with diversity of opinions, so will they come home, though +in a less degree. There will be a tendency to fusion in some +respects. One will be in the matter of coöperation; the civilian's +ideas are generally those of the individual—he brags about his +rights and resents any restriction of them. He is strong on grand old +traditions, and rejoices in any special privileges which have come to +him.</p> + +<p>The soldier learns to share his comforts with the man next him; in +the army each man depends on the other—and cannot do without him: +there is no competition there, but only coöperation. If loss comes to +one man, or misfortune, it affects the others. If one man is poorly +trained, or uncontrolled, or foolish, all suffer. If a badly trained +bomber loses his head, pulls the pin of his bomb, and lets it drop +instead of throwing it, the whole platoon is endangered. In this way +the soldier unconsciously absorbs some of the principles of, and can +understand the reason for, discipline, and acquires a wholesome +respect for the man who knows his job.</p> + +<p>He sees the reason for stringent orders in regard to health and +sanitation. He does not like to get into a dirty bath himself, and +so he leaves it clean for the next man. In other words, the soldier, +consciously or unconsciously, has learned that he is a part of a +great mass of people, and that his own safety, both commercially and +socially, depends on the proper disciplining of the whole people.</p> + +<p>The returned soldier will take kindly to projects which tend to a +better equalization of duties, responsibilities, and pleasures. He +will be a great stickler for this; if he has to work, every one else +must work too. He will be hard against special privileges. He will be +strong in his insistence that our natural resources be nationalized. +He will go after all lines of industry now in the hands of large +corporations, and insist on national supervision if not actual +ownership.</p> + +<p>In religion, he will not care anything about form. Denominationalism +will bore him, but the vital element of religion, brotherly love and +helping the other fellow, will attract him, wherever he finds it. He +knows that religion—he believes in it.</p> + +<p>The political parties will never be able to catch him with their +worn-out phrases. Politicians had better begin to remodel their +speeches. The iniquities of the other party will not do. There must +be a breaking-out of new roads—old things have passed away!</p> + +<p>The returned man will claim, above all things, honest dealing, and +for this reason the tricky politicians who "put it over" in the +pre-war days will not have so easy a time. "Guff" will not be well +received. The leaders on the battle-field have been men who could +look death in the face without flinching, so the political leaders +at home must be men of heroism, who will travel the path of +righteousness even though they see it leads by the way of the Cross!</p> + +<p> </p><hr><p> </p> + +<p>There is a hard road ahead of us, a hard, steep road of sacrifice, +and in it we must as a nation travel, although our feet are heavy and +our eyes are dim. The war must be won; human liberty is worth the +price—whatever the price may be!</p> + +<p>We do not travel as those who have no hope, for we know, though we +cannot see it, that at the top of the mountain the sun is shining +on a cleaner, fairer, better world.</p> +<center> +THE END +</center> + + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br><br><br><br><br><br></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Three Times and Out, by Nellie L. 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McClung + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Three Times and Out + +Author: Nellie L. McClung + +Release Date: July 11, 2004 [EBook #12880] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE TIMES AND OUT *** + + + + +Thanks to A Celebration of Women Writers +http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/ +for providing the source text. + + + + + + + +THREE TIMES AND OUT + +TOLD BY + +PRIVATE SIMMONS + +WRITTEN BY + +NELLIE L. MCCLUNG + +Author of SOWING SEEDS IN DANNY, IN TIMES LIKE THESE, +and THE NEXT OF KIN + +With Illustrations + + +TORONTO + +THOMAS ALLEN + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK + +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + +1918 + + + + To the companion who failed + through no fault of his and + no lack of courage + TOM BROMLEY + loyal friend and best of com- + rades, this book is dedicated. + + + +PREFACE + + +When a young man whom I had not seen until that day came to see me +in Edmonton, and told me he had a story which he thought was worth +writing, and which he wanted me to write for him, I told him I could +not undertake to do it for I was writing a story of my own, but that +I could no doubt find some one who would do it for him. + +Then he mentioned that he was a returned soldier, and had been for +sixteen months a prisoner in Germany, and had made his escape-- + +That changed everything! + +I asked him to come right in and tell me all about it--for like every +one else I have friends in the prison-camps of Germany, boys whom I +remember as little chaps in knickers playing with my children, boys +I taught in country schools in Manitoba, boys whose parents are my +friends. There are many of these whom we know to be prisoners, and +there are some who have been listed as "missing," who we are still +hoping against long odds may be prisoners! + +I asked him many questions. How were they treated? Did they get +enough to eat? Did they get their parcels? Were they very lonely? +Did he by any chance know a boy from Vancouver called Wallen Gordon, +who had been "Missing" since the 2d of June, 1916? Or Reg Black from +Manitou? or Garnet Stewart from Winnipeg? + +Unfortunately, he did not. + +Then he began his story. Before he had gone far, I had determined to +do all I could to get his story into print, for it seemed to me to be +a story that should be written. It gives at least a partial answer +to the anxious questionings that are in so many hearts. It tells us +something of the fate of the brave fellows who have, temporarily, +lost their freedom--to make our freedom secure! + +Private Simmons is a close and accurate observer who sees clearly +and talks well. He tells a straightforward, unadorned tale, every +sentence of which is true, and convincing. I venture to hope that +the reader may have as much pleasure in the reading of it as I had +in the writing. + +NELLIE L. McCLUNG + +Edmonton, October 24, 1918 + + + +CONTENTS + + I. HOW IT STARTED + II. THROUGH BELGIUM + III. INTO GERMANY + IV. THE LAZARET + V. THE PRISON-CAMP + VI. ROSSBACH + VII. THE ESCAPE + VIII. OFF FOR SWITZERLAND! + IX. CAUGHT! + X. THE CELLS! + XI. THE STRAFE-BARRACK + XII. BACK TO CAMP + XIII. CELLELAGER + XIV. OFF FOR HOLLAND! + XV. CAUGHT AGAIN + XVI. THE INVISIBLE BROTHERHOOD + XVII. THE CELLS AT OLDENBUBG + XVIII. PARNEWINKEL CAMP + XIX. THE BLACKEST CHAPTER OF ALL + XX. ONCE AGAIN! + XXI. TRAVELLERS OF THE NIGHT + XXII. THE LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM + XXIII. OUT + CONCLUSION + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + PRIVATE SIMMONS + From a photograph taken since his return to Canada + OFFICER'S QUARTERS IN A GERMAN MILITARY PRISON + GIESSEN PRISON-CAMP + TED BROMLEY, IN RED CROSS OVERCOAT WITH PRISON + NUMBER AND MARKED SLEEVE + GERMAN PRISON STAMP + These stamps are used to pay prisoners for their work and + to be exchanged for any money they may have when captured + TWO PAGES FROM PRIVATE SIMMONS'S DIARY + MAP MADE BY PRIVATE SIMMONS OF THE FIRST ATTEMPT + THE CHRISTMAS CARD WHICH THE GIESSEN PRISON AUTHORITIES + SUPPLIED TO THE PRISONERS + MAP MADE FROM PAPER WHICH CAME IN A PARCEL, WRAPPED AROUND + A FRUIT-CAKE + FRIEDRICHSFELD PRISON-CAMP IN WINTER + MAP WHICH PRIVATE SIMMONS GOT FROM THE CANADIAN ARTIST AT + GIESSEN, SHOWING ROUTES OF SECOND AND THIRD ATTEMPTS + FRIEDRICHSFELD PRISON-CAMP IN SUMMER + A PRISON POST-CARD FROM FRIEDRICHSFELD BEI WESEL, SHOWING + COSMOPOLITAN GROUP OF PRISONERS + POST-CARD SENT BY PRIVATE BROMLEY FROM THE PRISON-CAMP OF + SOLTAU, SHOWING GRAVES OF PRISONERS + + + + +THREE TIMES AND OUT + + + +CHAPTER I + +HOW IT STARTED + + +"England has declared war on Germany!" + +We were working on a pumphouse, on the Columbia River, at Trail, +British Columbia, when these words were shouted at us from the door +by the boss carpenter, who had come down from the smelter to tell us +that the news had just come over the wire. + +Every one stopped work, and for a full minute not a word was spoken. +Then Hill, a British reservist who was my work-mate, laid down his +hammer and put on his coat. There was neither haste nor excitement in +his movements, but a settled conviction that gave me a queer feeling. +I began to argue just where we had left off, for the prospect of war +had been threshed out for the last two days with great thoroughness. +"It will be settled," I said. "Nations cannot go to war now. It would +be suicide, with all the modern methods of destruction. It will be +settled by a war council--and all forgotten in a month." + +Hill, who had argued so well a few minutes ago and told us all the +reasons he had for expecting war with Germany, would not waste a word +on me now. England was at war--and he was part of England's war +machine. + +"I am quitting, George," he said to the boss carpenter, as he pulled +his cap down on his head and started up the bank. + +That night he began to drill us in the skating-rink. + +I worked on for about a week, but from the first I determined to go +if any one went from Canada. I don't suppose it was all patriotism. +Part of it was the love of adventure, and a desire to see the world; +for though I was a steady-going carpenter chap, I had many dreams as +I worked with hammer and saw, and one of them was that I would travel +far and see how people lived in other countries. The thought of war +had always been repellent to me, and many an argument I had had +with the German baker in whose house I roomed, on the subject of +compulsory military training for boys. He often pointed out a +stoop-shouldered, hollow-chested boy who lived on the same street, +and told me that if this boy had lived in Germany he would have +walked straighter and developed a chest, instead of slouching through +life the way he was doing. He and his wife and the grown-up daughter +were devoted to their country, and often told us of how well the +working-people were housed in Germany and the affairs of the country +conducted. + +But I think the war was as great a surprise to them as to us, and +although the two women told us we were foolish to go to fight--it was +no business of ours if England wanted to get into a row--it made no +difference in our friendly relations, and the day we left Clara came +to the station with a box of candy. I suppose if we had known as much +then as we do now about German diplomacy, we shouldn't have eaten it, +but we only knew then that Clara's candy was the best going, and so +we ate it, and often wished for more. + +I have since heard, however, of other Germans in Canada who knew more +of their country's plans, and openly spoke of them. One of these, +employed by the Government, told the people in the office where he +worked that when Germany got hold of Canada, she would straighten out +the crooked streets in our towns and not allow shacks to be built on +the good streets, and would see to it that houses were not crowded +together; and the strangest part of it is that the people to whom he +spoke attached no importance whatever to his words until the war came +and the German mysteriously disappeared. + + * * * + +I never really enlisted, for we had no recruiting meetings in Trail +before I left. We went to the skating-rink the first night, about +fifteen of us, and began to drill. Mr. Schofield, Member of the +Provincial Parliament, and Hill were in charge, and tested our +marksmanship as well. They graded us according to physical tests, +marksmanship, and ability to pick up the drill, and I was quite +pleased to find I was Number "One" on the list. + +There was a young Italian boy named Adolph Milachi, whom we called +"Joe," who came to drill the first night, and although he could not +speak much English, he was determined to be a soldier. I do not know +what grudge little Joe had against the Germans, whether it was just +the love of adventure which urged him on, but he overruled all +objections to his going and left with the others of us, on the last +day of August. + +I remember that trip through the mountains in that soft, hazy, +beautiful August weather; the mountain-tops, white with snow, were +wrapped about with purple mist which twisted and shifted as if never +satisfied with their draping. The sheer rocks in the mountain-sides, +washed by a recent rain, were streaked with dull reds and blues and +yellows, like the old-fashioned rag carpet. The rivers whose banks +we followed ran blue and green, and icy cold, darting sometimes so +sharply under the track that it jerked one's neck to follow them; and +then the stately evergreens marched always with us, like endless +companies of soldiers or pilgrims wending their way to a favorite +shrine. + +When we awakened the second morning, and found ourselves on the wide +prairie of Alberta, with its many harvest scenes and herds of cattle, +and the gardens all in bloom, one of the boys said, waving his hand +at a particularly handsome house set in a field of ripe wheat, "No +wonder the Germans want it!" + + * * * + +My story really begins April 24, 1915. Up to that time it had been +the usual one--the training in England, with all the excitement of +week-end leave; the great kindness of English families whose friends +in Canada had written to them about us, and who had forthwith sent +us their invitations to visit them, which we did with the greatest +pleasure, enjoying every minute spent in their beautiful houses; and +then the greatest thrill of all--when we were ordered to France. + +The 24th of April was a beautiful spring day of quivering sunshine, +which made the soggy ground in the part of Belgium where I was fairly +steam. The grass was green as plush, and along the front of the +trenches, where it had not been trodden down, there were yellow +buttercups and other little spring flowers whose names I did not +know. + +We had dug the trenches the day before, and the ground was so marshy +and wet that water began to ooze in before we had dug more than three +feet. Then we had gone on the other side and thrown up more dirt, +to make a better parapet, and had carried sand-bags from an old +artillery dug-out. Four strands of barbed wire were also put up +in front of our trenches, as a sort of suggestion of barbed-wire +entanglements, but we knew we had very little protection. + +Early in the morning of the 24th, a German aeroplane flew low over +our trench, so low that I could see the man quite plainly, and could +easily have shot him, but we had orders not to fire--the object of +these orders being that we must not give away our position. + +The airman saw us, of course, for he looked right down at us, and +dropped down white pencils of smoke to show the gunners where we +were. That big gray beetle sailing serenely over us, boring us with +his sharp eyes, and spying out our pitiful attempts at protection, is +one of the most unpleasant feelings I have ever had. It gives me the +shivers yet! And to think we had orders not to fire! + +Being a sniper, I had a rifle fixed up with a telescopic sight, which +gave me a fine view of what was going on, and in order not to lose +the benefit of it, I cleaned out a place in a hedge, which was just +in front of the part of the trench I was in, and in this way I could +see what was happening, at least in my immediate vicinity. + +We knew that the Algerians who were holding a trench to our left had +given way and stampeded, as a result of a German gas attack on the +night of April 22d. Not only had the front line broken, but, the +panic spreading, all of them ran, in many cases leaving their rifles +behind them. Three companies of our battalion had been hastily sent +in to the gap caused by the flight of the Algerians. Afterwards I +heard that our artillery had been hurriedly withdrawn so that it +might not fall into the hands of the enemy; but we did not know that +at the time, though we wondered, as the day went on, why we got no +artillery support. + +Before us, and about fifty yards away, were deserted farm buildings, +through whose windows I had instructions to send shots at intervals, +to discourage the enemy from putting in machine guns. To our right +there were other farm buildings where the Colonel and Adjutant were +stationed, and in the early morning I was sent there with a message +from Captain Scudamore, to see why our ammunition had not come up. + +I found there Colonel Hart McHarg, Major Odlum (now Brigadier-General +Odlum), and the Adjutant in consultation, and thought they looked +worried and anxious. However, they gave me a cheerful message for +Captain Scudamore. It was very soon after that that Colonel Hart +McHarg was killed. + +The bombardment began at about nine o'clock in the morning, almost +immediately after the airman's visit, and I could see the heavy +shells bursting in the village at the cross-roads behind us. They +were throwing the big shells there to prevent reinforcements from +coming up. They evidently did not know, any more than we did, that +there were none to come, the artillery having been withdrawn the +night before. + +Some of the big shells threw the dirt as high as the highest trees. +When the shells began to fall in our part of the trench, I crouched +as low as I could in the soggy earth, to escape the shrapnel bullets. +Soon I got to know the sound of the battery that was dropping the +shells on us, and so knew when to take cover. One of our boys to my +left was hit by a pebble on the cheek, and, thinking he was wounded, +he fell on the ground and called for a stretcher-bearer. When the +stretcher-bearer came, he could find nothing but a scratch on his +cheek, and all of us who were not too scared had a laugh, including +the boy himself. + +I think it was about one o'clock in the afternoon that the Germans +broke through the trench on our right, where Major Bing-Hall was in +command; and some of the survivors from that trench came over to +ours. One of them ran right to where I was, and pushed through the +hole I had made in the hedge, to get a shot at the enemy. I called +to him to be careful, but some sniper evidently saw him, for in less +than half a minute he was shot dead, and fell at my side. + +An order to "retreat if necessary" had been received before this, but +for some reason, which I have never been able to understand, was not +put into effect until quite a while after being received. When the +order came, we began to move down the trench as fast as we could, but +as the trench was narrow and there were wounded and dead men in it, +our progress was slow. + +Soon I saw Robinson, Smith, and Ward climbing out of the trench and +cutting across the field. This was, of course, dangerous, for we were +in full view of the enemy, but it was becoming more and more evident +that we were in a tight corner. So I climbed out, too, and ran across +the open as fast as I could go with my equipment. I got just past the +hedge when I was hit through the pocket of my coat. I thought I was +wounded, for the blow was severe, but found out afterwards the bullet +had just passed through my coat pocket. + +I kept on going, but in a few seconds I got a bullet right through +my shoulder. It entered below my arm at the back, and came out just +below the shoulder-bone, making a clean hole right through. + +I fell into a shallow shell-hole, which was just the size to take me +in, and as I lay there, the possibility of capture first came to me. +Up to that time I had never thought of it as a possible contingency; +but now, as I lay wounded, the grave likelihood came home to me. + +I scrambled to my feet, resolved to take any chances rather than be +captured. I have an indistinct recollection of what happened for the +next few minutes. I know I ran from shell-hole to shell-hole, +obsessed with the one great fear--of being captured--and at last +reached the reserve trench, in front. I fell over the parapet, among +and indeed right on top of the men who were there, for the trench was +packed full of soldiers, and then quickly gathered myself together +and climbed out of the trench and crawled along on my stomach to the +left, following the trench to avoid the bullets, which I knew were +flying over me. + +Soon I saw, looking down into the trench, some of the boys I knew, +and I dropped in beside them. Then everything went from me. A great +darkness arose up from somewhere and swallowed me! Then I had a +delightful sensation of peace and warmth and general comfort. +Darkness, the blackest, inkiest darkness, rolled over me in waves +and hid me so well no Jack Johnson or Big Bertha could ever find me. +I hadn't a care or a thought in the world. I was light as a feather, +and these great strong waves of darkness carried me farther and +farther away. + +But they didn't carry me quite far enough, for a cry shot through me +like a knife, and I was wide awake, looking up from the bottom of a +muddy trench. And the cry that wakened me was sounding up and down +the trench, "The Germans are coming!" + +Sergeant Reid, who did not seem to realize how desperate the +situation was, was asking Major Bing-Hall what he was going to do. +But before any more could be said, the Germans were swarming over the +trench. The officer in charge of them gave us a chance to surrender, +which we did, and then it seemed like a hundred voices--harsh, +horrible voices--called to us to come out of the trench. "Raus" is +the word they use, pronounced "rouse." + +This was the first German word I had heard, and I hated it. It is the +word they use to a dog when they want him to go out, or to cattle +they are chasing out of a field. It is used to mean either "Come +out!"--or "Get out!" I hated it that day, and I hated it still more +afterward. + +There were about twenty of us altogether, and we climbed out of the +trench without speaking. There was nothing to be said. It was all up +with us. + + + +CHAPTER II + +THROUGH BELGIUM + + +It is strange how people act in a crisis. I mean, it is strange how +quiet they are, and composed. We stood there on the top of the +trench, without speaking, although I knew what had happened to us was +bitterer far than to be shot. But there was not a word spoken. I +remember noticing Fred McKelvey, when the German who stood in front +of him told him to take off his equipment. Fred's manner was halting, +and reluctant, and he said, as he laid down his rifle and unbuckled +his cartridge bag, "This is the thing my father told me never to let +happen." + +Just then the German who stood by me said something to me, and +pointed to my equipment, but I couldn't unfasten a buckle with my +useless arm, so I asked him if he couldn't see I was wounded. He +seemed to understand what I meant, and unbuckled my straps and took +everything off me, very gently, too, and whipped out my bandage and +was putting it on my shoulder with considerable skill, I thought, and +certainly with a gentle hand--when the order came from their officer +to move us on, for the shells were falling all around us. + +Unfortunately for me, my guard did not come with us, nor did I ever +see him again. One of the others reached over and took my knife, +cutting the string as unconcernedly as if I wanted him to have +it, and I remember that this one had a saw-bayonet on his gun, as +murderous and cruel-looking a weapon as any one could imagine, and +he had a face to match it, too. So in the first five minutes I saw +the two kinds of Germans. + +When we were out of the worst of the shell-fire, we stopped to rest, +and, a great dizziness coming over me, I sat down with my head +against a tree, and looked up at the trailing rags of clouds that +drifted across the sky. It was then about four o'clock of as pleasant +an afternoon as I can ever remember. But the calmness of the sky, +with its deep blue distance, seemed to shrivel me up into nothing. +The world was so bright, and blue, and--uncaring! + +I may have fallen asleep for a few minutes, for I thought I heard +McKelvey saying, "Dad always told me not to let this happen." Over +and over again, I could hear this, but I don't know whether McKelvey +had repeated it. My brain was like a phonograph that sticks at one +word and says it over and over again until some one stops it. + +I think it was Mudge, of Grand Forks, who came over to see how I was. +His voice sounded thin and far away, and I didn't answer him. Then I +felt him taking off my overcoat and finishing the bandaging that the +German boy had begun. + +Little Joe, the Italian boy, often told me afterwards how I looked +at that time. "All same dead chicken not killed right and kep' long +time." + +Here those who were not so badly wounded were marched on, but there +were ten of us so badly hit we had to go very slowly. Percy Weller, +one of the boys from Trail who enlisted when I did, was with us, and +when we began the march I was behind him and noticed three holes +in the back of his coat; the middle one was a horrible one made by +shrapnel. He staggered painfully, poor chap, and his left eye was +gone! + +We passed a dead Canadian Highlander, whose kilt had pitched forward +when he fell, and seemed to be covering his face. + +In the first village we came to, they halted us, and we saw it was +a dressing-station. The village was in ruins--even the town pump +had had its head blown off!--and broken glass, pieces of brick, and +plaster littered the one narrow street. The dressing was done in +a two-room building which may have been a store. The walls were +discolored and cracked, and the windows broken. + +On a stretcher in the corner there lay a Canadian Highlander, from +whose wounds the blood dripped horribly and gathered in a red pool +on the dusty floor. His eyes were glazed and his face was drawn with +pain. He talked unceasingly, but without meaning. The only thing I +remember hearing him say was, "It's no use, mother--it's no use!" + +Weller was attended to before I was, and marched on. While I sat +there on an old tin pail which I had turned up for this purpose, two +German officers came in, whistling. They looked for a minute at the +dying Highlander in the corner, and one of them went over to him. He +saw at once that his case was hopeless, and gave a short whistle as +you do when blowing away a thistledown, indicating that he would soon +be gone. I remember thinking that this was the German estimate of +human life. + +He came to me and said, "Well, what have you got?" + +I thought he referred to my wound, and said, "A shoulder wound." At +which he laughed pleasantly and said, "I am not interested in your +wound; that's the doctor's business." Then I saw what he meant; it +was souvenirs he was after. So I gave him my collar badge, and in +return he gave me a German coin, and went over to the doctor and said +something about me, for he flipped his finger toward me. + +My turn came at last. The doctor examined my pay-book as well as my +wound. I had forty-five francs in it, and when he took it out, I +thought it was gone for sure. However, he carefully counted it before +me, drawing my attention to the amount, and then returned it to me. + +After my wound had been examined and a tag put on me stating what +sort of treatment I was to have, I was taken away with half a dozen +others and led down a narrow stone stair to a basement. Here on the +cement floor were piles of straw, and the place was heated. The walls +were dirty and discolored. One of the few pleasant recollections +of my life in Germany has been the feeling of drowsy content that +wrapped me about when I lay down on a pile of straw in that dirty, +rat-infested basement. I forgot that I was a prisoner, that I was +badly winged, that I was hungry, thirsty, dirty, and tired. I forgot +all about my wounded companions and the Canadian Highlander, and all +the suffering of the world, and drifted sweetly out into the wide +ocean of sleep. + +Some time during the night--for it was still dark--I felt some one +kicking my feet and calling me to get up, and all my trouble and +misery came back with a rush. My shoulder began to ache just where it +left off, but I was so hungry that the thought of getting something +to eat sustained me. Surely, I thought, they are going to feed us! + +We were herded along the narrow street, out into a wide road, where +we found an open car which ran on light rails in the centre of the +road. It was like the picnic trolley cars which run in our cities +in the warm weather. There were wounded German soldiers huddled +together, and we sat down among them, wherever we could find the +room, but not a word was spoken. I don't know whether they noticed +who we were or not--they had enough to think about, not to be +concerned with us, for most of them were terribly wounded. The one +I sat beside leaned his head against my good shoulder and sobbed as +he breathed. I could not help but think of the irony of war that had +brought us together. For all I knew, he may have been the machine +gunner who had been the means of ripping my shoulder to pieces--and +it may have been a bullet from my rifle which had torn its way along +his leg which now hung useless. Even so, there was no hard feeling +between us, and he was welcome to the support of my good shoulder! + +Some time through the night--my watch was broken and I couldn't tell +the time exactly--we came to another village and got off the car. A +guard came and carried off my companion, but as I could walk, I was +left to unload myself. The step was high, and as my shoulder was very +stiff and sore, I hesitated about jumping down. A big German soldier +saw me, understood what was wrong, and lifted me gently down. + +It was then nearly morning, for the dawn was beginning to show in the +sky, and we were taken to an old church, where we were told to lie +down and go to sleep. It was miserably cold in the church, and my +shoulder ached fearfully. I tried hard to sleep, but couldn't manage +it, and walked up and down to keep warm. I couldn't help but think +of the strange use the church--which had been the scene of so many +pleasant gatherings--was being put to, and as I leaned against the +wall and looked out of the window, I seemed to see the gay and +light-hearted Belgian people who so recently had gathered there. +Right here, I thought, the bashful boys had stood, waiting to walk +home with the girls... just the way we did in British Columbia, where +one church I know well stands almost covered with the fragrant +pines... + +I fell into a pleasant reverie then of sunny afternoons and dewy +moonlit nights, when the sun had gone over the mountains, and the +stars came out in hundreds. My dream then began to have in it the +brightest-eyed girl in the world, who gave me such a smile one Sunday +when she came out of church... that I just naturally found myself +walking beside her.... She had on a pink suit and white shoes, and +wore a long string of black beads... + +Then somebody spoke to me, and a sudden chill seized me and sent me +into a spasm of coughing, and the pain of my shoulder shot up into my +head like a knife... and I was back--all right--to the ruined church +in Belgium, a prisoner of war in the hands of the Germans! + +The person who spoke to me was a German cavalry officer, who quite +politely bade me good-morning and asked me how I felt. I told him I +felt rotten. I was both hungry and thirsty--and dirty and homesick. +He laughed at that, as if it were funny, and asked me where I came +from. When I told him, he said, "You Canadians are terrible fools to +fight with us when you don't have to. You'll be sick of it before you +are through. Canada is a nice country, though," he went on; "I've +been in British Columbia, too, in the Government employ there--they +treated me fine--and my brother is there now, engineer in the +Dunsmuir Collieries at Ladysmith. Great people--the Canadians!" + +And he laughed again and said something in German to the officer who +was with him. + +When the sun came up and poured into the church, warming up its cold +dreariness, I lay down and slept, for I had not nearly finished the +sleep so comfortably begun in the basement the night before. + +But in what seemed like three minutes, some one kicked my feet and +called to me to get up. I got to my feet, still spurred by the hope +of getting something to eat. Outside, all those who could walk were +falling in, and I hastened to do the same. Our guards were mounted +this time, and I noticed that their horses were small and in poor +condition. We were soon out of the village and marching along a +splendid road. + +The day was bright and sunny, but a searching wind blew straight +in our faces and made travelling difficult. It seemed to beat +unmercifully on my sore shoulder, and I held my right wrist with +my left hand, to keep the weight off my shoulder all I could. + +I had not gone far when I began to grow weak and dizzy. The thirst +was the worst; my tongue was dry and swollen, and it felt like a +cocoa doormat. I could see rings of light wherever I looked, and +the ground seemed to come up in waves. A guard who rode near me had +a water-bottle beside him which dripped water. The cork was not in +tight as it should have been, and the sight of these drops of water +seemed to madden me. I begged him for a drink, and pointed to my +parched tongue; but he refused, and rode ahead as if the sight of +me annoyed him! + +Ahead of us I could see the smoke of a large town, and I told myself +over and over again that there would be lots of water there, and food +and clean clothes, and in this way I kept myself alive until we +reached Roulers. + + + +CHAPTER III + +INTO GERMANY + + +Roulers is a good-sized town in West Flanders, of about thirty +thousand population, much noted for its linen manufacture; and has a +great church of St. Michael with a very high tower, which we could +see for miles. But I do not remember much about the look of the town, +for I could hardly drag my feet. It seemed as if every step would be +my last. But I held on some way, until we reached the stopping-place, +which happened to be an unused school. The men who had not been +wounded had arrived several hours ahead of us. + +When, at last, I sat down on one of the benches, the whole place +seemed to float by me. Nothing would stand still. The sensation was +like the water dizziness which makes one feel he is being rapidly +propelled upstream. But after sitting awhile, it passed, and I began +to recognize some of our fellows. Frost, of my own battalion, was +there, and when I told him I had had nothing to eat since the early +morning of the day before, he immediately produced a hardtack biscuit +and scraped out the bottom of his jam tin. They had been served with +a ration of war-bread, and several of the boys offered me a share of +their scanty allowance, but the first mouthful was all I could take. +It was sour, heavy, and stale. + +The school pump had escaped the fate of the last pump I had seen, and +was in good working order, and its asthmatic creaking as it brought +up the stream of water was music in my ears. We went out in turns and +drank like thirsty cattle. I drank until my jaws were stiff as if +with mumps, and my ears ached, and in a few minutes my legs were tied +in cramps. + +While I was vainly trying to rub them out with my one good hand, Fred +McKelvey came up and told me a sure cure for leg-cramp. It is to turn +the toes up as far as possible, and straighten out the legs, and it +worked a cure for me. He said he had taken the cramps out of his legs +this way when he was in the water. + +I remember some of the British Columbia boys who were there. +Sergeants Potentier, George Fitz, and Mudge, of Grand Forks; Reid, +Diplock, and Johnson, of Vancouver; Munroe and Wildblood, of +Rossland; Keith, Palmer, Larkins, Scott, and Croak. Captain +Scudamore, my Company Captain, came over to where I sat, and kindly +inquired about my wounds. He wrote down my father's address, too, +and said he would try to get a letter to him. + +There was a house next door--quite a fine house with a neat paling +and long, shuttered windows, at which the vines were beginning to +grow. It looked to be in good condition, except that part of the +verandah had been torn away. The shutters were closed on its long, +graceful windows, giving it the appearance of a tall, stately woman +in heavy mourning. + +When we were at the pump, we heard a gentle tapping, and, looking up, +we saw a very handsome dark-eyed Belgian woman at one of the windows. +Instinctively we saluted, and quick as a flash she held a Union Jack +against the pane! + +A cheer broke from us involuntarily, and the guards sprang to +attention, suspecting trouble. But the flag was gone as quickly as +it came, and when we looked again, the shutters were closed and the +deep, waiting silence had settled down once more on the stately house +of shutters. + +But to us it had become suddenly possessed of a living soul! The +flash of those sad black eyes, as well as the glimpse of the flag, +seemed to call to us to carry on! They typified to us exactly what +we were fighting for! + +After the little incident of the flag, it was wonderful how bright +and happy we felt. Of course, I know, the ministrations of the pump +helped, for we not only drank all we wanted, but most of the boys had +a wash, too; but we just needed to be reminded once in awhile of what +the real issues of the war were. + +Later in the day, after we had been examined by another medical man, +who dressed our wounds very skillfully, and gently, too, we came back +to the school, and found there two heavily veiled Belgian women. They +had bars of chocolate for us, for which we were very grateful. They +were both in deep mourning, and seemed to have been women of high +social position, but their faces were very pale and sad, and when +they spoke their voices were reedy and broken, and their eyes were +black pools of misery. Some of the boys afterwards told me that their +daughters had been carried off by the Germans, and their husbands +shot before their eyes. + +I noticed the absence of children and young girls on the streets. +There were only old men and women, it seemed, and the faces of these +were sad beyond expression. There were no outbursts of grief; they +seemed like people whose eyes were cried dry, but whose spirits were +still unbroken. + +Later in the day we were taken to the station, to take the train for +the prison-camp at Giessen. Of course, they did not tell us where we +were going. They did not squander information on us or satisfy our +curiosity, if they could help it. + +The station was full of people when we got there, and there seemed +to be a great deal of eating done at the stations. This was more +noticeable still in German stations, as I saw afterwards. + +Our mode of travelling was by the regular prisoner train which had +lately--quite lately--been occupied by horses. It had two small, +dirty windows, and the floor was bare of everything but dirt. We were +dumped into it--not like sardines, for they fit comfortably together, +but more like cordwood that is thrown together without being piled. +If we had not had arms or legs or heads, there would have been just +room for our bodies, but as it was, everybody was in everybody's way, +and as many of us were wounded, and all of us were tired and hungry, +we were not very amiable with each other. + +I tried to stand up, but the jolting of the car made me dizzy, and +so I doubled up on the floor, and I don't know how many people sat +on me. I remember one of the boys I knew, who was beside me on the +floor, Fairy Strachan. He had a bad wound in his chest, given him by +a dog of a German guard, who prodded him with a bayonet after he was +captured, for no reason at all. Fortunately the bayonet struck a rib, +and so the wound was not deep, but not having been dressed, it was +very painful. + +I could not sleep at all that night, for the air was stifling, and +somebody's arm or foot or head was always bumping into me. I wonder +if Robinson Crusoe ever remembered to be thankful for fresh air and +room to stretch himself! We asked the guards for water, for we soon +grew very thirsty, and when we stopped at a station, one of the boys, +looking out, saw the guard coming with a pail of water, and cried +out, "Here's water--boys!" The thought of a drink put new life in us, +and we scrambled to our feet. It was water, all right, and plenty +of it, but it was boiling hot and we could not drink it; and we +could not tell from the look of opaque stupidity on the face of the +guard whether he did it intentionally or not. He may have been a +boiling-water-before-meals advocate. He looked balmy enough for +anything! + +[Illustration: Officers' Quarters in a German Military Prison] + +At some of the stations the civilians standing on the platform filled +our water-bottles for us, but it wasn't enough. We had only two +water-bottles in the whole car. However, at Cologne, a boy came +quickly to the car window at our call, and filled our water-bottles +from a tap, over and over again. He would run as fast as he could +from the tap to the window, and left a bottle filling at the tap +while he made the trip. In this way every man in the car got enough +to drink, and this blue-eyed, shock-headed lad will ever live in +grateful memory. + +The following night after midnight we reached Giessen, and were +unloaded and marched through dark streets to the prison-camp, which +is on the outskirts of the city. We were put into a dimly lighted +hut, stale and foul-smelling, too, and when we put up the windows, +some of our own Sergeants objected on account of the cold, and shut +them down. Well, at least we had room if we hadn't air, and we +huddled together and slept, trying to forget what we used to believe +about the need of fresh air. + +As soon as the morning came, I went outside and watched a dull red, +angry sky flushing toward sunrise. Red in the morning sky denotes +wind, it is said, but we didn't need signs that morning to proclaim a +windy day, for the wind already swept the courtyard, and whipped the +green branches of the handsome trees which marked the driveway. My +spirits rose at once when I filled my lungs with air and looked up at +the scudding clouds which were being dogged across the sky by the wind. + +A few straggling prisoners came out to wash at the tap in the +courtyard, and I went over to join them, for I was grimy, too, with +the long and horrible ride. With one hand I could make but little +progress, and was spreading the dirt rather than removing it, until a +friendly Belgian, seeing my difficulty, took his cake of soap and his +towel, and washed me well. + +We were then given a ration of bread about two inches thick, and a +drink of something that tasted like water boiled in a coffee-pot, and +after this we were divided into ten groups. Those of us who knew each +other tried hard to stay together, but we soon learned to be careful +not to appear to be too anxious, for the guards evidently had +instructions to break up previous acquaintanceships. + +The wounded were marched across the compound to the "Revier," a dull, +gray, solid-looking building, where again we were examined and +graded. Those seriously wounded were sent to the lazaret, or hospital +proper. I, being one of the more serious cases, was marched farther +on to the lazaret, and we were all taken to a sort of waiting-room, +and taken off in groups to the general bathroom to have a bath, +before getting into the hospital clothes. + +With me was a young bugler of the Fifth Royal Highlanders, Montreal, +a little chap not more than fifteen, whose pink cheeks and curly hair +would have made an appeal to any human being: he looked so small and +lonesome and far from home. A smart young military doctor jostled +against the boy's shattered arm, eliciting from him a cry of pain, +whereupon he began to make fun of the little bugler, by marching +around him, making faces. It gave me a queer feeling to see a +grown-up man indulging in the tactics of a spoiled child, but I have +heard many people express the opinion, in which I now heartily agree, +that the Germans are a childish sort of people. They are stupidly +boastful, inordinately fond of adulation and attention, and peevish +and sulky when they cannot have their own way. I tried to imagine how +a young German boy would have been treated by one of our doctors, and +laughed to myself at the absurdity of the thought that they would +make faces at him! + +The young bugler was examined before I was, and as he was marched out +of the room, the doctor who had made the faces grabbed at his kilt +with an insulting gesture, at which the lad attempted to kick him. +The doctor dodged the kick, and the Germans who were in the room +roared with laughter. I hated them more that minute than I had up to +that time. + +The Belgian attendants who looked after the bathing of us were kind +and polite. One of them could speak a little English, and he tried +hard to get information regarding his country from us. + +"Is it well?" he asked us eagerly. "My country--is it well?" + +We thought of the shell-scarred country, with its piles of +smouldering ashes, its pallid women with their haunted faces, the +deathlike silence of the ruined streets. We thought of these things, +but we didn't tell him of them. We told him the war was going on in +great shape: the Allies were advancing all along the line, and were +going to be in Berlin by Christmas. It was worth the effort to see +his little pinched face brighten. He fairly danced at his work +after that, and when I saw him afterwards, he eagerly asked--"My +country--is it well?" I do not know why he thought I knew, or maybe +he didn't think so. But, anyway, I did my best. I gave him a glowing +account of the Allied successes, and painted a gloomy future for the +Kaiser, and I again had my reward, in his glowing face. + +Everything we had was taken from us except shoes, socks, cap, and +handkerchief, and we did not see them again: neither did we get +another bath, although I was six weeks in the hospital. + +The hospital clothes consisted of a pajama suit of much-faded +flannelette, but I was glad to get into it, and doubly glad to get +rid of my shirt and tunic, which were stiff on one side with dried +blood. From the lazaret, where I had my bath, I could see the gun +platform with its machine guns, commanding every part of the Giessen +Prison. The guard pointed it out to me, to quiet my nerves, I +suppose, and to scare me out of any thought of insubordination. +However, he need not have worried--I was not thinking of escaping +just then or starting an insurrection either. I was quite content to +lie down on the hard straw bed and pull the quilt over me and take +a good long rest. