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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42490 ***
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text
+as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and
+other inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious
+error is noted at the end of this ebook.]
+
+
+
+
+OUTWITTING THE HUN
+
+
+[Illustration: LIEUT. PAT O'BRIEN, R. F. C.]
+
+
+
+
+  OUTWITTING
+  THE HUN
+
+  _My Escape from a
+  German Prison Camp_
+
+  BY
+
+  LIEUT. PAT O'BRIEN
+
+  _Royal Flying Corps_
+
+  ILLUSTRATED
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
+  NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+
+  OUTWITTING THE HUN
+
+
+  Copyright, 1918, by Lieutenant Pat O'Brien
+  Printed in the United States of America
+  Published March, 1918
+
+
+
+
+  TO
+
+  THE NORTH STAR
+
+  WHOSE GUIDING LIGHT MARKED THE
+  PATHWAY TO FREEDOM FOR A WEARY
+  FUGITIVE, THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED
+  IN HUMBLE GRATITUDE
+  AND ABIDING FAITH
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAP.                                     PAGE
+
+  PREFACE                                     xi
+
+  I.    THE FOLLY OF DESPAIR                   1
+
+  II.   I BECOME A FIGHTING-SCOUT              7
+
+  III.  CAPTURED BY THE HUNS                  21
+
+  IV.   CLIPPED WINGS                         34
+
+  V.    THE PRISON-CAMP AT COURTRAI           53
+
+  VI.   A LEAP FOR LIBERTY                    77
+
+  VII.  CRAWLING THROUGH GERMANY              88
+
+  VIII. NINE DAYS IN LUXEMBOURG               97
+
+  IX.   I ENTER BELGIUM                      112
+
+  X.    EXPERIENCES IN BELGIUM               132
+
+  XI.   I ENCOUNTER GERMAN SOLDIERS          145
+
+  XII.  THE FORGED PASSPORT                  159
+
+  XIII. FIVE DAYS IN AN EMPTY HOUSE          186
+
+  XIV.  A NIGHT OF DISSIPATION               207
+
+  XV.   OBSERVATIONS IN A BELGIAN CITY       219
+
+  XVI.  I APPROACH THE FRONTIER              225
+
+  XVII. GETTING THROUGH THE LINES            236
+
+  XVIII. EXPERIENCES IN HOLLAND              250
+
+  XIX.  I AM PRESENTED TO THE KING           273
+
+  XX.   HOME AGAIN!                          281
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Illustrations were interleaved between pages in the
+original text. In this version, they have been moved to be between
+paragraphs. Page numbers below reflect the position of the illustration
+in the original text.]
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  LIEUT. PAT O'BRIEN, R. F. C.              _Frontispiece_
+
+  THE AEROPLANE WHICH LIEUTENANT O'BRIEN
+    USED IN HIS LAST BATTLE WITH THE HUNS
+    WHEN HE WAS BROUGHT DOWN AND
+    MADE PRISONER                           _Facing p._ 30
+
+  THE IDENTIFICATION DISK WORN BY LIEUTENANT
+    O'BRIEN WHEN HE WAS CAPTURED
+    BY THE HUNS. IT REVEALED TO
+    THEM THAT HE WAS AN AMERICAN                   "    36
+
+  LIEUT. PAUL H. RANEY OF TORONTO AND LIEUT.
+    PAT O'BRIEN                                    "    50
+
+  MAILING-CARD SENT BY GERMAN GOVERNMENT
+    TO PAT O'BRIEN'S SISTER, MRS. CLARA
+    CLEGG OF MOMENCE, ILLINOIS                     "    60
+
+  OBVERSE SIDE OF CARD SHOWN ABOVE                 "    60
+
+  A GROUP OF PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE PRISON-CAMP
+    AT COURTRAI, BELGIUM                           "    70
+
+  THE FORGED PASSPORT PREPARED IN A BELGIAN
+    CITY TO AID LIEUTENANT O'BRIEN'S
+    ESCAPE INTO HOLLAND, BUT WHICH WAS
+    NEVER USED                                     "   164
+
+  COPY OF TELEGRAM INVITING LIEUTENANT
+    O'BRIEN TO MEET KING GEORGE                    "   270
+
+  COPY OF TELEGRAM SENT BY LIEUTENANT
+    O'BRIEN IN ANSWER TO AN INVITATION
+    TO MEET KING GEORGE                            "   270
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+There is a common idea that the age of miracles is past. Perhaps it
+is, but if so, the change must have come about within the past few
+weeks--after I escaped into Holland. For if anything is certain in this
+life it is this: this book never would have been written but for the
+succession of miracles set forth in these pages.
+
+Miracles, luck, coincidence, Providence--it doesn't matter much what you
+call it--certainly played an important part in the series of hairbreadth
+escapes in which I figured during my short but eventful appearance in
+the great drama now being enacted across the seas. Without it, all my
+efforts and sufferings would have been quite unavailing.
+
+No one realizes this better than I do and I want to repeat it right here
+because elsewhere in these pages I may appear occasionally to overlook
+or minimize it: without the help of Providence I would not be here
+to-day.
+
+But this same Providence which brought me home safely, despite all the
+dangers which beset me, may work similar miracles for others, and it is
+in the hope of encouraging other poor devils who may find themselves in
+situations as hopeless apparently as mine oftentimes were that this book
+is written.
+
+When this cruel war is over--which I trust may be sooner than I expect
+it to be--I hope I shall have an opportunity to revisit the scenes of my
+adventures and to thank in person in an adequate manner every one who
+extended a helping hand to me when I was a wretched fugitive. All of
+them took great risks in befriending an escaped prisoner, and they did
+it without the slightest hope of reward. At the same time I hope I shall
+have a chance to pay my compliments to those who endeavored to take
+advantage of my distress.
+
+In the meanwhile, however, I can only express my thanks in this
+ineffective manner, trusting that in some mysterious way a copy of this
+book may fall into the hands of every one who befriended me. I hope
+particularly that every good Hollander who played the part of the Good
+Samaritan to me so bountifully after my escape from Belgium will see
+these pages and feel that I am absolutely sincere when I say that words
+cannot begin to express my sense of gratitude to the Dutch people.
+
+It is needless for me to add how deeply I feel for my fellow-prisoners
+in Germany who were less fortunate than I. Poor, poor fellows!--they are
+the real victims of the war. I hope that every one of them may soon be
+restored to that freedom whose value I never fully realized until after
+I had had to fight so hard to regain it.
+
+                                                  PAT O'BRIEN.
+
+  MOMENCE, ILLINOIS, _January 14, 1918_.
+
+
+
+
+OUTWITTING THE HUN
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE FOLLY OF DESPAIR
+
+
+Less than nine months ago eighteen officers of the Royal Flying Corps,
+which had been training in Canada, left for England on the _Megantic_.
+
+If any of them was over twenty-five years of age, he had successfully
+concealed the fact, because they don't accept older men for the R. F. C.
+
+Nine of the eighteen were British subjects; the other nine were
+Americans, who, tired of waiting for their own country to take her place
+with the Allies, had joined the British colors in Canada. I was one of
+the latter.
+
+We were going to England to earn our "wings"--a qualification which must
+be won before a member of the R. F. C. is allowed to hunt the Huns on
+the western front.
+
+That was in May, 1917.
+
+By August 1st most of us were full-fledged pilots, actively engaged at
+various parts of the line in daily conflict with the enemy.
+
+By December 15th every man Jack of us who had met the enemy in France,
+with one exception, had appeared on the casualty list. The exception
+was H. K. Boysen, an American, who at last report was fighting on the
+Italian front, still unscathed. Whether his good fortune has stood by
+him up to this time I don't know, but if it has I would be very much
+surprised.
+
+Of the others five were killed in action--three Americans, one Canadian,
+and one Englishman. Three more were in all probability killed in action,
+although officially they are listed merely as "missing." One of these
+was an American, one a Canadian, and the third a Scotchman. Three more,
+two of them Americans, were seriously wounded. Another, a Canadian, is
+a prisoner in Germany. I know nothing of the others.
+
+What happened to me is narrated in these pages. I wish, instead, I could
+tell the story of each of my brave comrades, for not one of them was
+downed, I am sure, without upholding the best traditions of the R. F.
+C. Unfortunately, however, of the eighteen who sailed on the _Megantic_
+last May, I happened to be the first to fall into the hands of the Huns,
+and what befell my comrades after that, with one exception, I know only
+second hand.
+
+The exception was the case of poor, brave Paul Raney--my closest
+chum--whose last battle I witnessed from my German prison--but that is a
+story I shall tell in its proper place.
+
+In one way, however, I think the story of my own "big adventure" and my
+miraculous escape may, perhaps, serve a purpose as useful as that of
+the heroic fate of my less fortunate comrades. Their story, it is true,
+might inspire others to deeds of heroism, but mine, I hope, will convey
+the equally valuable lesson of the folly of despair.
+
+Many were the times in the course of my struggles when it seemed
+absolutely useless to continue. In a hostile country, where discovery
+meant death, wounded, sick, famished, friendless, hundreds of miles
+from the nearest neutral territory the frontier of which was so closely
+guarded that even if I got there it seemed too much to hope that I could
+ever get through, what was the use of enduring further agony?
+
+And yet here I am, in the Land of Liberty--although in a somewhat
+obscure corner, the little town of Momence, Illinois, where I was
+born--not very much the worse for wear after all I've been through, and,
+as I write these words, not eight months have passed since my seventeen
+comrades and I sailed from Canada on the _Megantic_!
+
+Can it be possible that I was spared to convey a message of hope to
+others who are destined for similar trials? I am afraid there will be
+many of them.
+
+Years ago I heard of the epitaph which is said to have been found on a
+child's grave:
+
+    If I was so soon to be done for,
+    O Lord, what was I ever begun for?
+
+The way it has come to me since I returned from Europe is:
+
+    If, O Lord, I was _not_ to be done for,
+    What were my sufferings e'er begun for?
+
+Perhaps the answer lies in the suggestion I have made.
+
+At any rate, if this record of my adventures should prove instrumental
+in sustaining others who need encouragement, I shall not feel that my
+sufferings were in vain.
+
+It is hardly likely that any one will quite duplicate my experiences,
+but I haven't the slightest doubt that many will have to go through
+trials equally nerve-racking and suffer disappointments just as
+disheartening.
+
+It would be very far from the mark to imagine that the optimism which I
+am preaching now so glibly sustained me through all my troubles. On the
+contrary, I am free to confess that I frequently gave way to despair
+and often, for hours at a time, felt so dejected and discouraged that
+I really didn't care what happened to me. Indeed, I rather hoped that
+something _would_ happen to put an end to my misery.
+
+But, despite all my despondency and hopelessness, the worst never
+happened, and I can't help thinking that my salvation must have been
+designed to show the way to others.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+I BECOME A FIGHTING-SCOUT
+
+
+I started flying, in Chicago, in 1912. I was then eighteen years old,
+but I had had a hankering for the air ever since I can remember.
+
+As a youngster I followed the exploits of the Wrights with the greatest
+interest, although I must confess I sometimes hoped that they wouldn't
+really conquer the air until I had had a whack at it myself. I got more
+whacks than I was looking for later on.
+
+Needless to say, my parents were very much opposed to my risking my
+life at what was undoubtedly at that time one of the most hazardous
+"pastimes" a young fellow could select, and every time I had a smash-up
+or some other mishap I was ordered never to go near an aviation field
+again.
+
+So I went out to California. There another fellow and I built our own
+machine, which we flew in various parts of the state.
+
+In the early part of 1916, when trouble was brewing in Mexico, I joined
+the American Flying Corps. I was sent to San Diego, where the army
+flying school is located, and spent about eight months there, but as I
+was anxious to get into active service and there didn't seem much chance
+of America ever getting into the war, I resigned and, crossing over to
+Canada, joined the Royal Flying Corps at Victoria, B. C.
+
+I was sent to Camp Borden, Toronto, first to receive instruction and
+later to instruct. While a cadet I made the first loop ever made
+by a cadet in Canada, and after I had performed the stunt I half
+expected to be kicked out of the service for it. Apparently, however,
+they considered the source and let it go at that. Later on I had the
+satisfaction of introducing the loop as part of the regular course of
+instruction for cadets in the R. F. C., and I want to say right here
+that Camp Borden has turned out some of the best fliers that have ever
+gone to France.
+
+In May, 1917, I and seventeen other Canadian fliers left for England on
+the _Megantic_, where we were to qualify for service in France.
+
+Our squadron consisted of nine Americans, C. C. Robinson, H. A. Miller,
+F. S. McClurg, A. A. Allen, E. B. Garnett, H. K. Boysen, H. A. Smeeton,
+A. Taylor, and myself; and nine Britishers, Paul H. Raney, J. R. Park,
+C. Nelmes, C. R. Moore, T. L. Atkinson, F. C. Conry, A. Muir, E. A. L.
+F. Smith, and A. C. Jones.
+
+Within a few weeks after our arrival in England all of us had won our
+"wings"--the insignia worn on the left breast by every pilot on the
+western front.
+
+We were all sent to a place in France known as the Pool Pilots' Mess.
+Here men gather from all the training squadrons in Canada and England
+and await assignments to the particular squadron of which they are to
+become members.
+
+The Pool Pilots' Mess is situated a few miles back of the lines.
+Whenever a pilot is shot down or killed the Pool Pilots' Mess is
+notified to send another to take his place.