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LAZARET + + +The lazaret in which I was put was called "M.G.K.," which is to say +Machine Gun Company, and it was exactly like the other hospital huts. +There were some empty beds, and the doctor seemed to have plenty of +time to attend to us. For a few days, before my appetite began to +make itself felt, I enjoyed the rest and quiet, and slept most of the +time. But at the end of a week I began to get restless. + +The Frenchman whose bed was next to mine fascinated me with his +piercing black eyes, unnaturally bright and glittering. I knew +the look in his eyes; I had seen it--after the battle--when the +wounded were coming in, and looked at us as they were carried by on +stretchers. Some had this look--some hadn't. Those who had it never +came back. + +And sometimes before the fighting, when the boys were writing home, +the farewell letter that would not be mailed unless--"something +happened"--I've seen that look in their faces, and I knew... just as +they did... the letter would be mailed! + +Emile, the Frenchman, had the look! + +He was young, and had been strong and handsome, although his face was +now thin and pinched and bloodless, like a slum child's; but he hung +on to life pitifully. He hated to die--I knew that by the way he +fought for breath, and raged when he knew for sure that it was going +from him. + +In the middle of his raging, he would lean over his bed and peer +into my face, crying "L'Anglaise--l'Anglaise," with his black eyes +snapping like dagger points. I often had to turn away and put my +pillow over my eyes. + +But one afternoon, in the middle of it, the great silence fell on +him, and Emile's struggles were over. + + * * * + +Our days were all the same. Nobody came to see us; we had no books. +There was a newspaper which was brought to us every two weeks, +printed in English, but published in German, with all the German fine +disregard for the truth. It said it was "printed for Americans in +Europe." The name of it was "The Continental Times," but I never +heard it called anything but "The Continental Liar." Still, it was +print, and we read it; I remember some of the sentences. It spoke of +an uneasy feeling in England "which the presence of turbaned Hindoos +and Canadian cowboys has failed to dispel." Another one said, "The +Turks are operating the Suez Canal in the interests of neutral +shipping." "Fleet-footed Canadians" was an expression frequently +used, and the insinuation was that the Canadians often owed their +liberty to their speed. + +But we managed to make good use of this paper. I got one of the +attendants, Ivan, a good-natured, flat-footed Russian, to bring me +a pair of scissors, and the boy in the cot next to mine had a stub +of pencil, and between us we made a deck of cards out of the white +spaces of the paper, and then we played solitaire, time about, on +our quilts. + + * * * + +I got my first parcel about the end of May, from a Mrs. Andrews whose +son I knew in Trail and who had entertained me while I was in London. +I had sent a card to her as soon as I was taken. The box was like a +visit from Santa Claus. I remember the "Digestive Biscuits," and how +good they tasted after being for a month on the horrible diet of +acorn coffee, black bread, and the soup which no word that is fit for +publication could describe. + +I also received a card from my sister, Mrs. Meredith, of Edmonton, +about this time. I was listed "Missing" on April 29th, and she sent a +card addressed to me with "Canadian Prisoner of War, Germany," on it, +on the chance that I was a prisoner. We were allowed to write a card +once a week and two letters a month; and we paid for these. My people +in Canada heard from me on June 9th. + + * * * + +I cannot complain of the treatment I received in the lazaret. The +doctor took a professional interest in me, and one day brought in two +other doctors, and proudly exhibited how well I could move my arm. +However, I still think if he had massaged my upper arm, it would be +of more use to me now than it is. + +Chloroform was not used in this hospital; at least I never saw any +of it. One young Englishman, who had a bullet in his thigh, cried +out in pain when the surgeon was probing for it. The German doctor +sarcastically remarked, "Oh, I thought the English were _brave_." + +To which the young fellow, lifting his tortured face, proudly +answered, "The English _are_ brave--and _merciful_--and they use +chloroform for painful operations, and do this for the German +prisoners, too." + +But there was no chloroform used for him, though the operation was +a horrible one. + +There was another young English boy named Jellis, who came in after +the fight of May 8th, who seemed to be in great pain the first few +days. Then suddenly he became quiet, and we hoped his pain had +lessened; but we soon found out he had lock-jaw, and in a few days +he died. + + * * * + +From the pasteboard box in which my first parcel came, I made a +checker-board, and my next-door neighbor and I had many a game. + +In about three weeks I was allowed to go out in the afternoons, and +I walked all I could in the narrow space, to try to get back all my +strength, for one great hope sustained me--I would make a dash for +liberty the first chance I got, and I knew that the better I felt, +the better my chances would be. I still had my compass, and I guarded +it carefully. Everything of this nature was supposed to be taken from +us at the lazaret, but I managed, through the carelessness of the +guard, to retain the compass. + +The little corral in which we were allowed to walk had a barbed-wire +fence around it--a good one, too, eight strands, and close together. +One side of the corral was a high wall, and in the enclosure on the +other side of the wall were the lung patients. + +One afternoon I saw a young Canadian boy looking wistfully through +the gate, and I went over and spoke to him. He was the only one who +could speak English among the "lungers." The others were Russians, +French, and Belgians. The boy was dying of loneliness as well as +consumption. He came from Ontario, though I forget the name of the +town. + +"Do you think it will be over soon?" he asked me eagerly. "Gee, I'm +sick of it--and wish I could get home. Last night I dreamed about +going home. I walked right in on them--dirt and all--with this +tattered old tunic--and a dirty face. Say, it didn't matter--my +mother just grabbed me--and it was dinner-time--they were eating +turkey--a great big gobbler, all brown--and steaming hot--and I sat +down in my old place--it was ready for me--and just began on a leg +of turkey..." + +A spasm of coughing seized him, and he held to the bars of the gate +until it passed. + +Then he went on: "Gee, it was great--it was all so clear. I can't +believe that I am not going! I think the war must be nearly over--" + +Then the cough came again--that horrible, strangling cough--and I +knew that it would be only in his dreams that he would ever see his +home! For to him, at least, the war was nearly over, and the day of +peace at hand. + +Before I left the lazaret, the smart-Alec young German doctor who had +made faces at the little bugler blew gaily in one day and breezed +around our beds, making pert remarks to all of us. I knew him the +minute he came in the door, and was ready for him when he passed my +bed. + +He stopped and looked at me, and made some insulting remark about +my beard, which was, I suppose, quite a sight, after a month of +uninterrupted growth. Then he began to make faces at me. + +I raised myself on my elbow, and regarded him with the icy composure +of an English butler. Scorn and contempt were in my glance, as much +as I could put in; for I realized that it was hard for me to look +dignified and imposing, in a hospital pajama suit of dirt-colored +flannelette, with long wisps of amber-colored hair falling around +my face, and a thick red beard long enough now to curl back like a +drake's tail. + +I knew I looked like a valentine, but my stony British stare did the +trick in spite of all handicaps, and he turned abruptly and went out. + +The first week of June, I was considered able to go back to the +regular prison-camp. A German guard came for me, and I stepped out in +my pajamas to the outer room where our uniforms were kept. There were +many uniforms there--smelling of the disinfectants--with the owners' +names on them, but mine was missing. The guard tried to make me take +one which was far too short for me, but I refused. I knew I looked +bad enough, without having elbow sleeves and short pants; and it +began to look as if I should have to go to bed until some good-sized +patient came in. + +But my guard suddenly remembered something, and went into another +hut, bringing back the uniform of "D. Smith, Vancouver." The name +was written on the band of the trousers. D. Smith had died the day +before, from lung trouble. The uniform had been disinfected, and hung +in wrinkles. My face had the hospital pallor, and, with my long hair +and beard, I know I looked "snaggy" like a potato that has been +forgotten in a dark corner of the cellar. + +When we came out of the lazaret, the few people we met on the road to +the prison-camp broke into broad grins; some even turned and looked +after us. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE PRISON-CAMP + + +The guard took me to Camp 6, Barrack A, where I found some of the +boys I knew. They were in good spirits, and had fared in the matter +of food much the same as I had. We agreed exactly in our diagnosis +of the soup. + +I was shown my mattress and given two blankets; also a metal bowl, +knife, and fork. + +Outside the hut, on the shady side, I went and sat down with some of +the boys who, like myself, were excused from labor. Dent, of Toronto, +was one of the party, and he was engaged in the occupation known as +"reading his shirt"--and on account of the number of shirts being +limited to one for each man, while the "reading" was going on, he sat +in a boxer's uniform, wrapped only in deep thought. + +Now, it happened that I did not acquire any "cooties" while I was in +the army, and of course in the lazaret we were kept clean, so this +was my first close acquaintanceship with them. My time of exemption +was over, though, for by night I had them a-plenty. + +I soon found out that insect powder was no good. I think it just made +them sneeze, and annoyed them a little. We washed our solitary shirts +regularly, but as we had only cold water, it did not kill the eggs, +and when we hung the shirt out in the sun, the eggs came out in full +strength, young, hearty, and hungry. It was a new generation we had +to deal with, and they had all the objectionable qualities of their +ancestors, and a few of their own. + +Before long, the Canadian Red Cross parcels began to come, and I got +another shirt--a good one, too, only the sleeves were too long. I +carefully put in a tuck, for they came well over my hands. But I soon +found that these tucks became a regular rendezvous for the "cooties," +and I had to let them out. The Red Cross parcels also contained +towels, toothbrushes, socks, and soap, and all these were very +useful. + +After a few weeks, with the lice increasing every day, we raised such +a row about them that the guards took us to the fumigator. This was +a building of three rooms, which stood by itself in the compound. +In the first room we undressed and hung all our clothes, and our +blankets too, on huge hooks which were placed on a sliding framework. +This framework was then pushed into the oven and the clothes were +thoroughly baked. We did not let our boots, belts, or braces go, as +the heat would spoil the leather. We then walked out into the next +room and had a shower bath, and after that went into the third room +at the other side of the oven, and waited until the framework was +pushed through to us, when we took our clothes from the hooks and +dressed. + +This was a sure cure for the "cooties," and for a few days, at least, +we enjoyed perfect freedom from them. Every week after this we had a +bath, and it was compulsory, too. + +[Illustration: Giessen Prison-Camp] + +As prison-camps go, Giessen is a good one. The place is well drained; +the water is excellent; the sanitary conditions are good, too; the +sleeping accommodations are ample, there being no upper berths such +as exist in all the other camps I have seen. It is the "Show-Camp," +to which visitors are brought, who then, not having had to eat the +food, write newspaper articles telling how well Germany treats her +prisoners. If these people could see some of the other camps that I +have seen, the articles would have to be modified. + + * * * + +News of the trouble in Ireland sifted through to us in the +prison-camp. The first I heard of it was a letter in the "Continental +Times," by Roger Casement's sister, who had been in Germany and +had visited some of the prison-camps, and was so pleased with the +generous treatment Germany was according her prisoners. She was +especially charmed with the soup!!! And the letter went on to tell +of the Irish Brigade that was being formed in Germany to fight the +tyrant England. Every Irish prisoner who would join was to be given +the privilege of fighting against England. Some British prisoners +who came from Limburg, a camp about thirty miles from Giessen, told +us more about it. Roger Casement, himself, had gone there to gather +recruits, and several Irishmen had joined and were given special +privileges accordingly. However, there were many Irishmen who did +_not_ join, and who kept a list of the recruits--for future +reference, when the war was over! + +The Irishmen in our camp were approached, but they remained loyal. + + * * * + +The routine of the camp was as follows: Reveille sounded at six. We +got up and dressed and were given a bowl of coffee. Those who were +wise saved their issue of bread from the night before, and ate it +with the coffee. There was a roll-call right after the coffee, when +every one was given a chance to volunteer for work. At noon there was +soup, and another roll-call. We answered the roll-call, either with +the French word "Present" or the German word "Hier," pronounced the +same as our word. Then at five o'clock there was an issue of black +bread made mostly from potato flour. + +I was given a light job of keeping the space between A Barrack and B +Barrack clean, and I made a fine pretense of being busy, for it let +me out of "drill," which I detested, for they gave the commands in +German, and it went hard with us to have to salute their officers. + +On Sundays there was a special roll-call, when every one had to give +a full account of himself. The prisoners then had the privilege of +asking for any work they wanted, and if the Germans could supply it, +it was given. + +None of us were keen on working; not but what we would much rather +work than be idle, but for the uncomfortable thought that we were +helping the enemy. There were iron-works near by, where Todd, +Whittaker, Dent, little Joe, and some others were working, and it +happened that one day Todd and one of the others, when going to have +teeth pulled at the dentist's, saw shells being shipped away, and +upon inquiry found the steel came from the iron mines where they were +working. When this became known, the boys refused to work! Every sort +of bullying was tried on them for two days at the mines, but they +still refused. They were then sent back to Giessen and sentenced to +eighteen months' punishment at Butzbach--all but Dent, who managed +some way to fool the doctor pretending he was sick! + +That they fared badly there, I found out afterwards, though I never +saw any of them. + +Some of the boys from our hut worked on the railroad, and some went +to work in the chemical works at Griesheim, which have since been +destroyed by bombs dropped by British airmen. + +John Keith, who was working on the railroad,--one of the best-natured +and inoffensive boys in our hut,--came in one night with his face +badly swollen and bruised. He had laughed, it seemed, at something +which struck him as being funny, and the guard had beaten him over +the head with the butt of his rifle. One of our guards, a fine old, +brown-eyed man called "Sank," told the guard who had done this what +he thought of him. "Sank" was the "other" kind of German, and did all +he could to make our lives pleasant. I knew that "Sank" was calling +down the guard, by his expression and his gestures, and his frequent +use of the word "bloedsinnig." + +Another time one of the fellows from our hut, who was a member of a +working party, was shot through the legs by the guard, who claimed he +was trying to escape, and after that there were no more working +parties allowed for a while. + +Each company had its own interpreter, Russian, French, or English. +Our interpreter was a man named Scott from British Columbia, an +Englishman who had received part of his education at Heidelberg. From +him I learned a good deal about the country through which I hoped +to travel. Heidelberg is situated between Giessen and the Swiss +boundary, and so was of special interest to me. I made a good-sized +map, and marked in all the information I could dig out of Scott. + +The matter of escaping was in my mind all the time, but I was careful +to whom I spoke, for some fellows' plans had been frustrated by their +unwise confidences. + +The possession of a compass is an indication that the subject of +"escaping" has been thought of, and the question, "Have you a +compass?" is the prison-camp way of saying, "What do you think of +making a try?" + +One day, a fellow called Bromley who came from Toronto, and who was +captured at the same time that I was, asked me if I had a compass. He +was a fine big fellow, with a strong, attractive face, and I liked +him, from the first. He was a fair-minded, reasonable chap, and we +soon became friends. We began to lay plans, and when we could get +together, talked over the prospects, keeping a sharp lookout for +eavesdroppers. + +[Illustration: Tom Bromley / In Red Cross overcoat with prison number +and marked sleeve] + +There were difficulties! + +The camp was surrounded by a high board fence, and above the boards, +barbed wire was tightly drawn, to make it uncomfortable for reaching +hands. Inside of this was an ordinary barbed-wire fence through which +we were not allowed to go, with a few feet of "No Man's Land" in +between. + +There were sentry-boxes ever so often, so high that the sentry could +easily look over the camp. Each company was divided from the others +by two barbed-wire fences, and besides this there were the sentries +who walked up and down, armed, of course. + +There were also the guns commanding every bit of the camp, and +occasionally, to drive from us all thought of insurrection, the +Regular Infantry marched through with fixed bayonets. At these times +we were always lined up so we should not miss the gentle little +lesson! + + * * * + +One day, a Zeppelin passed over the camp, and we all hurried out +to look at it. It was the first one I had seen, and as it rode +majestically over us, I couldn't help but think of the terrible use +that had been made of man's mastery of the air. We wondered if it +carried bombs. Many a wish for its destruction was expressed--and +unexpressed. Before it got out of sight, it began to show signs of +distress, as if the wishes were taking effect, and after considerable +wheeling and turning it came back. + +Ropes were lowered and the men came down. It was secured to the +ground, and floated serenely beside the wood adjoining the camp.... +The wishes were continued.... + +During the afternoon, a sudden storm swept across the camp--rain and +wind with such violence that we were all driven indoors.... + +When we came out after a few minutes--probably half an hour--the +Zeppelin had disappeared. We found out afterwards that it had broken +away from its moorings, and, dashing against the high trees, had been +smashed to kindling wood; and this news cheered us wonderfully! + + * * * + +A visitor came to the camp one day, and, accompanied by three or four +officers, made the rounds. He spoke to a group of us who were outside +of the hut, asking us how many Canadians there were in Giessen. He +said he thought there were about nine hundred Canadians in Germany +altogether. He had no opportunity for private conversation with us, +for the German officers did not leave him for a second; and although +he made it clear that he would like to speak to us alone this +privilege was not granted. Later we found out it was Ambassador James +W. Gerard. + +It soon became evident that there were spies in the camp. Of course, +we might have known that no German institution could get along +without spies. Spies are the bulwark of the German nation; so in the +Giessen camp there were German spies of all nationalities, including +Canadian. + +But we soon saw, too, that the spies were not working overtime on +their job; they just brought in a little gossip once in a while--just +enough to save their faces and secure a soft snap for themselves. + +One of these, a Frenchman named George Clerque, a Sergeant Major in +the French Army, was convinced that he could do better work if he +had a suit of civilian clothes; and as he had the confidence of the +prison authorities, the suit was given him. He wore it around for a +few days, wormed a little harmless confidence out of some of his +countrymen, and then one day quietly walked out of the front +gate--and was gone! + +Being in civilian dress, it seemed quite likely that he would reach +his destination, and as days went on, and there was no word of him, +we began to hope that he had arrived in France. + +The following notice was put up regarding his escape: + + +NOTICE! + +Owing to the evasions recently done, we beg to inform the prisoners +of war of the following facts. Until present time, all the prisoners +who were evased, have been catched. The French Sergt. Major George +Clerque, speaking a good German and being in connection in Germany +with some people being able to favorise his evasion, has been +retaken. The Company says again, in the personal interests of the +prisoners, that any evasion give place to serious punition (minima) +fortnight of rigourous imprisonment after that they go in the +"Strafbaracke" for an indeterminate time. + +GIESSEN, den 19th July, 1915. + + +Although the notice said he had been captured we held to the hope +that he had not, for we knew the German way of using the truth only +when it suits better than anything they can frame themselves. They +have no prejudice against the truth. It stands entirely on its own +merits. If it suits them, they will use it, but the truth must not +expect any favors. + +The German guards told us quite often that no one ever got out of +Germany alive, and we were anxious to convince them that they were +wrong. One day when the mail came in, a friend of George Clerque +told us he had written from France, and there was great, but, of +necessity, quiet rejoicing. + +That night Bromley and I decided that we would volunteer for farm +service, if we could get taken to Rossbach, where some of the other +boys had been working, for Rossbach was eighteen miles south of +Giessen--on the way to Switzerland. We began to save food from our +parcels, and figure out distances on the map which I had made. + +The day came when we were going to volunteer--Sunday at roll-call. Of +course, we did not wish to appear eager, and were careful not to be +seen together too much. Suddenly we were called to attention, and a +stalwart German soldier marched solemnly into the camp. Behind him +came two more, with somebody between them, and another soldier +brought up the rear. The soldiers carried their rifles and full +equipment, and marched by in front of the huts. + +We pressed forward, full of curiosity, and there beheld the tiredest, +dustiest, most woe-begone figure of a man, whose clothes were in +rags, and whose boots were so full of holes they seemed ready to drop +off him. He was handcuffed and walked wearily, with downcast eyes-- + +It was George Clerque! + +[Illustration: German Prison Stamp] + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ROSSBACH + + +It was September 25th that we left the prison-camp and came to +Rossbach--eighteen miles south on the railway. The six of us, with +the German guard, had a compartment to ourselves, and as there was +a map on the wall which showed the country south of Rossbach, over +which we hoped to travel, I studied it as hard as I could without +attracting the attention of the guard, and afterwards entered on my +map the information I had gained. + +It was rather a pretty country we travelled through, with small farms +and fairly comfortable-looking buildings. The new houses are built of +frame or brick, and are just like our own, but the presence of the +old stone buildings, gray and dilapidated, and old enough to belong +to the time of the Crusaders, kept us reminded that we were far from +home. + +However, we were in great humor that morning. Before us was a Great +Adventure; there were dangers and difficulties in the way, but at +the end of the road was Liberty! And that made us forget how rough +the going was likely to be. Besides, at the present time we were +travelling south--toward Switzerland. We were on our way. + +At Wetzlar, one of the stations near Giessen, a kind-faced old German +came to the window and talked to us in splendid English. + +"I would like to give you something, boys," he said, "but"--he +shrugged his shoulders--"you know--I daren't." + +The guard pretended not to hear a word, and at that moment was waving +his hand to a group of girls--just the regular station-goers, who +meet the trains in Canada. This was, I think, the only place I saw +them, for the women of Germany, young and old, are not encouraged to +be idle or frivolous. + +"I just wish I could give you something," the old man repeated, +feeling in his pocket as if looking for a cigar. + +Then Clarke, one of our boys, leaned out of the window and said, +"I'll tell you what we would like best of all, old man--if you +happen to have half a dozen of them on you--we'll take tickets to +Canada--six will do--if you happen to have them right with you! +And we're ready to start right now, too!" + +The German laughed and said, "You'd better try to forget about +Canada, boys." + + * * * + +The guards who brought us to Rossbach went straight back to Giessen, +after handing us over to the guards there, and getting, no doubt, an +official receipt for us, properly stamped and signed. + +Rossbach has a new town and an old, and, the station being in the new +town, we were led along the road to the old town, where the farming +people live. It is an old village, with the houses, pig-pens, and +cow-stables all together, and built so close that it would be quite +possible to look out of the parlor window and see how the pigs are +enjoying their evening meal or whether the cow has enough bedding. + +There have been no improvements there for a hundred years, except +that they have electric lighting everywhere, even in the pig-pens. +There were no lights in the streets, though, I noticed, and I saw +afterwards that a street light would be a foolish extravagance, +for the people go to bed at dark. They have the real idea of +daylight-saving, and do not let any of it escape them. + +The guards took us around to the houses, and we created considerable +interest, for strangers are a sensation at Rossbach; and, besides, +prisoners are cheap laborers, and the thrifty German farmer does not +like to miss a bargain. + +The little fellows were the first choice, for they looked easier to +manage than those of us who were bigger. Clarke was taken by a woman +whose husband was at the front, and who had five of as dirty children +as I ever saw at one time. We asked one little boy his age, which he +said was "fuenf," but we thought he must be older--no child could get +as dirty as that in five years! + +I was left until almost the last, and when a pleasant-looking old +gentleman appeared upon the scene, I decided I would take a hand in +the choosing, so I said, "I'll go with you." + +I was afraid there might be another large family, all with colds in +their heads, like the five which Clarke had drawn, waiting for me, so +that prompted me to choose this benevolent-looking old grandfather. + +The old man took me home with him to one of the best houses in the +village, although there was not much difference between them. His +house was made of plaster which had been whitewashed, and had in it a +good-sized kitchen, where the family really lived, and an inner room +which contained a large picture of the Royal Family, all in uniform, +and very gorgeous uniforms, too. Even the young daughter had a +uniform which looked warlike enough for a Lieutenant-Colonel's. There +was also a desk in this room, where the father of the family--for +the old man who brought me in was the grandfather--conducted his +business. He was some sort of a clerk, probably the reeve of the +municipality, and did not work on the farm at all. There was a fine +home-made carpet on the floor, but the room was bare and cheerless, +with low ceiling, and inclined to be dark. + +When we entered the kitchen, the family greeted me cordially, and I +sat down to dinner with them. There were three girls and one brother, +who was a soldier and home on leave. + +Bromley went to work for a farmer on the other side of the +village, but I saw him each night, for we all went back to a large +three-storied building, which may once have been a boarding-house, to +sleep each night, the guard escorting us solemnly both to and from +work each day. This was a very good arrangement for us, too, for we +had to be through work and have our supper over by eight o'clock each +night. + +After our prison diet, the meals we had here were ample and almost +epicurean. We had soup--the real thing--made from meat, with plenty +of vegetables; coffee with milk, but no sugar; cheese, homemade but +very good; meat, both beef and pork; eggs in abundance; but never any +pastry; and lots of potatoes, boiled in their skins, and fried. + +There were plenty of fruit-trees, too, in Rossbach, growing along the +road, and, strange to say, unmolested by the youngsters. The trees +appear to belong to the municipality, and the crop is sold by auction +each year to the highest bidder. They are quite ornamental, too, +standing in a straight row on each side of the road. + +The farmers who lived in this village followed the oldest methods of +farming I had ever seen, though I saw still more primitive methods in +Hanover. Vegetables, particularly potatoes and mangels, were grown in +abundance, and I saw small fields of stubble, though what the grain +was I do not know. I saw a threshing-machine drawn by a tractor going +along the road, and one of the girls told me it was made in England. +The woman who had the farm next to the one I was on was a widow, +her husband having been killed in the war, and she had no horses at +all, and cultivated her tiny acres with a team of cows. It seems +particularly consistent with German character to make cows work! They +hate to see anything idle, and particularly of the female sex. + +Each morning we rode out to the field, for the farms are scattered +over a wide area, and three-acre and five-acre fields are the average +size. The field where we went to work digging potatoes was about +a mile distant from the house, and when I say we rode, I mean the +brother and I--the girls walked. I remonstrated at this arrangement, +but the girls themselves seemed to be surprised that it should be +questioned, and the surly young brother growled something at me which +I knew was a reflection on my intelligence. + +When we got into the field and began to dig potatoes, good, +clear-skinned yellow ones, Lena Schmidt, one of the girls, who was a +friend of the family, though not a relation, I think, began to ask me +questions about Canada (they put the accent on the third syllable). +Lena had been to Sweden, so she told me proudly, and had picked up +quite a few English words. She was a good-looking German girl, with +a great head of yellow hair, done in braids around her head. The +girls were all fairly good-looking though much tanned from outdoor +work. Lena had heard women worked in the house, and not outside, in +Canada--was it true? + +I assured her it was true. + +"But," said Lena, "what do they do in house--when bread is made and +dish-wash?" + +I told her our women read books and played the piano and made +themselves pretty clothes and went visiting and had parties, and +sometimes played cards. + +Of course it was not all told as easily as this sounds. + +I could see that Lena was deeply impressed, and so were the two +others when she passed it on. Then she began to question me again. + +"Are there many women in Canada--women in every house--like here?" + +I told her there were not nearly so many women in Canada as here; +indeed, there were not enough to go around, and there were lots of +men who could not get married for that reason. + +When Lena passed that on, excitement reigned, and German questions +were hurled at me! I think the three girls were ready to leave home! +I gently reminded them of the war and the complications it had caused +in the matter of travelling. They threw out their hands with a +gesture of despair--there could be no Canada for them. "Fertig," they +said--which is the word they use to mean "no chance," "no use to try +further." + +Lena, however, having travelled as far as Sweden, and knowing, +therefore, something of the world's ways, was not altogether without +hope. + +"The war--will be some day done!" she said--and we let it go at that. + +Lena began to teach me German, and used current events as the basis +of instruction. Before the end of the first day I was handling +sentences like this--"Herr Schmidt expects to have his young child +christened in the church next Sunday at 2 o'clock, God willing." + +Helene Romisch, the daughter of the house, had a mania for knowing +every one's age, and put the question to me in the first ten minutes +of our acquaintance. She had evidently remembered every answer she +had ever received to her questions, for she told me the age of every +one who passed by on the road, and when there was no one passing she +gave me a list of the family connections of those who had gone, or +those who were likely to go, with full details as to birthdays. + +I think it was Eliza, the other girl, who could speak no English and +had to use Lena as interpreter, who first broached the tender subject +of matrimony. + +Was I married? + +I said, "No." + +Then, after a few minutes' conference-- + +Had I a girl? + +"No--I hadn't," I told them. + +Then came a long and heated discussion, and Lena was hard put to it, +with her scanty store of English words, and my recently acquired +German, to frame such a delicate question. I thought I knew what it +was going to be--but I did not raise a hand to help. + +Why hadn't I a girl? Did I not like girls? or what? + +I said I did like girls; that was not the reason. Then all three +talked at once, and I knew a further explanation was going to be +demanded if Lena's English could frame it. This is the form in which +the question came: + +"You have no girl, but you say you like girls; isn't it all right to +have a girl?" + +Then I told them it was quite a proper thing to have a girl; I had no +objections at all; in fact, I might some day have a girl myself. + +Then Lena opened her heart, seeing that I was not a woman-hater, and +told me she had a beau in Sweden; but I gathered from her manner of +telling it that his intentions were somewhat vague yet. Eliza had +already admitted that she had a "fellow," and had shown me his +picture. Helene made a bluff at having one, too, though she did not +seem able to give names or dates. Then Lena, being the spokeswoman, +told me she could get a girl for me, and that the young lady was +going to come out to the potato digging. "She see you carry +water--she like you," declared Lena. This was interesting, too, and +I remembered that when I was carrying water from the town pump the +first day I was there, I had seen a black-eyed young lady of about +sixteen standing in the road, and when I passed she had bade me +"Good-day" in splendid English. + +On Saturday, Fanny Hummel, for that was the black-eyed one's name, +did come out. The three girls had a bad attack of giggles all the +time Fanny and I were talking, for Fanny could speak a little +English, having studied a year at Friedberg. She had a brother in +the army who was an officer, and she told me he could speak English +"perfect." As far as her English would go, she told me about +Friedberg and her studies there, but when I tried to find out what +she thought about the war, I found that Fanny was a properly trained +German girl, and didn't think in matters of this kind. + +When the day's work was over, Fanny and I walked back to town with +the three girls following us in a state of partial collapse from +giggles. That night, Lena wanted to know how things stood. Was Fanny +my girl? I was sorry to break up such a pleasant little romance, but +was compelled to state with brutal frankness that Fanny was not my +girl! + +I do not know how Fanny received this report, which I presumed would +be given to her the next day, for the next day was the one we had +selected for our departure. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE ESCAPE + + +Sunday, October 3d, was the day we had chosen as our "going-away" +day. We did no work on Sundays, and so had a full day's rest. +Besides, we had a chance for a bath on Sunday, and knew we needed +every advantage we could get, for it was a long way to Switzerland. + +The day had been sunny and bright, but toward evening big, heavy +clouds rolled up from the southwest, and the darkness came on early. +This. suited our purpose, and it was hard for Bromley and me to keep +our accustomed air of unconcern. + +By a fortunate arrangement, we were occupying a room downstairs in +the old boarding-house, which made our escape less difficult. The +upstairs sleeping-place would hold only three more when the six of us +arrived from Giessen the week previous, and that left three of us for +a downstairs room. For this, Bromley and I, and a young Englishman +called Bherral were chosen. + +The walls of the house were of plaster, and the windows had a double +barring of barbed wire, stapled in; but plaster does not make a very +secure bedding for staples, and we figured it would not be hard to +pry them out. + +[Illustration: Two Pages from Private Simmons's Diary] + +There was a light outside which burned all night at the corner of the +house, and by it the windows were brightly illumined. This made our +exit rather difficult. The doors were all locked, and there were +about a dozen guards who slept in another room adjoining ours. Some +of them slept, we knew, and we hoped they all did. + +None of the prisoners at this place had ever attempted to escape, and +so the guard had become less vigilant. I suppose they figured it out +that if any of us were determined to go, we would make the start from +the field where we were working, and where there were no guards at +all. + +But they made a fine bluff at being awake all night, for we heard +them walking up and down in the early evening. However, we reasoned +that they were not any keener on sitting up than any of the rest of +us would be if we didn't have to; and it turned out that our faith +in them was justified. + +Although we did not have to work on Sunday, those who had to work in +the mines had no seventh day of rest, and the night-shift went out +each night about ten-thirty when the day-shift men came in. We had +decided on eleven-thirty as the hour for our departure, giving the +guard one hour in which to settle down after this disturbance. + +We were lying on our mattresses, apparently wrapped in a heavy +slumber, but in reality eagerly listening to every sound.... We heard +the night-workers going out, and the day-men coming in and going +heavily to rest.... A guard seemed restless for a while and tramped +up and down the creaking floor... but at last the only sound to be +heard was the deep breathing of tired men. + +I heard Bromley gently reaching for his clothes, and I did not lose +any time in getting into mine. Bherral and a little Frenchman, who +were in our room, were wide awake and full of fear. They had tried +to dissuade us. + +But the guards, all unsuspecting, slept on. + +They slept the sweet sleep of childhood while we pushed out the +strands of barbed wire which protected the window; they slept while +Bromley slipped cautiously to the ground, and while I handed him down +the overcoats, boots, and parcels of food (which we had been saving +for a month); they slept while I slid through the window and dropped +to the ground, too. + +Just then the wind caught the window, which was on a hinge, and +slammed it noisily against the wall. + +We grabbed our belongings, and ran! + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +OFF FOR SWITZERLAND! + + +We ran as if the whole German Army were in pursuit. Our feet did not +seem to touch the ground. I believe if we could have held that pace +we should have been in Switzerland in the morning! + +Reaching a little hollow, we slackened our pace and listened. There +was not a sound from behind. Either there was no more wind, or the +boys had closed the window from within. We figured that they would do +this, and open it before morning so they could claim they had not +heard us go. Then we put on our boots. + +The night was at its blackest, and a drizzling rain began to fall. +This was in our favor, for nobody was likely to be about on such a +night. When we saw we were not pursued, we took time to arrange our +packs. I carried my compass, which I had been able to secrete during +numerous searchings, and my map, a pair of socks, pipe, tobacco, +matches in a tin box, an empty beer-bottle, and several things to +eat, saved from our parcels,--chocolate, tinned meat, biscuits, +cheese, and bread. Bromley had a pack similar to mine, and when +we got them ready and our overcoats on, we started off in a +southeasterly direction, guided by the light from the place we had +left. We walked as fast as we could in the darkness, which was heavy +enough to hide in, but made progress very difficult, for we could not +see each other or one step before us. We tripped over a railway track +once, and if there had been any one near they might have heard us. + +But in spite of the rain, which fell with steady insistence and began +to weigh down our overcoats; in spite of the blackness which made the +travelling unbelievably difficult; in spite of the fact that we were +in a land of enemies, playing a desperate game against terrible odds, +we were happier than either of us had been since being taken to +Germany, for a weight had been rolled off our souls. We were on our +way to freedom! + +When we found it necessary to consult the compass, I took off my +overcoat and lay flat on the ground with my compass and matches +ready. Bromley put my coat over my head and shoulders, tucking it +well in around me, so no light could shine through. Then I struck +a match, and in its light made the observation, always taking into +consideration the fact that in that part of Europe the compass points +sixteen or seventeen degrees west of due north. + +We were careful to avoid the main roads and to seek out the +seldom-travelled, ones, for we knew that our only chance was in not +being seen at all, as we wore our own Canadian uniforms, which would +brand us at once for what we were. Added to that, we could not form +a single German sentence if we were challenged. Of course, I could +say "that Herr Schmidt expected to have his young child baptized in +the church next Sunday, God willing," but I felt that that was not +altogether the proper reply to make to the command--"Halt! Wer da?" + +The villages were very thick here, and our chief difficulty was to +keep out of them. Once we ventured rather close to the road which ran +near the railroad, and heard a number of people talking. They were +travellers who had alighted from the train which had raced past us +in the darkness a few minutes before. The station is often quite a +distance from the village, and these were the passengers walking back +to their homes--the village which we had been avoiding. + +We dropped to the ground, and the people went by, one old man +singing. I knew he was old, for his voice was cracked and thin, but +of great sweetness, and he sang an aria from a musical comedy which +was popular then, called "The Joy of Life." I had heard a doctor in +the lazaret singing it. + +When the sound had grown fainter in the distance, we came out of our +hiding-place and went on. + +"It seems hard," said Bromley, "to be fighting with people who can +sing like that. I can't work up any ill-will to that good old soul, +going home singing--and I don't believe he has any ill-will to us. +I couldn't fight the Germans if they were all like this old chap +and Sank!" + +"You wouldn't need to," I said. "There would not have been any +fighting." + +And then we strained our ears to listen to the song, not a word of +which we understood, though to us the music was full of good-will +and joy. + +"We've got to keep farther out," I said at last. "We are sure to run +into some one and then it will be all up with us!" + +We found, at last, after much stumbling over rough ground, a road +quite grass-grown and apparently abandoned. We followed it for about +a mile, making good progress, until we came to a stream over which +there was a bridge. We hesitated a minute before going over, but the +place was as silent as a cemetery, and seemed perfectly safe. So we +cautiously went over, keeping a sharp outlook all the time. When we +were over the bridge, we found ourselves in the one street of another +village. + +We stopped for a minute and listened. There was not a sound. We then +went forward. Most of the streets of the villages are paved with +cobblestones, but these were not, and our boots made no sound on the +dirt road. Not even a dog barked, and just as we were at the farther +end of it, the village clock rang the hour of three! + +"That's all right for once," I said, "but it's risky; I don't think +we'd better try it again. Some barking dog is sure to awake." + +Soon after that the east grew red with morning, and we struck +straight into the woods to find shelter. We soon found ourselves in +high rushes growing out of swampy ground, and as we plunged along, we +came to a high woven-wire fence, which we supposed marked the bounds +of a game preserve. + +We quickened our pace, although the going was bad, for the light was +growing and we knew these German peasants are uncomfortably early in +their habits. We came on a garden, carefully fenced with rails, and +helped ourselves to a few carrots and turnips to save our supply of +food, and, finding near there a fairly thick wood, decided to camp +for the day. + +That was Monday, October 4th, and was a miserable day with sudden +bursts of sunshine that made our hearts light with the hope of +getting both warm and dry; but the sunshine no sooner came than it +was gone, and then a shower of rain would beat down on us. + +However, we managed to make our feet comfortable with the extra pair +of socks, and we ate some carrots, bread, and cheese. But it was so +cold, we could not sleep. + +We were glad when it grew dark enough for us to start out again. We +found we were in a well-cultivated district; almost every acre was in +garden, potatoes and sugar beets, whose stalks rustled and crackled +as we went through them, and this made our going slower than it +otherwise would have been. There were a few late apples on the trees, +but they were poor, woody ones. I do not know whether they were a +sample of the crop or just the culls that were not considered worth +picking. But we were glad of them, and filled our pockets. + +The streams which we came to gave us considerable trouble. We were +not exactly dry, but then we could have been wetter, and so we hunted +for bridges, thereby losing much time and taking grave chances of +being caught. We were new in the matter of escaping, and had a lot +to learn. Now we know we should have waded through without losing a +minute. + +That morning, just before stopping-time, in crossing a railway +Bromley tripped over a signal wire, which rang like a burglar alarm +and seemed to set a dozen bells ringing. We quickened our pace, and +when the railway man came rushing out of his house and looked wildly +up and down the track, we were so far away he could not see us! + +We kept well to the east, for we knew the location of Frankfort +and that we must avoid it. Bromley had difficulty in keeping his +direction, and I began to suspect that he thought I was lost, too. So +I told him the direction the road ran, and then made an observation +with the compass to convince him, but many a time in the long, black +middle of the night, I thought I detected a disposition to doubt in +his remarks. + +When the North Star shone down on us, we could find our way without +trouble, but when the night was clouded, as most of the nights were, +it became a difficult matter. + +The third night there was a faintly light patch in the sky, by which +I guided my course and did not use my compass at all. Bromley had +evidently not noticed this, and declared that no human being could +keep his direction on as black a night as this. The faint light in +the sky continued to hold, and I guided our course by it until we +came to a road. Here Bromley insinuated that I had better use my +compass (I was thinking the same thing, too). I assured him it was +not necessary, for I knew the road was running east and west. It was, +I knew, if the light patch in the sky had not shifted. + +When we made the observation with the compass, we found it was so; +and Bromley asked me, wonderingly, how I could do it. I told him it +was a sort of sixth sense that some people had. After that he trusted +me implicitly. This saved him a lot of anxiety, and also made it +easier for me. + +Soon after this we got into a miry part of the country, with the +woods so thick and the going so bad that we knew we could not make +any progress. It was a veritable dismal swamp, where travellers could +be lost forever. + +As we stumbled along in this swampy place, we came to a narrow-gauge +railway, which we gladly followed until we saw we were coming to a +city. This we afterwards knew to be the city of Hanau. Just in the +gray dawn, we left the track and took refuge in a thick bush, where +we spent the day. This was October 5th. + +Our first work was to change our socks, spreading the ones we took +off on a tree to dry. We then carefully rubbed our feet until they +were dry, and put on the dry socks. We soon learned that we must +leave our boots off for a while each day, to keep our feet in good +condition. The pressure of the boots, especially with the dampness, +made the feet tender and disposed to skin. + +This day was a showery one, too, but the sun shone for about an hour +in the morning, and when Bromley lay down to sleep, I decided to go +out and see what sort of country we were in. I wanted to check up my +map, too, for if it were correct, we should be near the Main River. + +I made my way cautiously to the edge of the wood, marking the way by +breaking the top of a twig here and there, to guide me safely back +to Bromley. Ordinary travellers can call to each other, but the ways +of escaping prisoners must all be ways of quietness, although their +paths are not all paths of peace! + +I saw a beautiful little lodge, vine-covered, with a rustic fence +around it, with blue smoke curling out of its red-brick chimney, and +I just knew they were having bacon and eggs and coffee for breakfast. + +Two graceful deer, with gentle eyes, looked out at me from a tangle +of willows, and then I knew the brown lodge was the game-keeper's +house. A hay meadow, green with after-grass, stretched ahead of me, +but there was no sign of the Main River. + +I had kept well under cover, I thought, but before long I had the +uncomfortable feeling that some one was following me; the crackling +of the bushes, which ceased when I stopped, and began again when I +went on, seemed very suspicious. I abruptly changed my course, making +a wide circle, and was able to elude my pursuer and find my way back +to Bromley. + +I had an uneasy feeling that I had been too careless, and that some +one had seen me. However, I lay down to sleep, for I was dead tired, +and we had a splendid hiding-place in the thick bush. + +I do not know how long I slept; it seemed only a few minutes when a +bugle-call rang out. We wakened with a start, for it went through us +like a knife. + +We heard loud commands, and knew there was a company of soldiers +somewhere near, and I gathered from my recent observations that +these sounds came from the hay meadow in front of us. + +We did not connect the demonstration with our presence until the +soldiers began shouting and charging the wood where we lay. Then we +knew we were what the society papers call the "raison d'etre" for +all this celebration. + +We lay close to the earth and hardly dared to breathe. The soldiers +ran shouting and firing (probably blank cartridges) in every +direction. Through the brush I saw their feet as they passed--not +ten feet from where we lay. + +The noise they made was deafening; evidently they thought if they +beat the bushes sufficiently hard, they could scare us out like +rabbits, and I knew they were watching the paths and thin places +in the woods. But we lay tight, knowing it was our only safety. + +Soon the noise grew fainter, and they passed on to try the woods we +had just come through, and we, worn with fatigue, fell asleep. + +In the afternoon they gave our woods another combing. They seemed +pretty sure we were somewhere near! But they did not come quite so +close to us as they had in the morning. + +However, we had heard enough to convince us that this was a poor +place to linger, and when it got real dark, we pushed on south across +the hay meadow. This meadow was full of ditches which were a little +too wide to jump and were too skwudgy in the bottom to make wading +pleasant. They delayed us and tired us a great deal, for it was a +tough climb getting out of them. + +At last we decided to take the road, for the night was dark enough to +hide us, and by going slowly we thought we could avoid running into +any one. + +We had not gone very far when we heard the sound of wagons, and when +we stopped to listen we could hear many voices, and knew our road was +bringing us to a much-used thoroughfare. In the corner formed by the +intersecting roads there was a thick bush of probably ten acres, and +I could not resist the desire to scout and see what sort of country +we were in. So I left Bromley, carefully marking where he was by all +the ways I could, and then went out to the edge of the bush. I went +along the edge of the road, keeping well into the bush. It was too +dark to see much, but I could make out that there was a well-wooded +country ahead of us. I came back to the exact place where I had left +Bromley, or at least where I thought I had left him, but not a trace +of him could I see. Of course, I dared not call, so I gave a soft +whistle, as near like a bird-call as I could. Bromley reached out his +hand and touched me! He was right beside me. That gave me the comfort +of knowing how well the darkness and bushes hide one if he is +perfectly still. + +We thought this road led to the river Main, and decided to keep close +to it so we could get across on the bridge. We followed along the +road until it branched into two roads. We took the right branch +first, but as it turned more and more sharply to the west, we +concluded it was the road to Frankfort, and retraced our steps to the +place where we had picked it up, and went the other way. There was +heavy forest along the road, and it seemed to us to run southeast by +east. We wanted to go south, so we turned off this road through a +chance hay meadow, and then through the forest, until we found a sort +of road which ran south. + +All German forests have roads, more or less distinct, traversing them +according to some definite plan, but they do not necessarily follow +the cardinal points of the compass. We followed the south road, which +was little used, until we came to a stream. There was no way of +getting across it, so we followed its bank until it flowed into the +Kinzig River. We knew by our map this must be the Kinzig River. + +We tried to find a path along the Kinzig, but there did not seem +to be any, and the underbrush was impenetrable. We decided to wait +until morning came, took some chocolate and biscuits and filled our +beer-bottle in the stream. Then we found a comfortable bank, and put +some brush under our heads and slept. But not very soundly, for we +did not want to miss that misty light which comes about an hour +before sunrise. + +We wakened just as the light began to show in the east, and, stiff +and cold, with our teeth chattering, we started on our way to find +some means of getting across the Kinzig. Bridge, boat, or raft, +anything would do us, provided only it came soon, before the +daylight. + +In a few minutes we came to a foot-bridge, with a well-beaten path +running down to it and up the opposite bank. So we made a dash across +it. We knew enough, though, to get off the path at once, for we could +see it was a well-travelled one. We struck into the wood, keeping our +southerly direction, but soon came out on another road, and as the +light was too strong now for us, we went back into the woods and kept +hidden. + +That was Wednesday, October 6th. Again it rained; not in showers this +time with redeeming shots of sunshine, but a dull, steady, miserable +rain that wet us clear through to the skin. Still, we ate our cheese +and bread, and opened a tin of sardines, and managed to put the +day in. We were near a town, and could hear people driving by all +day long. We were kept so on the alert that we had no time to feel +uncomfortable. However, we were very glad when the darkness came and +we could stretch our legs and get warm again. + +We had great difficulty to clear the town and the railway yards +ahead of us, but at last found a road leading south, and followed it +through the forest. In one place, as I was going along ahead, intent +on keeping the road, which seemed to be heaped up in the middle, +I heard a cry behind me, and almost jumped across the road in my +excitement. Instinctively I began to run, but a second cry arrested +me, for it was Bromley's voice. I ran back and found he had fallen +into a hole in the road. The heaped-up appearance I had noticed was +the dirt thrown out of a six-foot drain, in which they were laying +water-pipes, and into this Bromley had fallen. He was not hurt at +all, but jarred a little by the fall. + +We knew we had passed the Hesse boundary, and were now in Bavaria. + +Our one beer-bottle did not hold nearly enough water, and in our long +walk through the forest on this night we suffered from thirst. We had +thought we should be able to find cows to milk, but on account of the +people living in villages, there was but little chance of this. + +When we got out of the forest we found ourselves in an open country. +We came to a good-sized stream, and crossed the bridge and to our +horror found ourselves in a town of considerable size. The streets +were dark, but from one or two windows lights shone. We pushed +rapidly on, and thought we were nearly through, when a little upstart +of a fox-terrier came barking out at us from a doorway. We stepped +into a space between two houses, and just then a cat crossed the +street and he transferred his attentions to her. + +"I always did like cats," Bromley whispered. + +We came out again and went on, breathing out our condemnation of all +German dogs. And we were not done with them yet! For before we got +out another cur flew at us and raised enough noise to alarm the town. +I believe the only thing that saved us was this dog's bad character. +Nobody believed he had anything--he had fooled them so often--and so, +although he pursued us until we slipped down an alley and got into a +thick grove, there was not even a blind raised. He ran back, yelping +out his disappointment, and the bitterest part of it would be that no +one would ever believe him--but that is part of the liar's +punishment. + +We got out of the town as soon as we could, and pushed on with all +haste; we were afraid that news of our escape had been published, and +that these people might be on the lookout for us. The telephone poles +along the roads we were travelling kept us reminded of the danger we +were in. + +Loaded apple-trees growing beside the road tempted us to stop and +fill our pockets, and as we were doing so a man went by on a bicycle. +We stepped behind the tree just in time to avoid being seen, and +although he slackened his pace and looked hard at the place where we +were, he evidently thought it best to keep going. + +We met two other men later in the night, but they apparently did not +see us, and we went on. + +We left the road after that, and plunged into the woods, for the +daylight was coming. + +During the day of October 7th we stayed close in the woods, for we +knew we were in a thickly settled part of the country. Lying on the +ground, we could see a German farmer gathering in his sugar beets, +ably assisted by his women-folk. We could also hear the children from +a school near by, playing "Ring-a-ring-a-roeselein." + +The rain that day was the hardest we had yet encountered, but in the +afternoon the sun came out and we got some sleep. At dusk we started +out again, on a road which had forest on one side and open country on +the other. We could see the trains which ran on the main line from +Hanau to Aschaffenburg. The Main River was at our right. Soon the +forest ended abruptly, and we found ourselves in an open country, and +with a railroad to cross. + +As we drew near, the dog at the station gave the alarm. We stepped +into a clump of trees and "froze." The man at the station came +rushing out and looked all around, but did not see us, and went back. +We then made a wide detour and crawled cautiously over the road on +our hands and knees, for this road had rock ballast which would have +crunched under our feet. + +We then went on through the village, where another dog barked at us, +but couldn't get any support from his people, who slept on. We were +worried about the time, for neither of us had a watch, and we +suspected that it was near morning. We hurried along, hoping to find +a shelter, but the country seemed to be open and treeless. A thick +mist covered the ground and helped to hide us, but it might lift at +any minute. + +We struck straight east at last, in the hope of finding woods. +Through the mist we saw something ahead of us which when we came +nearer proved to be a hill. Hoping it might be wooded on the top, we +made for it with all haste. When we reached the top we found no +woods, but an old cellar or an excavation of a building. It was seven +or eight feet deep, and the bottom was covered with rubbish. Into it +we went, glad of any sort of shelter. + +When daylight came, we looked cautiously over the edge, and saw we +were near a village; also we saw that about two hundred yards away +there was a good thick wood, but it was too late now to think of +changing our position. There was a potato patch on the face of the +hill, with evidence of recent digging. About eight o'clock we heard +voices. Women were digging the potatoes. + +Our feet were very sore that day, on account of the rain and of our +not being able to keep our boots off enough each day, but we lay +perfectly lifeless and did not even speak, for fear of attracting +the attention of the potato-diggers. We wished it would rain and +drive the potato-diggers in. But about nine o'clock a worse danger +threatened us. We heard firing, and could hear commands given to +soldiers. Soon it dawned on us that they were searching the wood for +us. + +The hours dragged on. We were cramped and sore of feet, hungry, and +nervous from lack of sleep, but managed to remain absolutely +motionless. + +About three o'clock a five-year-old boy belonging to the +potato-digging party, strolled up to the top of the hill. Bromley saw +him first, and signed to me. He loitered around the top of the cellar +a few minutes, threw some stones and dirt down, and then wandered +away. There was nothing to indicate that he had seen us. + +But in a few moments a woman and little girl came. The woman looked +straight at us, and made away at full speed. We knew she had seen us. +Then we heard the soldiers coming, shouting. It was not a pleasant +time to think of. + +When they surrounded the place, we stood up, and surrendered. + +There was nothing else to do. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CAUGHT! + + +At first it seemed as if there were a platoon of soldiers: they were +everywhere I looked, and there were more coming! They were, for the +most part, young fellows from the training camp at Aschaffenburg, +and it was not every day they got a chance to catch a couple of +prisoners. So it was done with a flourish! + +The Captain instructed us to put up our hands, and two of the +soldiers searched us. They were welcome to my map, because already I +was thinking of making another, but I did not like to see my compass +go--I kept wondering how I would ever get another. + +There was no hostility in their attitude toward us, either from the +soldiers or the civilians. The potato-diggers, mostly women, went +straight back to their work as if they had done their share and +now some one else could "carry on." Prisoners or no prisoners, the +potatoes had to be dug. + +A few children gathered around us, but they kept back at a respectful +distance and made no remarks. Where the military are concerned, the +civilian population do not interfere, even by words or looks. + +The village women who gathered around us had most apathetic, +indifferent, sodden faces; I don't believe they knew what it was all +about. They were no more interested in what was going on than the +black-and-white Holstein cows that grazed in the meadow near by. + +[Illustration: Map made by Private Simmons of the First Attempt] + +I spoke of this afterwards to Bromley. + +"But you must remember," he said, "they knew enough to go and tell on +us. That wasn't so slow." + +We could see that the soldiers were greatly pleased with their catch, +by the way they talked and gesticulated. Every one was pleased but +us! Then the commander, addressing his men in what we took to be a +congratulatory speech, called for volunteers. We knew the word. + +I looked at Bromley, and saw the same thought in his face, but his +sense of humor never failed him. + +"Cheer up, Sim!" he said. "They are just calling for volunteers to +shoot us. The boys must have something to practise on." + +We laughed about it afterwards, but I must say I did not see much +fun in it that minute. But it was only volunteers to take us into +Aschaffenburg. The commander wished to spread the joy and gladness as +far as it would go, and I think it was fully a dozen who escorted us +to Aschaffenburg, about a mile and a half away. + +They marched us through the principal streets, where I saw the sign +"Kleiderfabrik" many times. The people stopped to look at us, but I +saw no evidence of hostility. I am not sure that the majority of the +people knew who we were, though of course they knew we were +foreigners. + +There was one person, however, who recognized us, for as we were +marching past one of the street-corners, where a group had gathered, +a voice spoke out in excellent English, "Canadians, by Jove! And two +fine big chaps, too!" + +The voice was friendly, but when I turned to look I could not see who +had spoken. + +Their pride in showing us off was "all right for them," but pretty +hard on us, for it was a long time since we had slept, and we did not +enjoy being paraded through the city just for fun. We knew we were in +for it, and wanted to know just what they were going to do with us. + +At last they drew up with great ceremony before the Military +Headquarters, where there was more challenging, by more guards. I +think another guard fell in behind to see that we did not bolt, and +we were conducted into the presence of the Supreme Commander of that +Military District. + +He sat at a high desk in the centre of the room. There were several +clerks or secretaries in the room, all in uniform, and there seemed +to be considerable business going on when we came in, for numerous +typewriters were going and messengers were moving about. I noticed +there was not a woman in the room. + +When we entered and were swung up to the Commander's desk, with a few +words of introduction, there was complete silence. + +The soldiers who brought us in stepped back in a straight line, all +in step, and waited to be congratulated, with that conscious air of +work well done that a cat has when she throws down a mouse and stands +around to hear the kind words which will be spoken. + +The Supreme Commander was a grizzled man, with bushy gray eyebrows +which were in great need of being barbered, red cheeks, and a +curled-up mustache. He spoke through an interpreter. + +We were asked our names, ages, previous occupation, when captured, +and the most important questions of all, "Why were we fighting +against Germany?" and, "Why did we want to leave Germany?" + +I was questioned first, and after I had answered all the minor +questions, I told him I enlisted in the Canadian Army because we +considered ourselves part of the British Empire, and besides, Great +Britain's share in the war was an honorable one which any man might +well be proud to fight for. I said we were fighting for the little +nations and their right to live and govern themselves. I told him it +was the violation of Belgium that had set Canada on fire. + +When this was passed on by the interpreter, I could see it was not +well received, for the old man's eyebrows worked up and down and he +said something which sounded like "Onions." + +Then he asked me what did Canada hope to get out of the war? I said, +"Nothing"--Canada would gain nothing--but we had to maintain our +self-respect, and we couldn't have kept that if we had not fought. +"But," I said, "the world will gain a great deal from the war, for +it will gain the right to live at peace." + +At the mention of peace, some of the officers laughed in contempt, +but at a glance from the Supreme Commander, the laugh was checked +with great suddenness! + +He then asked me why I wanted to get out of Germany. + +I told him no free man enjoyed being a prisoner, and besides, I was +needed in the army. + +All these answers were taken down by two secretaries, and Bromley was +put through the same list of questions. + +He told them no one in Canada had to fight, no one wanted to fight, +because we are peaceable people, but we believe a little nation had a +right to live, and we had been taught that the strong must defend the +weak. + +When they asked him why he wanted to get away from Germany, he told +them he had a wife and two children in Canada, and he wanted to see +them: whereupon the Commander broke out impatiently, "This is no time +for a man to think of his wife and children!" + +When the Supreme Commander was through with us, we were taken to the +station and put on the train for Giessen, escorted by a Sergeant +Major, who had an iron cross ribbon on his coat, and two privates. + +We got a drink at a tap in the station and ate some bread and cheese +from our pack, which they had not taken away from us, but they did +not offer us anything to eat. + +On the train, where we had a compartment to ourselves, one of the +privates bought some fruit, and gave us a share of it. Our German +money had been taken away from us when they searched us, and we +had nothing but prison-stamps, which are of no use outside the +prison-camp. One of the privates was a university man, and in broken +English tried to tell us why Germany had to enter the war, to save +herself from her enemies. I thought his reasoning was more faulty +than his English, but believed in his sincerity. + +He told us that every nation in the whole world hated Germany and +was jealous of "him," and that England was the worst of all. He said +England feared and hated the Bavarians most of all, and that all +Bavarian prisoners were shot. I tried to convince him that this was +not so; but he was a consistent believer and stuck to it. He said +when Germany won the war "he" would be very kind to all the countries +"he" conquered, and do well for them. He told us he hated England, +but not all "Englaenders" were bad! + +At Hanau we changed cars and had a few minutes to wait, and our +guards walked up and down with us. The station was crowded with +people, and the lunch-tables were crowded, although it was getting +late in the evening. + +At Friedberg we had an hour's wait, and we saw the same thing. +Beer-drinking and eating was going on in a big lunch-room, but the +patrons were ninety per cent men. The Sergeant Major with the iron +cross did not bother us at all, and at Friedberg he devoted himself +to the young lady who sold cigars, beer, and post-cards in the +station. + +We asked our friend who could speak a little English what they were +saying, but he, being a university man and of high degree socially, +gave us to understand that the Sergeant Major was lowering his +dignity to flirt with the girl behind the counter. He said it was all +"verruecktheit" (craziness). We were of the opinion that it was the +girl who was stepping down! + +When we got into Giessen, they took us on the street-car to the +prison-camp, and we were glad, for it had been a long day for us, and +the thought of longer ones ahead was not cheering. + +We were taken to the hut where the prison-guards sleep, and were +given a room at the very end, where we would surely be safe. We were +tired enough not to give any trouble, and when they left us, we threw +ourselves down without undressing and slept till morning. + +At nine o'clock we were taken before the officers of our own Company, +and put through the same questions. The answers were written down, as +before. We were then marched away to the Strafe-Barrack. + +The Strafe-Barrack had in it about thirty prisoners, but it was not +nearly full. These were all kept at one end of the hut, and at the +other end there were three men whose official standing was somewhat +of a mystery to us at first. Two of them were Belgians, a private and +a Sergeant, and one was a British Sergeant. They were dressed like +ordinary prisoners, but seemed to be able to go about at will. + +We soon caught on to the fact that they were spies, whose business +it was to watch the prisoners and repeat anything that would be of +interest to the authorities. During the five days we were kept there, +waiting for "cells," we found them quite friendly. + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE CELLS! + + +On the morning of the fifth day two cells were reported empty, and +we were taken to them. + +The cells are in a wooden building inside the camp, and in the +building we were in there were ten of them, divided from each other +by wooden partitions whose cracks are battened with strips of wood to +prevent light from coming through. There are two windows, one over +the door and one in the outside wall. These have a solid wooden door +which can be shut over them, excluding every ray of light. + +The cells are about six feet by eight in size, and have a wooden +platform to sleep on. There is no bedding of any kind. There is one +shelf, on which a pitcher of drinking-water stands, and there is an +electric button by which the guard can be called. + +We were allowed to keep all our clothing, including our overcoats, +and I managed to hold on to a stub of a pencil and a piece of stout +string. + +When the guard brought me in and told me to "make myself at home" or +words to that effect, and went out, locking the door, I sat down on +the wooden platform, and looked around. + +It was as black as the infernal regions--I might as well have had my +eyes shut, for all I could see. However, I kept on looking. There was +no hurry--I had time to spare. I had more time than I had ever had +before. + +Soon I noticed that in the partition at my right there was a place +where the darkness was broken, and a ray of light filtered through. +As I watched it, into the light spot there came two glistening points +which looked very much like a pair of eyes. + +I did not move, for I could hear the guards moving up and down the +gangway, but I could hardly wait until I heard the gates of the +gangway close. Then I went to the crack and whispered. + +"Hello!" + +"Hello!" came back the answer; and looking through the crack I saw +a lighted cell, and in it a man, the owner of the two bright eyes I +had seen. + +"What are you?" came a whisper. + +"Canadian," I answered; "in for trying to escape." + +By putting my ear to the crack, I could hear when he whispered. + +"I am a Frenchman," he said in perfect English; "Malvoisin is my +name, and this is my second attack of cells--for escaping--but I'll +make it yet. Have you the rings? No? Well, you'll get them. Look at +me." + +I could see that his uniform had stripes of bright red wagon paint +on the seams, and circles of it on the front of the tunic and on +his trousers, with a large one on the back of the tunic between the +shoulders. + +"You'll get these when you get into the Strafe-Barrack," he said. + +"How long shall I be there?" I asked. + +"Nobody knows," he answered. "If they like you, they may keep you! +It's an indeterminate sentence.... That's a good cell you have. I was +in that cell the last time, and I fixed it up a little." + +"What did you do to it?" I asked. + +"There's a built-in cupboard over at the other side, where you can +keep your things!" + +"Things!" I said--"what things? I've nothing but a pencil and a +string." + +"The boys will bring you stuff," he said; and then he gave me +instructions. + +"Write a note," he said. "Here's a piece of paper," shoving a +fragment of newspaper through the crack. "Write a note addressed to +one of your friends, tell him you are in cells, but get out every day +to lavatory in Camp 8--they'll bring you food, and books." + +"Books!" I said. "What good would books be to me in this black hole?" + +"I am just coming to that," he whispered back; "there's a crack like +this with a movable batten over on the other side. You can stand on +the platform, pull down the strip of wood, and get in quite a decent +light from the other cell. It is a light cell like mine; and right +above it you'll find the board that is loose in the ceiling; you can +pull it down and slip your book into the space and then let it up +again." + +I stepped over to the other side, and found everything just as he +said. Life grew brighter all at once, and the two weeks of "cells" +were robbed of a great part of their terror. + +I set to work to pull a nail with my cord, and was able to do +it after considerable labor, but there was no hurry at all. It +all helped to put the long hours in! With the nail I made the +reading-crack larger, in anticipation of the books which were to +come, but was careful not to have it too big for the strip of wood +to cover when it was swung back into place. + +When morning came I got my issue of bread, the fifth part of a small +round loaf, which was my allowance for the day. Then for ten minutes +we all swept out our cells and were taken out to the lavatory. I had +my note ready, and when the guard was not looking, slipped it into +the hand of a Frenchman who was standing near me. + +The lavatory was in the same building as Camp 8 Lavatory, and was +divided from theirs by a wall with an opening in it, through which +parcels might be passed between the strands of barbed wire. + +The Frenchman delivered my note quite safely, and the next morning I +found several little packages on the floor of the lavatory. Bromley +and I managed to get out at the same time, and as the guard did not +understand English, we were able to say a few words to each other. + +The boys sent us things every day--chocolate, biscuits, cheese, +cigarettes, matches, and books. We wore our overcoats to the lavatory +each day, so we could use the pockets to carry back our parcels +without detection. We were also careful to leave nothing in the cell +that would attract the attention of the guard, and Malvoisin and I +conserved matches by lighting