+
+There are so many casualties every day in the R. F. C. at one point of
+the front or another that the demand for new pilots is quite active,
+but when a fellow is itching to get into the fight as badly as I and my
+friends were I must confess that we got a little impatient, although we
+realized that every time a new man was called it meant that some one
+else had, in all probability, been killed, wounded, or captured.
+
+One morning an order came in for a scout pilot, and one of my friends
+was assigned. I can tell you the rest of us were as envious of him as
+if it were the last chance any of us were ever going to have to get to
+the front. As it was, however, hardly more than three hours had elapsed
+before another wire was received at the Mess and I was ordered to
+follow my friend. I afterward learned that as soon as he arrived at the
+squadron he had prevailed upon the commanding officer of the squadron to
+wire for me.
+
+At the Pool Pilots' Mess it was the custom of the officers to wear
+"shorts"--breeches that are about eight inches long, like the Boy Scouts
+wear, leaving a space of about eight inches of open country between the
+top of the puttees and the end of the "shorts." The Australians wore
+them in Salonica and at the Dardanelles.
+
+When the order came in for me, I had these "shorts" on, and I didn't
+have time to change into other clothes. Indeed, I was in such a sweat to
+get to the front that if I had been in my pajamas I think I would have
+gone that way. As it was, it was raining and I threw an overcoat over
+me, jumped into the machine, and we made record time to the aerodrome to
+which I had been ordered to report.
+
+As I alighted from the automobile my overcoat blew open and displayed
+my manly form attired in "shorts" instead of in the regulation flying
+breeches, and the sight aroused considerable commotion in camp.
+
+"Must be a Yankee!" I overheard one officer say to another as I
+approached. "No one but a Yank would have the cheek to show up that way,
+you know!"
+
+But they laughed good-naturedly as I came up to them and welcomed me to
+the squadron, and I was soon very much at home.
+
+My squadron was one of four stationed at an aerodrome about eighteen
+miles back of the Ypres line. There were eighteen pilots in our
+squadron, which was a scout-squadron, scout-machines carrying but one
+man.
+
+A scout, sometimes called a fighting-scout, has no bomb-dropping or
+reconnoitering to do. His duty is just to fight, or, as the order was
+given to me, "You are expected to pick fights and not wait until they
+come to you!"
+
+When bomb-droppers go out over the lines in the daytime, a
+scout-squadron usually convoys them. The bomb-droppers fly at about
+twelve thousand feet, the scouts a thousand feet or so above them to
+protect them.
+
+If at any time they should be attacked, it is the duty of the scouts to
+dive down and carry on the fight, the orders of the bomb-droppers being
+to go on dropping bombs and not to fight unless they have to. There is
+seldom a time that machines go out over the lines on this work in the
+daytime that they are not attacked at some time or other, and so the
+scouts usually have plenty of work to do. In addition to these attacks,
+however, the squadron is invariably under constant bombardment from the
+ground, but that doesn't worry us very much, as we know pretty well how
+to avoid being hit from that quarter.
+
+On my first flight, after joining the squadron, I was taken out over
+the lines to get a look at things, map out my location in case I was
+ever lost, locate the forests, lakes, and other landmarks, and get the
+general lay of the land.
+
+One thing that was impressed upon me very emphatically was the location
+of the hospitals, so that in case I was ever wounded and had the
+strength to pick my landing I could land as near as possible to a
+hospital. All these things a new pilot goes through during the first two
+or three days after joining a squadron.
+
+Our regular routine was two flights a day, each of two hours' duration.
+After doing our regular patrol, it was our privilege to go off on our
+own hook, if we wished, before going back to the squadron.
+
+I soon found out that my squadron was some hot squadron, our fliers
+being almost always assigned to special-duty work, such as shooting up
+trenches at a height of fifty feet from the ground!
+
+I received my baptism into this kind of work the third time I went out
+over the lines, and I would recommend it to any one who is hankering for
+excitement. You are not only apt to be attacked by hostile aircraft from
+above, but you are swept by machine-gun fire from below. I have seen
+some of our machines come back from this work sometimes so riddled with
+bullets that I wondered how they ever held together. Before we started
+out on one of these jobs we were mighty careful to see that our motors
+were in perfect condition, because they told us the "war-bread was bad
+in Germany."
+
+One morning, shortly after I joined the squadron, three of us started
+over the line on our own accord. We soon observed four enemy machines,
+two-seaters, coming toward us. This type of machine is used by the Huns
+for artillery work and bomb-dropping, and we knew they were on mischief
+bent. Each machine had a machine-gun in front, worked by the pilot, and
+the observer also had a gun with which he could spray all around.
+
+When we first noticed the Huns our machines were about six miles back of
+the German lines and we were lying high up in the sky, keeping the sun
+behind us, so that the enemy could not see us.
+
+We picked out three of the machines and dove down on them. I went right
+by the man I picked for myself and his observer in the rear seat kept
+pumping at me to beat the band. Not one of my shots took effect as I
+went right under him, but I turned and gave him another burst of bullets
+and down he went in a spinning nose dive, one of his wings going one way
+and one another. As I saw him crash to the ground I knew that I had got
+my first hostile aircraft. One of my comrades was equally successful,
+but the other two German machines got away. We chased them back until
+things got too hot for us by reason of the appearance of other German
+machines, and then we called it a day.
+
+This experience whetted my appetite for more of the same kind, and I did
+not have long to wait.
+
+It may be well to explain here just what a spinning nose dive is. A
+few years ago the spinning nose dive was considered one of the most
+dangerous things a pilot could attempt, and many men were killed
+getting into this spin and not knowing how to come out of it. In fact,
+lots of pilots thought that when once you got into a spinning nose dive
+there was no way of coming out of it. It is now used, however, in actual
+flying.
+
+The machines that are used in France are controlled in two ways, both
+by hands and by feet, the feet working the yoke or rudder bar which
+controls the rudder that steers the machine. The lateral controls and
+fore and aft, which cause the machine to rise or lower, are controlled
+by a contrivance called a "joy-stick." If, when flying in the air, a
+pilot should release his hold on this stick, it will gradually come back
+toward the pilot.
+
+In that position the machine will begin to climb. So if a pilot is shot
+and loses control of this "joy-stick" his machine begins to ascend, and
+climbs until the angle formed becomes too great for it to continue or
+the motor to pull the plane; for a fraction of a second it stops, and
+the motor then being the heaviest, it causes the nose of the machine to
+fall forward, pitching down at a terrific rate of speed and spinning at
+the same time. If the motor is still running, it naturally increases the
+speed much more than it would if the motor were shut off, and there is
+great danger that the wings will double up, causing the machine to break
+apart. Although spins are made with the motor on, you are dropping like
+a ball being dropped out of the sky and the velocity increases with the
+power of the motor.
+
+This spinning nose dive has been frequently used in "stunt" flying in
+recent years, but is now put to practical use by pilots in getting
+away from hostile machines, for when a man is spinning, it is almost
+impossible to hit him, and the man making the attack invariably thinks
+his enemy is going down to certain death in the spin.
+
+This is all right when a man is over his own territory, because he can
+right his machine and come out of it; but if it happens over German
+territory, the Huns would only follow him down, and when he came out of
+the spin they would be above him, having all the advantage, and would
+shoot him down with ease.
+
+It is a good way of getting down into a cloud, and is used very often
+by both sides, but it requires skill and courage by the pilot making it
+if he ever expects to come out alive.
+
+A spin being made by a pilot intentionally looks exactly like a spin
+that is made by a machine actually being shot down, so one never knows
+whether it is forced or intentional until the pilot either rights his
+machine and comes out of it or crashes to the ground.
+
+Another dive similar to this one is known as just the plain "dive."
+Assume, for instance, that a pilot flying at a height of several
+thousand feet is shot, loses control of his machine, and the nose of the
+plane starts down with the motor full on. He is going at a tremendous
+speed and in many instances is going so straight and swiftly that the
+speed is too great for the machine, because it was never constructed
+to withstand the enormous pressure forced against the wings, and they
+consequently crumple up.
+
+If, too, in an effort to straighten the machine, the elevators should
+become affected, as often happens in trying to bring a machine out of
+a dive, the strain is again too great on the wings, and there is the
+same disastrous result. Oftentimes, when the petrol-tank is punctured by
+a tracer-bullet from another machine in the air, the plane that is hit
+catches on fire and either gets into a spin or a straight dive and heads
+for the earth, hundreds of miles an hour, a mass of flame, looking like
+a brilliant comet in the sky.
+
+The spinning nose dive is used to greater advantage by the Germans than
+by our own pilots, for the reason that when a fight gets too hot for the
+German he will put his machine in a spin, and as the chances are nine
+out of ten that we are fighting over German territory, he simply spins
+down out of our range, straightens out before he reaches the ground, and
+goes on home to his aerodrome. It is useless to follow him down inside
+the German lines, for you would in all probability be shot down before
+you could attain sufficient altitude to cross the line again.
+
+It often happens that a pilot will be chasing another machine when
+suddenly he sees it start to spin. Perhaps they are fifteen or eighteen
+thousand feet in the air, and the hostile machine spins down for
+thousands of feet. He thinks he has hit the other machine and goes home
+happy that he has brought down another Hun. He reports the occurrence to
+the squadron, telling how he shot down his enemy; but when the rest of
+the squadron come in with their report, or some artillery observation
+balloon sends in a report, it develops that when a few hundred feet from
+the ground the supposed dead man in the spin has come out of the spin
+and gone merrily on his way for his own aerodrome.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+CAPTURED BY THE HUNS
+
+
+I shall not easily forget the 17th of August, 1917. I killed two Huns in
+a double-seated machine in the morning, another in the evening, and then
+I was captured myself. I may have spent more eventful days in my life,
+but I can't recall any just now.
+
+That morning, in crossing the line on early morning patrol, I noticed
+two German balloons. I decided that as soon as my patrol was over I
+would go off on my own hook and see what a German balloon looked like at
+close quarters.
+
+These observation balloons are used by both sides in conjunction with
+the artillery. A man sits up in the balloon with a wireless apparatus
+and directs the firing of the guns. From his point of vantage he can
+follow the work of his own artillery with a remarkable degree of
+accuracy and at the same time he can observe the enemy's movements and
+report them.
+
+The Germans are very good at this work and they use a great number of
+these balloons. It was considered a very important part of our work to
+keep them out of the sky.
+
+There are two ways of going after a balloon in a machine. One of them is
+to cross the lines at a low altitude, flying so near the ground that the
+man with the anti-aircraft gun can't bother you. You fly along until you
+get to the level of the balloon, and if, in the mean time, they have not
+drawn the balloon down, you open fire on it and the bullets you use will
+set it on fire if they land.
+
+The other way is to fly over where you know the balloons to be, put your
+machine in a spin so that they can't hit you, get above them, spin over
+the balloon, and then open fire. In going back over the line you cross
+at a few hundred feet.
+
+This is one of the hardest jobs in the service. There is less danger in
+attacking an enemy's aircraft.
+
+Nevertheless, I had made up my mind either to get those balloons or
+make them descend, and I only hoped that they would stay on the job
+until I had a chance at them.
+
+When our two hours' duty was up, therefore, I dropped out of the
+formation as we crossed the lines and turned back again.
+
+I was at a height of fifteen thousand feet, considerably higher than
+the balloons. Shutting my motor off, I dropped down through the clouds,
+thinking to find the balloons at about five or six miles behind the
+German lines.
+
+Just as I came out of the cloud-banks I saw below me, about a thousand
+feet, a two-seater hostile machine doing artillery observation and
+directing the German guns. This was at a point about four miles behind
+the German lines.
+
+Evidently the German artillery saw me and put out ground signals to
+attract the Hun machine's attention, for I saw the observer quit his
+work and grab his gun, while the pilot stuck the nose of his machine
+straight down.
+
+But they were too late to escape me. I was diving toward them at a speed
+of probably two hundred miles an hour, shooting all the time as fast as
+possible. Their only chance lay in the possibility that the force of my
+dive might break my wings. I knew my danger in that direction, but as
+soon as I came out of my dive the Huns would have their chance to get
+me, and I knew I had to get them first and take a chance on my wings
+holding out.
+
+Fortunately, some of my first bullets found their mark and I was able to
+come out of my dive at about four thousand feet. They never came out of
+theirs!
+
+But right then came the hottest situation in the air I had experienced
+up to that time. The depth of my dive had brought me within reach of the
+machine-guns from the ground and they also put a "barrage" around me of
+shrapnel from anti-aircraft guns, and I had an opportunity to "ride the
+barrage," as they call it in the R. F. C. To make the situation more
+interesting, they began shooting "flaming onions" at me.
+
+"Flaming onions" are rockets shot from a rocket-gun. They are used to
+hit a machine when it is flying low and they are effective up to about
+five thousand feet. Sometimes they are shot up one after another in
+strings of about eight, and they are one of the hardest things to go
+through. If they hit the machine it is bound to catch fire and then the
+jig is up.
+
+All the time, too, I was being attacked by "Archie"--the anti-aircraft
+fire. I escaped the machine-guns and the "flaming onions," but "Archie"
+got me four or five times. Every time a bullet plugged me, or rather my
+machine, it made a loud bang, on account of the tension on the material
+covering the wings.
+
+None of their shots hurt me until I was about a mile from our lines,
+and then they hit my motor. Fortunately I still had altitude enough
+to drift on to our own side of the lines, for my motor was completely
+out of commission. They just raised the dickens with me all the time I
+was descending, and I began to think I would strike the ground before
+crossing the line, but there was a slight wind in my favor and it
+carried me two miles behind our lines. There the balloons I had gone out
+to get had the satisfaction of "pin-pointing" me. Through the directions
+which they were able to give to their artillery, they commenced shelling
+my machine where it lay.
+
+Their particular work is to direct the fire of their artillery, and they
+are used just as the artillery observation airplanes are. Usually two
+men are stationed in each balloon. They ascend to a height of several
+thousand feet about five miles behind their own lines and are equipped
+with wireless and signaling apparatus. They watch the burst of their own
+artillery, check up the position, get the range, and direct the next
+shot.
+
+When conditions are favorable they are able to direct the shots so
+accurately that it is a simple matter to destroy the object of their
+attack. It was such a balloon as this that got my position, marked
+me out, called for an artillery shot, and they commenced shelling my
+machine where it lay. If I had got the two balloons instead of the
+airplane, I probably would not have lost my machine, for he would in all
+probability have gone on home and not bothered about getting my range
+and causing the destruction of my machine.
+
+I landed in a part of the country that was literally covered with
+shell-holes. Fortunately my machine was not badly damaged by the forced
+landing. I leisurely got out, walked around it to see what the damage
+was, and concluded that it could be easily repaired. In fact, I thought,
+if I could find a space long enough between shell-holes to get a start
+before leaving the ground, that I would be able to fly on from there.
+
+I was still examining my plane and considering the matter of a few
+slight repairs, without any particular thought for my own safety in that
+unprotected spot, when a shell came whizzing through the air, knocked me
+to the ground, and landed a few feet away. It had no sooner struck than
+I made a run for cover and crawled into a shell-hole. I would have liked
+to have got farther away, but I didn't know where the next shell would
+burst, and I thought I was fairly safe there, so I squatted down and let
+them blaze away.
+
+The only damage I suffered was from the mud which splattered up in my
+face and over my clothes. That was my introduction to a shell-hole, and
+I resolved right there that the infantry could have all the shell-hole
+fighting they wanted, but it did not appeal to me, though they live in
+them through many a long night and I had only sought shelter there for
+a few minutes.
+
+After the Germans had completely demolished my machine and ceased firing
+I waited there a short time, fearing perhaps they might send over a
+lucky shot, hoping to get me, after all. But evidently they concluded
+enough shells had been wasted on one man. I crawled out cautiously,
+shook the mud off, and looked over in the direction where my machine
+had once been. There wasn't enough left for a decent souvenir, but
+nevertheless I got a few, such as they were, and, readily observing that
+nothing could be done with what was left, I made my way back to infantry
+headquarters, where I was able to telephone in a report.
+
+A little later one of our automobiles came out after me and took me back
+to our aerodrome. Most of my squadron thought I was lost beyond a doubt
+and never expected to see me again; but my friend, Paul Raney, had held
+out that I was all right, and, as I was afterward told, "Don't send for
+another pilot; that Irishman will be back if he has to walk." And he
+knew that the only thing that kept me from walking was the fact that
+our own automobile had been sent out to bring me home.
+
+I had lots to think about that day, and I had learned many things; one
+was not to have too much confidence in my own ability. One of the men in
+the squadron told me that I had better not take those chances; that it
+was going to be a long war and I would have plenty of opportunities to
+be killed without deliberately "wishing them on" myself. Later I was to
+learn the truth of his statement.
+
+That night my "flight"--each squadron is divided into three flights
+consisting of six men each--got ready to go out again. As I started to
+put on my tunic I noticed that I was not marked up for duty as usual.
+
+I asked the commanding officer, a major, what the reason for that was,
+and he replied that he thought I had done enough for one day. However,
+I knew that if I did not go, some one else from another "flight" would
+have to take my place, and I insisted upon going up with my patrol as
+usual, and the major reluctantly consented. Had he known what was in
+store for me I am sure he wouldn't have changed his mind so readily.
+
+As it was, we had only five machines for this patrol, anyway, because
+as we crossed the lines one of them had to drop out on account of motor
+trouble. Our patrol was up at 8 P.M., and up to within ten minutes of
+that hour it had been entirely uneventful.
+
+At 7.50 P.M., however, while we were flying at a height of sixteen
+thousand feet, we observed three other English machines which were about
+three thousand feet below us pick a fight with nine Hun machines.
+
+I knew right then that we were in for it, because I could see over
+toward the ocean a whole flock of Hun machines which evidently had
+escaped the attention of our scrappy comrades below us.
+
+So we dove down on those nine Huns.
+
+At first the fight was fairly even. There were eight of us to nine of
+them. But soon the other machines which I had seen in the distance, and
+which were flying even higher than we were, arrived on the scene, and
+when they, in turn, dove down on us, there was just twenty of them to
+our eight!
+
+[Illustration: THE AEROPLANE WHICH LIEUTENANT O'BRIEN USED IN HIS LAST
+BATTLE WITH THE HUNS WHEN HE WAS BROUGHT DOWN AND MADE PRISONER]
+
+Four of them singled me out. I was diving and they dove right down
+after me, shooting as they came. Their tracer-bullets were coming closer
+to me every moment. These tracer-bullets are balls of fire which enable
+the shooter to follow the course his bullets are taking and to correct
+his aim accordingly. They do no more harm to a pilot if he is hit than
+an ordinary bullet, but if they hit the petrol-tank, good night! When
+a machine catches fire in flight there is no way of putting it out. It
+takes less than a minute for the fabric to burn off the wings, and then
+the machine drops like an arrow, leaving a trail of smoke like a comet.
+
+As their tracer-bullets came closer and closer to me I realized that my
+chances of escape were nil. Their very next shot, I felt, must hit me.
+
+Once, some days before, when I was flying over the line I had watched a
+fight above me. A German machine was set on fire and dove down through
+our formation in flame on its way to the ground. The Hun was diving at
+such a sharp angle that both his wings came off, and as he passed within
+a few hundred feet of me I saw the look of horror upon his face.
+
+Now, when I expected any moment to suffer a similar fate, I could not
+help thinking of that poor Hun's last look of agony.
+
+I realized that my only chance lay in making an Immermann turn. This
+maneuver was invented by a German--one of the greatest who ever flew
+and who was killed in action some time ago. This turn, which I made
+successfully, brought one of their machines right in front of me, and as
+he sailed along barely ten yards away I had "the drop" on him, and he
+knew it.
+
+His white face and startled eyes I can still see. He knew beyond
+question that his last moment had come, because his position prevented
+his taking aim at me, while my gun pointed straight at him. My first
+tracer-bullet passed within a yard of his head, the second looked as if
+it hit his shoulder, the third struck him in the neck, and then I let
+him have the whole works and he went down in a spinning nose dive.
+
+All this time the three other Hun machines were shooting away at me. I
+could hear the bullets striking my machine one after another. I hadn't
+the slightest idea that I could ever beat off those three Huns, but
+there was nothing for me to do but fight, and my hands were full.
+
+In fighting, your machine is dropping, dropping all the time. I glanced
+at my instruments and my altitude was between eight and nine thousand
+feet. While I was still looking at the instruments the whole blamed
+works disappeared. A burst of bullets went into the instrument board and
+blew it to smithereens, another bullet went through my upper lip, came
+out of the roof of my mouth and lodged in my throat, and the next thing
+I knew was when I came to in a German hospital the following morning at
+five o'clock, German time.
+
+I was a prisoner of war!
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+CLIPPED WINGS
+
+
+The hospital in which I found myself on the morning after my capture
+was a private house made of brick, very low and dirty, and not at all
+adapted for use as a hospital. It had evidently been used but a few
+days, on account of the big push that was taking place at that time of
+the year, and in all probability would be abandoned as soon as they had
+found a better place.
+
+In all, the house contained four rooms and a stable, which was by far
+the largest of all. Although I never looked into this "wing" of the
+hospital, I was told that it, too, was filled with patients, lying on
+beds of straw around on the ground. I do not know whether they, too,
+were officers or privates.
+
+The room in which I found myself contained eight beds, three of which
+were occupied by wounded German officers. The other rooms, I imagined,
+had about the same number of beds as mine. There were no Red Cross
+nurses in attendance, just orderlies, for this was only an emergency
+hospital and too near the firing-line for nurses. The orderlies were not
+old men nor very young boys, as I expected to find, but young men in the
+prime of life, who evidently had been medical students. One or two of
+them, I discovered, were able to speak English, but for some reason they
+would not talk. Perhaps they were forbidden by the officer in charge to
+do so.
+
+In addition to the bullet wound in my mouth, I had a swelling from my
+forehead to the back of my head almost as big as my shoe--and that is
+saying considerable. I couldn't move an inch without suffering intense
+pain, and when the doctor told me that I had no bones broken I wondered
+how a fellow would feel who had.
+
+German officers visited me that morning and told me that my machine
+went down in a spinning nose dive from a height of between eight and
+nine thousand feet, and they had the surprise of their lives when they
+discovered that I had not been dashed to pieces. They had to cut me out
+of my machine, which was riddled with shots and shattered to bits.
+
+A German doctor removed the bullet from my throat, and the first thing
+he said to me when I came to was, "You are an American!"
+
+There was no use denying it, because the metal identification disk on my
+wrist bore the inscription, "Pat O'Brien, U. S. A. Royal Flying Corps."
+
+Although I was suffering intense agony, the doctor, who spoke perfect
+English, insisted upon conversing with me.
+
+"You may be all right as a sportsman," he declared, "but you are a
+damned murderer just the same for being here. You Americans who got into
+this thing before America came into the war are no better than common
+murderers and you ought to be treated the same way!"
+
+The wound in my mouth made it impossible for me to answer him, and I was
+suffering too much pain to be hurt very much by anything he could say.
+
+[Illustration: THE IDENTIFICATION DISK WORN BY LIEUTENANT O'BRIEN
+WHEN HE WAS CAPTURED BY THE HUNS. IT REVEALED TO THEM THAT HE WAS
+AN AMERICAN]
+
+He asked me if I would like an apple! I could just as easily have eaten
+a brick.
+
+When he got no answers out of me he walked away disgustedly.
+
+"You don't have to worry any more," he declared, as a parting shot; "for
+you the war is over!"
+
+I was given a little broth later in the day, and as I began to collect
+my thoughts I wondered what had happened to my comrades in the battle
+which had resulted so disastrously to me. As I began to realize my
+plight I worried less about my physical condition than the fact that,
+as the doctor had pointed out, for me the war was practically over. I
+had been in it but a short time, and now I would be a prisoner for the
+duration of the war!
+
+The next day some German flying officers visited me, and I must say
+they treated me with great consideration. They told me of the man I had
+brought down. They said he was a Bavarian and a fairly good pilot. They
+gave me his hat as a souvenir and complimented me on the fight I had put
+up.
+
+My helmet, which was of soft leather, was split from front to back by
+a bullet from a machine-gun and they examined it with great interest.
+When they brought me my uniform I found that the star of my rank which
+had been on my right shoulder-strap had been shot off clean. The one on
+my left shoulder-strap they asked me for as a souvenir, as also my R.
+F. C. badges, which I gave them. They allowed me to keep my "wings,"
+which I wore on my left breast, because they were aware that that is the
+proudest possession of a British flying officer.
+
+I think I am right in saying that the only chivalry in this war on the
+German side of the trenches has been displayed by the officers of the
+German Flying Corps, which comprises the pick of Germany. They pointed
+out to me that I and my comrades were fighting purely for the love of
+it, whereas they were fighting in defense of their country, but still,
+they said, they admired us for our sportsmanship. I had a notion to ask
+them if dropping bombs on London and killing so many innocent people was
+in defense of their country, but I was in no position or condition to
+pick a quarrel at that time.
+
+That same day a German officer was brought into the hospital and put in
+the bunk next to mine. Of course, I casually looked at him, but did not
+pay any particular attention to him at that time. He lay there for three
+or four hours before I did take a real good look at him. I was positive
+that he could not speak English, and naturally I did not say anything to
+him.
+
+Once when I looked over in his direction his eyes were on me and to my
+surprise he said, very sarcastically, "What the hell are you looking
+at?" and then smiled. At this time I was just beginning to say a few
+words, my wound having made talking difficult, but I said enough to
+let him know what I was doing there and how I happened to be there.
+Evidently he had heard my story from some of the others, though, because
+he said it was too bad I had not broken my neck; that he did not have
+much sympathy with the Flying Corps, anyway. He asked me what part of
+America I came from, and I told him "California."
+
+After a few more questions he learned that I hailed from San Francisco,
+and then added to my distress by saying, "How would you like to have a
+good juicy steak right out of the Hofbräu?" Naturally, I told him it
+would "hit the spot," but I hardly thought my mouth was in shape just
+then to eat it. I immediately asked, of course, what he knew about the
+Hofbräu, and he replied, "I was connected with the place a good many
+years, and I ought to know all about it."
+
+After that this German officer and I became rather chummy--that is, as
+far as I could be chummy with an enemy, and we whiled away a good many
+long hours talking about the days we had spent in San Francisco, and
+frequently in the conversation one of us would mention some prominent
+Californian, or some little incident occurring there, with which we were
+both familiar.
+
+He told me when war was declared he was, of course, intensely patriotic
+and thought the only thing for him to do was to go back and aid in the
+defense of his country. He found that he could not go directly from San
+Francisco because the water was too well guarded by the English, so he
+boarded a boat for South America. There he obtained a forged passport
+and in the guise of a Montevidean took passage for New York and from
+there to England.