one cigarette with the other one, +through the crack. + +Bromley had no reading-crack in his room, but with a nail and string +soon made himself one. + +Standing on the platform, I could open the reading-crack and get +several inches of light on my book. I read three or four books in +this way, too, making them last just as long as I could. + +On the fourth day I had light in my cell. The two windows were opened +and the cell was aired. On the light day I got more to eat, too, +coffee in the morning, and soup in the evening. On that night I had +a mattress and blankets, too. + +Toward the end of my two weeks I had hard luck. The cell next to +mine, on which I depended for the light to read by, was darkened. I +was right in the middle of "The Harvester." I tried it by the crack +between my cell and that of Malvoisin, but the light was too dim and +made my eyes ache. However, after two days a light-cell prisoner was +put in, and I was able to go on with my story. + +Malvoisin did all he could to make my punishment endurable. On +account of his cell being lighted, he could tell, by the sunlight +on the wall, what time it was, and passed it on to me, and when I +couldn't read because the cell next to mine was dark, he entertained +me with the story of his adventures--and they were many! + +His last escape had been a marvellous one--all but the end. When +outside of the grounds, on a digging party, he had entertained the +guards so well, by showing them fancy steps in dancing, that they had +not noticed that he was circling closer and closer to a wood. Then, +when he had made some grotesque movement, which sent the staid +German guards into paroxysms of laughter, he had made a dash for the +wood. The soldiers at once surrounded the place, but Malvoisin had +gone up a tree. The guards fired through the woods, calling on him +to surrender, while he sat safe and happy in one of the highest +branches, watching the search for him. The searching of the wood +continued for two days, but he remained in his nest in the tree, +coming down at night to get the food he had buried in the ground +while on the digging party. + +They gave up the search then, and he started for Switzerland. He got +a suit of painter's clothes at one place--overalls and smock--by +going through a window where the painters had been working, and with +his knowledge of German was passing himself off for a painter, and +working toward home. But his description was in the newspapers, and +a reward offered for his capture. His brilliant black eyes and the +scar on his cheek gave him away, and one of his fellow-workmen became +suspicious, and for the sake of the reward notified the military. + +But he said he would be sure to reach home next time! + +He had a week longer punishment than we had, and so when our two +weeks were up we left him there. + +When I said "Good-bye" to him through the crack, and tried to tell +him how much he had done for me, he laughed light-heartedly and +called back, "Good-bye, old man, I'll meet you in Paris--if not +sooner!" + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE STRAFE-BARRACK + + +When they took us to the Strafe-Barrack, the Company painter was +summoned and put on our rings, which stamped us as desperate +characters who would have to be watched. There was something to me +particularly distasteful about the rings, for I hated to have my +Canadian uniform plastered with these obnoxious symbols. But I did +not let the guards see that it bothered me at all, for we knew that +the object of all their punishment was to break our spirits. + +The Strafe-Barrack was supposed to finish the work begun in the +cells. It followed up the weakening of our bodies and minds, caused +by the fourteen days' solitude and starvation, and was intended to +complete the job with its deadly monotony and inaction. + +We got no parcels; so the joy of expectation was eliminated. We did +not know how long we were in for, so we could not even have the +satisfaction of seeing the days pass, and knowing we were nearing +the end! We had no books or papers; even the "Continental Times" was +denied us! We got the same food as they had in the prison-camp, and +we had a mattress to sleep on, and two blankets. + +So far as physical needs were concerned, we were as well off as any +of the fellows, but the mental stagnation was calculated, with real +German scientific reasoning, to break us down to the place where we +could not think for ourselves. They would break down our initiative, +they thought, and then we should do as they told us. As usual in +dealing with spiritual forces, they were wrong! + +In the morning we swept the floor of the hut, and spread up our +beds and had our breakfast. Then we sat on stools for an indefinite +period, during which time we were not supposed to speak or move. It +was the duty of the guards to see that we obeyed these rules. It is +a mean way to treat a human being, but it sent us straight back upon +our own mental resources, and I thought things out that I had never +thought about before. Little incidents of my childhood came back to +me with new significance and with a new meaning, and life grew richer +and sweeter to me, for I got a longer view of it. + +It had never occurred to me, any more than it does to the average +Canadian boy, to be thankful for his heritage of liberty, of free +speech, of decency. It has all come easy to us, and we have taken all +the apples which Fortune has thrown into our laps, without thinking. + +But in those long hours in the Strafe-Barrack I thought of these +things: I thought of my father and mother... of the good times we had +at home... of the sweet influences of a happy childhood, and the +inestimable joy of belonging to a country that stands for fair play +and fair dealing, where the coward and the bully are despised, and +the honest and brave and gentle are exalted. + +I thought and thought and thought of these things, and my soul +overflowed with gratitude that I belonged to a decent country. What +matter if I never saw it again? It was mine, I was a part of it, and +nothing could ever take it from me! + +Then I looked at the strutting, cruel-faced cut-throat who was our +guard, and who shoved his bayonet at us and shook his dirty fist in +our faces to try to frighten us. I looked at his stupid, leering face +and heavy jowl, and the sloped-back forehead which the iron heel had +flattened with its cruel touch. He could walk out of the door and out +of the camp, at will, while I must sit on a chair without moving, his +prisoner! + +Bah! He, with the stupid, _verboten_ look in his face, was the +bondsman! I was free! + +There were other guards, too, decent fellows who were glad to help +us all they dared. But the fear of detection held them to their +distasteful work. One of them, when left in charge of us as we +perched on our chairs, went noisily out, in order to let us know he +was going, so that we could get off and walk about and talk like +human beings, and when he came back--he had stayed out as long as +he dared--I think he rattled the door to warn us of his coming! + +Then the head spy, the Belgian private, who had his headquarters in +the Strafe-Barrack, showed us many little kindnesses. He had as his +batman one of the prisoners whose term of punishment had expired, +and Bromley, who was always quick-witted and on the alert, offered +himself for the job, and was taken, and in that way various little +favors came to us that we should not otherwise have had. + +Being ring-men, there were no concessions for us, and the full rigor +of the _strafe_ would have fallen on us--and did at first; but when +Bromley got to be batman, things began to loosen a little for us and +we began to get _part_ of our parcels. + +The head spy claimed more than the usual agent's commission for all +these favors, but we did not complain, for according to the rules we +were not entitled to any. + +The process regarding the parcels was quite simple. Spies in the +parcel party, working under the Belgian, brought our parcels to his +room at the end of the Strafe-Barrack. He opened them and selected +what he wanted for himself, giving Bromley what was left. + +Sometimes, in his work of batman, Bromley got "tired," and wanted +help, suggesting that a friend of his be brought in to assist him. +I was the friend, and in this way I was allowed to go up to the +Belgians' room to sweep, or do something for them, and then got +a chance at our parcels. At night, too, when the guard had gone +and the lights were out, we got a chance to eat the things we had +secreted under the mattress; but generally we kept our supplies in +the Belgians' room, which was not in danger of being searched. + +Bromley, as usual, made a great hit in his new position of batman. +He had a very smooth tongue, and, finding the British Sergeant +susceptible to flattery, gave him plenty of it, and when we got +together afterwards, many a laugh I had over his description of the +British Sergeant's concern for his appearance, and of how he sent +home to England for his dress uniform. + +We got out together when we went back to our own Company to get extra +clothes. We stayed out about as long as we liked, too, and when we +came back, we had the Belgian with us, so nothing was said. The +strafe-barrack keepers, even the bayonet man, had a wholesome fear +of the Belgian. + +This Belgian was always more or less of a mystery to us. He was +certainly a spy, but it was evident he took advantage of his position +to show many kindnesses to the other prisoners. + + * * * + +There was one book which we were allowed to read while in +Strafe-Barrack, and that was the Bible. There were no Bibles +provided, but if any prisoner had one, he might retain it. I don't +think the Germans have ever got past the Old Testament in their +reading, and when they read about the word of the Lord coming to some +one and telling him to rise up early and go out and wipe out an enemy +country--men, women, and children--they see themselves, loaded with +_Kultur_, stamping and hacking their way through Belgium. + +I read the Books of the Kings and some other parts of the Old +Testament, with a growing resentment in my heart every time it said +the "Lord had commanded" somebody to slay and pillage and steal. I +knew how much of a command they got. They saw something they wanted, +a piece of ground, a city, perhaps a whole country. The king said, +"Get the people together; let's have a mass-meeting; I have a message +from God for the people!" When the people were assembled, the king +broke the news: "God wants us to wipe out the Amalekites!" The king +knew that the people were incurably religious. They would do anything +if it can be made to appear a religious duty. Then the people gave a +great shout and said: "The Lord reigneth. Let us at the Amalekites! +If you're waking, call me early"--and the show started. + +The Lord has been blamed for nearly all the evil in the world, and +yet Christ's definition of God is love, and He goes on to say, "Love +worketh no ill to his neighbor." + +I can quite understand the early books in the Bible being written by +men of the same cast of mind as the Kaiser, who solemnly and firmly +believed they were chosen of God to punish their fellow-men, and +incidentally achieve their ambitions. + +But it has made it hard for religion. Fair-minded people will not +worship a God who plays favorites. I soon quit reading the Old +Testament. I was not interested in fights, intrigues, plots, and +blood-letting. + +But when I turned to the teachings of Christ, so fair and simple, +and reasonable and easy to understand, I knew that here we had the +solution of all our problems. Love is the only power that will +endure, and when I read again the story of the Crucifixion, and +Christ's prayer for mercy for his enemies because he knew they did +not understand, I knew that this was the principle which would bring +peace to the world. It is not force and killing and bloodshed and +prison-bars that will bring in the days of peace, but that Great +Understanding which only Love can bring. + +I was thinking this, and had swung around on my chair, contrary to +rules, when the guard rushed up to me with his bayonet, which he +stuck under my nose, roaring at me in his horrible guttural tongue. + +I looked down at the point of his bayonet, which was about a quarter +of an inch from my tunic, and let my eyes travel slowly along its +length, and then up his arm until they met his! + +I thought of how the image of God had been defaced in this man, by +his training and education. It is a serious crime to destroy the +king's head on a piece of money; but what word is strong enough to +characterize the crime of taking away the image of God from a human +face! + +The veins of his neck were swollen with rage; his eyes were red like +a bull's, and he chewed his lips like a chained bulldog. But I was +sorry for him beyond words--he was such a pitiful, hate-cursed, +horrible, squirming worm, when he might have been a man. As I looked +at him with this thought in my mind the red went from his eyes, his +muscles relaxed, and he lowered his bayonet and growled something +about "Englishe schwein" and went away. + +"Poor devil," I thought. I watched him, walking away.... "Poor +devil,... it is not his fault."... + +Malvoisin came to the Strafe-Barrack a week after we did, and I could +see that the guards had special instructions to watch him. + +None of the ring-men were allowed to go out on the digging parties +from the Strafe-Barrack, since Malvoisin had made his get-away in +front of the guards, and for that reason, during the whole month we +were there, we had no chance at all for exercise. + +Malvoisin was thin and pale after his three weeks' confinement in +cells, but whenever I caught his eye he gave me a smile whose +radiance no prison-cell could dim. When he came into the room, every +one knew it. He had a presence which even the guards felt, I think. +We went out a week before him, and we smuggled out some post-cards +which he had written to his friends and got them posted, but whether +they got by the censor, I do not know. The last I saw of him was the +day he got out of Strafe-Barrack. He walked by our hut, on the way +to his Company. He was thinner and paler still, but he walked as +straight as ever, and his shoulders were thrown back and his head +was high! His French uniform was in tatters, and plastered with +the obnoxious rings. A guard walked on each side of him. But no +matter--he swung gaily along, singing "La Marseillaise." + +I took my hat off as he went by, and stood uncovered until he +disappeared behind one of the huts, for I knew I was looking at +something more than a half-starved, pale, ragged little Frenchman. +It was not only little Malvoisin that had passed; it was the +unconquerable spirit of France! + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BACK TO CAMP + + +After the monotony of the cells and the Strafe-Barrack, the camp +seemed something like getting home for Christmas. All the boys, +McKelvey, Keith, Clarke, Johnston, Graham, Walker, Smith, Reid, +Diplock, Palmer, Larkins, Gould, Salter, Mudge, and many others whom +I did not know so well, gathered around us and wanted to know how we +had fared, and the story of our attempt and subsequent punishment +formed the topic of conversation for days. + +All the time we had been in retirement, we were not allowed to write +letters or cards, and I began to fear that my people would be very +anxious about me. I had given cards to returning "strafers" to post, +but I was not sure they had ever got out of Germany. Many parcels had +come for me from other friends, too, and the big problem before me +now was to find some way to acknowledge them. A card a week, and a +letter twice a month, does not permit of a very flourishing +correspondence. + +A decent German guard consented to take Bromley and me to the +building where the parcels were kept for men who were in punishment, +and we, being strong in faith, took a wheelbarrow with us. Of course, +we had received a number of parcels through our friend the spy, but +we hoped there would be many more. However, I got only one, a good +one from G. D. Ellis, Weston, England, and that saved me from a hard +disappointment. I saw there, stacked up in a pile, numerous parcels +for Todd, Whittaker, Little Joe, and others, who were serving their +sentences at Butzbach. I reported this to our Sergeant Major, and the +parcels were opened. Some of the stuff was spoiled, but what was in +good condition was auctioned off among us and the money sent to them. + +A letter came to me from my sister, Mrs. Ralph Brown, of Buchanan, +Saskatchewan, saying they were worried about me because they had not +heard from me, and were afraid I was not receiving my parcels. Then +I decided I would have to increase my supply of cards. The Russian +prisoners had the same number of cards we had, but seldom wrote any. +Poor fellows, they had nobody to write to, and many of them could not +write. So with the contents of my parcels I bought up a supply of +cards. I had, of course, to write them in a Russian's name, for if +two cards went into the censor's hands from M. C. Simmons, No. 69, +Barrack A, Company 6, something would happen. + +So cards went to my friends from "Pte. Ivan Romanoff" or "Pte. Paul +Rogowski," saying he was quite well and had seen M. C. Simmons +to-day, who was grateful for parcel and had not been able to write +lately, but would soon. These rather mystified some of the people who +received them, who could not understand why I did not write directly. +My cousin, Mamie Simmons, and Mrs. Lackie, of Dereham Centre, +Ontario, wrote a letter back to the Russian whose card they had +received, much to his joy and surprise. + +One of my great desires at this time was to have a compass, for +Bromley and I were determined to make another attempt at escape, just +as soon as we could, and many an hour I spent trying to find a way +to get the information out to my friends that I wanted a compass. At +last, after considerable thinking, I sent the following card to a +friend of mine with whom I had often worked out puzzles, and who I +felt would be as likely to see through this as any one I could think +of. + +This was the message: + +DEAR JIM:--I send you this card along with another to come later, +which please pass on to Fred. In next parcel, send cheese, please. + +Yours as ever + +M. C. SIMMONS + +In the address I slipped in the words--"Seaforth Wds." This I hoped +the censor would take to mean--"Seaforth Woods"; and which I hoped my +friend would read to mean--"See fourth words"; and would proceed to +do so. + +After I had sent this away, I began to fear it might miscarry and +resolved to try another one. I wrote a letter to my brother Flint, +at Tillsonburg, Ontario, in which I used these words, "I want you +to look into this for me"; later on in the letter, when speaking of +quite innocent matters which had nothing to do with "compasses," I +said, "Look into this for me and if you cannot manage it alone, get +Charley Bradburn to help you." + +I took the envelope, which had a bluish tint inside and steamed it +open, both the ends and bottom flap, and when it was laid open, I +wrote in it in a very fine hand, these words: "I tried to escape, but +was caught and my compass taken away from me. Send me another; put it +in a cream cheese." + +When the envelope was closed, this was almost impossible to see. I +knew it was risky, for if I had been found out, I would have been +"strafed" for this, just as hard as if I had tried to escape. +However, I posted my letter and heard nothing more about it. + +I had, through the kindness of friends, received a number of books, +Mr. Brockington, of Koch Siding, British Columbia, and Miss Grey, +of Wimbledon, England, having been very good to me in this way; +and as many of the parcels of the other boys contained books, too, +we decided to put our books together, catalogue them, and have a +library. One of the older men became our librarian, and before we +left Giessen I think we had a hundred volumes. + +The people who sent these books will never know the pleasure they +gave us! The games, too, which the Red Cross sent us were never idle, +and made many a happy evening for us. + +At night we had concerts, and many good plays and tableaux put on by +the boys. There was a catchy French love song, "Marie," which was a +great favorite with the boys. From this we began to call the Kilties +"Marie," and there were several harmless fights which had this for a +beginning. The Kilties had a hard time of it, and had to get another +dress before they could be taken on a working party. The Germans did +not consider the kilt a "decent dress" for a man. + +The parcels were an endless source of delight, and I was especially +fortunate in having friends who knew just what to send. Mrs. Palmer, +of Plymouth, sent me bacon; Mrs. Goodrich, my sister, and Mrs. +Goodrich, Sr., of Vancouver, sent fruit-cakes; Mrs. Hill, wife of +the British reservist who gave me my first drill in British Columbia, +sent oatmeal, and his sisters, Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Hamer, made candy. +Lee Davison, of Trail, whose brother is now a prisoner in Germany, +sent me tobacco, and so did Harold Andrews, of Trail, and Billy +Newell, of Koch Siding. + +The distribution of the mails was a time of thrills. One of the +Sergeants called it out, while every one crowded eagerly around. + +Poor Clarke, one of the brightest, merriest-hearted boys we had, +seldom got a letter, but he was right on hand every time, and when +there was no letter for him, would tear his hair dramatically and +cry,-- + +"Gott strafe England." + +Clarke had the good gift of making everybody laugh. I remember once +seeing him patching his trousers with a Union Jack, and singing, +"We'll never let the Old Flag fall!" + + * * * + +The German respect for the military caste was well shown in the +punishment of a Russian officer who had offended them by something he +had done or had not done. He was sent to our hut--as a punishment. He +had a room to himself, a batman, the privilege of sending out to buy +food, as much as he liked. His punishment consisted in having to live +under the same roof and breathe the same air as common soldiers. He +was a very good fellow, and told us many things about his country. +Incidentally we found out that his wages as a Lieutenant in the +Russian Army were one hundred and fifty dollars a year! + + * * * + +Bromley and I had not worked at all since coming out of +Strafe-Barrack. Being ring-men gave us immunity from labor. They +would not let us outside of the compound. Even if we volunteered +for a parcel party, the guard would cry "Weg!"--which is to say, +"Go back." + +This made all our time leisure time, and I put in many hours making +maps, being as careful as possible not to let the guards see me. I +got the maps in a variety of ways. Some of them had been smuggled in +in parcels, and some of the prisoners had brought them in when they +came. + +A Canadian soldier, who was a clever artist, and had a room to +himself where he painted pictures for some of the Germans, gave me +the best one, and from these I got to know quite a lot about the +country. From my last experience I knew how necessary it was to have +detailed knowledge of the country over which we must travel to reach +the border. + +My interest in maps caused the boys to suspect that I was determined +to escape, and several broached the subject to me. However, I did not +wish to form an alliance with any one but Bromley. We considered two +was enough, and we were determined to go together. + + * * * + +One day, in the late fall, when the weather was getting cold, an +American, evidently connected with the Embassy, came to see us, and +asked us about our overcoats. The German officers in charge of the +camp treated him with scant courtesy, and evidently resented his +interference. But as a result of his visit every person who did not +already have a Red Cross or khaki coat got a German coat. + + * * * + +Just before Christmas Day we got overcoats from the Red Cross, dark +blue cloth, full length and well lined. They had previously sent each +of us a blanket. + +The treatment of overcoats was to cut a piece right out of one +sleeve, and insert a piece of yellowish-brown stuff, such as is shown +in Bromley's photograph. We knew that coats were coming for us, and +were particularly anxious to get them before they were disfigured +with the rings which they would put on or with this band of cloth. If +we could get the coats as they came from the Red Cross, they would +look quite like civilian's coats, and be a great help to us when we +made our next escape. Bromley and I had spent hard thinking on how we +could save our coats. + +Larkins, one of the boys who worked in the parcels office, watched +for our overcoats, and when they came he slipped them into the stack +which had been censored, and in that way we got them without having +them interfered with. But even then we were confronted with a greater +difficulty. The first time we wore them the guards would notice we +had no rings, and that would lead to trouble. The piece of cloth on +the arm was not so difficult to fix. Two of the boys whose coats were +worn out gave us the pieces out of their coats, which we _sewed on_, +instead of inserting. The rings had been put on in brown paint lately +instead of red, and this gave Bromley an idea. We had a tin of cocoa, +saved from our parcels, and with it we painted rich brown rings on +our new coats. We were careful not to wear these coats, for we knew +the cocoa rings were perishable, but we had our old overcoats to wear +when we needed one. This saw us past the difficulty for a while. + + * * * + +On Christmas Day we had the privilege of boiling in the cook-house +the puddings which came in our parcels, and we were given a Christmas +card to send instead of the ordinary cards--that was the extent of +the Christmas cheer provided for us. + + * * * + +Soon after Christmas there was a party of about four hundred picked +out to be sent away from Giessen; the ring-men were included, and all +those who had refused to work or given trouble. Bromley and I were +pretty sure we should be included, and in anticipation of the journey +touched up the cocoa rings on our coats. They were disposed to flake +off. I also prepared for the projected move by concealing my maps. + +I put several in the pasteboard of my cap and left no trace, thanks +be to the needle and thread I had bought in the army canteen, and +my big one I camouflaged as a box of cigarettes. A box of Players' +Cigarettes had been sent to me, which I had not yet broken into. I +carefully removed the seal, being careful to break it so that it +could be put back again without detection. Then I cut my map into +pieces corresponding to the size of a cigarette, and, emptying out +the tobacco from a few, inserted the section of map instead, and put +them carefully in with the label showing. I then closed the box and +mended the band so that it looked as if it had not been broken. I +felt fairly safe about this. + +[Illustration: The Christmas Card which the Giessen Prison +Authorities supplied to the Prisoners] + +The day came when we were to leave. Sometimes Bromley and I were on +the list, sometimes we were not. We did not really know until our +names were called. + +Our cocoa rings were fresh and fine, and we walked out with innocent +faces. I don't know why they suspected me, but the Company officer, +with two soldiers, came over to me where I stood at the end of a +double line. At the word from the officer, the soldiers tore off my +pack, opened my coat, examined the rings on my tunic which were, +fortunately, of the durable red paint, guaranteed not to crock or +run. I thought for sure they would search me, which I did not fear at +all, for my maps I considered safe, but I did not want them fooling +around me too much, for my cocoa rings would not stand any rough +treatment. I wished then I had put sugar in the cocoa to make them +stick better. + +But after considerable argument, they left me. Just before the +officer walked away, he shook a warning finger at me and said, +"Fini--dead--fertig," which was his French, English, and German for +the game idea: "If you don't behave yourself, you are a dead man!" + +He directed the soldiers to keep a strict watch on us, and one of +them volunteered the opinion that we should have rings in our noses! + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +CELLELAGER + + +The attention given to me by the prison-guards would have been +disconcerting to a less modest man than I am. A soldier sat with me +all the way on the train. I could not lose him! He stuck to me like +a shadow. When I stood up, he stood up. When I changed my seat, he +changed his. And he could understand English, too, so Bromley and I +could not get a word in. He seemed to me--though I suppose that was +simply imagination--to be looking at my rings, and I knew my pack's +string was rubbing them. I hardly knew what to do. At last I hastily +removed my pack, folded my overcoat so that the rings would not show, +and hung it up, but as the train lurched and rolled, I was fearful +of the effect this would have on the rings. I fancied I smelled dry +cocoa, and seemed to see light brown dust falling on the seat. Why +hadn't I thought to put sugar in it when I mixed it up? + +When we reached the camp, which was called Cellelager, we found we +had come to one which was not in the same class as Giessen. The +sleeping-accommodations were insufficient for the crowd of men, and +there was one bunk above the other. There was one canteen for the +whole camp (instead of one in each hut as we had in Giessen), and +here we could buy cakes, needles, thread, and buttons, also apples. +The food was the same, except that we had soup in the morning instead +of coffee, and it was the worst soup we had yet encountered. As an +emetic, it was an honest, hard-working article which would bring +results, but it lacked all the qualifications of a good soup. I tried +it only once. + +We were delighted to see no rings except what we had in our party. +The Commandant of the camp did not take any notice of them, so we +were able to remove all traces of them from our new overcoats, and +when Steve Le Blanc, from Ottawa, gave me a nice navy-blue civilian +coat, I gave my ringed tunic to one of the boys, who forthwith passed +himself off for a ring-man, to avoid being sent out to work. + +I found, however, he only enjoyed a brief exemption, for his record, +all written down and sent along with him, showed his character had +been blameless and exemplary, and the rings on his coat could not +save him. It was "Raus in!" and "Raus out!" every day for him! In +this manner did his good deeds find him out. + +There was a football ground at this camp, and a theatre for the +prisoners to use, but in the week we were there I saw only one game +of football. + +At the end of a week we were moved again, most of us. They did not, +of course, tell us where we were going, but as they picked out all +of us who had ever tried to escape--and all those who had refused to +work--we were pretty sure it was not a "Reward of Merit" move. + +We were awakened at a very early hour and were started off to the +station, loaded with stuff. We had blankets, wash-basin, empty +mattress, and wooden clogs. The boys did not take kindly to the +wooden clogs, and under cover of the darkness--for it was long before +daylight--they threw them away. The road to the station the next +morning must have looked as if a royal wedding party had gone by. + +This time we were glad to be able to see where we were going, +although it was a dismal, barren country we travelled through, +with many patches of heather moor and marsh. The settlements were +scattered and the buildings poor. But even if we did not think much +of the country, we liked the direction, for it was northwest, and +was bringing us nearer Holland. + +At Bremen, the second largest seaport in Germany, we stayed a couple +of hours, but were not let out of our car, so saw nothing of the +city. + +At about four o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived in Oldenburg, and +began our eight-mile march to Vehnemoor Camp, which is one of the +Cellelager group and known as Cellelager VI. We were glad to dispose +of our packs by loading them on a canal-boat, which we pulled along +by ropes, and we arrived at the camp late in the evening. + +This camp had but a few prisoners in it when we came, but there were +nearly four hundred of us, and we filled it to overflowing. There +were three tiers of bunks where the roof was high enough to admit +of it, and that first night we were there we slept on our empty +mattresses. However, we still had our Red Cross blanket and the two +German blankets apiece, and we managed to keep warm. There were two +rooms with two peat stoves in each room. + +The camp was built beside a peat bog, on ground from which the peat +had been removed, and there was no paving of any kind around it. One +step from the door brought us to the raw mud, and the dirt inside the +camp was indescribable. There were no books or papers; the canteen +sold nothing but matches, notepaper, and something that tasted +remotely like buckwheat honey. + +The first morning the Commandant addressed us, through an +interpreter. He told us he had heard about us. There was dead +silence at that; we were pretty sure we knew what he had heard. Then +he told us that some of us had refused to work and some had tried +to escape; he was grieved to hear these things! He hoped they would +not happen again. It was foolish to act this way, and would meet +with punishment (we knew that). If we would retain his friendship, +we must do as we were told. There was no other way to retain his +friendship. He repeated that. Some of us felt we could get along +without his friendship better than without some other things. We +noticed from the first that he didn't seem sure of himself. + +Then came roll-call! + +None of us like the thought of getting out to work in this horrible +climate, cold, dark, and rainy, and the roll-call brought out the +fact that we had very few able-bodied men. He had a list of our +names, and we were called in groups into an office. Bromley and I +gave our occupations as "farmers," for we hoped to be sent out to +work on a farm and thus have an opportunity of getting away. + +Most of the Canadians were "trappers," though I imagine many of them +must have gained their experience from mouse-traps. Many of the +Englishmen were "boxers" and "acrobats." There were "musicians," +"cornetists," and "trombone artists," "piano-tuners," "orchestra +leaders," "ventriloquists," "keepers in asylums," "corsetiers," +"private secretaries," "masseurs," "agents," "clerks," "judges of +the Supreme Court," and a fine big fellow, a Canadian who looked as +if he might have been able to dig a little, gave his occupation as +a "lion-tamer." + +The work which we were wanted to do was to turn over the sod on the +peat bogs. It looked as if they were just trying to keep us busy, +and every possible means was tried by us to avoid work. + +The "lion-tamer" and three of his companions, fine, vigorous young +chaps, stayed in bed for about a week, claiming to be sick. They got +up for a while every afternoon--to rest. The doctor came three times +a week to look us over, but in the intervening days another man, not +a doctor, who was very good-natured, attended to us. + +One day nine went on "sick parade"; that is, lined up before the +medical examiner and were all exempted from work. The next day there +were ninety of us numbered among the sick, and we had everything from +galloping consumption to ingrowing toe-nails, and were prepared to +give full particulars regarding the same. But they were not asked +for, for armed guards came in suddenly and we were marched out to +work at the point of the bayonet. + +Steve Le Blanc, one of the party, who was a splendid actor, spent the +morning painfully digging his own grave. He did it so well, and with +such faltering movements and so many evidences of early decay, that +he almost deceived our own fellows. He looked so drawn and pale that +I was not sure but what he was really sick, until it was all over. +When he had the grave dug down to the distance of a couple of feet, +the guard stopped him and made him fill it in again, which he did, +and erected a wooden cross to his own memory, and delivered a +touching funeral oration eulogizing the departed. + +We all got in early that day, but most of us decided we would not try +the "sick parade" again. + +This was in the month of January, which is the rainy season, and +there was every excuse for the boys' not wanting to work--besides the +big reason for not wanting to help the Germans. + +One night, when some of our fellows came in from work, cold, wet, and +tired, and were about to attack their supper of black bread and soup, +the mail came in, and one of the boys from Toronto got a letter from +a young lady there who had been out on the Kingston Road to see an +Internment Camp. He let me read the letter. She had gone out one +beautiful July day, she said, and found the men having their evening +meal under the beeches, and they did so enjoy their strawberries and +ice-cream; and they had such lovely gardens, she said, and enough +vegetables in them to provide for the winter. The conclusion of the +letter is where the real sting came: "I am so glad, dear Bert, that +you are safe in Germany out of the smoke and roar and dirt of the +trenches. It has made me feel so satisfied about you, to see these +prisoners. I was worrying a little about you before I saw them. But +now I won't worry a bit. I am glad to see prisoners can be so happy. +I will just hope you are as well cared for as they are.... Daddy and +Mother were simply wild about Germany when they were there two years +before the war. They say the German ways are so quaint and the +children have such pretty manners, and I am afraid you will be +awfully hard to please when you come back, for Daddy and Mother were +crazy about German cooking." + +I handed the letter back, and Bert and I looked at each other. He +rolled his eyes around the crowded room, where five hundred men were +herded together. Two smoking stoves, burning their miserable peat, +made all the heat there was. The double row of berths lined the +walls. Outside, the rain and sleet fell dismally. Bert had a bowl of +prison soup before him, and a hunk of bread, black and heavy. He was +hungry, wet, tired, and dirty, but all he said was, "Lord! What _do_ +they understand?" + + * * * + +Every day we devised new ways of avoiding going to work. "Nix arbide" +(no work) was our motto. The Russians, however, never joined us in +any of our plans, neither did they take any part in the fun. They +were poor, melancholy fellows, docile and broken in spirit, and the +guards were much harsher with them than with us, which was very +unjust, and we resented it. + +We noticed, too, that among our own fellows those who would work were +made to work, while the "lion-tamer" and his husky followers lay in +bed unmolested. His latest excuse was that the doctor told him to lie +in bed a month--for he had a floating kidney. Of course the doctor +had not said anything of the kind, but he bluffed it out. + +One morning when the guards were at their difficult task of making up +a working party, they reported that they were twenty-five men short. +Every one had been at roll-call the night before, the guards were on +duty, no one could have got away. Wild excitement reigned. Nobody +knew what had happened to them. After diligent searching they were +found--rolled up in their mattresses. + +They were all quickly hauled forth and sent out to work. The mattress +trick had worked well until too many had done it, on this morning. + +The morning was a troublesome time, and we all felt better when it +had passed; that is, if we had eluded or bluffed the guard. Bromley +and I had a pretty successful way of getting very busy when the +digging party was being made up. We would scrub the table or grab a +gadbroom and begin to sweep, and then the guards, thinking this work +had been given to us, would leave us alone! + +As time went on, the Commandant became more and more worried. I think +he realized that he had a tough bunch to handle. If he had understood +English, he could have heard lots of interesting things about his +Kaiser and his country--particularly in the songs. The "lion-tamer" +and his three followers generally led the singing, sitting up in +their bunks and roaring out the words. + +The singing usually broke out just after the guards had made an +unsuccessful attempt to pull the bedclothes off some of the boys who +had determined to stay in bed all day; and when the few docile ones +had departed for the peat bog, the "shut-ins" grew joyful to the +point of singing. + +This was a hot favorite: + + "O Germany, O Germany; + Your fate is sealed upon the sea. + Come out, you swine, and face our fleet; + We'll smash you into sausage-meat." + +Another one had a distinctly Canadian flavor: + + "Kaiser Bill, Kaiser Bill, you'd better be in hell, be in hell! + When Borden's beauties start to yell, start to yell, + We'll hang you high on Potsdam's palace wall-- + You're a damned poor Kaiser after all." + +They had another song telling how they hated to work for the Germans, +the refrain of which was "Nix arbide" (I won't work). + +The Commandant came in one day to inspect the huts. The "bed-ridden" +ones were present in large numbers, sitting up enjoying life very +well for "invalids." The Commandant was in a terrible humor, and +cried out "Schweinstall"--which is to say "pig-pen"--at the sight of +the mattresses. He didn't like anything, and raged at the way the +fellows had left their beds. It might have seemed more reasonable, if +he had raged at the way some of them had not left their beds! The men +he was calling down were the gentle ones, those who were out working. +But to the "lion-tamer" and his followers, who were lazily lying in +their beds, laughing at him, he said never a word. + +We knew enough about Germany and German methods to know this sort +of a camp could not last. Something was going to happen; either we +should all be moved, or there would be a new Commandant and a new set +of guards sent down. This Commandant had only handled Russians, I +think, and we were a new sort of Kriegsgefangenen (prisoners of war). +Bromley and I wanted to make our get-away before there was a change, +but we had no compass--my card had not been answered. + +There