+
+He passed through England without any difficulty on his forged passport,
+but concluded not to risk going to Holland, for fear of exciting too
+much suspicion, so went down through the Strait of Gibraltar to Italy,
+which was neutral at that time, up to Austria, and thence to Germany.
+He said when they put in at Gibraltar, after leaving England, there
+were two suspects taken off the ship, men that he was sure were neutral
+subjects, but much to his relief his own passport and credentials were
+examined and passed O. K.
+
+The Hun spoke of his voyage from America to England as being
+exceptionally pleasant, and said he had had a fine time because he
+associated with the English passengers on board, his fluent English
+readily admitting him to several spirited arguments on the subject of
+the war which he keenly enjoyed.
+
+One little incident he related revealed the remarkable tact which our
+enemy displayed in his associations at sea, which no doubt resulted
+advantageously for him. As he expressed it, he "made a hit" one evening
+when the crowd had assembled for a little music by suggesting that they
+sing "God Save the King." Thereafter his popularity was assured and the
+desired effect accomplished, for very soon a French officer came up to
+him and said, "It's too bad that England and ourselves haven't men in
+our army like you." It was too bad, he agreed, in telling me about it,
+because he was confident he could have done a whole lot more for Germany
+if he had been in the English army.
+
+In spite of his apparent loyalty, however, the man didn't seem very
+enthusiastic over the war and frankly admitted one day that the old
+political battles waged in California were much more to his liking than
+the battles he had gone through over here. On second thought he laughed
+as though it were a good joke, but he evidently intended me to infer
+that he had taken a keen interest in politics in San Francisco.
+
+When my "chummy enemy" first started his conversation with me the German
+doctor in charge reprimanded him for talking to me, but he paid no
+attention to the doctor, showing that some real Americanism had soaked
+into his system while he had been in the U. S. A.
+
+I asked him one day what he thought the German people would do after
+the war; if he thought they would make Germany a republic, and, much to
+my surprise, he said, very bitterly, "If I had my way about it, I would
+make her a republic to-day and hang the damned Kaiser in the bargain."
+And yet he was considered an excellent soldier. I concluded, however,
+that he must have been a German Socialist, though he never told me so.
+
+On one occasion I asked him for his name, but he said that I would
+probably never see him again and it didn't matter what his name was. I
+did not know whether he meant that the Germans would starve me out or
+just what was on his mind, for at that time I am sure he did not figure
+on dying. The first two or three days I was in the hospital I thought
+surely he would be up and gone long before I was, but blood poisoning
+set in about that time and just a few hours before I left for Courtrai
+he died.
+
+One of those days, while my wound was still very troublesome, I was
+given an apple; whether it was just to torment me, knowing that I could
+not eat it, or whether for some other reason, I do not know. But,
+anyway, a German flying officer there had several in his pockets and
+gave me a nice one. Of course, there was no chance of my eating it, so
+when the officer had gone and I discovered this San Francisco fellow
+looking at it rather longingly I picked it up, intending to toss it over
+to him. But he shook his head and said, "If this was San Francisco, I
+would take it, but I cannot take it from you here." I was never able to
+understand just why he refused the apple, for he was usually sociable
+and a good fellow to talk to, but apparently he could not forget that
+I was his enemy. However, that did not stop one of the orderlies from
+eating the apple.
+
+One practice about the hospital which impressed me particularly was that
+if a German soldier did not stand much chance of recovering sufficiently
+to take his place again in the war, the doctors did not exert themselves
+to see that he got well. But if a man had a fairly good chance of
+recovering and they thought he might be of some further use, everything
+that medical skill could possibly do was done for him. I don't know
+whether this was done under orders or whether the doctors just followed
+their own inclinations in such cases.
+
+My teeth had been badly jarred up from the shot, and I hoped that I
+might have a chance to have them fixed when I reached Courtrai, the
+prison where I was to be taken. So I asked the doctor if it would be
+possible for me to have this work done there, but he very curtly told
+me that though there were several dentists at Courtrai, they were
+busy enough fixing the teeth of their own men without bothering about
+mine. He also added that I would not have to worry about my teeth;
+that I wouldn't be getting so much food that they would be put out of
+commission by working overtime. I wanted to tell him that from the way
+things looked he would not be wearing his out very soon, either.
+
+My condition improved during the next two days and on the fourth day of
+my captivity I was well enough to write a brief message to my squadron
+reporting that I was a prisoner of war and "feeling fine," although,
+as a matter of fact, I was never so depressed in my life. I realized,
+however, that if the message reached my comrades, it would be relayed
+to my mother in Momence, Illinois, and I did not want to worry her more
+than was absolutely necessary. It was enough for her to know that I was
+a prisoner. She did not have to know that I was wounded.
+
+I had hopes that my message would be carried over the lines and dropped
+by one of the German flying officers. That is a courtesy which is
+usually practised on both sides. I recalled how patiently we had waited
+in our aerodrome for news of our men who had failed to return, and I
+could picture my squadron speculating on my fate.
+
+That is one of the saddest things connected with service in the R. F.
+C. You don't care much what happens to you, but the constant casualties
+among your friends is very depressing.
+
+You go out with your "flight" and get into a muss. You get scattered and
+when your formation is broken up you finally wing your way home alone.
+
+Perhaps you are the first to land. Soon another machine shows in the
+sky, then another, and you patiently wait for the rest to appear.
+Within an hour, perhaps, all have shown up save one, and you begin to
+speculate and wonder what has happened to him.
+
+Has he lost his way? Has he landed at some other aerodrome? Did the Huns
+get him?
+
+When darkness comes you realize that, at any rate, he won't be back
+that night, and you hope for a telephone-call from him telling of his
+whereabouts.
+
+If the night passes without sign or word from him he is reported as
+missing, and then you watch for his casualty to appear in the war-office
+lists.
+
+One day, perhaps a month later, a message is dropped over the line by
+the German Flying Corps with a list of pilots captured or killed by the
+Huns, and then, for the first time, you know definitely why it was your
+comrade failed to return the day he last went over the line with his
+squadron.
+
+I was still musing over this melancholy phase of the scout's life when
+an orderly told me there was a beautiful battle going on in the air, and
+he volunteered to help me outside the hospital that I might witness it,
+and I readily accepted his assistance.
+
+That afternoon I saw one of the gamest fights I ever expect to witness.
+
+There were six of our machines against perhaps sixteen Huns. From the
+type of the British machines I knew that they might possibly be from my
+own aerodrome. Two of our machines had been apparently picked out by six
+of the Huns and were bearing the brunt of the fight. The contest seemed
+to me to be so unequal that victory for our men was hardly to be thought
+of, and yet at one time they so completely outmaneuvered the Huns that
+I thought their superior skill might save the day for them, despite the
+fact that they were so hopelessly outnumbered. One thing I was sure of:
+they would never give in.
+
+Of course it would have been a comparatively simple matter for our men,
+when they saw how things were going against them, to have turned their
+noses down, landed behind the German lines, and given themselves up as
+prisoners, but that is not the way of the R. F. C.
+
+A battle of this kind seldom lasts many minutes, although every second
+seems like an hour to those who participate in it and even onlookers
+suffer more thrills in the course of the struggle than they would
+ordinarily experience in a lifetime. It is apparent even to a novice
+that the loser's fate is death.
+
+Of course the Germans around the hospital were all watching and rooting
+for their comrades, but the English, too, had one sympathizer in that
+group who made no effort to stifle his admiration for the bravery his
+comrades were displaying.
+
+The end came suddenly. Four machines crashed to earth almost
+simultaneously. It was an even break--two of theirs and two of ours. The
+others apparently returned to their respective lines.
+
+The wound in my mouth was bothering me considerably, but by means of a
+pencil and paper I requested one of the German officers to find out for
+me who the English officers were who had been shot down.
+
+A little later he returned and handed me a photograph taken from the
+body of one of the victims. It was a picture of Paul Raney, of Toronto,
+and myself, taken together! Poor Raney! He was the best friend I had and
+one of the best and gamest men who ever fought in France!
+
+It was he, I learned long after, who, when I was reported missing, had
+checked over all my belongings and sent them back to England with a
+signed memorandum--which is now in my possession. Poor fellow, he little
+realized then that but a day or two later he would be engaged in his
+last heroic battle, with me a helpless onlooker!
+
+The same German officer who brought me the photograph also drew a map
+for me of the exact spot where Raney was buried in Flanders. I guarded
+it carefully all through my subsequent adventures and finally turned it
+over to his father and mother when I visited them in Toronto to perform
+the hardest and saddest duty I have ever been called upon to execute--to
+confirm to them in person the tidings of poor Paul's death.
+
+The other British pilot who fell was also from my squadron and a man I
+knew well--Lieutenant Keith, of Australia. I had given him a picture of
+myself only a few hours before I started on my own disastrous flight.
+He was one of the star pilots of our squadron and had been in many a
+desperate battle before, but this time the odds were too great for
+him. He put up a wonderful fight and he gave as much as he took.
+
+[Illustration: LIEUT. PAUL H. RANEY OF TORONTO AND LIEUT. PAT O'BRIEN
+
+(Raney was killed in action before the eyes of O'Brien, who was a
+prisoner of war. This picture, found on the body of Raney when he fell
+behind the German lines, was handed to O'Brien to identify the victim.)]
+
+The next two days passed without incident and I was then taken to the
+Intelligence Department of the German Flying Corps, which was located
+about an hour from the hospital. There I was kept two days, during which
+time they put a thousand and one questions to me. While I was there I
+turned over to them the message I had written in the hospital and asked
+them to have one of their fliers drop it on our side of the line.
+
+They asked me where I would like it dropped, thinking perhaps I would
+give my aerodrome away, but when I smiled and shook my head they did not
+insist upon an answer.
+
+"I'll drop it over ----," declared one of them, naming my aerodrome,
+which revealed to me that their flying corps is as efficient as other
+branches of the service in the matter of obtaining valuable information.
+
+And right here I want to say that the more I came to know of the enemy
+the more keenly I realized what a difficult task we're going to have
+to lick him. In all my subsequent experience the fact that there is a
+heap of fight left in the Huns still was thoroughly brought home to me.
+We shall win the war eventually, if we don't slow up too soon in the
+mistaken idea that the Huns are ready to lie down.
+
+The flying officers who questioned me were extremely anxious to find out
+all they could about the part America is going to play in the war, but
+they evidently came to the conclusion that America hadn't taken me very
+deeply into her confidence, judging from the information they got, or
+failed to get, from me.
+
+At any rate, they gave me up as a bad job and I was ordered to the
+officers' prison at Courtrai, Belgium.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE PRISON-CAMP AT COURTRAI
+
+
+From the Intelligence Department I was conveyed to the officers'
+prison-camp at Courtrai in an automobile. It was about an hour's ride.
+My escort was one of the most famous flyers in the world, barring none.
+He was later killed in action, but I was told by an English airman who
+witnessed his last combat that he fought a game battle and died a hero's
+death.
+
+The prison, which had evidently been a civil prison of some kind before
+the war, was located right in the heart of Courtrai. The first building
+we approached was large, and in front of the archway, which formed the
+main entrance, was a sentry box. Here we were challenged by the sentry,
+who knocked on the door; the guard turned the key in the lock and I was
+admitted. We passed through the archway and directly into a courtyard,
+on which faced all of the prison buildings, the windows, of course,
+being heavily barred.
+
+After I had given my pedigree--my name, age, address, etc.--I was shown
+to a cell with bars on the windows overlooking this courtyard. I was
+promptly told that at night we were to occupy these rooms, but I had
+already surveyed the surroundings, taken account of the number of guards
+and the locked door outside, and concluded that my chances of getting
+away from some other place could be no worse than in that particular
+cell.
+
+As I had no hat, my helmet being the only thing I wore over the lines,
+I was compelled either to go bareheaded or wear the red cap of the
+Bavarian whom I had shot down on that memorable day. It can be imagined
+how I looked attired in a British uniform and a bright red cap. Wherever
+I was taken, my outfit aroused considerable curiosity among the Belgians
+and German soldiers.
+
+When I arrived at prison that day I still wore this cap, and as I was
+taken into the courtyard, my overcoat covering my uniform, all that the
+British officers who happened to be sunning themselves in the courtyard
+could see was the red cap. They afterward told me they wondered who the
+"big Hun" was with the bandage on his mouth. This cap I managed to keep
+with me, but was never allowed to wear it on the walks we took. I either
+went bareheaded or borrowed a cap from some other prisoner.
+
+At certain hours each day the prisoners were allowed to mingle in the
+courtyard, and on the first occasion of this kind I found that there
+were eleven officers imprisoned there besides myself.
+
+They had here interpreters who could speak all languages. One of them
+was a mere boy who had been born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and had
+spent all his life in America until the beginning of 1914. Then he moved
+with his folks to Germany, and when he became of military age the Huns
+forced him into the army. I think if the truth were known he would much
+rather have been fighting for America than against her.
+
+I found that most of the prisoners remained at Courtrai only two or
+three days. From there they were invariably taken to prisons in the
+interior of Germany.
+
+Whether it was because I was an American or because I was a flier, I
+don't know, but this rule was not followed in my case. I remained there
+two weeks.
+
+During that period, Courtrai was constantly bombed by our airmen.
+Not a single day or night passed without one or more air raids. In
+the two weeks I was there I counted twenty-one of them. The town
+suffered a great deal of damage. Evidently our people were aware
+that the Germans had a lot of troops concentrated in this town, and,
+besides, the headquarters staff was stationed there. The Kaiser himself
+visited Courtrai while I was in the prison, I was told by one of the
+interpreters, but he didn't call on me and, for obvious reasons, I
+couldn't call on him.
+
+The courtyard was not a very popular place during air raids. Several
+times when our airmen raided that section in the daytime I went out
+and watched the machines and the shrapnel bursting all around; but the
+Germans did not crowd out there, for their own anti-aircraft guns were
+hammering away to keep our planes as high in the sky as possible, and
+shells were likely to fall in the prison yard any moment. Of course, I
+watched these battles at my own risk.
+
+Many nights from my prison window I watched with peculiar interest the
+air raids carried on, and it was a wonderful sight with the German
+searchlights playing on the sky, the "flaming onions" fired high and the
+burst of the anti-aircraft guns, but rather an uncomfortable sensation
+when I realized that perhaps the very next minute a bomb might be
+dropped on the building in which I was a prisoner. But perhaps all of
+this was better than no excitement at all, for prison life soon became
+very monotonous.
+
+One of the hardest things I had to endure throughout the two weeks I
+spent there was the sight of the Hun machines flying over Courtrai,
+knowing that perhaps I never would have another chance to fly, and I
+used to sit by the hour watching the German machines maneuvering over
+the prison, as they had an aerodrome not far away, and every afternoon
+the students--I took them for students because their flying was very
+poor--appeared over the town.
+
+One certain Hun seemed to find particular satisfaction in flying right
+down over the prison nightly, for my special discomfort and benefit it
+seemed, as if he knew an airman imprisoned there was vainly longing to
+try his wings again over their lines. But I used to console myself by
+saying, "Never mind, old boy; there was never a bird whose wings could
+not be clipped if they got him just right, and your turn will come some
+day."
+
+One night there was an exceptionally heavy air raid going on. A number
+of German officers came into my room, and they all seemed very much
+frightened. I jokingly remarked that it would be fine if our airmen hit
+the old prison--the percentage would be very satisfactory--one English
+officer and about ten German ones. They didn't seem to appreciate the
+joke, however, and, indeed, they were apparently too much alarmed at
+what was going on overhead to laugh even at their own jokes. Although
+these night raids seemed to take all the starch out of the Germans while
+they were going on, the officers were usually as brave as lions the
+next day and spoke contemptuously of the raid of the night before.
+
+I saw thousands of soldiers in Courtrai, and although they did not
+impress me as having very good or abundant food, they were fairly well
+clothed. I do not mean to imply that conditions pointed to an early end
+of the war. On the contrary, from what I was able to observe on that
+point, unless the Huns have an absolute crop failure, they can, in my
+opinion, go on for years! The idea of our being able to win the war by
+starving them out strikes me as ridiculous. This is a war that must be
+won by _fighting_, and the sooner we realize that fact the sooner it
+will be over.
+
+Rising-hour in the prison was seven o'clock. Breakfast came at eight.
+This consisted of a cup of coffee and nothing else. If the prisoner had
+the foresight to save some bread from the previous day, he had bread for
+breakfast also, but that never happened in my case. Sometimes we had
+two cups of coffee--that is, near-coffee. It was really chicory or some
+cereal preparation. We had no milk or sugar.
+
+For lunch they gave us boiled sugar-beets or some other vegetable,
+and once in a while some kind of pickled meat, but that happened very
+seldom. We also received a third of a loaf of bread--war-bread. This
+war-bread was as heavy as a brick, black, and sour. It was supposed to
+last us from noon one day to noon the next. Except for some soup, this
+was the whole lunch menu.
+
+Dinner came at 5.30 P.M., when we sometimes had a little jam made out
+of sugar-beets, and a preparation called tea which you had to shake
+vigorously or it settled in the bottom of the cup and then about all
+you had was hot water. This "tea" was a sad blow to the Englishmen. If
+it hadn't been called tea, they wouldn't have felt so badly about it,
+perhaps, but it was adding insult to injury to call that stuff "tea"
+which, with them, is almost a national institution.
+
+Sometimes with this meal they gave us butter instead of jam, and once in
+a while we had some kind of canned meat.
+
+This comprised the usual run of eatables for the day--I can eat more
+than that for breakfast! In the days that were to come, however, I was
+to fare considerably worse.
+
+[Illustration: MAILING-CARD SENT BY GERMAN GOVERNMENT TO PAT O'BRIEN'S
+SISTER, MRS. CLARA CLEGG OF MOMENCE, ILLINOIS]
+
+[Illustration: OBVERSE SIDE OF CARD SHOWN ABOVE]
+
+We were allowed to send out and buy a few things, but as most of the
+prisoners were without funds, this was but an empty privilege. Once I
+took advantage of the privilege to send my shoes to a Belgian shoemaker
+to be half-soled. They charged me twenty marks--five dollars!
+
+Once in a while a Belgian Ladies' Relief Society visited the prison
+and brought us handkerchiefs, American soap--which sells at about one
+dollar and fifty cents a bar in Belgium--tooth-brushes, and other
+little articles, all of which were American-made, but whether they were
+supplied by the American Relief Committee or not I don't know. At any
+rate, these gifts were mighty useful and were very much appreciated.
+
+One day I offered a button off my uniform to one of these Belgian ladies
+as a souvenir, but a German guard saw me and I was never allowed to go
+near the visitors afterward.
+
+The sanitary conditions in this prison-camp were excellent as a general
+proposition. One night, however, I discovered that I had been captured
+by "cooties."
+
+This was a novel experience to me and one that I would have been very
+willing to have missed, because in the Flying Corps our aerodromes are
+a number of miles back of the lines and we have good billets, and our
+acquaintance with such things as "cooties" and other unwelcome visitors
+is very limited.
+
+When I discovered my condition I made a holler and roused the guard, and
+right then I got another example of German efficiency.
+
+This guard seemed to be even more perturbed about my complaint than I
+was myself, evidently fearing that he would be blamed for my condition.
+
+The commandant was summoned, and I could see that he was very angry.
+Some one undoubtedly got a severe reprimand for it.
+
+I was taken out of my cell by a guard with a rifle and conducted about a
+quarter of a mile from the prison to an old factory building which had
+been converted into an elaborate fumigating plant. There I was given a
+pickle bath in some kind of solution, and while I was absorbing it my
+clothes, bedclothes, and whatever else had been in my cell were being
+put through another fumigating process.
+
+While I was waiting for my things to dry--it took, perhaps, half an
+hour--I had a chance to observe about one hundred other victims of
+"cooties"--German soldiers who had become infested in the trenches. We
+were all nude, of course, but apparently it was not difficult for them
+to recognize me as a foreigner even without my uniform on, for none of
+them made any attempt to talk to me, although they all were very busy
+talking _about_ me. I could not understand what they were saying, but I
+know I was the butt of most of their jokes, and they made no effort to
+conceal the fact that I was the subject of their conversation.
+
+When I got back to my cell I found that it had been thoroughly
+fumigated, and from that time on I had no further trouble with "cooties"
+or other visitors of the same kind.
+
+As we were not allowed to write anything but prison cards, writing
+was out of the question; and as we had no reading-matter to speak
+of, reading was nil. We had nothing to do to pass away the time, so
+consequently cards became our only diversion, for we did, fortunately,
+have some of those.
+
+There wasn't very much money, as a rule, in circulation, and I think for
+once in my life I held most of that, not due to any particular ability
+on my part in the game, but I happened to have several hundred francs in
+my pockets when shot down. But we held a lottery there once a day, and I
+don't believe there was ever another lottery held that was watched with
+quite such intense interest as that. The drawing was always held the day
+before the prize was to be awarded, so we always knew the day before who
+was the lucky man. There was as much speculation as to who would win
+the prize as if it had been the finest treasure in the world. The great
+prize was one-third of a loaf of bread.
+
+Through some arrangement which I never quite figured out, it happened
+that among the eight or ten officers who were there with me there was
+always one-third of a loaf of bread over. There was just one way of
+getting that bread, and that was to draw lots. Consequently that was
+what started the lottery. I believe if a man had ever been inclined to
+cheat he would have been sorely tempted in this instance, but the game
+was played absolutely square, and if a man had been caught cheating, the
+chances are that he would have been shunned by the rest of the officers
+as long as he was in prison. I was fortunate enough to win the prize
+twice.
+
+One man--I think he was the smallest eater in the camp--won it on three
+successive days, but it was well for him that his luck deserted him on
+the fourth day, for he probably would have been handled rather roughly
+by the rest of the crowd, who were growing suspicious. But we handled
+the drawing ourselves and knew there was nothing crooked about it, so he
+was spared.
+
+We were allowed to buy pears, and, being small and very hard, they were
+used as the stakes in many a game. But the interest in these little
+games was as keen as if the stakes had been piles of money instead of
+two or three half-starved pears. No man was ever so reckless, however,
+in all the betting, as to wager his own rations.
+
+By the most scheming and sacrificing I ever did in my life I managed to
+hoard two pieces of bread (grudgingly spared at the time from my daily
+rations), but I was preparing for the day when I should escape--if I
+ever should. It was not a sacrifice easily made, either, but instead of
+eating bread I ate pears until I finally got one piece of bread ahead;
+and when I could force myself to stick to the pear diet again I saved
+the other piece from that day's allowance, and in days to come I had
+cause to credit myself fully for the foresight.
+
+Whenever a new prisoner came in and his German hosts had satisfied
+themselves as to his life history and taken down all the details--that
+is, all he would give them--he was immediately surrounded by his
+fellow-prisoners, who were eager for any bit of news or information he
+could possibly give them, and as a rule he was glad to tell us because,
+if he had been in the hands of the Huns for any length of time, he had
+seen very few English officers.
+
+The conditions of this prison were bad enough when a man was in normally
+good health, but it was barbarous to subject a wounded soldier to the
+hardships and discomforts of the place. However, this was the fate of
+a poor private we discovered there one day in terrific pain, suffering
+from shrapnel in his stomach and back. All of us officers asked to have
+him sent to a hospital, but the doctors curtly refused, saying it was
+against orders. So the poor creature went on suffering from day to day
+and was still there when I left, another victim of German cruelty.
+
+At one time in this prison-camp there were a French marine, a French
+flying officer, and two Belgian soldiers, and of the United Kingdom
+one from Canada, two from England, three from Ireland, a couple from
+Scotland, one from Wales, a man from South Africa, one from Algeria,
+and a New-Zealander, the last being from my own squadron, a man whom
+I thought had been killed, and he was equally surprised, when brought
+into the prison, to find me there. In addition there were a Chinaman and
+myself from the U. S. A.
+
+It was quite a cosmopolitan group, and as one typical Irishman said,
+"Sure, and we have every nation that's worth mentioning, including the
+darn Germans, with us whites." Of course, this was not translated to
+the Germans, nor was it even spoken in their hearing, or we probably
+would not have had quite so cosmopolitan a bunch. Each man in the prison
+was ready to uphold his native country in any argument that could
+possibly be started, and it goes without saying that I never took a back
+seat in any of them with my praise for America, with the Canadian and
+Chinaman chiming in on my side. But they were friendly arguments; we
+were all in the same boat and that was no place for quarreling.
+
+Every other morning, the weather allowing, we were taken to a large
+swimming-pool and were allowed to have a bath. There were two pools, one
+for the German officers and one for the men. Although we were officers,
+we had to use the pool occupied by the men. While we were in swimming a
+German guard with a rifle across his knees sat at each comer of the pool
+and watched us closely as we dressed and undressed. English interpreters
+accompanied us on all of these trips, so at no time could we talk
+without their knowing what was going on.
+
+Whenever we were taken out of the prison for any purpose they always
+paraded us through the most crowded streets--evidently to give the
+populace an idea that they were getting lots of prisoners. The German
+soldiers we passed on these occasions made no effort to hide their
+smiles and sneers.
+
+The Belgian people were apparently very curious to see us, and they used
+to turn out in large numbers whenever the word was passed that we were
+out. At times the German guards would strike the women and children
+who crowded too close to us. One day I smiled and spoke to a pretty
+Belgian girl, and when she replied a German made a run for her. Luckily
+she stepped into the house before he reached her or I am afraid my
+salutation would have resulted seriously for her and I would have been
+powerless to have assisted her.
+
+Whenever we passed a Belgian home or other building which had been
+wrecked by bombs dropped by our airmen our guards made us stop a moment
+or two while they passed sneering remarks among themselves.
+
+One of the most interesting souvenirs I have of my imprisonment at
+Courtrai is a photograph of a group of us taken in the prison courtyard.
+The picture was made by one of the guards, who sold copies of it to
+those of us who were able to pay his price--one mark apiece.
+
+As we faced the camera, I suppose we all tried to look our happiest,
+but the majority of us, I am afraid, were too sick at heart to raise
+a smile even for this occasion. One of our Hun guards is shown in the
+picture seated at the table. I am standing directly behind him, attired
+in my flying tunic, which they allowed me to wear all the time I was
+in prison, as is the usual custom with prisoners of war. Three of the
+British officers shown in the picture, in the foreground, are clad in
+"shorts."
+
+Through all my subsequent adventures I was able to retain a print of
+this interesting picture, and although when I gaze at it now it only
+serves to increase my gratification at my ultimate escape, it fills me
+with regret to think that my fellow-prisoners were not so fortunate. All
+of them, by this time, are undoubtedly eating their hearts up in the
+prison-camps of interior Germany. Poor fellows!
+
+[Illustration: A GROUP OF PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE PRISON-CAMP AT
+COURTRAI, BELGIUM
+
+(Lieutenant O'Brien, in his R. F. C. flying-tunic, is standing in the
+center behind the German guard seated at the table. This picture was
+taken by one of the German guards and sold to Lieutenant O'Brien for one
+mark.)]