was a man named Edwards, who was captured May 8th, a Princess +Pat, who once at Giessen showed me his compass and suggested that we +go together next time. He was at Vehnemoor, too, and Bromley and I, +in talking it over, decided to ask Edwards and his friend to join us. +Then the four of us got together and held many conferences. Edwards +had a watch and a compass; I had maps, and Edwards bought another +one. We talked over many plans, and to Edwards belongs the honor of +suggesting the plan which we did try. + +The difficulties in the way of escaping were many. The camp-ground +was about three hundred feet long and seventy-five feet wide, +surrounded by a barbed-wire fence about ten feet high. The fence had +been built by putting strong, high posts in the ground and stretching +the wire on with a wire-stretcher, so that it could not be sprung +either up or down. The bottom wires were very close together. Inside +of this was an ordinary barbed-wire fence with four or five strands, +through which we were forbidden to go. + +Outside the camp at the northwest corner was the hut where the guards +lived when not on duty, and beside this hut was the kennel where the +watch-dog was kept. He was a big dog, with a head like a husky! The +camp was lighted by great arc-lights about sixty feet apart. German +soldiers were stationed outside and all around the camp, and were +always on the alert. + +We planned to go on Friday night, but an unforeseen event made that +impossible. A very dull German soldier had taken out about a dozen +Frenchmen to work on the moor. Two of them had slipped away some time +during the afternoon, and he did not notice he was short until he +got in. Then great excitement prevailed, and German soldiers were +sent out in pursuit. We watched them going out, dozens of them, and +decided this was a poor time to go abroad. The moon was nearly full +and the clouds which had filled the sky all day, were beginning to +break, all of which was against us. + +On Saturday, just as we feared, an extra guard of about twenty-five +men was sent in from Oldenburg, and as the guard changed every two +hours, and this was about 5.30 o'clock in the evening when they came, +we reasoned that the double guard would go on at seven. After the +guard had been doubled, there would be but little chance for us. + +It was now or never! + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +OFF FOR HOLLAND! + + +The eastern fence was the one we had marked as our point of +departure, and, Saturday being wash-day, there was nothing suspicious +in the fact that we had hung our clothes there to dry. They had to be +hung somewhere. + +The boys were expecting parcels that night, for a canal-boat had come +up from Oldenburg, and every one was out in the yard. Several of the +boys were in our confidence, and we had asked them to stroll up and +down leisurely between the hut and the east fence. + +Just at the last minute the fourth man, Edwards's friend, came to me +and said:-- + +"Sim, we will never make it. The guards will see us, and they'll +shoot us--you know they'll just be glad to pot us to scare the +others. It is madness to think we can get away from here with these +lights shining." + +I told him I thought we had a chance, but did not try to persuade +him. Of course, we all knew we were taking a grave risk, but then, +why shouldn't we? It was the only way out. + +"Don't go, Sim," he said earnestly. + +I told him we were going, but if he felt as he said, it would be +better for him not to come, and already I could see that Edwards, who +was in the group of strollers, had dropped on his stomach and was +filing the lower wire of the inner fence, and when the wire broke he +crawled through to the other fence. + +I joined the party of strollers then, and walking toward the fence, +could see what Edwards was doing. + +With his left hand he held the bottom wire and filed it close to the +post, which did much to deaden the sound, but when the wire broke, to +my strained ears the crack was loud enough to alarm the guard. But +the sound of our voices must have covered it over, for all went well. + +We walked back again leisurely, though to my excited imagination the +sound of the filing deadened every other sound. We were back to the +fence again when I heard the whang of the second wire, and at that I +dropped to the ground and began to crawl after Edwards. + +The light from the arc-lights caught the horseshoes on the heels of +Edwards's boots, and they flashed to my eyes and seemed to me to +shine like the headlights of an engine! It seemed to me as if the +guards must see them. + +On he went--on--and on I followed, and behind me came Bromley. I +could hear him breathe above the beating of my own heart. + +Crawling is a slow and terrible way to travel when every instinct +cries out to run. But for about twenty yards we crawled like +snakes--changing then to the easier method of creeping on hands +and knees. + +Then three shots rang out, and it seemed as if our hearts stopped +beating--but we kept on going! Our first thought was, of course, that +we had been discovered. But no other sound came to us, and, looking +back to the _Lager_, we could still see the men moving carelessly +about. + +The bog was traversed by many ditches, and had a flat but uneven +surface, with tufts of grass here and there. It gave us no shelter, +but the winter night had fallen, and we were glad of the shelter +afforded by the darkness. We knew the moon would be up before long, +and we wanted to be as far away from the camp as possible before that +happened. + +I had gone out to work for a couple of days, to get a knowledge of +the country, and I knew from my map that there was a railway at the +edge of the bog, and as this would be the place where they would +expect to catch us, we wanted to get past it as soon as possible. But +the ditches, filled with water cold as ice, gave us great trouble. +Generally we could jump them, but sometimes they were too wide and we +had to scramble through the best we could. + +About eight o'clock the moon came up, a great ball of silver in a +clear blue sky, and turned the stagnant water of the bog to pools of +silver. It was a beautiful night to look at, but a bad night for +fugitives. Bromley, being a little heavier than either Edwards or I, +broke through the crust of the bog several times, and had difficulty +in getting out. + +About midnight, with the heavy going, he began to show signs of +exhaustion. His underwear, shrunken with cold-water washing, bound +his limbs, and he told us he could not keep up. Then we carried his +overcoat and told him we would stop to rest just as soon as we +crossed the track, if we could find a bush, and he made brave efforts +to keep up with us. + +"You'll be all right, Tom, when we get out of the swamp," we told +him. + +About half-past two we reached the railroad, and finding a close +thicket of spruce on the other side, we went in and tried to make +Bromley comfortable. He fell fast asleep as soon as he got his head +down, and it was evident to Edwards and me that our comrade was in +poor shape for a long tramp. Still we hoped that a day's rest would +revive him. He slept most of the day and seemed better before we +started out. + +The day was dry and fine, but, of course, we were wet from the hard +going across the bog, and it was too cold to be comfortable when not +moving. + +We could hear the children playing, and the wagons passing on a road +near by, and once we heard the whistle of a railway train--but no one +came near the wood. + +At nightfall we stole out and pushed off again. Bromley made a brave +attempt to keep going, but the mud and heavy going soon told on him, +and he begged us to go on and leave him. + +"If you don't go on, boys," he said, "we'll all be taken. Leave me, +and you two will have a chance. I can't make it, boys; I can only +crawl along." + +We came to a road at last and the going was easier. Bromley found he +could get along more easily, and we were making pretty fair time when +we saw something dark ahead of us. I was of the opinion that we +should go around it, but Bromley could not stand any more travelling +across country, and we pushed on. + +The dark object proved to be a house, and it was only one of many, +for we found ourselves in a small town. Then we took the first road +leading out of the town, and, walking as fast as we could, pushed +quietly out for the country, Edwards ahead, I next, and Bromley +behind. + +I heard some one whistling and thought it was Bromley, and waited for +him to come up to tell him to keep quiet, but when he came beside me, +he whispered, "They are following us." + +We went on. + +Soon a voice behind us called, "Halt!" + +"It's no use, Sim--they have us," Bromley whispered. + +Ahead of us was a little bush, toward which we kept going. We did not +run, because we thought that the people who were following us were +not sure who we were, and therefore would not be likely to shoot. +Bromley knew he could not stand a race for it in his condition, but, +knowing him as I do, I believe he would have made the effort; but I +think he saw that if he went back and surrendered, it would give us +more time to get away. + +"Go on, Sim," he whispered to me. + +We had agreed that if anything happened to one of us, the others were +to go on. We could not hope to help each other against such numbers. + +When we got opposite the wood, we made a dash for it. + +I think it was then that Bromley went back and gave himself up. I +often wondered what he told them about the other men they had seen. +Whatever he thought was best for our safety, I am sure of that, for +Bromley was a loyal comrade and the best of chums. + + * * * + +We lay there for a while, wondering what to do. We were about in the +middle of a very small grove, and knew it was a poor place to stay +in, for it was a thin wood, and the daylight was not far distant. + +Edwards, who was right beside me, whispered that he had just seen a +soldier climb a tree and another one handing him a gun. This decided +us to crawl to the edge of the wood again. But when we reached it, +Edwards, who was ahead, whispered back to me that he saw three +civilians right in front of us. + +This began to look like a tight corner. + +We determined to take a chance on the civilians' not being armed, and +make a dash for it. We did, and "the civilians" turned out to be a +group of slim evergreens. We saw a forest ahead, and made for it. The +ground was sandy and poor, and the trees were scattered and small, +and grew in clumps. The going was not hard, but the loss of Bromley +had greatly depressed us. + +Once we met a man--ran right into him--and probably scared him just +as much as he did us. He gave us a greeting, to which we grunted a +reply, a grunt being common to all languages. + +We saw the headlight of a train about three o'clock in the morning, +reminding us of the railroad to the south of us. + +Coming to a thick spruce grove, we decided to take cover for the day. +The morning was red and cloudy, with a chilly wind crackling the +trees over our heads, but as the day wore on, the wind went down and +the sun came out. It was a long day, though, and it seemed as if the +night would never come. It was too cold to sleep comfortably, but we +got a little sleep, some way. + +When we started out at night, we soon came to a ditch too wide to +jump, and as our feet were dry we did not want to wet our socks, so +took them off and went through. January is a cold month for wading +streams, and a thin crust of ice was hard on the feet. They felt +pretty numb for a while, but when we had wiped them as dry as we +could and got on our socks and boots again, they were soon all right. +But our care for our feet did not save them, for the muddy ground, +full of bog-holes, which we next encountered, made us as wet and +miserable as we could be. + +One large town--it may have been Soegel--gave us considerable trouble +getting around it. + +The time of year made the going bad. There were no vegetables in the +gardens or apples on the trees; no cows out at pasture. Even the +leaves were gone from the trees, thus making shelter harder to find. +The spruce trees and Scotch fir were our stronghold, and it was in +spruce thickets we made our hiding-places by day. + +The advantage of winter travel was the longer nights, and although +it had been raining frequently, and the coldest, most disagreeable +rains, the weather was dry during the time we were out. But the going +was heavy and bad, and when the time came to rest, we were completely +done out. + +We had put ourselves on short rations because we had not been able to +save much; we had no way of carrying it except in our pockets, and we +had to be careful not to make them bulge. We had biscuits, chocolate, +and cheese, but not being able to get even a raw turnip to supplement +our stores, we had to save them all we could. + +On January 25th, our third day out, the bush was so short we had to +lie all day to remain hidden. We could not once stand up and stretch, +and the day was interminably long. A bird's nest, deserted now, of +course, and broken, hung in a stunted Scotch fir over my head, and as +I lay looking at it I thought of the hard struggle birds have, too, +to get along, and of how they have to be on the watch for enemies. + +Life is a queer puzzle when a person has time to figure it out. We +make things hard for each other. Here we were, Ted and I, lying all +day inactive, not because we wanted to, but because we had to, to +save our lives. Lying in a patch of scrub, stiff, cold, and hungry, +when we might have been clearing it out and making of it a farm which +would raise crops and help to feed the people! Hunger sharpens a +man's mind and gives him a view of things that will never come when +the stomach is full; and as we lay there under scrub, afraid even +to speak to each other, afraid to move, for a crackling twig might +attract some dog who would bark and give the alarm, I took a short +course in sociology.... The Catholics are right about having the +people come fasting to mass, for that is the time to get spiritual +truths over to them! + +Hunger would solve all the capital and labor troubles in the world; +that is, if the employers could be starved for a week--well, not a +whole week--just about as long as we had--say, two biscuits a day for +three days, with nothing better ahead. But hunger is just a word of +two syllables to most people. They know it by sight, they can say it +and write it, but they do not know it. + +At these times the thought of liberty became a passion with us. +Still, we never minimized the danger nor allowed ourselves to become +too optimistic. We knew what was ahead of us if we were caught: the +cells and the Strafe-Barrack, with incidentals. + +On the fourth day we crossed an open patch of country, lightly +wooded, and then came to a wide moor which offered us no protection +whatever. Our only consolation was that nobody would be likely to +visit such a place. There was not even a rabbit or a bird, and the +silence was like the silence of death. + +I knew from my map that we had to cross the river Ems, and I also +knew that this would probably be the deciding factor in our escape. +If we got over the Ems, we should get the rest of the way. + +About two o'clock in the morning we reached the Ems. It is a big +river in normal times, but it was now in flood, as we could see by +the trees which stood in the water, as well as by the uprooted ones +that floated down the stream. Swimming was out of the question. + +We hunted along the bank that morning, but could find nothing, and as +daylight was coming, we had to take cover. + +All day we remained hidden in a clump of spruce and looked out upon +the cruel sweep of water that divided us from liberty. The west wind +came softly to us, bringing sounds from the Holland border, which we +knew from our map was only four or five miles away! We heard the +shunting of cars and the faint ringing of bells. + +We discussed every plan. We would search the riverbank for a boat, +though we were afraid the German thoroughness would see to it that +there was no boat on this side of any of their border rivers. Still, +they could not watch everything, and there might be one. + +Failing that, we would make a raft to carry our clothes, and swim it. +We had a knife, but no rope. I remember in "Swiss Family Robinson" +how easily things came to hand when they were needed, and I actually +looked in the dead grass at my feet to see if by any chance I might +find a rope or wire--or something. + +But there were no miracles or fairies--no fortunate happenings for +us; and when night came on again we scoured the bank for a boat, but +in vain. Never a boat could we see. + +We then drew together some of the driftwood that lay on the shore, +but when we tried it in the water it would hardly float its own +weight. I felt the hopelessness of this plan, but Ted worked on like +a beaver, and I tried to believe he had more hope than I had. But +suddenly he looked at me, as he stopped, and I felt that our last +plan was gone! + +"It's no use," he said. + +There was only the bridge left, and that, we knew, was very +dangerous. Still, there was a chance. It might not be guarded--the +guard might be gone for a few minutes. And all the time the murmurs +came to us on the wind from the Holland border, and sounded friendly +and welcoming. + +We started out to find the bridge. + +We were better dressed than Bromley and I had been, for we had on the +dark blue overcoats, but not being able to speak the language was +dead against us. + +"Even if they do get us, Sim," Ted said, "we'll try it again--if we +live through the punishment." + +"All right," I said, "I'm game." + + + +CHAPTER XV + +CAUGHT AGAIN + + +The bridge was a fine iron one without lights. The road which led +to it was not much travelled, and it looked as if it might carry us +over--without accident. Anyway, it was our only chance. + +We walked on to the bridge, taking care to make no noise, and +striking a gait that was neither slow nor fast. + +We were nine tenths of the way over the bridge, with hope springing +in our tired hearts at each step. Away to the west, straight ahead of +us, distant lights twinkled. We thought they were in Holland, and +they beckoned to our tired hearts like the lights of home. + +We were only about ten feet from the other side of the bridge, +when... suddenly a light was flashed on us, a great dazzling light +that seemed to scorch and wither us. It seemed to burn our +prison-clothes into our very souls. I'm sure the rings on my knees +showed through my overcoat! + +Into the circle of light three German soldiers came, with rifles +levelled. + +They advanced upon us until their bayonets were touching us. And +again we saw our dream of freedom fade! + +The soldiers took us in charge and marched us to Lathen, a town near +by, where part of the hotel was used as barracks. They showed us no +hostility; it was just part of their day's work to gather in escaping +prisoners. + +There was a map on the wall, and when they asked us where we came +from, we showed them Canada on the map of the North American +Continent. They were decent-looking young fellows and asked us many +questions about Canada. + +Although it was about midnight there seemed to be people on the +streets, which were brilliantly lighted. A Sergeant Major came in, +with a gendarme, who had two women with him. They were well-dressed +looking women, but I kept wondering what they were doing out so late. + +The Sergeant Major and the policeman lacked the friendliness of the +privates, and the former began the conversation by saying, "England +ist kaputt." The Sergeant Major repeated his statement, with greater +emphasis, and I put more emphasis on my reply, and there we stuck! It +did not seem that we could get any farther. It seemed a place to say, +"Time will tell." + +The gendarme was a coarse, beer-drinking type, and I kept wondering +how two such fine-looking women came to be with him. The younger and +handsomer one was not his wife, I knew--he was so attentive to her. +The other one may have been, though she was evidently his superior +in every way. Still, even in our own country very fine women are +sometimes careless about whom they marry. + +The Sergeant Major poured out a volume of questions in German, to +which we replied, "Nix forstand." + +Then the gendarme thought something was being overlooked, and he +suggested that we be searched. I was afraid of that, and had taken +the precaution of hiding the compass as well as I could, by putting +it in the bottom of the pasteboard box that held our shaving-stick. +The stick had been worn down, leaving room for the compass at the +bottom of the box. + +The soldier who searched us did not notice the compass, and handed +the shaving-stick back to me, and I breathed easier. But the gendarme +had probably done more searching than the soldier, and asked me for +it. He immediately let the stick fall out, and found the compass, +which he put in his pocket, with a wink at the others... and it was +gone. + +All our little articles were taken from us and put into two parcels, +which we were allowed to carry, but not keep, and which were +eventually returned to us, and, whether it was done by carelessness +or not I do not know, but by some fortunate circumstance my maps were +left in my pay-book case and put in the package, but I did not see +them until after my punishment was over. + +[Illustration: Map made from Paper which came in a Parcel, wrapped +around a Fruit-Cake / Notice the stain caused by the cake. This is +the map that was hidden in the cigarette-box] + +My notebook attracted the attention of the gendarme, and he took +it from me. I had made entries each day, and these he read aloud, +translating them into German as he went, much to the apparent +entertainment of the two women, who laughed at him, with a forced +gaiety which confirmed my diagnosis of their relationship. I think +he was crediting me with entries I had never made, for the central +figure seemed to be one "Rosie Fraeulein," whom I did not have the +pleasure of meeting. + +We could see that although the privates were friendly, there was no +semblance of friendliness in either the gendarme or the Sergeant +Major. I think they would have gladly shot us on the spot--if they +had dared. They were pronounced cases of anglophobia. + +The gendarme at last broke out into English, cutting his words off +with a snarl: + +"What do you fellows want to get back for anyway? England is no good! +England is a liar, and a thief." + +When he said this, I could see Edwards's face grow white and his eyes +glitter. He was breathing hard, like a man going up a steep hill, and +his hands were opening and closing. He walked over to the gendarme +and glared in his face,--"What do I want to get back for?" he +repeated in a steady voice, stretched tight like a wire, "I'll tell +you--this is not any ordinary war, where brave men fight each other. +This is a war against women and children and old men. I have fought +with the Boers in Africa, but I bore them no ill-will--they fought +like men and fought with men. I've been through Belgium--I've seen +what you have done. I have boys of my own--little fellows--just +like the ones you cut the hands off--and I will tell you why I want +to get back--I want to serve my country and my God--by killing +Germans--they're not fit to live!" + +The women drew back in alarm, though I do not think they understood +the words. Instinctively I drew up beside Edwards, for I thought it +was the end; but to our surprise the brutal face of the gendarme +relaxed into a broad grin, and he turned to the women and Sergeant +Major and made some sort of explanation. We did not know what was +coming, and then a controversy took place between the two men as to +what should be done with us. The gendarme wanted to take us, but the +ladies protested, and at last we were led away by the two privates, +carrying our two little packages of belongings. + +We went into an adjoining room, where a coal fire burned in a small +round heater, whose glow promised comfort and warmth. The privates +very kindly brought us a drink of hot coffee and some bread, and +pulled two mattresses beside the stove and told us to go to sleep. +Then they went out and brought back blankets, and with friendly looks +and smiles bade us good-night, incidentally taking our shoes with +them. + +"The Germans are a spotty race," said Ted, as we lay down. "Look at +these two fellows--and then think of those two mugs that any decent +man would want to kill at sight!"--He pointed to the room where we +had left the gendarme and the Sergeant Major. "Oh--wouldn't I enjoy +letting a bit of daylight through that policeman's fat carcass!" + +Next morning, when we awakened, our guards came again and brought us +some more coffee and bread. It was a bright morning, of sunshine, +with a frost which glistened on the pavement and the iron railing +surrounding the building we were in. + +The streets were full of people, and streamers of bunting festooned +the buildings. Children were on the streets, carrying flags, and the +place had a real holiday appearance. + +"Suppose this is all in our honor, Sim," Ted said as he looked out of +the window. "I wonder how they knew we were coming--we really did not +intend to." + +One of the guards, who had a kodak and was taking pictures of the +celebration, asked us if he could take our pictures. So we went out +to the front door, which was hung with flags, and had a picture +taken. + +"What are the flags up for?" we asked him. + +"It is the birthday of the All-Highest," he replied proudly. + +Ted said to me, so the guard could not hear, "Well, the old man has +my sincere wishes--that it may be his last." + +During the forenoon we were taken by rail to Meppen. The Sergeant +Major came with us, but did not stay in the compartment with the +guards and us. On the way the guard who had taken our photograph +showed us the proof of it, and told us he would send us one, and +had us write down our addresses. He must have been a photographer +in civil life, for he had many splendid pictures with him, and +entertained us by showing them to us. I remember one very pretty +picture of his young daughter, a lovely girl of about fourteen years +of age, standing under an apple-tree. + +Before the Sergeant Major handed us over to the military authorities +at Meppen, he told them what Edwards had said about wanting to go +back to kill Germans, but he did not tell all that Edwards had said. +However, they treated us politely and did not seem to bear us any +ill-will. + +In the civil jail at Meppen to which we were taken, and which is a +fine building with bright halls and pleasant surroundings, we were +put in clean and comfortable cells. There was a bed with mattress and +blankets, which in the daytime was locked up against the wall, toilet +accommodations, drinking-water, chair, table, wash-basin, and comb. +It looked like luxury to us, and after a bowl of good soup I went to +sleep. + +I wakened the next morning much refreshed and in good spirits. The +guard was polite and obliging, and when I said, "Guard, I like your +place," his face broke into a friendly grin which warmed my heart. +Ted had spoken truly when he said the Germans were a "spotty race." +It is a spotty country, too, and one of the pleasant spots to us was +the civil jail at Meppen. + +Of course, to men who had been sleeping in beds and eating at tables +and going in and out at their own pleasure, it would have been a +jail; but to us, dirty, tired, hungry, red-eyed from loss of sleep, +and worn with anxiety, it was not a jail--it was a haven of rest. And +in the twenty-four hours that we spent there we made the most of it, +for we well knew there were hard times coming! + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE INVISIBLE BROTHERHOOD + + +A special guard was sent from Vehnemoor to bring us back, and we had +to leave our comfortable quarters at Meppen and go back with him. + +The guard took a stout rope and tied us together, my right wrist to +Edwards's left, and when we were securely roped up, he tried to +enlighten us further by dancing around us, shouting and brandishing +his gun, occasionally putting it against our heads and pretending he +was about to draw the trigger. This was his way of explaining that he +would shoot us if we didn't behave ourselves. + +We tried to look back at him with easy indifference, and when he saw +that he had not succeeded in frightening us, he soon ceased to try. +However, from the wicked looks he gave us, we could see that he would +be glad to shoot us--if he had a reasonable excuse. + +At the station in Meppen, where he took us fully an hour before train +time, as we stood in the waiting-room with the guard beside us, the +people came and looked curiously at us. The groups grew larger and +larger, until we were the centre of quite a circle. We did not enjoy +the notoriety very much, but the guard enjoyed it immensely, for was +he not the keeper of two hardened and desperate men? + +We noticed that the majority of the women were dressed in black. Some +of them were poor, sad, spiritless-looking creatures who would make +any person sorry for them; and others I saw whose faces were as hard +as the men's. The majority of them, however, seemed to be quite +indifferent; they showed neither hostility nor friendliness to us. + +We changed cars at Leer, where on the platform a drunken German +soldier lurched against us, and, seeing us tied together, offered to +lend us his knife to cut the cord, but the guard quickly frustrated +his kind intention. + +At Oldenburg we were herded through the crowded station and taken out +on the road for Vehnemoor, the guard marching solemnly behind us. He +knew we had no firearms, and we were tied together, but when Ted put +his free hand in his pocket to find some chocolate, as we walked +along, the guard screamed at him in fear. He seemed to be afraid we +would in some way outwit him. + +But he was quite safe from us; not that we were afraid of either him +or his gun, for I think I could have swung suddenly around on him and +got his gun away from him, while Edwards cut our cords with the knife +which was in my little package. I think he knew that we could do +this, and that is why he was so frightened. + +But there was one big reason which caused us to walk quietly and +peaceably forward to take our punishment, and that was the river Ems, +with its cruel sweep of icy water and its guarded bridges. We knew it +was impossible to cross it at this season of the year, so the guard +was safe. We would not resist him, but already we were planning our +next escape when the flood had subsided and the summer had come to +warm the water. + +He had a malicious spirit, this guard, and when we came to Vehnemoor +and were put in our cells, he wanted our overcoats taken from us, +although the cells were as cold as outside. The Sergeant of the guard +objected to this, and said we were not being punished, but only held +here, and therefore we should not be deprived of our coats. Several +times that night, when we stamped up and down to keep from freezing, +I thought of the guard and his desire that our coats should be taken +from us, and I wondered what sort of training or education could +produce as mean a spirit as that! Surely, I thought, he must have +been cruelly treated, to be so hard of heart--or probably he knew +that the way of promotion in the German army is to show no softness +of spirit. + +But the morning came at last, and we were taken before the +Commandant, and wondered what he would have to say to us. We were +pretty sure that we had not "retained his friendship." + +He did not say much to us when we were ushered into his little +office and stood before his desk. He spoke, as before, through an +interpreter. He looked thin and worried, and, as usual, the questions +were put to us--"Why did we want to leave?" "What reason had we? Was +it the food, or was it because we had to work?" + +[Illustration: Friedrichsfeld Prison-Camp in Winter] + +We said it was not for either of these; we wanted to regain our +freedom; we were free men, and did not want to be held in an enemy +country; besides, we were needed! + +We could see the Commandant had no interest in our patriotic +emotions. He merely wanted to wash his hands of us, and when we said +it was not on account of the poor food, or having to work, I think he +breathed easier. Would we sign a paper--he asked us then--to show +this? And we said we would. So the paper was produced and we signed +it, after the interpreter had read and explained it to us. + +In the cells the food was just the same as we had had before, in the +regular prison-camp. They seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of +that soup. We wondered if there was a flowing well of it somewhere in +the bog. The food was no worse, but sometimes the guards forgot us. +The whole camp seemed to be running at loose ends, and sometimes the +guards did not come near us for half a day, but we were not so badly +off as they thought, for we got in things from our friends. + +On the first morning, when we were taken to the lavatory, we saw some +of the boys. They were very sorry to know we had been caught, and +told us Bromley had been sent to Oldenburg a few days before, for his +punishment. They also told us that the night we escaped, no alarm had +been given, although the guards may have noticed the hanging wires. +Several of the boys had had the notion to go when they saw the wires +down, but they were afraid of being caught. The general opinion was +that the guards knew we had gone, but did not give the alarm until +morning, because they had no desire to cross the bog at night. + +Our method of getting stuff to the cell was simple. I wore my own +overcoat to the lavatory, and hung it up inside. When I went to get +it, I found another coat was hanging beside it, which I put on and +wore back to the cell. In the pocket of the "other coat" I found +things--bread, cheese, sardines, biscuits, and books. The next day I +wore the other coat, and got my own, and found its pockets equally +well supplied. It was a fellow called Iguellden, whose coat I had +on alternate days. He watched for me, and timed his visit to the +lavatory to suit me. Of course, the other boys helped him with the +contributions. Edwards was equally well supplied. In the prison-camp +the word "friend" has an active and positive quality in it which it +sometimes lacks in normal times. + +On the second night in the cell I suffered from the cold, for it was +a very frosty night, and as the cells were not heated at all, they +were quite as cold as outside. + +I was stamping up and down, with my overcoat buttoned up to the neck +and my hands in my pockets, trying to keep warm, when the new guard +came on at seven o'clock. He shouted something at me, which I did not +understand, but I kept on walking. Then he pounded on the wall with +the butt of his rifle, crying, "Schlafen! schlafen!" + +To which I replied, "Nix schlafen!" (I can't sleep!) + +I then heard the key turn in the door, and I did not know what might +be coming. + +When he came in, he blew his breath in the frosty air, and asked, +"Kalt?" + +I did not think he needed to take my evidence--it certainly was +"kalt." + +Then he muttered something which I did not understand, and went out, +returning about twenty minutes later with a blanket which he had +taken from one of the empty beds in the _Revier_. I knew he was +running a grave risk in doing this, for it is a serious offense for +a guard to show kindness to a prisoner, and I thanked him warmly. He +told me he would have to take it away again in the morning when he +came on guard again, and I knew he did not want any of the other +guards to see it. My word of thanks he cut short by saying, "Bitte! +bitte! Ich thue es gerne" (I do it gladly); and his manner indicated +that his only regret was that he could not do more. + +I thought about him that night when I sat with the blanket wrapped +around me, and I wondered about this German soldier. He evidently +belonged to the same class as the first German soldier I had met +after I was captured, who tried to bandage my shoulder when the +shells were falling around us; to the same class as good old Sank +at Giessen, who, though he could speak no English, made us feel his +kindness in a hundred ways; to the same class as the German soldier +who lifted me down from the train when on my way to Roulers. This +man was one of them, and I began to be conscious of that invisible +brotherhood which is stronger and more enduring than any tie of +nationality, for it wipes out the differences of creed or race +or geographical boundary, and supersedes them all, for it is a +brotherhood of spirit, and bears no relation to these things. + +To those who belong to it I am akin, no matter where they were born +or what the color of their uniform! + +Then I remembered how bitterly we resented the action of a British +Sergeant Major at Giessen, who had been appointed by the German +officer in charge to see after a working party of our boys. Working +parties were not popular--we had no desire to help the enemy--and one +little chap, the Highland bugler from Montreal, refused to go out. +The German officer was disposed to look lightly on the boy's offense, +saying he would come all right, but the British Sergeant Major +insisted that the lad be punished--and he was. + +I thought of these things that night in the cell, and as I slept, +propped up in the corner, I dreamed of that glad day when the +invisible brotherhood will bind together all the world, and men will +no more go out to kill and wound and maim their fellow-men, but their +strength will be measured against sin and ignorance, disease and +poverty, and against these only will they fight, and not against each +other. + +When I awakened in the morning, stiff and cramped and shivering, my +dream seemed dim and vague and far away--but it had not entirely +faded. + +That day the guard who brought me soup was a new one whom I had not +seen before, and he told me he was one of the twenty-five new men who +had been sent down the night we escaped. I was anxious to ask him +many things, but I knew he dared not tell me. However, he came in and +sat down beside me, and the soup that he brought was steaming hot, +and he had taken it from the bottom of the pot, where there were +actual traces of meat and plenty of vegetables. Instead of the usual +bowlful, he had brought me a full quart, and from the recesses of his +coat he produced half a loaf of white bread--"Swiss bread" we called +it--and it was a great treat for me. I found out afterwards that Ted +had received the other half. The guard told me to keep hidden what I +did not eat then, so I knew he was breaking the rules in giving it +to me. + +He sat with his gun between his knees, muzzle upwards, and while I +ate the soup he talked to me, asking me where I came from, and what +I had been doing before the war. + +When I told him I had been a carpenter, he said he was a +bridge-builder of Trieste, and he said, "I wish I was back at it; +it is more to my liking to build things than to destroy them." + +I said I liked my old job better than this one, too, whereupon he +broke out impatiently, "We're fools to fight each other. What spite +have you and I at each other?" + +I told him we had no quarrel with the German people, but we knew the +military despotism of Germany had to be literally smashed to pieces +before there could be any peace, and, naturally enough, the German +people had to suffer for having allowed such a tyrant to exist in +their country. We were all suffering in the process, I said. + +"It's money," he said, after a pause. "It is the money interests that +work against human interests every time, and all the time. The big +ones have their iron heel on our necks. They lash us with the whip +of starvation. They have controlled our education, our preachers, +government, and everything, and the reason they brought on the war is +that they were afraid of us--we were getting too strong. In the last +election we had nearly a majority, and the capitalists saw we were +going to get the upper hand, so to set back the world, they brought +on the war--to kill us off. At first we refused to fight--some of +us--but they played up the hatred of England which they have bred +in us; and they stampeded many of our people on the love of the +Fatherland. Our ranks broke; our leaders were put in jail and some +were shot; it's hard to go back on your country, too. + +"But I don't believe in nationalities any more; nationalities are a +curse, and as long as we have them, the ruling class will play us +off, one against the other, to gain their own ends. There is only one +race--the human race--and only two divisions of it; there are those +who represent money rights and special privileges, and those who +stand for human rights. The more you think of it, the more you will +see the whole fabric of society resolving itself into these two +classes. The whole military system is built on the sacrifice of human +rights." + +I looked at him in astonishment. + +"Who are you?" I asked. + +"I am just a bridge-builder," he answered, "but I'm a follower of +Liebknecht... We can't do much until the Prussian system is defeated. +There are just a few of us here--the guard who got you the blanket +is one of us. We do what we can for the prisoners; sometimes we are +caught and strafed.... There is no place for kindness in our army," +he added sadly. + +"I must go now," he said; "I heard one of the guards say we were +going to be moved on to another camp. I may not see you again, but +I'll speak to a guard I know, who will try to get the good soup for +you. The Sergeant of the guard is all right, but some of them are +devils; they are looking for promotion, and know the way to get it is +to excel in cruelty. We shall not meet, but remember, we shall win! +Germany's military power will be defeated. Russia's military power +is crumbling now, the military power of the world is going down to +defeat, but the people of all nations are going to win!" + +We stood up and shook hands, and he went out, locking me in the cell +as before. + +I have thought long and often of the bridge-builder of Trieste and +his vision of the victory which is coming to the world, and I, too, +can see that it is coming, not by explosions and bombardments, with +the shrieks of the wounded and the groans of the dying--not that way +will it come--but when these have passed there shall be heard a +still, small voice which will be the voice of God, and its