+
+Despite the scanty fare and the restrictions we were under in this
+prison, we did manage on one occasion to arrange a regular banquet. The
+planning which was necessary helped to pass the time.
+
+At this time there were eight of us. We decided that the principal thing
+we needed to make the affair a success was potatoes, and I conceived a
+plan to get them. Every other afternoon they took us for a walk in the
+country, and it occurred to me that it would be a comparatively simple
+matter for us to pretend to be tired and sit down when we came to the
+first potato-patch.
+
+It worked out nicely. When we came to the first potato-patch that
+afternoon we told our guards that we wanted to rest a bit and we were
+allowed to sit down. In the course of the next five minutes each of us
+managed to get a potato or two. Being Irish, I got six.
+
+When we got back to the prison I managed to steal a handkerchief full
+of sugar which, with some apples that we were allowed to purchase, we
+easily converted into a sort of jam.
+
+We now had potatoes and jam, but no bread. It happened that the Hun
+who had charge of the potatoes was a great musician. It was not very
+difficult to prevail upon him to play us some music, and while he went
+out to get his zither I went into the bread pantry and stole a loaf of
+bread.
+
+Most of us had saved some butter from the day before and we used it to
+fry our potatoes. By bribing one of the guards he bought some eggs for
+us. They cost twenty-five cents apiece, but we were determined to make
+this banquet a success, no matter what it cost.
+
+The cooking was done by the prison cook, whom, of course, we had to
+bribe.
+
+When the meal was ready to serve it consisted of scrambled eggs, fried
+potatoes, bread and jam, and a pitcher of beer which we were allowed to
+buy.
+
+That was the 29th of August. Had I known that it was to be the last real
+meal that I was to eat for many weeks I might have enjoyed it even more
+than I did, but it was certainly very good.
+
+We had cooked enough for eight, but while we were still eating another
+joined us. He was an English officer who had just been brought in on
+a stretcher. For seven days, he told us, he had lain in a shell-hole,
+wounded, and he was almost famished, and we were mighty glad to share
+our banquet with him.
+
+We called on each man for a speech, and one might have thought that we
+were at a first-class club meeting. A few days after that our party was
+broken up and some of the men I suppose I shall never see again.
+
+One of the souvenirs of my adventure is a check given me during this
+"banquet" by Lieut. James Henry Dickson, of the Tenth Royal Irish
+Fusileers, a fellow-prisoner. It was for twenty francs and was made
+payable to the order of "Mr. Pat O'Brien, 2nd Lieut." Poor Jim forgot to
+scratch out the "London" and substitute "Courtrai" on the date line, but
+its value as a souvenir is just as great. When he gave it to me he had
+no idea that I would have an opportunity so soon afterward to cash it in
+person, although I am quite sure that whatever financial reverses I may
+be destined to meet my want will never be great enough to induce me to
+realize on that check.
+
+There was one subject that was talked about in this prison whenever
+conversation lagged, and I suppose it is the same in the other prisons,
+too. What were the chances of escape?
+
+Every man seemed to have a different idea and one way I suppose was
+about as impracticable as another. None of us ever expected to get
+a chance to put our ideas into execution, but it was interesting
+speculation, and, anyway, one could never tell what opportunities might
+present themselves.
+
+One suggestion was that we disguise ourselves as women. "O'Brien would
+stand a better chance disguised as a horse!" declared another, referring
+to the fact that my height (I am six feet two inches) would make me more
+conspicuous as a woman than as a man.
+
+Another suggested that we steal a German Gotha--a type of aeroplane
+used for long-distance bombing. It is these machines which are used for
+bombing London. They are manned by three men, one sitting in front with
+a machine-gun, the pilot sitting behind him, and an observer sitting
+in the rear with another machine-gun. We figured that at a pinch
+perhaps seven or eight of us could make our escape in a single machine.
+They have two motors of very high horse-power, fly very high and make
+wonderful speed. But we had no chance to put this idea to the test.
+
+I worked out another plan by which I thought I might have a chance if I
+could ever get into one of the German aerodromes. I would conceal myself
+in one of the hangars, wait until one of the German machines started
+out, and as he taxied along the ground I would rush out, shout at the
+top of my voice, and point excitedly at his wheels. This, I figured,
+would cause the pilot to stop and get out to see what was wrong. By that
+time I would be up to him and as he stooped over to inspect the machine
+I could knock him senseless, jump into the machine, and be over the
+lines before the Huns could make up their minds just what had happened.
+
+It was a fine dream, but my chance was not to come that way.
+
+There were dozens of other ways which we considered. One man would
+be for endeavoring to make his way right through the lines. Another
+thought the safest plan would be to swim some river that crossed the
+lines.
+
+The idea of making one's way to Holland, a neutral country, occurred
+to every one, but the one great obstacle in that direction, we all
+realized, was the great barrier of barbed and electrically charged wire
+which guards every foot of the frontier between Belgium and Holland and
+which is closely watched by the German sentries.
+
+This barrier was a threefold affair. It consisted first of a barbed-wire
+wall six feet high. Six feet beyond that was a nine-foot wall of wire
+powerfully charged with electricity. To touch it meant electrocution.
+Beyond that, at a distance of six feet was another wall of barbed wire
+six feet high.
+
+Beyond the barrier lay Holland and liberty, but how to get there was a
+problem which none of us could solve and few of us ever expected to have
+a chance to try.
+
+Mine came sooner than I expected.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+A LEAP FOR LIBERTY
+
+
+I had been in prison at Courtrai nearly three weeks when, on the morning
+of September 9th, I and six other officers were told that we were to be
+transferred to a prison-camp in Germany.
+
+One of the guards told me during the day that we were destined for a
+reprisal camp in Strassburg. They were sending us there to keep our
+airmen from bombing the place.
+
+He explained that the English carried German officers on hospital-ships
+for a similar purpose, and he excused the German practice of torpedoing
+these vessels on the score that they also carried munitions! When I
+pointed out to him that France would hardly be sending munitions to
+England, he lost interest in the argument.
+
+Some days before I had made up my mind that it would be a very good
+thing to get hold of a map of Germany which I knew was in the possession
+of one of the German interpreters, because I realized that if ever the
+opportunity came to make my escape such a map might be of the greatest
+assistance to me.
+
+With the idea of stealing this map, accordingly, a lieutenant and I got
+in front of this interpreter's window one day and engaged in a very hot
+argument as to whether Heidelberg was on the Rhine or not, and we argued
+back and forth so vigorously that the German came out of his room, map
+in hand, to settle it. After the matter was entirely settled to our
+satisfaction he went back into his room and I watched where he put the
+map.
+
+When, therefore, I learned that I was on my way to Germany I realized
+that it was more important than ever for me to get that map, and, with
+the help of my friend, we got the interpreter out of his room on some
+pretext or another, and while he was gone I confiscated the map from
+the book in which he kept it and concealed it in my sock underneath
+my legging. As I had anticipated, it later proved of the utmost value
+to me.
+
+I got it none too soon, for half an hour later we were on our way to
+Ghent. Our party consisted of five British officers and one French
+officer. At Ghent, where we had to wait for several hours for another
+train to take us direct to the prison in Germany, two other prisoners
+were added to our party.
+
+In the interval we were locked in a room at a hotel, a guard sitting at
+the door with a rifle on his knee. It would have done my heart good for
+the rest of my life if I could have got away then and fooled that Hun,
+he was so cocksure.
+
+Later we were marched to the train that was to convey us to Germany. It
+consisted of some twelve coaches, eleven of them containing troops going
+home on leave, and the twelfth reserved for us. We were placed in a
+fourth-class compartment, with old, hard, wooden seats, a filthy floor,
+and no lights save a candle placed there by a guard. There were eight of
+us prisoners and four guards.
+
+As we sat in the coach we were an object of curiosity to the crowd who
+gathered at the station.
+
+"Hope you have a nice trip!" one of them shouted, sarcastically.
+
+"Drop me a line when you get to Berlin, will you?" shouted another in
+broken English.
+
+"When shall we see you again?" asked a third.
+
+"Remember me to your friends, will you? You'll find plenty where you're
+going!" shouted another.
+
+The German officers made no effort to repress the crowd; in fact, they
+joined in the general laughter which followed every sally.
+
+I called to a German officer who was passing our window.
+
+"You're an officer, aren't you?" I asked, respectfully enough.
+
+"Yes. What of it?" he rejoined.
+
+"Well, in England," I said, "we let your officers who are prisoners ride
+first-class. Can't you fix it so that we can be similarly treated, or be
+transferred at least to a second-class compartment?"
+
+"If I had my way," he replied, "you'd ride with the hogs!"
+
+Then he turned to the crowd and told them of my request and how he had
+answered me, and they all laughed hilariously.
+
+This got me pretty hot.
+
+"That would be a damned sight better than riding with the Germans!" I
+yelled after him, but if he considered that a good joke, too, he didn't
+pass it on to the crowd.
+
+Some months later when I had the honor of telling my story to King
+George he thought this incident was one of the best jokes he had ever
+heard. I don't believe he ever laughed harder in his life.
+
+Before our train pulled out our guards had to present their arms for
+inspection, and their rifles were loaded in our presence to let us know
+that they meant business.
+
+From the moment the train started on its way to Germany the thought kept
+coming to my head that unless I could make my escape before we reached
+that reprisal camp I might as well make up my mind that, as far as I was
+concerned, the war was over.
+
+It occurred to me that if the eight of us in that car could jump up at a
+given signal and seize those four Hun guards by surprise, we'd have a
+splendid chance of besting them and jumping off the train when it first
+slowed down, but when I passed the idea on to my comrades they turned it
+down. Even if the plan had worked out as gloriously as I had pictured,
+they pointed out, the fact that so many of us had escaped would almost
+inevitably result in our recapture. The Huns would have scoured Belgium
+till they had got us and then we would all be shot. Perhaps they were
+right.
+
+Nevertheless, I was determined that, no matter what the others decided
+to do, I was going to make one bid for freedom, come what might.
+
+As we passed through village after village in Belgium and I realized
+that we were getting nearer and nearer to that dreaded reprisal camp, I
+concluded that my one and only chance of getting free before we reached
+it was through the window! I would have to go through that window while
+the train was going full speed, because if I waited until it had slowed
+up or stopped entirely, it would be a simple matter for the guards to
+overtake or shoot me.
+
+I opened the window. The guard who sat opposite me--so close that his
+feet touched mine and the stock of his gun which he held between his
+knees occasionally struck my foot--made no objection, imagining, no
+doubt, that I found the car too warm or that the smoke, with which the
+compartment was filled, annoyed me.
+
+As I opened the window the noise the train was making as it thundered
+along grew louder. It seemed to say: "You're a fool if you do; you're a
+fool if you don't! You're a fool if you do; you're a fool if you don't!"
+And I said to myself, "The 'no's' have it," and closed down the window
+again.
+
+As soon as the window was closed the noise of the train naturally
+subsided and its speed seemed to diminish, and my plan appealed to me
+stronger than ever.
+
+I knew the guard in front of me didn't understand a word of English, and
+so, in a quiet tone of voice, I confided to the English officer who sat
+next me what I planned to do.
+
+"For God's sake, Pat, chuck it!" he urged. "Don't be a lunatic! This
+railroad is double-tracked and rock-ballasted and the other track is on
+your side. You stand every chance in the world of knocking your brains
+out against the rails, or hitting a bridge or a whistling post, and, if
+you escape those, you will probably be hit by another train on the other
+track. You haven't one chance in a thousand to make it!"
+
+There was a good deal of logic in what he said, but I figured that,
+once I was in that reprisal camp, I might never have even one chance
+in a thousand to escape, and the idea of remaining a prisoner of war
+indefinitely went against my grain. I resolved to take my chance now
+even at the ride of breaking my neck.
+
+The car was full of smoke. I looked across at the guard. He was rather
+an old man, going home on leave, and he seemed to be dreaming of what
+was in store for him rather than paying any particular attention to me.
+Once in a while I had smiled at him and I figured that he hadn't the
+slightest idea of what was going through my mind all the time we had
+been traveling.
+
+I began to cough as though my throat were badly irritated by the smoke,
+and then I opened the window again. This time the guard looked up and
+showed his disapproval, but did not say anything.
+
+It was then four o'clock in the morning and would soon be light. I knew
+I had to do it right then or never, as there would be no chance to
+escape in the daytime.
+
+I had on a trench coat that I had used as a flying-coat and wore a
+knapsack which I had constructed out of a gas-bag brought into Courtrai
+by a British prisoner. In this I had two pieces of bread, a piece of
+sausage, and a pair of flying-mittens. All of them had to go with me
+through the window.
+
+The train was now going at a rate of between thirty and thirty-five
+miles an hour, and again it seemed to admonish me, as it rattled along
+over the ties: "You're a fool if you do; you're a fool if you don't!
+You're a fool if you don't; you're a fool if you do! You're a fool if
+you don't--"
+
+I waited no longer. Standing up on the bench as if to put the bag on the
+rack, and taking hold of the rack with my left hand and a strap that
+hung from the top of the car with my right, I pulled myself up, shoved
+my feet and legs out of the window, and let go!
+
+There was a prayer on my lips as I went out and I expected a bullet
+between my shoulders, but it was all over in an instant.