words +shall be-- + +"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself!" + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE CELLS AT OLDENBURG + + +It was on February 3d that we were taken from Vehnemoor to Oldenburg, +and when we started out on the road along the canal, roped together +as before, Ted and I knew we were going up against the real thing as +far as punishment goes, for we should not have Iguellden and the rest +of the boys to send us things. We came out of the Vehnemoor Camp with +somewhat of a reluctant feeling, for we knew we were leaving kind +friends behind us. Ted had received the same treatment that I had in +the matter of the blankets and the good soup--thanks to the friendly +guard. + +It was in the early morning we started, and as Vehnemoor was almost +straight west of Oldenburg, we had the sun in our faces all the way +in. It was good to be out again--and good to look at something other +than board walls. + +Our road lay along the canal which connected Vehnemoor with +Oldenburg. Peat sheds, where the peat was put to dry after it was +cut, were scattered along the canal, and we passed several +flat-bottomed canal-boats carrying the peat into Oldenburg. They +were drawn by man-power, and naturally made slow progress. + +The canal furnished a way of transportation for the small farmers +living near it, too, whose little farms had been reclaimed from the +bog, and their produce was brought into Oldenburg on the canal-boats. +We could see better-looking buildings back farther, where the land +was more fertile. At one place we saw a canal-boat with sails, but as +the day was still it lay inactive, fastened to an iron post. + +The settlement seemed to be comparatively recent, judging by the +small apple-trees around the buildings, and it looked as if this +section of the country had all been waste land until the canal had +been put through. + +When we arrived at Oldenburg, which we did early in the morning, we +were marched through its narrow streets to the military prison. We +could see that the modern part of the city was very well built and up +to date, with fine brick buildings, but the old part, which dates +back to the eleventh century, was dirty and cheerless. + +The prison to which we were taken was a military prison before the +war, where the German soldiers were punished, and from the very first +we could see that it was a striking example of German efficiency--in +the way of punishment. Nothing was left to chance! + +We were searched first, and it was done by removing all our clothing. +Then, piece by piece, the guard looked them over. He ran his hand +under the collar of our shirts; he turned our pockets inside out; he +patted the lining of our coats; he turned out our stockings and shook +them; he looked into our boots. As he finished with each article, +it was thrown over to us and we dressed again. Our caps, overcoats, +braces, belts, and knives were taken away from us. They were careful +to see that we should not be tempted to commit suicide. + +When I saw my cap go, I wondered if my maps, which I had sewed in the +pasteboard, would escape this man's hawk eyes. I thought I had lost +my other maps, and wondered how we should ever replace them. But it +would be time enough to think of that--when we got out. + +The guard's manner was typical of the management at Oldenburg. It had +no element of humanity in it. It was a triumph of _Kultur_. The men +might as well have been dummies, set by a clock and run by +electricity. + +There was a blackboard on the wall which told how many prisoners were +in the institution and what they were getting. The strongest and +worst punishment given is called "Streng Arrest," and the number who +were getting it was three. The guard, while we were there, rubbed out +the 3 and put in a 5. + +Ted and I looked at each other. + +"That's us," he said. + +Our two little parcels were deposited in a locker downstairs, where +other parcels of a like nature were bestowed, and we were conducted +up a broad stair and along a passage, and saw before us a long hall, +lined with doors sheeted with steel. + +The guard walked ahead; Ted and I followed. At last he unlocked a +door, and we knew one of us had reached his abiding-place. + +"I always did like a stateroom in the middle of the boat," Ted said, +as the guard motioned to him to go in. That was the last word I heard +for some time, for the guard said not a word to me. He came into the +cell with me, and shut the iron door over the window, excluding every +particle of light. + +I just had time to see that the cell was a good-sized one--as cells +go. In one corner there was a steam coil, but it was stone cold, and +remained so all the time I was there. There was a shelf, on which +stood a brown earthen pitcher for drinking-water--but nothing else. +Our footsteps rang hollow on the cement floor, which had a damp +feeling, like a cellar, although it was above the ground floor. + +Without a word the guard went out, and the key turned in the lock +with a click which had a sound of finality about it that left no room +for argument. + +Well, it has come, I thought to myself--the real hard German +punishment... they had me at last. The other time we had outwitted +them and gained many privileges of which they knew nothing, and +Malvoisin had cheered me through the dark hours. + +Here there was no Malvoisin, no reading-crack, no friends, nothing to +save us. + +They had us! + +We had staked the little bit of freedom we had on the chance of +getting full freedom. It was a long chance, but we had taken it--and +lost! + +I knew the object of all their punishment was to break our wills and +make us docile, pliable, and week-kneed like the Russians we had seen +in the camps--poor, spiritless fellows who could give no trouble. + +Well--we would show them they could not break ours! + + * * * + +The eight-mile walk had tired me, and I lay down on the platform to +try to sleep, but it was a long time before I could close my eyes: +the darkness was so heavy, so choking and horrible. If there had been +even one gleam of light it wouldn't have been so bad, but I couldn't +even see a gleam under the door, and every time I tried to sleep the +silence bothered me--if I could only hear one sound, to tell me some +one was alive and stirring about! Still, I kept telling myself, I +must put it in, some way--I must--I must--I must. + + * * * + +When I awakened, my first thought was that it was still night! Then I +remembered it was all night for me, and the thought set me shivering. +My hands were stiff and cold, and I missed my overcoat. + +The waking-up was the worst time of all, for my teeth chattered and +my knees trembled, so it was hard to stand. But when I had stamped +up and down for a while, I felt better. It must be near morning, I +thought. I should know when it was morning, because the guard would +come and let me have ten minutes to sweep my cell, and then I should +see Ted. I should perhaps get a chance to speak to him--even a wink +would help! + +It was a larger cell than the one at Giessen, and after sitting still +for a while I got up and walked up and down. I could take four steps +each way, by not stepping too far. My steps echoed on the cement +floor, and I quite enjoyed seeing how much noise I could make, and +wondered if anybody heard me. But when I stopped and leaned up +against the wall, I could hear nothing. Then I sat down again and +waited. + +I remembered how, after the cells, the Strafe-Barrack did not seem +too bad, for we could see people and talk occasionally; and after the +Strafe-Barrack the prison-camp was comparative freedom, for we could +get our parcels and read, and see the boys, so I thought I will +pretend now that my punishment was sitting still.... I can't move a +muscle; the cut-throat guard that was over us in the Strafe-Barrack +is standing over me with his bayonet against my chest--I must not +move--or he'll drive it in.... I wish I could change my position--my +neck is cramped.... + +Then I jumped up and walked up and down, and tried to tell myself it +was good to be able to move! But I caught myself listening all the +time--listening for the guard to come and open the door! + + * * * + +It seemed a whole day since we came, and still there was no sound at +the door. The guard must have forgotten us, I thought.... The guards +at Vehnemoor forgot to bring us soup sometimes.... These mechanical +toys may have run down; the power may have gone off, and the whole +works have shut down. Certainly the lights seem to have gone out. I +laughed at that. Well, I would try to sleep again; that was the best +way to get the time in. + +I tried to keep myself thinking normally, but the thought would come +pushing in upon me, like a ghostly face at a window, that the guard +had forgotten us. I told myself over and over again that we had come +in at noon, and this was the first day; it was bound to be long, I +must wait! They--had--not--forgotten us. + + * * * + +I knew exactly what I should look like when they found me. My hair +would be long, falling over my shoulders, and my beard--not red, +but white--would be down to my waist,--for people live for weeks on +water, and my nails would be so long they would turn back again... +and my hands would be like claws, with the white bones showing +through the skin, and the knuckles knotted and bruised. I remembered +seeing a cat once that had been forgotten in a cellar... It had worn +its claws off, scratching at the wall. + +Then a chill seized me, and I began to shiver. That frightened me, so +I made a bargain with myself--I must not think, I must walk. Thinking +is what sends people crazy. + +I got up then and began to pace up and down. Twelve feet each way was +twenty-four feet. There were five thousand two hundred and eighty +feet in a mile--so I would walk a mile before I stopped--I would walk +a mile, and I would not think! + +I started off on my mile walk, and held myself to it by force of +will, one hundred and ten rounds. Once I lost the count and had to go +back to where I did remember, and so it was really more than a mile. +But when it was done, and I sat down, beyond a little healthy +tingling in my legs I did not feel at all different. I was +listening--listening just the same. + +Ted and I had agreed that if we were side by side, we would pound on +the wall as a sign. Four knocks would mean "I--am--all--right." I +pounded the wall four times, and listened. There was no response. + +Then, for a minute, the horror seized me--Ted was dead--every one was +dead--I was the only one left! + +If the authorities in our prisons could once feel the horror of the +dark cell when the overwrought nerves bring in the distorted +messages, and the whole body writhes in the grip of fear,--choking, +unreasoning, panicky fear,--they would abolish it forever. + + * * * + +After an eternity, it seemed, the key sounded in the lock and the +guard came in, letting in a burst of light which made me blink. He +came over to the window, swung open the iron door, and the cell was +light! + +"What time is it?" I asked him in German. + +He knew his business--this guard. He answered not a word. What has a +prisoner to do with time--except "do" it. He handed me a broom--like +a stable broom--and motioned me to sweep. It was done all too soon. + +He then took me with him along the hall to the lavatory. At the far +end of the hall and coming from the lavatory, another prisoner was +being brought back with a guard behind him. His clothes hung loose on +him, and he walked slowly. The light came from the end of the hall +facing me, and I could not see very well. + +When we drew near, a cry broke from him-- + +"Sim!" he cried. "Good God!... I thought you were in Holland." + +It was Bromley! + +Then the guard poked him in the back and sent him stumbling past me. +I turned and called to him, but my guard pushed me on. + + * * * + +I put in as much time washing as I could, hoping that Ted would be +brought out, but I did not see him that day or the next. + +At last I had to go back, and as the guard shoved me in again to that +infernal hole of blackness, he gave me a slice of bread. I had filled +my pitcher at the tap. + +This was my daily ration the first three days. I was hungry, but I +was not sick, for I had considerable reserve to call upon, but when +the fourth day came I was beginning to feel the weariness which is +not exactly a pain, but is worse than any pain. I did not want to +walk--it tired me, and my limbs ached as if I had _la grippe._ I soon +learned to make my bread last as long as it would, by eating it in +instalments, and it required some will-power to do this. + +Thoughts of food came to torture me--when I slept, my dreams were all +of eating. I was home again, and mother was frying doughnuts.... Then +I was at the Harvest-Home Festival in the church, and downstairs in +the basement there were long tables set. The cold turkey was heaped +up on the plates, with potatoes and corn on the cob; there were rows +of lemon pies, with chocolate cakes and strawberry tarts. I could +hear the dishes rattling and smell the coffee! I sat down before a +plate of turkey, and was eating a leg, all brown and juicy--when I +awakened. + +There is a sense in which hunger sharpens a man's perceptions, and +makes him see the truth in a clearer light--but starvation, the slow, +gnawing starvation, when the reserve is gone, and every organ, every +muscle, every nerve cries out for food--it is of the devil. The +starving man is a brute, with no more moral sense than the gutter +cat. His mind follows the same track--he wants food... + +Why do our authorities think they can reform a man by throwing him +into a dark cell and starving him? + + * * * + +There was a hole in the door, wide on the inside and just big enough +on the outside for an eye, where the guards could spy on us. We could +not get a gleam of light through it, though, for it was covered with +a button on the outside. + +On the fourth day I had light in my cell, and it was aired. Also, I +got soup that day, and more bread, and I felt better. I saw Ted for +a few seconds. He was very pale, but bearing it well. Though the +sunburn was still on his face, the pallor below made it ghastly; but +he walked as straight as ever. + +I climbed up to the window, by standing on the platform, and could +just see over. Down below in the courtyard soldiers were gathering +for roll-call, and once I saw recruits getting their issue of +uniforms.... Sometimes the courtyard was empty, but I kept on +watching until the soldiers came. At least they were something--and +alive! During the light day, probably as a result of the additional +food, I slept nearly all day. + +When I awakened, the cell was getting dark. I have heard people say +the sunset is a lonely time, when fears come out, and apprehensions +creep over them... and all their troubles come trooping home. I +wonder what they would think of a sunset which ushered in eighty-four +hours of darkness!... I watched the light fading on the wall, a +flickering, sickly glow that paled and faded and died, and left my +eyes, weakened now by the long darkness, quite misty and dim. + +And then the night, the long night came down, without mercy. + + * * * + +On one of my light days the guard forgot to bring my soup. He brought +the coffee in the morning, and went out again at once. I thought +he had gone for the bread, but when he did not come, I drank the +coffee--which was hot and comforting. He did not come near me all +day. It may have been the expectation of food, together with the hot +coffee, which stimulated my stomach, for that day I experienced what +starving men dread most of all--the hunger-pain. It is like a +famished rat that gnaws and tears. I writhed on the floor and cried +aloud in my agony, while the cold sweat dripped from my face and +hands. I do not remember what I said... I do not want to remember... + +That night when I saw the light growing dim in the cell, and the long +black night setting in, I began to think that there was a grave +possibility that this sentence might finish me. I might die under it! +And my people would never know--"Died--Prisoner of War No. 23445, +Pte. M. C. Simmons"--that is all they would see in the casualty list, +and it would not cause a ripple of excitement here. The guard would +go back for another one, and a stretcher... I shouldn't be much of a +carry, either! + +Then I stood up and shook my fist at the door, including the whole +German nation! I was not going to die! + +Having settled the question, I lay down and slept. + +When I awakened, I knew I had slept a long time. My tongue was +parched and dry, and my throat felt horribly, but my pain was gone. +I wasn't hungry now--I was just tired. + +Then I roused myself. "This is starvation," I whispered to myself; +"this is the way men die--and that's what--I am not going to do!" + +The sound of my own voice gave me courage. I then compelled my +muscles to do their work, and stood up and walked up and down, though +I noticed the wall got in my road sometimes. I had a long way to go +yet, and I knew it depended now on my will-power. + +My beard was long and my hair tangled and unkempt. I should have +liked a shave and a hair-cut, but this is part of the punishment and +has a depressing effect on the prisoner. It all helps to break a man +down. + + * * * + +I kept track of the days by marking on the wall each day with my +finger-nail, and so I knew when the two weeks were drawing to a +close. The expectation of getting out began to cheer me--and the last +night I was not able to sleep much, for I thought when the key turned +next time I should be free! I wondered if we could by any chance hear +what had happened on the battle-front. Right away I began to feel +that I was part of the world again--and a sort of exultation came to +me... + +They--had--not--broken me! + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +PARNEWINKEL CAMP + + +The key turned at last! + +Entering, the guard, with face as impassive as ever, motioned to me +to sweep out. I wondered if I could have mistaken the number of days, +or if... we were going to get longer than the two weeks. + +He did not enlighten me! I was taken out to wash, and filled my brown +pitcher at the tap--just as usual. Then came the moment of tense +anxiety.... Would he lock me in? + +He gave me the usual allowance of bread, which I put in my pocket, as +a man who was going on a journey and wants to be on his way, without +waiting to eat. + +Then he motioned to me to come out, and I knew we were free! Ted was +at the door of his cell, and we followed the guard downstairs without +speaking. + +In the room below our things were given back to us. I dared not +examine my cap to see if my maps had been touched, but I could not +keep from turning it around as if to be sure it was mine. Certainly +it looked all right. Our two little parcels, still unopened, were +returned to us, and the guard from Vehnemoor who had come for us had +brought one of the prisoners with him to carry our stuff that had +been left there, blankets, wash-basin, clogs, etc. + +[Illustration: Map which Private Simmons got from the Canadian Artist +at Giessen, and which was sewed inside the Pasteboard of his Cap / His +successful journey from Selsingen to Holland is indicated by the dotted +line ............ / The unsuccessful attempt is shown ---------- from +Oldenburg] + +From the prisoner we got the news of the camp. + +"How are the folks at home?" we asked him. + +"Ninety of the worst ones--since you two fellows and Bromley +left--were taken to another camp, and when they were moving them +McKinnon and another fellow beat it--but we're afraid they were +caught." + +"Why?" we asked him. + +"They catch them all; nobody gets out of Germany alive." + +"You talk like a guard!" Ted said. + +"Well," said the boy (I am sorry I forget his name), "look here. Who +do you know that has got away? You didn't; Bromley didn't; the two +Frenchmen who went the night before you went didn't. Do you hear of +any who did?" + +"Keep your ear to the ground and you will!" said Ted. + +"They'll shoot you the next time," he said earnestly. "If I were you, +I wouldn't try it." + +Then the guard came, and we could say no more. + +Again we were taken to the station and put on the train. Our hands +were not tied this time; we were just ordinary prisoners now--we had +done ours. Besides, I suppose they knew we shouldn't run far--that +had been taken out of us by the "cells." + +But our good spirits came back when the train started. We went east +towards Rotenburg, through the same sort of low, marshy country we +had travelled before, with scrubby trees and plenty of heather moor. + +We passed through Bremen again, where we got a glimpse of white +sails, and then on to Rotenburg, where we changed cars and had to +wait for two hours. + +Of course we were hungry--the Oldenburg prison had not sent us out +well fed to meet the world, and the one slice of bread had gone. But +we had prison-stamps, and our guard took us to the lunch-counter at +Rotenburg, where we got a cup of real coffee, some bread, and an +orange. The guard paid for what we got with his own money, accepting +our stamps in payment. Our stamps were good only at Vehnemoor Camp, +having the name "Vehnemoor" stamped on them. + +I suppose we were two tough-looking characters. The people seemed to +think so, for they looked at us with startled faces, and a little +girl who was crossing the platform ran back in alarm to her mother +when she saw us coming. + +We arrived at Dienstedt after nightfall, and walked out a mile along +a rough road to the camp, which was one of the Cellelager +group--Cellelager I. + +We saw that it consisted of two huts, and when we entered the hut +to which we were taken, we saw nothing but Russians, pale-faced, +dark-eyed, bearded Russians. They were sitting around, hardly +speaking to each other, some mending their clothes, some reading, +some staring idly ahead of them. We were beginning to be afraid they +had sent us to a camp where there was no one but Russians, until we +saw some British, at the other end. + +"By Jove, I'll bet you're hungry," a big fellow said, reaching up +into his bunk and bringing out a pasteboard parcel. "Here you are, +matey; there's a bit of cheese and biscuits. I've a bit of water +heatin', too; we'll get you something to drink. Get something into +you; we ain't bad done for 'ere with our parcels comin' reglar." + +The other men brought out boxes, too,--currant-loaf, sardines, +fruit-cake, and chocolate. There were three coal-stoves in the room, +and on one of these a pan of water was steaming. They had condensed +milk and cocoa, and made us up mugs of it, and I never, anywhere, +tasted anything so good. + +There were two tiers of bunks in the room, but around the wall there +was an open space where there were some little tables. Two of the +Englishmen, who were playing cards, put them away and offered us +their table. + +"Here, boys, be comfortable; sit right down here and let us see you +eat." + +We let them see us! We ate like wolf-hounds. We ate, not until we +were satisfied, but until we were ashamed! And still the invitations +to eat were heard on every side. We were welcome to the last crumb +they had! + +When at last we stopped, they began to tell us about the camp. It +seemed that the distinguishing feature was _lice!_ It had never been +fumigated, and the condition was indescribable. "We're bad enough," +one of the Englishmen said, "but the Russians are in holes." + +Then they told us what they had done to attract the attention of the +authorities. The branch camps are never inspected or visited, as +are the main camps such as Cellelager itself and Giessen, and so +conditions in the out-of-the-way camps have been allowed to sink far +below the level of these. + +"We each wrote a card to some one in England, telling them about the +lice. We would have stretched it--if we could--but we couldn't. We +drew pictures, and told what these lice could do; especially we told +about the Russians, and how bad they were. There are twenty-one of +us, and there went out twenty-one cards all dealing with the same +subject. The censor began to feel crawly, I'll bet, before he got far +into reading them, and he would not let one of those cards out of +Germany. It wouldn't have sounded very good to the neutral countries. +So along came one of the head officers. He came in swaggering, but, +by George, he went out scratching! And he certainly got something +moving. We're all going down to Cellelager to-morrow to be fumigated; +and while we're out, there's going to be a real old-fashioned +house-cleaning! You're just in time, boys. Have you got any?" + +"We did not have any," we said, "when we came." + +"Well, you'll get them here, just sitting around. They're all over +the floor and crawl up the leg of your chair; they crawl up the wall +and across the ceiling and drop down on your head and down the back +of your collar; they're in the walls and in the beds now. But their +days are numbered, for we are all going up to Cellelager to-morrow to +be fumigated. They're running a special train, and taking us all." + +That night Ted and I slept on two benches in the middle of the room, +but we found that what the boys said was true. They had crawled up on +us, or else had fallen from the ceiling, or both. We had them! + +But the next day we made the trip to Cellelager by special +train--"The Louse Train" it was called. + +The fumigator was the same as at Giessen, and it did its work well. +While the clothes were baking, we stood in a well-heated room to wait +for them. The British and French, having received parcels, were in +good condition, but the Russians, who had to depend entirely on the +prison-fare, were a pitiful sight. They looked, when undressed, like +the India famine victims, with their washboard ribs and protruding +stomachs, dull eyes and parched skin. The sores caused by the lice +were deep and raw, and that these conditions, together with the bad +water and bad food, had had fatal results, could be seen in the +Russian cemetery at Cellelager I, where the white Russian crosses +stand, row on row. The treatment of Russian prisoners will be a hard +thing for Germany to explain to the nations when the war is over. + +Parnewinkel was the name of the village near Cellelager I, and this +name was printed on the prison-stamps which we used. The camp was +built on a better place than the last one, and it was well drained, +but the water was bad and unfit to drink unless boiled. + +As the spring came on, many of the Russians went out to work with the +farmers, and working parties, mostly made up of Russians, were sent +out each day. Their work was to dig ditches through the marshes, to +reclaim the land. To these working parties soup was sent out in the +middle of the day, and I, wishing to gain a knowledge of the country, +volunteered for "Suppentragen." + +A large pot, constructed to hold the heat by having a smaller one +inside which held the soup, was carried by two of us, with a stick +through the handle, to the place where the Russians were working, and +while they were attending to the soup, we looked around and learned +what we could of the country. I saw a method of smoking meat which +was new to me, at a farmhouse near where the Russians were making a +road. Edwards and I, with some others, had carried out the soup. The +Russians usually ate their soup in the cow-stable part of the house, +but the British and Canadians went right into the kitchen. In this +house everything was under one roof--that is, cows, chickens, +kitchen, and living-room--and from the roof of the kitchen the hams +were hung. The kitchen stove had two or three lengths of pipe, just +enough to start the smoke in the right direction, but not enough to +lead it out of the house. Up among the beams it wound and curled and +twisted, wrapping the hams round and round, and then found its way +out in the best way it could. Of course some of it wandered down to +the kitchen where the women worked, and I suppose it bothered them, +but women are the suffering sex in Germany; a little smoke in their +eyes is not here or there. + +The houses we saw had thatched roofs, with plastered walls, and I +think in every case the cow-stable was attached. Dairying was the +chief industry; that and the raising of pigs, for the land is poor +and marshy. Still, if the war lasts long enough, the bad lands of +Germany will be largely reclaimed by the labor of Russian prisoners. +It's cheap and plentiful. There were ninety thousand of them bagged +in one battle in the early days of the war, at the Mazurian Lakes! +The Russians are for the most part simple, honest fellows, very sad +and plaintive, and deserving of better treatment than they have had. + +When the Russians had gone out to work, leaving only the sick ones, +and the English and French, sometimes there were not enough well +prisoners for "Suppentragen," for the British were clever in the +matter of feigning sickness. The _Revier_ was in charge of a doctor +and a medical Sergeant, who gave exemption from work very easily. +Then there were ways of getting sick which were confusing to doctors. + +Some one found out how to raise a swelling, and there was quite an +epidemic of swollen wrists and ankles. A little lump of earth in a +handkerchief, pounded gently on the place, for twenty minutes or so, +will bring the desired result. Soap-pills will raise the temperature. +Tobacco, eaten, will derange the heart. These are well-known methods +of achieving sick-leave. + +I had a way all my own. I had a loose toe-nail, quite ready to come +off, but I noticed it in time, and took great care not to let it come +off. Then I went to the doctor to have it removed. On that I got +exemption till the nail grew. + + * * * + +One day at Parnewinkel, Edwards and I were called into the +Commandant's office, whither we went with many misgivings--we did not +know how much he knew of us and our plans. + +But the honest man only wanted to pay us. Edwards had worked quite a +bit at Vehnemoor, but I couldn't remember that I had worked at all. +However, he insisted that I had one and a half days to my credit, +and paid me twenty-seven pfennigs, or six and three quarter cents! I +remembered then that I had volunteered for work on the bog, for the +purpose of seeing what the country was like around the camp. I signed +a receipt for the amount he gave me, and the transaction was entered +in a book, and the receipt went back to the head camp. + +"Look at that," said Ted; "they starve us, but if we work they will +pay us, even taking considerable pains to thrust our wages upon us. +Of a truth they are a 'spotty' people." + +However, the reason for paying us for our work was not so much their +desire to give the laborer his hire as that the receipts might be +shown to visitors, and appear in their records. + + * * * + +The Russians had a crucifix at the end of the hut which they +occupied, and a picture of the Virgin and the Holy Child before which +they bowed and crossed themselves in their evening devotions. Not all +of them took part. There were some unbelieving brothers who sat +morosely back, and took no notice, wrapped in their own sad thoughts. +I wondered what they thought of it all! The others humbly knelt and +prayed and cried out their sorrows before the crucifix. Their hymns +were weird and plaintive, yet full of a heroic hope that God had not +forgotten. + +One of them told me that God bottles up the tears of his saints, +hears their cry, and in His own good time will deliver all who +trust in Him. That deliverance has already come to many of them +the white-crossed graves, beyond the marsh, can prove. But surely, +somewhere an account is being kept of their sorrows and their wrongs, +and some day will come the reckoning! Germany deserves the contempt +of all nations, if it were for nothing else than her treatment of the +Russian prisoners. + +When my toe-nail began to grow on, I got permanent exemption from +work because of my shoulder, and was given the light task of keeping +clear the ditches that ran close beside the huts. + +I often volunteered on parcel parties, for I liked the mile and a +half walk down the road through the village of Parnewinkel to +Selsingen, where there was a railway station and post-office. Once in +a while I saw German women sending parcels to soldiers at the front. + +The road lay through low-lying land, with scrubby trees. There was +little to see, but it was a pleasure to get out of the camp with its +depressing atmosphere. In Parnewinkel there was an implement dealer +who sold "Deering" machinery, mowers and rakes, and yet I never saw +either a mower or a rake working. I saw women cutting hay with +scythes, and remember well, on one trip to the post-office, I saw +an old woman, bare-legged, with wooden clogs, who should have been +sitting in a rocking-chair, swinging her scythe through some hay, and +she was doing it well, too. The scarcity of horses probably accounted +for the mowers and rakes not being used, cows being somewhat too slow +in their gait to give good results. Although Hanover is noted for its +horses, the needs of the army seem to have depleted the country, and +I saw very few. Every one rides a bicycle. I think I saw less than a +dozen automobiles. + + * * * + +Having been exempted from work, I was around the camp all day, and +one day found a four-legged affair with a ring on the top big enough +to hold a wash-basin. In this I saw a possibility of making a stove. +Below, I put a piece of tin--part of a parcel-box--to hold the fire, +with a couple of bricks under it to save the floor, and then, using +the wooden parcel-boxes for fuel, I was ready to look about for +ingredients to make "mulligan." + +There is nothing narrow or binding about the word "mulligan"; +mulligan can be made of anything. It all depended on what we had! +On this stove I made some very acceptable mulligan out of young +turnip-tops (they had been brought to the camp when very small +seedlings, from a farmer's field where one of our boys had been +working, and transplanted in the prison-yard,--I only used the +outside leaves, and let them go on growing), potatoes (stolen from +the guards' garden), oxo cubes (sent in a parcel), oyster biscuits +(also sent in a parcel), salt and pepper, and water. The turnip-tops +I put in the bottom of the dish, then laid on the potatoes, covering +with water and adding salt. I then covered this with another +wash-basin, and started my fire. We were not allowed to have fires, +and this gave the mulligan all the charm of the forbidden. + +When it was cooked, I added the oxo cubes and the oyster biscuit, and +mashed all together with part of the lid of a box, and the mulligan +was ready. The boys were not critical, and I believe I could get from +any one of them a recommendation for a cook's position. In the winter +we had had no trouble about a fire, for the stoves were going, and we +made our mulligan and boiled water for tea on them. + +Our guards were ordinary soldiers--sometimes those who had been +wounded or were sick and were now convalescent--and we had all sorts. +Usually the N.C.O.'s were the more severe. The privates did not +bother much about us: they had troubles enough of their own. + +At the school garden, where the Commandant lived, I went to work one +day, and made the acquaintance of his little son, a blue-eyed cherub +of four or five years, who addressed me as "Englisches Schwein," +which was, I suppose, the way he had heard his father speak of us. He +did it quite without malice, though, and no doubt thought that was +our proper name. He must have thought the "Schwein" family rather a +large one! + + * * * + +It was about May, I think, that a letter came from my brother Flint, +telling me he was sending me some of the "cream cheese I was so fond +of"--and I knew my compass was on the way. + +In about three weeks the parcel came, and I was careful to open the +cheese when alone. The lead foil had every appearance of being +undisturbed, but in the middle of it I found the compass! + +After that we talked over our plans for escape. Edwards and I were +the only Canadians in the camp, and we were determined to make a +break as soon as the nights got longer. In the early summer, when the +daylight lasts so long, we knew we should have no chance, for there +were only four or five hours of darkness, but in August we hoped to +"start for home." + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE BLACKEST CHAPTER OF ALL + + +When the days were at their longest, some of the Russians who had +been working for the farmers came into camp, refusing to go back +because the farmers made them work such long hours. There is +daylight-saving in Germany, which made the rising one hour earlier, +and the other end of the day was always the "dark." This made about a +seventeen-hour day, and the Russians rebelled against it. The farmers +paid so much a day (about twenty-five cents) and then got all the +work out of the prisoners they could; and some of them were worked +unmercifully hard, and badly treated. + +Each night, a few Russians, footsore, weary, and heavy-eyed from lack +of sleep, trailed into camp with sullen faces, and we were afraid +there was going to be trouble. + +On the night of July 3d, three tired Russians came into camp from +the farms they had been working on after we had had our supper. The +N.C.O. was waiting for them. The trouble had evidently been reported +to Headquarters, and the orders had come back. The Commandant was +there, to see that the orders were carried out. + +In a few minutes the N.C.O. started the Russians to run up and +down the space in front of the huts. We watched the performance in +amazement. The men ran, with dragging footsteps, tired with their +long tramp and their long day's work, but when their speed slackened, +the N.C.O. threatened them with his bayonet. + +For an hour they ran with never a minute's breathing-spell, sweating, +puffing, lurching in their gait, and still the merciless order was +"Marsch!" "Marsch!" and the three men went struggling on. + +When the darkness came, they were allowed to stop, but they were so +exhausted they had to be helped to bed by their friends. + +We did not realize that we had been witnessing the first act in the +most brutal punishment that a human mind could devise, and, thinking +that the trouble was over, we went to sleep, indignant at what we had +seen. + +In the morning, before any of us were awake, and about a quarter of +an hour before the time to get up, a commotion started in our hut. +German soldiers, dozens of them, came in, shouting to everybody to +get up, and dragging the Russians out of bed. I was sleeping in an +upper berth, but the first shout awakened me, and when I looked down +I could see the soldiers flourishing their bayonets and threatening +everybody. The Russians were scurrying out like scared rabbits, but +the British, not so easily intimidated, were asking, "What's the +row?" + +One of the British, Walter Hurcum, was struck by a bayonet in the +face, cutting a deep gash across his cheek and the lower part of his +ear. Tom Morgan dodged a bayonet thrust by jumping behind the stove, +and escaped without injury. + +When I looked down, I caught the eyes of one of our guards, a decent +old chap, of much the same type as Sank, and his eyes were full of +misery and humiliation, but he was powerless to prevent the outbreak +of frightfulness. + +I dressed myself in my berth--the space below was too full already, +and I thought I could face it better with my clothes on. When I got +down, the hut was nearly empty, but a Gordon Highlander who went out +of the door a few feet ahead of me was slashed at by one of the +N.C.O.'s and jumped out of the way just in time. + +All this was preliminary to roll-call, when we were all lined up +to answer to our names. That morning the soup had lost what small +resemblance it had had to soup--it had no more nourishment in it than +dishwater. We began then to see that they were going to starve every +one into a desire to work. + +We had not been taking soup in the morning, for it was, even at its +best, a horrible dish to begin the day with. We had made tea or +coffee of our own, and eaten something from our parcels. But this +morning we were lined up with the Russians and given soup--whether +we wanted it or not. + +After the soup, the working parties were despatched, and then the +three unhappy Russians were started on their endless journey again, +racing up and down, up and down, with an N.C.O. standing in the +middle to keep them going. They looked pale and worn from their hard +experience of the night before, but no Bengal tiger ever had less +mercy than the N.C.O., who kept them running. + +The distance across the end of the yard was about seventy-five feet, +and up and down the Russians ran. Their pace was a fast trot, but +before long they were showing signs of great fatigue. They looked +pitifully at us as they passed us, wondering what it was all about, +and so did we. We expected every minute it would be over; surely they +had been punished enough. But the cruel race went on. + +In an hour they were begging for mercy, whimpering pitifully, as they +gasped out the only German word they knew--"Kamerad--Kamerad"--to +the N.C.O., who drove them on. They begged and prayed in their own +language; a thrust of the bayonet was all the answer they got. + +Their heads rolled, their tongues protruded, their lips frothed, +their eyes were red and scalded--and one fell prostrate at the feet +of the N.C.O., who, stooping over, rolled back his eyelid to see if +he were really unconscious or was feigning it. His examination proved +the latter to be the case, and I saw the Commandant motion to him to +kick the Russian to his feet. This he did with right good will, and +the weary race went on. + +But the Russian's race was nearly ended, for in another half-dozen +rounds he fell, shuddering and moaning, to the ground--and no kick or +bayonet thrust could rouse him... + +Another one rolled over and over in a fit, purple in the face, and +twitching horribly. He rolled over and over until he fell into the +drain, and lay there, unattended. + +The last one, a very wiry fellow, kept going long after the other +two, his strength a curse to him now, for it prolonged his agony, +but he fell out at last, and escaped their cruelty, at least for the +time, through the black door of unconsciousness. + +Then they were gathered up by some of the prisoners, and carried into +the _Revier_. + + * * * + +Just as the three unconscious ones were carried away, three other +Russians, not knowing what was in store for them, came in. We did +not see them until they walked in at the gate. They also had been on +farms, and were now refusing to work longer. They came into the hut, +where their frightened countrymen were huddled together, some praying +and some in tears. The newcomers did not know what had happened. But +they were not left long in doubt. An N.C.O. called to them to +"heraus," and when they came into the yard, he started them to run. +The men were tired and hungry. They had already spent months on the +farms, working long hours: that did not save them. They had dared to +rebel, so their spirits must be broken. + +Our hearts were torn with rage and pity. We stormed in and out of the +huts like crazy men, but there was nothing we could do. There were +so few of us, and of course we were unarmed. There was no protest +or entreaty we could make that would have made any appeal. Orders +were orders! It was for the good of Germany--to make her a greater +nation--that these men should work--the longer hours the better--to +help to reclaim the bad land, to cultivate the fields, to raise more +crops to feed more soldiers to take more prisoners to cultivate more +land to raise more crops. + +It was perfectly clear to the Teutonic mind. No link in the chain +must be broken. Deutschland ueber Alles! + +At noon the Russians were still running--it is astonishing what the +human machine can stand! The N.C.O. impatiently snapped his watch +and slashed at the one who was passing him, to speed them up, and so +hasten the process. He was getting hungry and wanted his dinner. Then +an order came from the Commandant that it was to be stopped--and we +hoped again, as we had the night before, that this was the end. + +We brought the three poor fellows, pale and trembling, to our end of +the hut, and gave them as good a meal as our parcels would afford. +One of them had a bayonet wound in his neck, which the N.C.O. had +given him. He had jabbed him with the point of his bayonet, to +quicken his speed. In spite of their exhaustion, they ate ravenously, +and fell asleep at once, worn out with the long hours of working as +well as by the brutal treatment they had received. + +But there was no sleep for the poor victims--until the long, black +sleep of unconsciousness rolled over them and in mercy blotted out +their misery--for the N.C.O.'s came for them and dragged them away +from us, and the sickening spectacle began again. + +There were just eleven of us, British and Canadians, in the camp +at this time, twelve of the British having been sent away; and it +happened that this was the day, July 4th, that we wrote our cards. We +remembered that when the men had written cards about the lice it had +brought results: we had no other way of communication with the world, +and although this was a very poor one, still it was all we had. We +knew our cards would never get out of Germany; indeed, we were afraid +they would never leave the camp, but we would try. + +We went to the place where the cards were kept, which was in charge +of a Polish Jew, who also acted as interpreter. He had been in the +Russian Army, and had been taken prisoner in the early days of the +war. There was a young Russian with him who did clerical work in the +camp. They were both in tears. The Jew walked up and down, wringing +his hands and calling upon the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of +Jacob! Sometimes he put his hands over his ears... for the cries of +his countrymen came through the window. + +When we got our cards, we wrote about what had happened. Some of the +cards were written to John Bull; some to the British War-Office; some +to the newspapers; some to friends in England, imploring them to +appeal to the United States Government at Washington, to interfere +for humanity's sake. We eased our minds by saying, as far as we could +say it on a card, what we thought of the Germans. Every card was full +of it, but the subject was hardly touched. I never knew before the +full meaning of that phrase, "Words are inadequate." + +Words were no relief!