+
+I landed on my left side and face, burying my face in the rock ballast,
+cutting it open and closing my left eye, skinning my hands and shins and
+straining my ankle. For a few moments I was completely knocked out, and
+if they shot at me through the window, in the first moments after my
+escape, I had no way of knowing.
+
+Of course, if they could have stopped the train right then, they could
+easily have recaptured me, but at the speed it was going and in the
+confusion which must have followed my escape, they probably didn't stop
+within half a mile from the spot where I lay.
+
+I came to within a few minutes, and when I examined myself and found
+no bones broken I didn't stop to worry about my cuts and bruises, but
+jumped up with the idea of putting as great a distance between me and
+that track as possible before daylight came. Still being dazed, I forgot
+all about the barbed-wire fence along the right-of-way and ran full tilt
+into it. Right there I lost one of my two precious pieces of bread,
+which fell out of my knapsack, but I could not stop to look for it then.
+
+The one thing that was uppermost in my mind was that for the moment I
+was free and it was up to me now to make the most of my liberty.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+CRAWLING THROUGH GERMANY
+
+
+The exact spot at which I made my desperate leap I don't know. Perhaps,
+after the war is over, some one on that train will be good enough to
+tell me, and then I may go back and look for the dent I must have made
+in the rock ballast.
+
+As I have said, I didn't stop very long that morning after I once
+regained my senses.
+
+I was bleeding profusely from the wounds caused by the fall, but I
+checked it somewhat with handkerchiefs I held to my face and I also held
+the tail of my coat so as to catch the blood as it fell and not leave
+telltale traces on the ground.
+
+Before I stopped I had gone about a mile. Then I took my course from the
+stars and found that I had been going just opposite to the direction I
+should be making, but I could not go back across the track there.
+
+Heading west, therefore, I kept this course for about two and a half
+hours, but as I was very weak from loss of blood I didn't cover very
+much ground in that time. Just before daylight I came to a canal which I
+knew I had to cross, and I swam it with everything I had on.
+
+This swim, which proved to be the first of a series that I was destined
+to make, taught me several things.
+
+In the first place, I had forgotten to remove my wrist-watch. This watch
+had been broken in my fall from the air, but I had had it repaired at
+Courtrai. In the leap from the train the crystal had been broken again,
+but it was still going and would probably have been of great service to
+me in my subsequent adventures, but the swim across the canal ruined it.
+
+Then, too, I had not thought to take my map out of my sock, and the
+water damaged that, too.
+
+Thereafter, whenever I had any swimming to do, I was careful to take
+such matters into consideration, and my usual practice was to make a
+bundle of all the things that would be damaged by water and tie it to
+my head. In this way I was able to keep them dry.
+
+It was now daylight and I knew that it would be suicidal for me to
+attempt to travel in the daytime. My British uniform would have been
+fatal to me. I decided to hide in the daytime and travel only at night.
+
+Not far from the canal I could see a heavily wooded piece of ground,
+and I made my way there. By this time I had discovered that my left
+ankle had been strained in my leap from the train, and when I got to the
+woods I was glad to lie down and rest. The wound in my mouth had been
+opened, too, when I jumped, and it would have been difficult for me to
+have swallowed had not the piece of bread, which was to serve for my
+breakfast, got wet when I swam the canal. I found a safe hiding-place
+in which to spend the day and I tried to dry some of my clothes, but a
+slight drizzling rainfall made that out of the question. I knew that I
+ought to sleep, as I planned to travel at night, but, sore as I was,
+caked with mud and blood, my clothing soaked through, and my hunger not
+nearly appeased, sleep was out of the question. This seemed to me about
+the longest day I had ever spent, but I was still to learn how long a
+day can really be and how much longer a night!
+
+When night came I dragged myself together and headed northeast.
+
+My clothing consisted of my Flying Corps uniform, two shirts, no
+underwear, leather leggings, heavy shoes, a good pair of wool socks, and
+a German cap. I had a wallet containing several hundred francs in paper
+money and various other papers. I also had a jack-knife which I had
+stolen one day from the property-room at Courtrai where all the personal
+effects taken from prisoners were kept. For a day or two I carried the
+knapsack, but as I had nothing to carry in it I discarded it.
+
+I traveled rapidly, considering my difficulties, and swam a couple of
+canals that night, covering in all perhaps ten miles before daylight.
+Then I located in some low bushes, lying there all day in my wet clothes
+and finishing my sausage for food. That was the last of my rations.
+
+That night I made perhaps the same distance, but became very hungry and
+thirsty before the night was over.
+
+For the next six days I still figured that I was in Germany, and I was
+living on nothing but cabbage, sugar-beets, and an occasional carrot,
+always in the raw state, just as I got them out of the fields. The water
+I drank was often very rank, as I had to get it from canals and pools.
+One night I lay in a cabbage-patch for an hour lapping the dew from the
+leaves with my tongue!
+
+During this period I realized that I must avoid meeting any one at all
+hazards. I was in the enemy's country and my uniform would have been a
+dead give-away. Any one who captured me or who gave information from
+which my capture resulted might have been sure of a handsome reward. I
+knew that it was necessary for me to make progress as fast as possible,
+but the main consideration was to keep out of sight, even if it took
+me a year to get to Holland, which was my objective. From my map, I
+estimated that I was about thirty-five miles from Strassburg when I made
+my leap from the train, and if I could travel in a straight line I had
+perhaps one hundred and fifty miles to travel. As it was, however, I was
+compelled to make many detours, and I figured that two hundred and fifty
+miles was nearer the extent of the journey ahead of me.
+
+In several parts of this country I had to travel through forests of
+young pine-trees about twelve feet high. They were very close together
+and looked almost as if they had been set out. They proved to be a
+serious obstacle to me, because I could not see the stars through them,
+and I was relying upon the heavens to guide me to freedom. I am not much
+of an astronomer, but I know the Pole Star when I see it. But for it I
+wouldn't be here to-day!
+
+I believe it rained every night and day while I was making my way
+through Germany to Luxembourg.
+
+My invariable program at this stage of my journey was to travel steadily
+all night until about six in the morning, when I would commence looking
+around for a place wherein to hide during the day. Low bushes or woods
+back from the road, as far as possible from the traveled pathway,
+usually served me for this purpose. Having found such a spot, I would
+drop down and try to sleep. My overcoat was my only covering, and that
+was usually soaked through either from the rain or from swimming.
+
+The only sleep I got during those days was from exhaustion, and it
+usually came to me toward dusk when it was time for me to start again.
+
+It was a mighty fortunate thing for me that I was not a smoker. Somehow
+I have never used tobacco in any form and I was now fully repaid for
+whatever pleasure I had foregone in the past as a result of my habits
+in that particular, because my sufferings would certainly have been
+intensified now if in addition to lack of food and rest I had had to
+endure a craving for tobacco.
+
+About the sixth night I was so drowsy and exhausted when the time came
+for me to be on the move that I was very much tempted to sleep through
+the night. I knew, however, that that would be a bad precedent to
+establish and I wouldn't give in.
+
+I plugged wearily along and about eleven o'clock, after I had covered
+perhaps four miles, I sat down to rest for a moment on a shock of brush
+which was sheltered from the drizzle somewhat by other shocks which were
+stacked there. It was daylight when I awoke, and I found myself right in
+a German's backyard. You can imagine that I lost no time getting out of
+that neighborhood, and I made up my mind right then that I would never
+give way to that "tired feeling" again.
+
+In the daytime, in my hiding-place, wherever it happened to be, I had
+plenty of opportunity to study my map, and before very long I knew it
+almost by heart. Unfortunately, however, it did not show all the rivers
+and canals which I encountered, and sometimes it fooled me completely.
+
+It must have been about the ninth night that I crossed into Luxembourg,
+but while this principality is officially neutral, it offered me no
+safer a haven than Belgium would. The Huns have violated the neutrality
+of both and discovery would have been followed by the same consequences
+as capture in Germany proper.
+
+In the nine days I had covered perhaps seventy-five miles and I was
+that much nearer liberty, but the lack of proper food, the constant
+wearing of wet clothes, and the loss of sleep and rest had reduced me to
+a very much weakened condition. I doubted very much whether I would be
+able to continue, but I plugged along.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+NINE DAYS IN LUXEMBOURG
+
+
+I was now heading northwest and I thought that by keeping that course I
+would get out of Luxembourg and into Belgium, where I expected to be a
+little better off, because the people in Luxembourg were practically the
+same as Germans.
+
+One of the experiences I had in Luxembourg which I shall never forget
+occurred the first day that I spent there. I had traveled all night
+and I was feeling very weak. I came to a small wood with plenty of low
+underbrush, and I picked out a thick clump of bushes which was not in
+line with any paths, crawled in, and lay down to spend the day.
+
+The sun could just reach me through an opening in the trees above,
+and I took off all my clothes except my shirt and hung them on the
+bushes to dry in the sun. As the sun moved I moved the clothes around
+correspondingly, because, tired as I was, I could take only cat-naps.
+
+That afternoon I awoke from one of these naps with a start. There were
+voices not a dozen feet from me! My first impulse was to jump to my
+feet and sell my life as dearly as I could, but on second thoughts I
+decided to look before I leaped. Peeping through the underbrush, I could
+just discern two men calmly chopping down a tree and conversing as they
+worked. I thanked my lucky stars that I had not jumped up on my first
+impulse, for I was apparently quite safe as long as I lay where I was.
+
+It then occurred to me that if the tree upon which they were working
+should happen to fall in my direction it would crush me to death! It
+was tall enough to reach me and big enough to kill me if it landed in
+my direction, and as I could see only the heads of the men who were
+chopping it down, I was unable to tell which way they planned to have it
+fall.
+
+There was this much in my favor: the chances of the tree falling in just
+my direction were not very great and there was more than an even chance
+that the men would be wise enough to fell it so that it would not,
+because if it landed in the bushes the task of trimming the branches off
+the trunk would be so much harder.
+
+But, even without this feeling of security, there was really nothing
+else I could do but wait and see what fate had in store for me. I lay
+there watching the top of the tree for more than an hour. Time and again
+I saw it sway and fancied it was coming in my direction, and it was all
+I could do to keep my place, but a moment later I would hear the crash
+of the men's axes and I knew that my imagination had played me a trick.
+
+I was musing on the sorry plight I was in--weak, nearly starving to
+death, a refugee in a hostile country and waiting patiently to see which
+way a tree was going to fall--when there came a loud crack and I saw the
+top of the tree sway and fall almost opposite to the place where I lay!
+I had guessed right.
+
+Later I heard some children's voices, and again peering through the
+underbrush, I saw that they had brought the men their lunch. You can't
+realize how I felt to see them eating their lunch so near at hand and
+to know that, hungry as I was, I could have none of it. I was greatly
+tempted to go boldly up to them and take a chance of getting a share,
+but I did not know whether they were Germans or not, and I had gone
+through too much to risk my liberty even for food. I swallowed my hunger
+instead.
+
+Shortly afterward it began to rain, and about four o'clock the men
+left. I crawled out as fast as I could, and scurried around looking for
+crumbs, but found none, and when darkness came I went on my way once
+more.
+
+That night I came to a river, and as it was the first time my clothes
+had been dry for a long time, I thought I would try to keep them that
+way as long as possible. I accordingly took off all my things and made
+them into two bundles, planning to carry one load across and then swim
+back for the other.
+
+The river was quite wide, but I am a fairly good swimmer, and I figured
+I could rest awhile after the first trip before going back for the
+second bundle.
+
+The first swim was uneventful. When I landed on the other side I drank
+till my thirst was quenched, and then swam back. After resting awhile
+I started across a third time, with my shoes and several other things
+firmly tied to my head. Just about ten feet from the opposite bank one
+of the shoes worked its way loose and sank in about eight feet of water.
+There was nothing to do but finish the trip and then go back and dive
+for the missing shoe, as I could not go on with a single shoe.
+
+Diving in my weakened condition was considerable strain, but I had to
+have that shoe, and I kept at it for nearly an hour before I eventually
+found it, and I was pretty nearly all in by that time.
+
+That was the last time I ever took my shoes off, for my feet were
+becoming so swollen that I figured if I took my shoes off I might be
+unable to get them on again.
+
+This stunt of crossing the river and diving for the lost shoe had
+consumed about three hours, and after resting some fifteen minutes I
+went on my way again. I had hardly gone a mile when I came to another
+river, about the same size as the one I had just crossed. I walked
+along the bank awhile, thinking that I might be lucky enough to find a
+boat or a bridge, but after walking about half an hour I received one
+of those disappointments which "come once in a lifetime." I found that
+this river was the one I had just swum! I had swum it on the bend and
+was still on the wrong side! Had I made only a short detour in the first
+place, I would have avoided all the annoyance of the past three hours
+and saved my strength and time. I was never so mad in my life at myself
+as I was to think that I had not paid more attention to the course of
+the stream before I undertook to cross it, but, as a matter of fact,
+there was really no way of telling. The river was not shown on my map at
+all.
+
+Now I _had_ to cross it, whereas before I could have turned it. I walked
+boldly into the water, not bothering to take my clothes off this time,
+nor did I ever bother to take them off afterward when swimming canals
+or rivers. I found it was impossible to keep them dry, anyway, and so I
+might just as well swim in them and save time.
+
+All the next day I spent in a forest, to which my night's travel had
+brought me about five o'clock in the morning. I kept on my way through
+the woods until daylight came, and then, thinking the place would afford
+fairly good concealment, I concluded to rest until night.