--we wanted to kill--kill--kill. + + * * * + +The running of the Russians went on for days. Every one of them who +came in from the farm got it--without mercy.... Different N.C.O.'s +performed the gruesome rites... + + * * * + +We had only one hope of quick results. The Commandant of the camp at +Celle--that is the main Cellelager--had an English wife, and had, +perhaps for that reason, been deprived of his command as an Admiral +of the fleet. We hoped he would hear of our cards--or, better still, +that his wife might hear. + +The first indication we had that our cards had taken effect was the +change in the soup. Since the first day of the trouble, it had been +absolutely worthless. Suddenly it went back to normal--or a little +better. + +Suddenly, too, the running of the Russians stopped, although others +of them had come in. A tremendous house-cleaning began--they had us +scrubbing everything. The bunks were aired; the blankets hung on the +fence; the windows cleaned; the yard was polished by much sweeping. +Evidently some one was coming, and we hoped it was "the Admiral." At +the same time, the N.C.O.'s grew very polite to us, and one of them, +who had been particularly vicious with the Russians, actually bade me +"good-morning"--something entirely without precedent. + +Every day, I think, they expected the Admiral, but it was two weeks +before he came. His visit was a relief to the Germans, but a distinct +disappointment to us. Apparently, the having of an English wife does +not change the heart of a German. It takes more than that. He did +not forbid the running of the Russians; only the bayonet must not be +used. The bayonet was bad form--it leaves marks. Perhaps the Admiral +took this stand in order to reinstate himself again in favor with the +military authorities, and anxious to show that his English wife had +not weakened him. He had the real stuff in him still--blood and iron! + + * * * + +The running of the Russians began again--but behind the trees, where +we could not see them... but we could hear... + +There are some things it were well we could forget! + +The running of the Russians ceased only when no more came in from the +farms. Those who had been put out came out of the _Revier_ in a day +or so--some in a few hours--pale and spiritless, and were sent back +to work again. They had the saddest-looking faces I ever saw--old +and wistful, some of them; others, gaping and vacant; some, wild and +staring. They would never resist again--they were surely broken! And +while these men would not do much for the "Fatherland" in the way of +heavy labor, they would do very well for exchanges! + +[Illustration: Friedrichsfeld Prison-Camp in Summer] + + + +CHAPTER XX + +ONCE AGAIN! + + +As the days began to shorten, Edwards and I began to plan our escape. +We had the maps, the one he had bought at Vehnemoor and the one I had +made. We had the compass, which we had kept hidden in a very small +crack in the sloping roof of the hut, and the Red Cross suits had +come, and were dark blue and quite unnoticeable except for the piece +of brown cloth sewed on the sleeve. Mine had Russian buttons on it, +which I had put on to have for souvenirs--and which I have since had +made into brooches for my sisters. + +On the map which Edwards had bought at Vehnemoor, the railways were +marked according to their kind: the double-tracked, with rock +ballast, were heavily lined; single-tracked with rock ballast, were +indicated by lighter lines; single-tracked, with dirt ballast, by +lighter lines still. I knew, from the study of maps, every stream and +canal and all the towns between us and the border. On the map which I +had drawn myself, from one I got from the Canadian artist at Giessen, +I had put in all the railways and the short spur lines of which there +are so many in northern Germany. + +We knew that when a railway line ended without reaching another line, +it was a good indication that the soil was valueless, and therefore +there would be no settlement of any account. Through such districts +we would direct our way. + +We began to prepare for our flight by adopting a subdued manner, such +as becomes discouraged men. We were dull, listless, sad, rarely +speaking to each other--when a guard was present. We sat around the +hut, morose and solemn, sighing often, as men who had lost hope. + +But we were thinking, all the time, and getting ready. + +I had a fine toffee tin, with a water-tight lid, which had come to +me in a parcel from Mr. Robert McPherson, Aberdeen, Scotland, whose +brother-in-law, Mr. Alec Smith, of Koch Siding, was a friend of mine. +This can, being oval in shape, fitted nicely into my pocket, and we +decided to use it for matches. + +Edwards had a sun-glass, which we thought we would use for lighting +our pipes when the sun was shining, and thus conserve our supply of +matches. + +Our first plan was to cut our way through the wires, as we had done +at Vehnemoor, but, unfortunately, three Russians, early in the +spring, did this--and after that no cat ever watched a mouse-hole +with greater intentness than the guards at Parnewinkel watched the +wires. We saw this was hopeless! + +We then thought we would volunteer for work on farms as we had done +before at Rossbach, but although French and Russians were taken, +"Englaenders" were not wanted! The Englishmen in the camp not wanting +to work had given themselves a bad name, hoping that the Russians and +French would carry it on to the farmers for whom they were working, +so that they would be afraid to employ such desperate characters. One +of them had "et an ear off'n" the last man he worked for. Another one +never took orders from any one--"the last man that tried it, woke +up in the middle of a long fit of sickness!--and had since died." +Another one admitted he had a terrible temper, but he had had it +"from a child and couldn't help it--he turned blind when he was mad, +and never knew where he was hittin'!" + +This all worked well for them, but when Ted and I wanted to get out, +we were refused. "Englaenders" were not wanted! + +The first working party that was made up to go out and work with a +guard did not give either Ted or me a chance, although we wanted to +go, but four other Englishmen volunteered. They were not anxious to +have us go with them, for they knew we were thinking of escaping, +and when there is an escape, those who were present at the time have +embarrassing questions asked them and various privileges are likely +to be curtailed afterwards. + +On Saturday morning, at roll-call, a working party was asked for, and +Ted and I volunteered, and with a Welshman and some Frenchmen, we +walked out to a small village called Seedorf, about four miles away, +where we were turned loose in a field of turnips from which the weeds +had not been taken out since the turnips were planted. There were +about a dozen of us, and we were taken into the house at noon to be +fed. The farmhouse was one of the best I had seen in this section of +the country, for the pig-pen, chickens, and cow-stable were in a +separate building. + +The two daughters of the house were true daughters of Germany and did +not eat the bread of idleness; the biggest one, bare-legged and with +sleeves rolled up, was attending to the stock, without pausing for +anything. She looked as strong as a man, and was absorbed in her +work--not even stopping a second to look at us. The other one worked +in the house at meal-times, but no doubt joined her sister +afterwards. + +The dinner consisted of soup, potatoes, bread, and coffee, and the +soup was a real treat, entirely different from the kind we were +used to. After dinner we went back to the field and put in a fine +afternoon's work. We were anxious to establish a good record before +we left there. + +We had saved up a lot of things from our parcels, thinking that our +manner of escape might be such that we could take them with us. +A working party such as we were on made it impossible to carry +anything, for we were in great danger of being searched. Whenever the +Commandant thought of it, he ordered a search. Just as the Commandant +at Giessen was keen on rings, so this one went in for searching. We +were searched at unexpected times--going out to work or coming in--at +meal-times or at bedtime. + +The following day--Sunday--we sat around with our saddest, most +dejected air, like two men in whose hearts all hope had died. We had +everything ready--razor, tobacco, matches, toffee tin, toothbrush, +comb, pocket-knife, watch, soap, strong safety-pins, and some strong +string. Edwards had the sun-glass, shaving-soap and brush, and other +things to correspond with mine. + +It was quite a grief to us to have to leave behind us all the things +we had been saving from our parcels. The people of Trail, British +Columbia, had sent parcels to all their prisoners, and one of mine +had followed me from Giessen to Vehnemoor and from Vehnemoor to +Parnewinkel, and at last had found me. It contained, among other +things, hard-tack biscuits, just the thing for carrying in our +pockets, and my aunts in Ontario had sent me some line dried beef and +tins of jam. At this time, also, an exceptionally good box came from +Miss Ray, of London, England, and home-made candy from Miss Dorothy +Taylor, of New Westminster, British Columbia. We had a regular +blow-out on Sunday, but were too much afraid of being searched to +risk taking anything with us beyond the necessary things, and so had +to leave our precious stores behind. Oh, well--they wouldn't go to +waste! + +Monday morning we dragged our tired feet along the four miles to the +turnip-patch--with every appearance of complete submission. I had the +compass in the middle of a package of tobacco; my maps were still in +the pay-book case in my pocket. + +We gave ourselves up to the joy of labor, and pulled weeds all day +with great vigor. We wanted to behave so well that they wouldn't +notice us. Of course we were not sure that any chance would come. We +might have to carry our stuff for several days before we should get +a chance. + +That night we came into the kitchen again and sat down at the long +table. Every one was hungry and fell to eating without a word. No +wonder the guard thought he had a quiet, inoffensive gang whose only +thought at that moment was fried potatoes. The potatoes were good, +hot from the frying-pan, and we ate as many as we could, for we +believed it might be a long time before we again sat at a table. + +The guard, at last, satisfied that we were all right, strolled into +the next room--a sort of dining- and living-room, where the family +were eating. We could hear fragments of conversation and some +laughter, and it seemed a good time to slip away! We crowded down a +few more fried potatoes, and then leisurely left the table and looked +out of the window. + +A big black cloud had come up from the west, and although it was +still early in the evening it was beginning to grow dusk. Outside +there was no one stirring but the young lady feeding the pigs, and +she was not taking any notice of any one. She was a fine example of +the absorbed worker. We lit our pipes and strolled out to enjoy the +cool of the evening. + +The pigs were gathered about the trough, protesting the distribution +of their evening meal, squealing "Graft" and calling for a commission +to settle it. The lady took no notice of them. They could settle it +among themselves. They did not need to eat at all if they didn't want +to. She should worry. It was take it or leave it--for all she cared! +She had gone as far as she was going to, in bringing it to them. + +We looked back at the kitchen. Fried potatoes still held the +attention of the prisoners, and the guard was not to be seen. + +We turned around the front of the house and found ourselves on the +shaded street. There was a row of trees along each side of the street +and the houses were built well back. It was not the main street of +the village and had more the appearance of a lane. We had concluded +that even if the alarm were given, we should only have the one guard +to deal with, for the prisoners would not pursue us, neither would +the farmer. + +The big danger was in the fact that the guard had his gun, and if he +saw us would shoot, but the shady lane was deserted and still, and we +pushed on with an unconcerned stride that covered the ground, but +would not attract the attention of the casual observer. + +When we came to the edge of the village, we saw the wood which we +had observed when coming in from work both days, and which seemed to +promise shelter, although the trees were small. We passed through it +quickly, and kept it between us and the village until we reached a +ditch two and a half or three feet deep and overgrown with heather. +By this time it was beginning to rain, for which we were glad, for it +would discourage travelling and drive indoors those who had any place +to go to. We crawled on our hands and knees along the ditch, whose +bottom was fairly dry and grassy, until we found a place where the +heather hung well over the edge and made a good protection. We could +look through the heather at the village, which was about six hundred +yards away! + +We stayed here until it was quite dark. There did not seem to be any +search made for us. The guard would be afraid to leave the other +prisoners to come looking for us himself, and we knew none of the +village people would be keen on coming out in the rain. But there +was a telegraph station at Seedorf, and it gave us an uncomfortable +feeling to remember that the guard could wire to Selsingen and get +some one there to telephone to the camp. But the rain, which was +falling heavily, was our best hope that we were unpursued. It beat +into my ear as I lay in the heather, until I put my cap over the side +of my head. + +At dark we stole out, after taking our direction with the compass +while we were in the ditch. When we came out, we observed the +direction of the wind, and started straight south. We would follow +this course until we rounded Bremen, and then it was our purpose to +go west to the Holland boundary. From our maps we knew that to strike +straight across from where we were would bring us to a well-settled +country, and the chief desire of our lives now was for solitude! + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +TRAVELLERS OF THE NIGHT + + +The country we travelled over in the first hours of the night was +poor and evidently waste land, for we saw no cultivation until near +morning, when we crossed through a heavy oat-field, soaking wet with +the night's rain. When we came out we were as wet as if we had fallen +into the ocean. We took some of the oats with us, to nibble at as we +went along. + +We came to a wide stream, with wooded banks, which looked deep and +dangerous. So we made a pack of our clothes, and cautiously descended +into it, expecting to have to swim over. However, we found we could +easily wade it, for we had made our crossing at a ford. + +On the other side we found ourselves stumbling over a turnip-field, +and very gladly helped ourselves, and carried away two of them for +provisions for the next day. When morning came we took cover in a +thin wood. + +On the other attempts we had been able to carry something to eat, and +an extra pair of socks. This time we had nothing but what we had on. +I had selected from the stockings I had a pair knit by Miss Edna +McKay, of Vancouver, which were the first pair she had knit, but were +very fine and well made. We removed our socks the first thing each +morning, and rubbed our feet and put the socks in a tree to dry, +being careful not to have them so high they would be seen. We were +trying to take every precaution this time! + +The first day we were near some farm-buildings, and as we lay in the +woods, pretty chilly and wet, we could hear the hens scolding and +cackling. Cackling hens always bring me back to the pleasant days +of childhood, and I was just enjoying a real heartsome visit to +the old home at Delmer... and was chasing Willie Fewster around a +straw-stack... when the farmer's dog, an interfering, vicious-looking +brute, came peering through the woods and gave us heart spasms, +barking at us for a few minutes. But we did not move a muscle, and, +seeing that he couldn't start a row with us, he went away, muttering +to himself about suspicious characters being around. + +A woman passed through the wood, too, going over to one of the +neighbors--I think to borrow something, for she carried a plate. But +she did not see us, as we lay low in the scrub. + + * * * + +We certainly found plenty of unsettled country to travel through in +the first days of our journey, for we seemed to go through one marsh +after another, covered with coarse, long hay, which would have been +cut, no doubt, but for the soft bottoms which make it impossible +to use a mower. To drain this land would furnish more work for the +Russian prisoners! In one place we suddenly stepped down a couple of +feet into a bog filled with water, but with grass on the top. We +discovered that it was a place from which the peat had been removed, +and it was the only sign of human activity that we saw all night. + +On the evening of August 23d, when we started out after a fairly good +day in a spruce thicket, we could see the lights of Bremen reflected +in the sky. The lights of a city, with its homes, its stores, its +eating-places, its baths, should be a welcome sight to wayfaring men +who have been living on oats and turnips, but not for us, to whom a +city meant only capture. So when we noticed the rosy glow in the +southern sky we steered our course farther west, but still taking +care to avoid the city, which we intended to pass on the south and +east side. + +Our troubles were many that night. A good-sized river got in our way +and had to be crossed. There was no bridge in sight, and we had +determined to waste no time looking for one. So we undressed on the +marshy bank and made bundles of our clothes, pinning our tunics about +everything with the safety-pins which we carried. We also used the +cord around the bundles. Ted was doubtful about swimming and carrying +his clothes, so I said I would try it first, with mine. I went down +through the coarse grass, which was harsh and prickly to my feet, and +full of nettles or something which stung me at every step, and was +glad to reach the open water. The moon was in the last quarter, and +clouded over, so the night was of the blackest. I made the shore +without much trouble, and threw my bundle on a grassy bank. + +I called over to Ted that the going was fine, and that I would come +back for his clothes. At that, he started in to meet me, swimming on +his back and holding his clothes with both hands, using only his +feet, but when he got into the current, it turned him downstream. I +swam toward him as fast as I could, but by the time I reached him he +had lost the grip of his clothes, and when I got them they were wet +through. As we were nearer to the bank from which he had started, we +went back to it, for we were both pretty well blown. However, in a +few minutes we were able to strike out again, and reached the other +bank in safety. Poor Ted was very cold and miserable, but put on his +soaking garments, without a word, and our journey continued. + +This was another ditch country--ditches both wide and deep, and many +of them treacherous things, for their sides were steep and hard to +climb. The darkness made it doubly hard, and sometimes we were pretty +well frightened as we let ourselves down a greasy clay bank into the +muddy water. Later on we found some corduroy bridges that the +hay-makers had put over the ditches. + +All night we had not found anything to eat, and when we arrived at +a wood near morning, we decided to stay, for we could see we were +coming into a settlement, and the German farmers rise early in +harvest-time. So, hungry, muddy, wet, and tired, we lay down in the +wood, and spent a long, uncomfortable day! + +My watch stopped that day, and never went again. Edwards's watch was +a better one, and although it stopped when it got wet, it went again +as soon as it had dried out. + +That day we had not a mouthful of anything. But we comforted +ourselves with the thought that in this settled country there would +be cows, and unless these farmers sat up all night watching them, we +promised ourselves a treat the next night. + +At nightfall we stole out and began again to get over the distance +that separated us from freedom. The country was drier and more +settled, but the cows, we saw, were all in farmyards, and we were +afraid to risk going near them. About midnight we almost stumbled +over a herd of them, and one fine old whiteface arose at our request +and let us milk her. Ted stood at her head, and spoke kind words to +her and rubbed her nose, while I filled our tin again and again. She +was a Holstein, I think, though we could not see if she was black or +red--it was so dark, we could only see the white markings. We were +sorry to leave her. She was another of the bright spots in my memory +of Germany. + +We crossed a railroad, a double-tracked one with rock ballast, which +my map showed to be a line which runs to Bremen, and a little later +we came to the Weser. This river brought up pleasant recollections of +the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who drowned the rats in the Weser by the +magic of his pipe. But there was no romance in it as we came upon it +in a gray and misty dawn. It was only another barrier to our freedom. + +There were bunches of willows on the water's edge, and some fine +beeches, whose leaves were slightly tinged with yellow, farther back. +We selected a close bunch of willows for our hiding-place, and after +spending a short time looking for a boat, we gave up the quest, and +took cover. + +We were feeling well, and were in a cheerful mood,--no doubt the +result of our pleasant meeting with the Holstein,--and when we saw +some straw in a field not far from the willows, we went over and got +two armfuls of it, and made beds for ourselves. Fresh, clean straw, +when dry, makes a good bed, and no Ostermoor mattress was ever more +comfortable. We burrowed into it like moles, and although it rained +we had a good day. + +Waking up in the afternoon, we decided on a general clean-up, and, +dipping water from the Weser in a rusty tin pail without a handle, we +washed our faces, cleaned our teeth, shaved, and combed our hair. + +My socks were in fine shape, but Ted's began to show signs of +dissolution. The heels were gone, and the toe of one was broken and +going. His feet were sore and blistered, and he sat long looking +at the perfidious socks which had failed him so soon. Then he had +a plan--he would make himself a pair out of the sleeves of his +undershirt. To me was given the delicate task of cutting off the +sleeves with rather a dull knife, which I managed to do with some +difficulty, and, with a thorn for a needle and wool from the socks +for thread, a pair of socks were constructed. The thorn was too soft +and doubled back, so Ted sharpened a piece of hard wood, and with it +made the holes for the yarn. + +From our shelter in the willows we could see a ferry-boat carrying +people across the river, and sometimes people passed along the sandy +shore quite near to us, but the willows were thick and we were not +discovered. Two big freight steamers also passed by us. + +That night we went cautiously down the bank looking for a boat. We +could swim the river, but a boat would suit us better, for the night +was chilly and dark. Before we had gone far, we found one tied in the +rushes. But the oars were locked to the bottom of the boat, and we +had to cut them loose with our pen-knives, which took quite awhile, +for the wood was hard! + +When we got across the Weser we found plenty of cows. Some of them +were fickle jades who would let us almost touch them, and would then +sniff at us in disapproval and leave us. Others would not consider +our case for a moment. They were not going to run any danger of +giving aid and comfort to the enemy! But one good old one with a +crooked horn took pity on us, and again we felt better. + +The fields were divided by hedges, made of a closely-leaved green +shrub, somewhat resembling--in the leaf--our buckthorn. It was very +thick and very green, and we crawled into one of these on the morning +of the fourth day, glad of such a good shelter. However, there was no +room to move--or stand up. The hedge being low made it necessary to +lie down all day. Still, we were well satisfied with the hot milk, +and slept most of the day. + +Waking up suddenly, I heard a whistle, and, without moving, could see +a man's legs coming toward us. Then a dog, white with black markings, +darted past him, and, to my horror, stood not six feet from me. We +stopped breathing--we shut our eyes for fear we might wink--we +effaced ourselves--we ceased to be--I mean we wished we could. + +The dog came nearer--I could hear his soft footfalls--I knew the +brute was stepping high--as they do when they see something. I knew +his tail was going straight out behind--he was pointing! + +The man walked by, whistling--but the dog stayed! + +Then I heard the man call him--insisting that he come--making remarks +about his lack of sense. It sounded like "Come here, you fool!" The +dog, with a yelp of disapproval, did as he was told, but I could hear +him barking as he ran along--in a hurt tone. His professional pride +had been touched! + +That afternoon as we lay in the hedge, we saw a company of +school-children running toward us. I think it was the afternoon +recess, and they came running and shouting straight for the hedge. I +could only see their feet from where I lay, but it seemed to me that +there were a large number. They stopped in the field on the right of +where we lay, and played some game--I was too excited to notice what +it was. Sometimes it brought them close to the hedge, and then they +ran away again. It may have been a ball-game. + +We were cold and hot by turns, watching the feet that advanced and +receded, and were coming at us again, racing this time as if to see +who would reach the hedge first, when a sudden downpour of rain came +on--and they ran back! We heard the voices growing fainter in the +distance, and registered a vow that if we got out of this place alive +we would not trust in a hedge again. Dogs and children seemed to be +our greatest dangers! + +When we began our journey that night, we crossed a light railway, one +of those which on the map was indicated with light lines, and which, +sure enough, had only dirt ballast. Ahead of us was another railway +track with lights, which we determined to leave alone. The lights of +the two towns, Delmenhorst and Gunderksee, shone against the western +sky, and we kept to the south to avoid them. The going was difficult +on account of the settlement, and we had to be watching all the time +for travellers. There were a lot of people out that night who might +better have been at home--and in bed! + +We were glad to take refuge before daylight in an extensive wood. We +had a few turnips, which we ate. The day was spent as usual trying to +dry our socks and get our feet in shape for the night, but the rain +came down hard, and when we started out at dusk we were soaking wet. + +We at once got into a forest, a great dark, quiet forest, where +fugitives could hide as long as they liked, but which furnished +no food of any kind. In the small clearings we came upon herds of +cattle, but they were all young, with not a cow among them. This was +one of the planted forests of Germany, where a sapling is put in when +a big tree is taken out, to conserve the timber supply. No one would +know that it had been touched by man, except for the roads which ran +through it. There was no waste wood; there were no stumps, no hacked +trees, no evidences of fire--such as I have often seen in our forests +in British Columbia. The Germans know how to conserve their +resources! + +There was no wind or stars, and there were so many roads crossing +and dividing, that it was hard for us to keep our direction. Toward +morning it began to rain, and soon the wet bushes, as well as the +falling rain, had us wet through. + +We stopped at last to wait for daylight, for the forest was so dense +we believed we could travel by day with safety. We lit our pipes in +the usual way, to conserve our matches. One match would light both, +when we followed this order. The lighted one was inverted over the +unlighted one. Into the lighted one Ted blew, while I drew in my +breath from the unlighted one. This morning, something went wrong. +Either the tobacco was soggy or I swallowed nicotine, for in a few +minutes I had all the symptoms of poisoning, I wanted to lie down, +but the ground was too wet. So I leaned against a tree, and was very +sorry for myself. Ted felt much the same as I did. + +Then we tried to light a fire--we were so cold and wet, and, besides, +we had a few potatoes, carried from a garden we passed the night +before, which we thought we could roast. Hunger and discomfort +were making us bold. Our matches would not light the damp wood, +and we could find no other. We chewed a few oats, and were very +down-hearted. It looked as if lack of food would defeat us this time! + +We had so far come safely, but at great expense of energy and time. +We had avoided travelled roads, bridges, houses, taking the smallest +possible risk, but with a great expense of energy. Our journey had +been hard, toilsome, and slow. We were failing from lack of food. +Our clothes hung in folds on us, and we were beginning to feel weak. +The thought of swimming the Ems made us shudder! One thing seemed +clear--we must get food, even if to get it imposed a risk. There was +no use in starving to death.... The recklessness of the slum-cat was +coming to us. + +The weather had no mercy that day, for a cold, gray, driving rain +came down as we leaned against a tree, two battered hulks of men, +with very little left to us now but the desire to be free. + + * * * + +If this were a book of fiction, it would be easy to lighten and +vary the narrative here and there with tales of sudden attacks and +hair's-breadth escapes. But it is not a fancy story--it is a plain +tale of two men's struggle, with darkness, cold, and hunger, in a +land of enemies. It may sound monotonous to the reader at times, but +I assure you, we never, for one minute, got accustomed to the pangs +of hunger, the beat of the rain, or the ache of our tired legs, and +the gripping, choking fear that through some mishap we might be +captured. + +The country was so full of bogs and marshes that we had to stick to +the road that night, but we met no person, and had the good fortune +to run into a herd of cows, and drank all the milk we could hold. +Unfortunately we had nothing in which to carry milk, so had to drink +all we could, and go on, in the hope of meeting more cows. + +While we were helping ourselves, the storm which had been threatening +all night came on in great fury, and the lightning seemed to tear the +sky apart. We took refuge in an old cow-shed, which saved us from the +worst of it. + +That morning we hid in a clump of evergreens, thick enough to make a +good shelter, but too short for comfort, for we could not stand up! +Ted was having a bad time with his feet, for his improvised socks +did not work well. They twisted and knotted and gave him great +discomfort. This day he removed his undershirt, which was of wool, +and, cutting it into strips five or six inches wide, wound them round +and round his feet, and then put his boots on. He had more comfort +after that, but as the weather was cold the loss of his shirt was a +serious one. + +That night we came to a river, which we knew to be the Hunte, and +looked about for a means of crossing it. We knew enough to keep away +from bridges, but a boat would have looked good to us. However, there +did not seem to be any boat, and we decided to swim it without loss +of time, for this was a settled district, and therefore not a good +place to hesitate. + +On account of our last experience in crossing a river, we knew a raft +to carry our clothes on would keep them dry and make it easier for +us. So, failing to find any stuff with which to make a raft, we +thought of a gate we had passed a short time back. It was a home-made +affair, made of a big log on the top, whose heavy root balanced the +gate on the post on which it swung. We went back, found it, and +lifted it off, and although it was a heavy carry, we got it to the +river, and, making two bundles of our clothes, floated them over on +it. I swam ahead, pushing it with one hand, while Ted shoved from +behind. Our clothes were kept dry, and we dragged the gate up on the +bank. We hope the farmer found it, and also hope he thought it was an +early Hallowe'en joke! + +That day, August 31st, we took refuge in the broom, which was still +showing its yellow blossom, and, as the, sun came out occasionally, +we lit our pipes with Ted's sun-glass. The sun and wind dried our +tobacco and our socks, and we started off that night feeling rather +better. + +It was a fine night for our purpose, for there was considerable wind, +and we kept going all night, mostly on the roads. At daylight we took +refuge in an open wood. The day was cloudy and chilly, and we found +it long. At night, we had not gone far when we found three cows in a +small field. We used all our blandishments on them, but the lanky one +with straight horns was unapproachable and aloof in her manner, and +would not let us near her. One of the others was quiet enough, but +was nearly dry. The third one was the best, and we filled and drank, +and filled and drank, until her supply was exhausted too. On account +of the field being near the house, we were careful not to let the +stream of milk make a sound in the empty can, so left some milk in +the can each time, to deaden the sound. However, the owners of the +cows were safe in bed, and asleep. We wondered if they would think +the cows were bewitched when they found they would give nothing next +morning! + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM + + +When we had taken all the milk we could extract from the cows, we +moved off quietly to the corner of the field farthest from the +buildings, to get back to the road. We were going over the fence as +gently as possible, when we saw two men whom we knew from their +uniforms to be French prisoners. They were evidently escaping, like +ourselves, but had been more fortunate than we, for they had packs on +their backs. We tried to get their attention by calling to them, but +the French word for "friend" did not come to us, only the German +"Kamerad," and when they heard that, they took us for Germans and ran +with all speed. We dared not pursue them, or even call, for fear of +being heard; so had to see the two big packs, which no doubt had +chocolate, sardines, bread, and cheese in them, disappear in the +darkness. However, it may have been just as well--two escaping +prisoners are enough, for safety. + +September 2d was a fine day, with several hours of sunshine. From +where we had taken refuge in a high spruce thicket, we could look out +across a wide heather moor, all in bloom and a glorious blaze of +color, amethyst, purple, mauve, with the bright September sun pouring +down upon it. Our spirits always rose when the sun came out, and sank +again when the day grew dark. + +[Illustration: A Prison Post-Card from Friedrichsfeld bei Wesel / +The group includes soldiers from Canada, Newfoundland, England, +Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, +France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Serbia, and Roumania.] + +Since these experiences of battling bare-handed with the elements I +can understand why primeval man fell into sun-worship, for on the +caprice of the sun with its power to give or withhold, the happiness +and well-being of the roofless traveller depends. + +We stayed closely in the dark shadows of the heavy evergreens that +day, although just beyond was the golden sunlight with its warmth and +comfort, for we were afraid to show ourselves in the open. That night +we came upon a potato garden, and dug out some with our fingers, +filling our pockets and our handkerchiefs with them. We had a good +night, and shoved the miles behind us. We had promised ourselves a +fire just at dawn, and the thought of it, and the potatoes we should +bake, was wonderfully cheering. + +Just at the beginning of the dawn, in that gray, misty light, a fire +can scarcely be seen, for the air is something the color of smoke, +and there is enough light to hide the fire. At night the fire shows, +and in the daylight, the smoke, but in the gray dawn it is not easy +to see either. So on the morning of September 3d, we gathered dry +sticks and made our first fire. There was a blue veil of haze on the +horizon, and a ragged gray mist hung over the low places. The air was +sweet with the autumn smell of fallen leaves and wood bark, and as we +sat over our tiny fire, we almost forgot that we were in a world of +enemies. The yellow beeches and the dark green spruces bent over us +in friendliest fashion, and a small bird chased a hawk above the +trees. + +Still, we were not beguiled by the friendliness of our surroundings +to take any chances, and, instead of waiting for ashes or coal to +roast our potatoes, we put them right on the fire. What if they were +burnt on the outside? We scraped off part of the charcoal and ate the +rest. We knew about charcoal tablets being good for digestion, and we +believed ours could stand a little assistance, for green apples and +new milk are not a highly recommended combination. + +We kept track of the number of potatoes we ate that morning. It was +twenty-five! What we couldn't eat we put in our pockets, and held in +our hands--for the warmth. That day, September 3d, was the brightest +and warmest day we had. + +Toward evening we crept out to the edge of the wood to see what sort +of country we were in--and found there was a village quite near +us. But as we had heard not a sound all day, and as there was not +a flutter around it now,--not a soul stirring or a cow-bell +tinkling,--we thought it must be a deserted hamlet. The old and now +almost indistinct paths through the wood where we sat seemed to tell +of a departed people. + +We sat in one of these old paths, watching the shafts of sunlight +which filtered through the woods as we waited for the dark. Then Ted +began to fix the strips of cloth around his feet, and I lay down upon +my back, across the path, looking up at the sky, which was shot over +with mackerel-back clouds, giving promise of settled weather. + +Suddenly, around a bend in the path, came a man and a dog. The man +carried a gun across his shoulder, and evidently had been shooting +birds. I swung myself off the path and motioned to him to go by--for +he had stopped in surprise. Ted did the same. Our gestures were +polite--but I think had something suggestive in them too--almost +commanding. + +He passed by, merely bidding us "good-evening," and remarking in +German that Ted's feet were sore! + +He walked on, as a peaceable old fellow who had no desire to get into +trouble, and although he must have seen the yellow stripe down the +seams of our trousers, and the prison numbers on our tunics, he kept +on going. + +We watched him through the trees, as far as we could see him, but +only once did he turn and look back--and then only for a minute. He +was not going toward the village, but we decided to keep away from +it, anyway, and at nightfall we made a wide detour to avoid it. The +night clouded up, too, and we pushed along with thankful hearts that +the old man with the dog knew when to keep quiet. + +A rare piece of good luck came to us that night. We came to a +settlement, evidently a new one, for the houses were of modern +design, and the farm-buildings, too, were fresh and newly built. +There was evidently a creamery somewhere near, and beside the road we +found a can full of milk set out, to be gathered up in the morning. +The cream had risen to the top of it, and with our toffee tin we +helped ourselves. Later on, we found others, and helped ourselves +again. It was a very satisfactory arrangement for us to have the +refreshment booths scattered like this along the way. Then we ate +some of the burnt potatoes and an apple or two, had a few drinks of +cream from another can, and the night passed pleasantly. From the +apple-trees beside the road we replenished our pockets, and felt this +had been a good night. + +It was a good thing for us that the night had started so well, for +along toward morning, probably two hours before daylight, we crossed +a peat-bog. There was a road at first which helped us, but it ran +into a pile of cut peat, drying for the winter. There were also other +roads leading to peat-piles, but these were very misleading, and as +the night was of inky blackness, with scarcely any breeze, it became +harder and harder to keep our direction. Consulting the compass so +often was depleting our match supply, and I tried to depend on +the faint breath of a breeze which sometimes seemed to die away +altogether. This bog, like all the others, had tufts of grass and +knolls of varying size coming in the most unexpected places. Over +these we stumbled, and fell, many times, and as we felt fairly safe +from being heard, it was some relief to put into language what we +thought of the country and all its people, past, present, and future. +I believe we were especially explicit about the future! + +It was nearly morning when we got off the bog, and as the rain was +falling we took refuge in a tumble-down hut which had probably been a +cowherd's. We soon saw that it was a poor shelter, and when a woman +came along and looked straight at us, we began to get gooseflesh! She +actually smiled at us, and we tried to smile back reassuringly, but I +am afraid there was a lack of mirth in our smiles which detracted +from their charm. + +She walked away--stopped--looked back at us--and smiled again, and +went on, nodding her head as if she knew something. We were rather +afraid she did, and hastily decided to push on. We were afraid of +the lady's patriotism, and determined to be moving. There was a +thick-looking wood just ahead, and to it we went with all speed, +taking with us two large gunnysacks which we found in the hut. They +were stamped "Utrecht" and had the name of a dealer there. + +All that day we were afraid of the lady who smiled and nodded her +head, but perhaps we wronged her in our thoughts, for the day passed +without any disturbance. Probably she, too, like the old man with the +dog, knew that silence does not often get one into trouble. + +That day we shaved, but, there being no stream near, we had to empty +the rain-drops off the leaves into the top of the box which held +Ted's shaving-stick. It took time, of course, but what was time to +us? We had more time than anything else. + +Although we tried to reassure ourselves with the thought that there +were probably no soldiers near, and that the civilians were not +likely to do any searching, still we were too apprehensive to sleep, +and started away at nightfall, with eyes that burned and ached from +our long vigil. + +The night was cloudy at first, with sprinkling rain, but cleared up +about midnight into a clear, cold autumn night. The cold kept me from +getting sleepy, but when I got warm from walking my sleepiness grew +overpowering. Ted was more wakeful than I, and took the lead, while +I stumbled along behind, aching in every joint with sleepiness. The +night was clear and starry, and Ted steered our course by the stars. + +No one who has gone through it needs to be told about the misery of +sleepiness. I fought against it--I pulled open my eyes--I set my +will with all the force I could command, but in spite of all I could +do, my eyes would close and I would fall over, and in the fall would +awaken and go on, only to fall again. At last we stopped and lay +down, sorry to lose so much of the darkness, but the cold soon +awakened us, and, chilled and shivering, with numb fingers, we +struggled to our feet and went on. But when, with the walking, we +were warmed again, with the warmth came the sleepiness. + +At dawn we crept into a thick bush, but the ground was damp and cold, +and our sleepiness had left us. We ate some of our cold roast +potatoes, and tried to sleep, for we dreaded to spend another night +like the last one. In the afternoon the sun came out and warmed the +air, so we had a fairly good sleep and started away at nightfall. + +The night was clear and starlight, so the peat-bog which we +encountered did not bother us so much, for we could see the holes and +ridges. After the bog, we came into a settlement, but the people were +in villages and had their cows stabled, so there was no chance for +thirsty and hungry travellers. To the north we could see the huge +searchlights above Oldenburg, and we thought of the cells--and +shuddered! But our hunger was making us cold again, and we determined +to go into the next village we came to, to find some apples. + +The first one we came to was a large one, and compactly built. The +night was lit by the stars, and therefore not quite so good for our +purpose, but we had to have something. We cautiously entered a garden +gate which some one had obligingly left open, but when we got in, we +found that the trees were high, and apparently well looked-after, for +not an apple could be found! We were only a few yards from the house, +behind whose darkened windows the family slept, not knowing that the +alien enemy were so near. + +We slipped out of the open gate--we could see now why it had been +left open--and went into the next garden--with the same result. Every +apple had been gathered. We started down the street again, walking +cautiously on the grass, and slipping along as quickly as possible. +We carried the sacks, which we had split open, over our shoulders, +and as they were of a neutral shade, they were not so easily seen as +our dark-blue suits would have been. + +Suddenly there was the sound of a door opening, ahead of us, on the +other side of the street, and two soldiers came out! We lay flat on +the street where we were, and "froze." The sacks which were wrapped +about us helped to conceal us, or at least made us look less like +men. The soldiers passed along the middle of the street, chatting and +laughing; we could hear their spurs clanking! Coming out of the light +had probably dulled their sight, and they did not see us. We lay +there until their footsteps had died away. Then we got up, and got +out! + +We were not hungry any more--at least we were so much more frightened +than hungry that we only knew we were frightened, and we pushed our +way on as fast as we could. That night was the first on which we had +seen the moon. The shelter we found was another group of Christmas +trees, and as we still had a couple of roast potatoes we ate them, +and got a little sleep. + +The next night the villages kept getting in our way. When we tried to +avoid one, we got into another, and in one we saw a light twinkling +in an upstairs window, where some woman, probably, sat late at her +work or watched by the bedside of a sick child. As usual, there were +no street lamps, and I think the light inside was a coal-oil lamp! +But not a dog barked, and we came safely out on a road which led in a +westerly direction. + +In the morning, when the east began to redden, we got shelter in a +thin wood, and, having found some potatoes outside of one of the +villages, we determined to run the risk of having a fire to roast +them. We didn't roast many, though, for the dawn came on too swiftly, +and we had to extinguish our fire, for there was a farmhouse not a +hundred yards away, and the people were beginning to stir. + +That day there were people working all around us, and one old chap, +with a red shirt on, was so ambitious about getting his turnips +lifted that I don't believe he even knocked off for noon. We thought +he would never quit at night either. We called him the "work-hog!" + +In the afternoon, as we lay in the woods, an old man, a shepherd, +came with a flock of white sheep which followed close behind him. +The old man wore a velvet cloak, knee breeches, and buckles on his +shoes, and he had a sheep dog with him--a small-sized tricolored, +rough-haired collie. It was exactly like a picture! We were not in +any mood to enjoy the beauty of it, for some of the sheep wandered +through the wood, almost stepping on us, and when the shepherd came +after them, he must have seen us. But the old man belonged to the +peaceful past, and knew nothing of wars and prisoners, so went out of +the wood as quietly as he came. He was as innocent-looking as the +sunshine, or the white clouds in the blue sky! + +Still, we were two suspicious men who trusted no one, and we thought +it best to move. I took the potatoes in my sack, and Ted, to be ready +for emergencies, provided a stout, knotted club for himself, and we +stole out of the wood, being careful to keep it between us and the +"work-hog," who never lifted his eyes--but still we took no chances, +even on him! + +There was a better wood a short distance away, and to it we came. We +saw nobody, and, coming into a dark cover, lit a fire, for we thought +the smoke would not rise to the tops of the trees. On it we roasted +our remaining potatoes, and we got a drink in a narrow, trickling +stream. + +We started again, at dark, and before long came to a railway, which, +according to our map, was the line which runs parallel to the river +Ems. We knew we were coming near the Ems, and at the thought of it, +drew a long breath. It seemed a long time since we had stood on its +bank before and heard the sounds from across the Holland border. We +kept going all night, avoiding the roads, and about three o'clock +reached the river. There it was!--a much smaller river than when +we had last seen it, but plenty large enough yet to fill us with +apprehension. We found a good hiding-place before daylight, and then +went back to a potato-field we had passed, and put about a pailful in +our sacks before settling down for the day in the wood. + +Just before dawn we made our fire and roasted the potatoes. They +tasted fine, and as the day was warm and bright, we began to feel +more cheerful. That day we heard the deep-booming whistles of +steamboats, and the shriller notes of the canal-boats. Although we +knew the river boats were passing up and down just below us, we +restrained our curiosity and stayed closely hidden. + +Just before it got dark we crept to the edge of the high ground +overlooking the river. The other side of the river was flat, and +seemed to be settled. I knew from a map I had seen that there was +a canal a short distance beyond the river, and that it, too, would +have to be crossed. + +Looking down to the water's edge, we saw a fence enclosing some +pasture land, and were glad to see another gate, for we wanted a +raft for our clothes, and we thought this would do. It was a heavy +brute of a gate. We could hardly launch it. Perhaps we were getting +weaker--that may have been the reason it seemed so heavy. Anyway, +when we got it to the water's edge, we had to rest before undertaking +to swim the river. The current was not so strong as we had feared, +and we reached the other side in safety. + +We did not pull up the gate, but let it go drifting down the stream. +Perhaps this also is accounted for by the fact that we were getting +weaker: also, we considered that we were harder pressed for time than +the German farmer--he could make another gate. + +After we had dressed and had walked for about an hour, we came to the +canal. Unfortunately for our purpose, the night was clear and the +stars were out in thousands, and, to make matters worse, the young +moon, just a crescent, but still capable of giving some light, came +out. We had been longer than we expected on our journey, and now, at +the most critical time of it, when there was the greatest need of +caution, we had moonlight nights to face! Still, every night was +getting worse than the last, so we must go forward with all speed. + +The canal was about sixty feet wide, and I felt certain it would be +guarded, for it was so near the border. We went to the edge, and +looked across--and then up and down--to see if we could find any +trace of a guard; everything was quiet. + +We knew it was a time for great haste. We went back quickly and +undressed. I grabbed my bundle and let myself cautiously into the +water, taking care not to make the slightest splash. When I reached +the other side, I threw my clothes on the sand and came back far +Ted--he was waiting for me. I took his clothes, and together we swam +across! + +We got quietly out of the water. I picked up my own bundle, and we +started for the trees on the other side of the road. There was an +excavation there where sand had been taken out. Seeing it, we slipped +into it noiselessly. We were not a moment too soon, for when we stood +still and listened, we heard the regular footsteps of a man, and in +twenty seconds the patrol marched by! Then we dressed and got out of +our fortunate hiding-place, and went on. + +We still had a couple of hours before daylight, but the danger was +growing greater every minute, for we knew we were approaching the +border. At that thought our hearts beat wild with hope. The border +would be guarded--there was nothing surer--any minute we might be +challenged. We had talked it over, and were determined to make a dash +for it if that happened. The patrol would shoot, but there was a +chance he might not shoot straight; he would hardly get us both! + +Soon we came to a marsh, with an edge of peat, and as we advanced we +saw the peat was disappearing, and it did not look good ahead. The +moonlight showed us a grassy mat, level as the top of a lake, and +without a shrub or tree to indicate a solid bottom. It was evidently +a quaking bog, a hidden lake, and only the fear behind us drove us +on. It swayed beneath our feet, falling as we stepped on it fully a +foot, and rising again behind us. There would be little danger of +guards here, for the place would be considered impassable--and maybe +it was--we should see! + +Our feet were light--fear gave them wings--and we raced over the +bending, swaying, springing surface! The moon was not bright enough +for us to pick our steps--there was no picking, anyway--it was a +matter of speed! At every step the grass mat went below the surface +of the water, and we could feel it rising over our boot-tops--cold +and horrible. If we had hesitated a second, I know we should have +gone through; but we had every reason for haste. Behind us was the +enemy--cruel, merciless, hateful--with their stolid faces and their +black cells. Under us--was death. Before us--was freedom--home--and +the ones we love! + +At the other side there was more peat, some of it cut and piled. +We were puffing hard from our exertions, but were afraid to rest a +second. The border must be near! + +In a few minutes after leaving the bog we came to a small canal, +which surprised me--there had been no other canal indicated on any +map I had seen. It puzzled me for a minute; then a great joy swept +over me! The maps I had seen were maps of Germany. This canal must be +in Holland! + +But I did not say this to Ted, for I wasn't sure. We undressed +again--the third time that night--and swam the canal, and, dressing +again, went on. Soon we found a finely settled country, with roads +which improved as we went on, all the time. There were no trees, but +the darkness still held, and we kept going. Toward morning we took +refuge in a thicket, and spent the day. + +That day was September 9th, and although we thought we were in +Holland, we were not sure enough to come out and show ourselves. So +we lay low, and ate the green apples that we had found on a tree +between the river and the canal the night before. We slept a little, +though too excited to sleep much. + +Beside the thicket where we were hidden, a boy worked in a field with +a fine team of horses, ploughing stubble. We tried to listen to what +he said to his team, to see if there was any change from the German +"Burrrrrrsh," but he was a silent youth, and so far as we could make +out, said never a word all day. So we could not prove it by him! + +But the good horses gave us hope--horses were scarce in Germany! + +At dusk we started out again, and kept going straight west, for one +fear still tormented us. Our maps showed us that one part of Germany +projects into Holland, and for this reason we kept straight west, to +avoid all danger of running into it; for the uncomfortable thought +would come that to escape from Germany and then walk into it again +would make us feel foolish--not to mention other emotions. + +It seemed to be a fine country that we were going through, and the +walking was easy, although we were not on a road. I had been telling +Ted that the first railway we came to would be a single-tracked one, +with dirt ballast, and then we should be sure we were in Holland. I +had seen this railroad on the map, and knew it was a few miles from +the border. To me, this would be sufficient proof that we were safely +out of Germany. + +Soon we saw a fringe of houses ahead, and we thought we were coming +near a canal, for we were in the country of canals now, and the +houses are built on their banks. There were lights in a few of the +houses, for it was only about eleven o'clock, and some of the people +were still up. The houses looked to be rather good ones, and they +were built in a row. It was the backs of them we were approaching, +which we did with extreme caution, for we had no desire to have some +snarling dog discover us and give the alarm. + +So intent were we, watching the houses for any sign of life, that we +did not see what was just before us until we had walked up to it. +Then we saw-- + +It was a railroad, single-tracked, with dirt ballast! + +Without a word, Ted and I shook hands! We were in Holland! + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +OUT + + +Immediately we set out to find a road. There would be no more +skulking through fields for us. We were free again, entitled to all +the privileges of road and bridge. + +We soon found a good wagon-road leading to a bridge over the canal. +Across the bridge we boldly went, caring nothing for the houses at +our right and left, whose windows were lighted and whose dogs may +have been awake for all we cared. It seemed wonderful to be able to +walk right in the middle of the road again! Ted said he wanted to +sing, but I advised him to curb the desire. We were a little hazy as +to the treatment accorded prisoners by a neutral country. + +We still kept west, thinking of the bulge in the German boundary to +the south of us. The road was smooth and hard, and we felt so good +that we seemed to be able to go as fast as we liked. Fatigue and +hunger were forgotten. A man on a bicycle rode past us and shouted +a greeting to us, to which we replied with a good, honest English +"Good-night," instead of the sullen grunt we had hitherto been using +to hide our nationality. + +Cows were plentiful that night, and we got apples, too, from the +orchards near the road. The only thing that troubled us was that our +road had turned southwest, and we were afraid that it might lead +us into the little strip of Germany. However, we went on a short +distance. + +Then we came to a place where there were many canals, some of them +very large, and the straggling houses seemed to indicate a town. +Afterwards we knew it was the town called Nieuwstadskanaal. + +We took a poor road, leading west, and followed it over a heather +moor, which changed after a mile or two into a peat-bog with piles of +peat recently cut. We kept on going, until about five o'clock in the +morning we came to a house. It looked desolate and unoccupied, and +when we got close to it we found that it had been badly damaged by +fire. But it made a good shelter for us, and we went into what had +been the living-room, and lay down and slept. The floor was even and +dry; it was the best bed we had had for twenty nights, and, relieved +as we were from the fear of detection, we slept for hours. + + * * * + +When we awakened, the sun was pouring in at the curtainless windows, +and we were as hungry as bears. "Now for a potato-feed," Ted said, +looking out of the window at a fine field of potatoes across the +road. The field had been reclaimed from the peat-bog, and some of the +potatoes had already been dug and put into pits. + +In looking around for material to light a fire, I saw scraps of +newspapers, which I examined closely and found they were Dutch papers, +one bearing the name of "Odoorn" and the other "Nieuwstadskanaal." +This supported us in our belief that we were in Holland. + +We got potatoes from the field and roasted them in the fire which we +built in the fireplace. + +A young Hollander, fired with curiosity, came to the door and looked +in at us. We hailed him with delight and asked him to come right +in, and be one of us! He came in rather gingerly, looking at us +wide-eyed, and we were sorry to find he could not speak English. +There were certain things we wanted to know! + +We were drying our matches by the fire, for they had become rather +damp, and our supply was getting low. Also our tobacco was done. So +we said, "Tabac," showing him our empty pipes, and from the pocket +of his coat he brought out a pouch, and we filled our pipes. I don't +know whether he knew we had been prisoners or not. He drifted out in +a few minutes, but I think he told others about us, for after we had +had our smoke, and had gone to the canal to fix up, we found some +interested spectators. + +At the canal we washed, shaved, cleaned our teeth, combed our hair, +and went as far as we could in getting ready to see people. Ted had +his Canadian soldier's tunic, with the regular prisoner's dark-blue +trousers such as the British Red Cross supplies. His tunic was torn +in several places and his hair was unkempt and in need of cutting. He +had cut the heels out of his boots, several days before, because they +hurt him. I had the regular prisoner's suit, dark-blue cloth, and had +cut off the yellow stripe which had been sewed down the legs of the +trousers; I had also cut off my prison number. My boots had held +well, and there was not even a hole in my socks. My hair was getting +shaggy, and I suppose we were both looking fairly tough. Our clothes +were wrinkled and crushed and dirty. + + * * * + +There was one older man who watched us, with many exclamations of +friendliness, who, when we had concluded our efforts, made us +understand that he wanted us to come with him to have something to +eat. He could speak no English, but he made us understand. We went +back to the deserted house, gathered up our things, and went with +him. Two young fellows came along, too, and we were taken to a +canal-boat near by. + +The woman who waited on the breakfast table in the canal-boat, and +served us with rye-bread, margarine, and coffee, gave us hard +looks, which made us think her heart was still in the fatherland. +Conversation was naturally difficult, because no one of them could +speak English, but we began to ask about Rotterdam, for we knew that +that would be the port from which we should sail, and we were anxious +to know how to get there. One of the young men, a fine-looking fellow +with a frank, pleasing countenance, said something and made gestures, +which made us think he would take us there in his boat. + +We started out with him and his companion, not sorry to leave the +sour-faced lady who glared at us, and walked along the road beside +the canal. We were on the outskirts of Odoorn, a town whose chief +industry is the shipping of peat. It being Sunday, nobody was +working, and the people, especially the children, came out to see +us. The young man took us to one of the houses and introduced us to +his father and mother, who welcomed us kindly and wanted us to have +something to eat. But we declined. + +We were then taken by him along the road, and the crowd of children +that followed us seemed to be growing bigger every minute. Our +friend, anxious apparently to do the proper thing, took out his +mouth-organ and played "It's a Long Way to Tipperary"--and it +certainly hit the spot with us. + +He conducted us to the home of the gendarme--and for a minute our +old fear of being interned came back to us! The gendarme was plainly +bored--he had been having a Sunday-afternoon sleep, and had not +finished it. He yawned as he spoke. + +The young man talked to him very earnestly, and at last he invited +us in. Up to this time we had not heard a word of English. The +gendarme's wife, a nice-looking, well-dressed woman, brought in a +tray and gave us tea, and little cakes with seeds on them, and soon +a young man who could speak English came in to act as interpreter. + +He began to question us, but we soon turned the conversation by +questioning him. We asked him if there was any danger of our being +interned? He told us we could be interned if we liked, but we +hastened to assure him we should not like it. + +Then he said we could stay in Holland and work, but again we +declined. We wanted to go to England, we said. + +He tried to dissuade us. Why go to England? That would mean going +back into the army. Holland was the best and safest place! + +We insisted that we wanted to go to England, and he warned us that if +we wanted to change our minds we must do it now; because we couldn't +change after we had "signed the paper." We were still sure we wanted +to go! + +The gendarme then went upstairs and came down in his uniform and took +us out with him. We didn't know where he was taking us, but supposed +it was to some place to make arrangements for our passage to England. +When we came out of the house we found some women gathered there +waiting for us, and a very poorly dressed woman, with a fine face, +stepped up and gave us a small sum of money, which she had evidently +collected for us. We thanked her warmly, and with sincere gratitude. +Then we set out across country about four miles to Borger, where we +were taken to the Burgomaster's house. + +The Burgomaster's house was one of the best in the little town, and +when we went in, we found there a young man, evidently calling on the +daughter of the house, and he could speak English. + +We were taken downtown to the Burgomaster's office, and official +papers were made out, and we signed them. This was what the +gendarme's interpreter had been telling us, about not being able to +change our minds after we had signed the paper! + +The Burgomaster evidently told the gendarme to take us to the hotel +and have us fed, and by this time, after our walk, we were quite +ready for something. When we offered them money for our meal--which +was a good one--it was politely refused. + +We were then taken to the home of one of the Borgen gendarmes where +we stayed for the night. His name was H. Letema. We ate with the +family and were treated with great kindness. The white bread and +honey which we had for tea were a great treat to us. One of the other +gendarmes gave Ted a pair of socks, and he was able to discard the +strips of underwear. We had a bed made of straw, with good blankets, +and it seemed like luxury to us. + +The next morning Mr. Letema gave us each a postal-card addressed to +himself, and asked us to write back telling him when we had safely +reached England. Then another gendarme walked with us to Assen, which +seemed to be a sort of police headquarters. We stayed there all day. + +In the afternoon a Belgian girl came to see us, and although I tried +hard to understand what she said, she talked so fast I could not +follow her, although I knew a little French. She brought us some +cigars, and we could see she wanted to show us her friendliness. When +she went away, I deeply regretted my ignorance of the French +language. But the Belgian girl came back in a little while, +accompanied by a Holland woman who could speak English, and then we +found out about her. + +She had fled from Antwerp at the time of the bombardment, and was +supporting herself by needlework at Assen, where she was the only +Belgian person, and I suppose she was tired of "neutrals" and wanted +to see us because we were of the Allies. She urged us to tell her +what she could do for us, and we asked her for some postal-cards, so +we could tell our friends that we had escaped. She sent them to us by +her friend the interpreter, who also gave us some English books and a +box of cigars. + +That night a young gendarme took us upstairs to his room, which was +nicely decorated with flags and pennants, and he told us the Germans +could never conquer Holland, for they would cut the dykes--as they +had done before. He showed us the picture of his fiancee, and proudly +exhibited the ring she had given him. + +The next day we were taken by another gendarme to Rotterdam by train, +passing through Utrecht and in sight of the Zuider Zee. Arriving +there, we were taken to the alien officer, who questioned us and +wrote down what we told him. Then the gendarme took us to the British +Consul, and left us there. The Consul shook hands with us and +congratulated us on our escape, and put us in charge of a +Vice-Consul, who was a Hollander. + +We stayed at the "Seaman's Rest," which was in the same building as +the British Consulate. There we met two Americans, who were very +friendly and greatly interested in our escape. They encouraged us to +talk about the prison-camps, and of what we had seen in Germany, but +it was not long until we became suspicious and careful in our +answers. One of them had an American passport, which seemed to let +him have the freedom of the city; the other one had no passport, and +complained that he could not get one, and it was causing him no end +of inconvenience, for he found it impossible to get a job at his +trade, which was that of "trimmer" on a vessel. He went every day to +the docks, looking for a job, and acquired considerable information +about ships and their time of sailing. At night, he and his friend +were together, and the knowledge was no doubt turned over. + +Mr. Neilson, Superintendent of the Sailors' Institute, very kindly +invited us to go with him to The Hague, to see the Peace Temple, and +it was then that we made bold to ask for some spending money. The +Vice-Consul, the Hollander, was a thrift-fiend so far as other people +were concerned, and it was only after Mr. Neilson had presented our +claim, and we had used all the arguments we could think of, that we +got about two dollars each. + +Our clothes--too--had not yet been replaced with new ones, and we +felt very shabby in our soiled uniforms. We mentioned this to the +Vice-Consul, and told him that we believed the Canadian Government +would stand by us to the extent of a new suit of clothes. He murmured +something about the expenses being very heavy at this time. We +ventured to remind him that the money would be repaid--Canada was +still doing business! + +The next day our American friends invited us to go to a picture show +with them. We went, but at the door a gorgeously uniformed gentleman, +who looked like a cross between a butler and an admiral, turned us +back--that is, Ted and me. We had no collars on! The public had to be +protected--he was sorry, but these were his orders. + +Then we sought the Vice-Consul and told him if he did not get us +decent clothes, we should go to the Consul. The next morning we got +the clothes! + + * * * + +On the sixth night we sailed from Rotterdam, and the next morning, in +a hazy dawn, we sighted, with glad hearts, the misty shores of +England. + +As we sailed up the Tyne, we saw war shops being built, and women +among the workmen, looking very neat and smart in their working +uniforms. They seemed to know their business, too, and moved about +with a speed and energy which indicated an earnest purpose. Here was +another factor which Germany had not counted on--the women of the +Empire! Germany knew exactly how many troops, how many guns, how many +ships, how much ammunition England had; but they did not know--never +could know--the spirit of the English people! + +They saw a country which seethed with discontent--Hyde Park agitators +who railed at everything British, women who set fire to empty +buildings, and destroyed mail-boxes as a protest against unfair +social conditions--and they made the mistake of thinking that these +discontented citizens were traitors who would be glad of the chance +to stab their country to the heart. They knew that the average +English found golf and cricket much more interesting than foreign +affairs, so they were not quite prepared for that rush of men to the +recruiting offices at the first call for volunteers! Englishmen may +abuse their own country, but it is a different matter when the enemy +is at the door. So they came,--the farmer, the clerk, the bank boy, +the teacher, the student, the professional man, the writer, the +crossing-sweeper, the cab-man,--high and low, rich and poor, old and +young, they flocked to the offices, like the land-seekers in the West +who form queues in front of the Homestead offices, to enter their +land. + +I thought of these first recruits--the "contemptible little +army"--who went over in those first terrible days, and, +insufficiently equipped as they were, went up against the +overwhelming hosts of Germany with their superior numbers and +equipment that had been in preparation for forty years.... and how +they held back the invaders--though they had but one shell to the +Germans' hundred--by sheer force of courage and individual bravery... +and with such losses. I thought of these men as I stepped on the +wharf at Newcastle, and it seemed to me that every country lane in +England and every city street was hallowed by the unseen presence of +the glorious and unforgotten dead! + + + +CONCLUSION + + +I have been at home for more than a year now, and cannot return to +the front. Apparently the British Government have given their word to +the neutral countries that prisoners who escape from Germany, and are +assisted by the neutral countries, will not be allowed to return to +the fighting line. So even if my shoulder were well again, I could +not go back to fight. + +Ted and I parted in London, for I came back to Canada before he did. +He has since rejoined his family in Toronto. I have heard from a +number of the boys in Germany. Bromley tried to escape again, but was +captured, and is now at a camp called Soltau. John Keith and Croak +also tried, but failed. Little Joe, the Italian boy who enlisted with +me at Trail, has been since exchanged--insane! Percy Weller, Sergeant +Reid, and Hill, brother of the British Reservist who gave us our +first training, have all been exchanged. + + * * * + +I am sorry that I cannot go back. Not that I like fighting--for I do +not; but because I believe every man who is physically fit should +have a hand in this great clean-up--every man is needed! From what +I have seen of the German people, I believe they will resist +stubbornly, and a war of exhaustion will be a long affair with a +people so well trained and organized. The military class know well +that if they are forced to make terms unfavorable to Germany, their +power will be gone forever, and they would rather go down to defeat +before the Allied nations than be overthrown by their own people. +There is no doubt that the war was precipitated by the military class +in Germany because the people were growing too powerful. So they +might as well fight on, with a chance of victory, as to conclude an +unsatisfactory peace and face a revolution. + +The German people have to be taught one thing before their real +education can begin. They have to be made to see--and the Allied +armies are making it plainer every day--that war is unprofitable; +that their army, great though it is, may meet a greater; that heavy +losses may come to their own country. They need to be reminded that +he that liveth by the sword may die by the sword! + +The average German thinks that only through superior military +strength can any good thing come to a nation. All their lives they +have been taught that, and their hatred of England has been largely +a result of their fear of England's superior strength. They cannot +understand that England and the other Allies have no desire to +dominate German affairs. They do not believe that there is an ethical +side to this war. The Germans are pitifully dense to ethical values. +They are not idealists or sentimentalists, and their imagination is +not easily kindled. + +Added to this, they have separated themselves from religion. Less +than two per cent of the men attend church, and if the extracts we +read from the sermons preached in their churches is a fair sample +of the teaching given there, the ninety-eight who stay at home are +better off than the two who go! + +[Illustration: Post-Card sent by Private Bromley from the Prison-Camp +of Soltau, Germany, in July, 1918 / The crosses mark the graves of +prisoners who have died at this camp] + +All these things have helped to produce a type of mind that is not +moved by argument or entreaty, a national character that has shown +itself capable of deeds of grave dishonesty and of revolting cruelty; +which cannot be forgotten--or allowed to go unpunished! + +But if their faith in the power of force can be broken--and it may be +broken very soon--the end of the war will come suddenly. + + * * * + +The people at home are interested and speculative as to the returned +soldiers' point of view. Personally, I believe that as the soldiers +went away with diversity of opinions, so will they come home, though +in a less degree. There will be a tendency to fusion in some +respects. One will be in the matter of cooeperation; the civilian's +ideas are generally those of the individual--he brags about his +rights and resents any restriction of them. He is strong on grand old +traditions, and rejoices in any special privileges which have come to +him. + +The soldier learns to share his comforts with the man next him; in +the army each man depends on the other--and cannot do without him: +there is no competition there, but only cooeperation. If loss comes to +one man, or misfortune, it affects the others. If one man is poorly +trained, or uncontrolled, or foolish, all suffer. If a badly trained +bomber loses his head, pulls the pin of his bomb, and lets it drop +instead of throwing it, the whole platoon is endangered. In this way +the soldier unconsciously absorbs some of the principles of, and can +understand the reason for, discipline, and acquires a wholesome +respect for the man who knows his job. + +He sees the reason for stringent orders in regard to health and +sanitation. He does not like to get into a dirty bath himself, and +so he leaves it clean for the next man. In other words, the soldier, +consciously or unconsciously, has learned that he is a part of a +great mass of people, and that his own safety, both commercially and +socially, depends on the proper disciplining of the whole people. + +The returned soldier will take kindly to projects which tend to a +better equalization of duties, responsibilities, and pleasures. He +will be a great stickler for this; if he has to work, every one else +must work too. He will be hard against special privileges. He will be +strong in his insistence that our natural resources be nationalized. +He will go after all lines of industry now in the hands of large +corporations, and insist on national supervision if not actual +ownership. + +In religion, he will not care anything about form. Denominationalism +will bore him, but the vital element of religion, brotherly love and +helping the other fellow, will attract him, wherever he finds it. He +knows that religion--he believes in it. + +The political parties will never be able to catch him with their +worn-out phrases. Politicians had better begin to remodel their +speeches. The iniquities of the other party will not do. There must +be a breaking-out of new roads--old things have passed away! + +The returned man will claim, above all things, honest dealing, and +for this reason the tricky politicians who "put it over" in the +pre-war days will not have so easy a time. "Guff" will not be well +received. The leaders on the battle-field have been men who could +look death in the face without flinching, so the political leaders +at home must be men of heroism, who will travel the path of +righteousness even though they see it leads by the way of the Cross! + + * * * + +There is a hard road ahead of us, a hard, steep road of sacrifice, +and in it we must as a nation travel, although our feet are heavy and +our eyes are dim. The war must be won; human liberty is worth the +price--whatever the price may be! + +We do not travel as those who have no hope, for we know, though we +cannot see it, that at the top of the mountain the sun is shining +on a cleaner, fairer, better world. + +THE END + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Three Times and Out, by Nellie L. 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