+
+The prospects of even a good sleep were dismal, however, for about the
+time the sun's face should have appeared a drizzling rain began and I
+gave up my search for a dry spot which would serve as a bed. Some of the
+leaves were beginning to fall, but of course there were not enough of
+them to have formed a covering for the ground, and the dampness seemed
+to have penetrated everywhere.
+
+I wandered around through the woods for two or three hours, looking for
+shelter, but without any success, for, though the trees were large, the
+forest was not dense and there was practically no brush or shrubbery.
+Consequently, one could get a fairly clear view for some distance, and I
+knew it would be unwise to drop off to sleep just any place, or some one
+would surely happen onto me.
+
+Once I came very near the edge of the woods and heard voices of men
+driving by in a wagon, but I couldn't make out just what they were, and
+instinct told me I had better not come out of the woods, so I turned
+back. Here and there small artificial ditches had been dug, which at
+a dry season might have cradled a weary fugitive, but now they, too,
+were filled with water. Once I singled out a good big tree with large
+branches and thought I might climb into it and go to sleep, but the
+longer I looked at it the more I realized that it would require more
+energy than I had in my present weak and exhausted condition, so I
+didn't attempt that.
+
+Finally I chose a spot that looked a bit drier than the rest, concluded
+to take a chance on being discovered, and threw myself down for a nap.
+I was extremely nervous, though, throughout that whole day and would
+scarcely get settled into a comfortable position and doze off for a few
+minutes when, startled by some sound in the woods, I would suddenly
+waken.
+
+After what seemed like a year or more, night finally came, and with it a
+"dud" sky, low-hanging clouds, and still more rain. There was not a star
+in the sky, of course, and that made it very bad, because without the
+aid of the stars I had absolutely no way of knowing in which direction
+I was going. It was just a case of taking a chance. I probably would
+have been better off if I had simply picked out a place and stayed there
+until the weather improved, but naturally I was impatient to be on my
+way when each day without food only lessened my strength and my ultimate
+chances of reaching the frontier.
+
+So I left the woods and struck off in the direction which I thought was
+north. I hadn't been at all sure of my bearings the day before, and as
+it had rained the sun failed entirely to help me out; but I was almost
+sure I had the right direction, and trusted to luck. That night I found
+more rivers, canals, and swamps than I ever found in my life before, but
+I had the good fortune to stumble on to some celery, and after my diet
+of beets it surely was a treat. Perhaps it's unnecessary to add that
+I took on a good supply of celery, and for days I went along chewing
+celery like a cow would a cud.
+
+Along toward morning, when I supposed I had got in a fairly good lap of
+my journey--perhaps seven or eight miles--I began to recognize certain
+objects as familiar landmarks. At least, I thought I had seen them
+before, and as I traveled along I knew positively I had seen certain
+objects very recently. Off at my right--not over a quarter of a mile--I
+noticed some fairly good-sized woods, and thought I would go over there
+to hide that day, because it looked as though the sun was going to
+shine, and I hoped to get my clothes dry and perhaps get a decent sleep.
+I had this celery and a large beet, so I knew I would be able to live
+the day through.
+
+Finally, I made my way over to the woods. It was still too dark in among
+the trees to do much in the way of selecting my quarters for the day,
+and I could not go a step farther. So I waited on the edge of the forest
+until dawn and then set out to explore the place with a view to finding
+some nook where I might sleep. Imagine my disgust and discouragement,
+too, when, an hour or so later, I came upon the exact place where I had
+spent the day before, and I realized that all night long I had been
+circling the very woods I was trying to get away from. I think perhaps
+I had gone all of a quarter of a mile in the right direction, but then
+had lost my bearings entirely and daylight found me with nothing
+accomplished.
+
+The sun, however, did come out that day, and I welcomed its warm rays
+as they perhaps have never been welcomed before. I was very tired--just
+about all in--but I spent a better day in the woods than the previous
+one.
+
+That night the stars came out; I located my friend, the North Star,
+and tried to make up for lost time. But when one is making only seven
+or eight miles a day, or rather a night, one night lost means a whole
+lot, especially when each day keeps him from freedom. Such ill fortune
+and discouragements as this were harder to endure, I believe, than the
+actual hunger, and the accompanying worry naturally reduced my weight.
+At times I was furiously angry with myself for the mistakes I made and
+the foolish things I did, but I always tried to see something funny
+about the situation, whatever it might be, that relieved the strain a
+bit and helped to pass the time. I think if a man is overburdened with
+a sense of humor and wants to get rid of it, this trip I took would be
+an excellent remedy for it. Right at this time I would have welcomed
+anything for a companion; I believe even a snake would have been a
+godsend to me.
+
+With a name as Irish as mine, it is only natural that I looked for
+goats along the way, thinking that I might be able to milk them. There
+are very few cows in this country, and the opportunities for milking
+them fewer than the cows themselves, because they are housed in barns
+adjoining the homes and always alertly watched by their fortunate
+owners. I did hope that I might find a goat staked out some place in the
+fields, but in all my travels I never saw a goat or a pig, and only a
+few cows. Several times I searched nests for eggs, but somebody always
+had beaten me to it, as I never even found so much as a nest egg.
+
+There was no chance of getting away with any "bullying" stuff in
+Luxembourg, I knew, because the young men have not been forced into
+the army and are still at home, and as they are decidedly pro-German,
+it would have been pretty hard for me to demand anything in that part
+of the country. It was not like taking things away from old men and
+women or robbing people that could not stop me if they chose to do so.
+I thought at this time that I was suffering about the worst hardships
+any human being could ever be called upon to endure, but I was later to
+find out that the best of my journey was made along about this time.
+There were plenty of vegetables, even though they were raw, and these
+were much better than the things I was afterward compelled to eat or go
+without.
+
+We frequently hear of men who have lived for a certain number of days
+on their own resources in the woods just on a bet or to prove that the
+"back to nature" theory still has its merits and will still work. My
+advice to some of those nature-seekers is to, if in the future they wish
+to make a real good record, try the little countries of Luxembourg and
+Belgium, with a slice of Germany thrown in.
+
+I suppose that during this experience of mine I made many mistakes
+and traveled many unnecessary miles which one with a knowledge of
+woodsmanship might have avoided, and I failed to take advantage of many
+things which would have been quite apparent to one who knew. It must
+not be forgotten, however, that I did not undertake this adventure
+voluntarily. It was "wished on me." I simply had to make the most of the
+knowledge I had.
+
+At about this time blisters began to appear on my legs and my knees
+swelled. In addition I was pretty well convinced that I had lost the
+sight of my left eye. I hadn't seen a thing out of it since my leap from
+the train.
+
+When I imagine the villainous appearance I must have presented at this
+time--my unhealed wounds, eighteen days' growth of beard, and general
+haggard and unkempt visage--I think the fear I felt about meeting
+strangers was perhaps unwarranted. The chances are they would have been
+infinitely more scared than I!
+
+As it was, I was nearly out of Luxembourg before I really came face
+to face with any one. It was about six o'clock in the morning and I
+was traveling along a regular path. Just as I approached a cross-path
+I heard footsteps coming down it. I stopped short, stooped over, and
+pretended to be adjusting my shoe-lace, figuring that if the stranger
+turned into my path he would probably pass right by me. As luck would
+have it, he continued on his way and never noticed me at all.
+
+After that I frequently noticed groups of Luxembourg peasants in the
+distance, but I usually saw them first and managed to avoid them.
+
+About the eighteenth day after my leap from the train I crossed into
+Belgium. It had taken me just nine days to get through Luxembourg--a
+distance which a man could ordinarily cover in two, but, considering
+the handicaps under which I labored, I was very well satisfied with my
+progress.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+I ENTER BELGIUM
+
+
+I have said it was about the eighteenth day after my escape that I
+entered Belgium, but that is more or less guesswork. I was possibly well
+into that country before I realized that I had crossed the line.
+
+About the third day after I figured I was in Belgium I started to swim
+a canal just before daylight. I was then heading due north in the
+direction of the German lines. I was just about to wade into the canal
+when I heard a German yelling violently, and for the first time I knew I
+was being followed!
+
+I ran up the bank of the canal quite a distance and then swam to the
+opposite side, as I reasoned they would not be looking for me there.
+I found a sheltered clump of bushes in a swamp near the canal, and
+in the driest part that I could find I crawled in and made myself as
+comfortable as possible. The sun came up soon and kept me warm, and I
+planned to camp right there, food or no food, until the Huns got tired
+of searching for me. I think I heard them once or twice that day, and
+my heart nearly stopped on each occasion, but evidently they decided to
+look in some other direction and I was not further molested.
+
+At the same time I figured that it was absolutely necessary for me to
+change my course even at the expense of going somewhat out of my way.
+Certainly if I went north they would get me. I decided to go due west,
+and I kept in that direction for four days.
+
+As I was in a very weak condition, I did not cover more than five miles
+a night. I kept away from the roads and did all my journeying through
+fields, beet-patches, woods, swamps--anywhere, provided I was not likely
+to be seen and captured. Food was an important consideration to me, but
+it was secondary to concealment.
+
+At last I brought up at the Meuse River at a place between Namur and
+Huy, and it was here that I came nearest of all to giving up the
+struggle.
+
+The Meuse at this point is about half a mile wide--as wide as the
+Hudson River at West Point. Had I been in normal condition I wouldn't
+have hesitated a moment to swim across. San Diego Bay, California, is
+a mile and a half wide, and I had often swum across and back, and the
+San Joaquin, which is also a mile and a half wide, had never proved an
+obstacle to me.
+
+In the wretched shape in which I then was, however, the Meuse looked
+like the Atlantic Ocean to me. I looked for a boat, but could find none.
+I tried to get a piece of wood upon which I hoped to ferry across, but I
+was equally unsuccessful.
+
+Get across I must, and I decided there was nothing to do but swim it.
+
+It was then about three o'clock in the morning. I waded in and was soon
+in beyond my depth and had to swim. After about an hour of it I was very
+much exhausted and I doubted whether I could make the opposite bank,
+although it was not more than thirty or forty feet away. I choked and
+gasped and my arms and legs were completely fagged out. I sank a little
+and tried to touch bottom with my feet, but the water was still beyond
+my depth.
+
+There are times when every one will pray, and I was no exception. I
+prayed for strength to make those few wicked yards, and then, with all
+the will power I could summon, struck out for dear life. It seemed a
+lifetime before I finally felt the welcome mud of bottom and was able to
+drag myself up to the bank, but I got there. The bank was rather high,
+and I was shaking so violently that when I took hold of the grass to
+pull myself up, the grass shook out of my hands. I could not retain my
+grip. I was afraid I would faint then and there, but I kept pulling and
+crawling frantically up that infernal bank, and finally made it.
+
+Then, for the first time in my life, I fainted--fainted from utter
+exhaustion.
+
+It was now about four o'clock in the morning and I was entirely
+unprotected from observation. If any one had come along I would have
+been found lying there dead to the world.
+
+Possibly two hours passed before I regained consciousness, and then, no
+doubt, only because the rain was beating in my face.
+
+I knew that I had to get away, as it was broad daylight. Moreover, there
+was a towpath right there and any minute a boat might come along and
+find me. But it was equally dangerous for me to attempt to travel very
+far. Fortunately, I found some shrubbery near by, and I hid there all
+day, without food or drink.
+
+That night I made a little headway, but when day broke I had a dreadful
+fever and was delirious. I talked to myself and thereby increased my
+chances of capture. In my lucid intervals, when I realized that I had
+been talking, the thought sent a chill through me, because in the silent
+night even the slightest sound carries far across the Belgian country. I
+began to fear that another day of this would about finish me.
+
+I have a distinct recollection of a ridiculous conversation I carried on
+with an imaginary Pat O'Brien--a sort of duplicate of myself. I argued
+with him as I marched drearily along, and he answered me back in kind,
+and when we disagreed I called upon my one constant friend, the North
+Star, to stand by me.
+
+"There you are, you old North Star!" I cried, aloud. "You want me to get
+to Holland, don't you? But this Pat O'Brien--this Pat O'Brien who calls
+himself a soldier--he's got a yellow streak--North Star--and he says it
+can't be done! He wants me to quit--to lie down here for the Huns to
+find me and take me back to Courtrai--after all you've done, North Star,
+to lead me to liberty. Won't you make this coward leave me, North Star?
+I don't want to follow him--I just want to follow you--because you--you
+are taking me away from the Huns and this Pat O'Brien--this fellow who
+keeps after me all the time and leans on my neck and wants me to lie
+down--this yellow Pat O'Brien wants me to go back to the Huns!"
+
+After a spell of foolish chatter like that my senses would come back to
+me for a while and I would trudge along without a word until the fever
+came on me again.
+
+I knew that I had to have food because I was about on my last legs. I
+was very much tempted to lie down then and there and call it a heat.
+Things seemed to be getting worse for me the farther I went, and all
+the time I had before me the specter of that electric barrier between
+Belgium and Holland, even if I ever reached there alive. What was the
+use of further suffering when I would probably be captured in the end,
+anyway?
+
+Before giving up, however, I decided upon one bold move. I would
+approach one of the houses in the vicinity and get food there or die in
+the effort!
+
+I picked out a small house, because I figured there would be less
+likelihood of soldiers being billeted there.
+
+Then I wrapped a stone in my khaki handkerchief as a sort of camouflaged
+weapon, determined to kill the occupant of the house, German or Belgian,
+if that step were necessary in order to get food. I tried the well in
+the yard, but it would not work, and then I went up to the door and
+knocked.
+
+It was one o'clock in the morning. An old lady came to the window and
+looked out. She could not imagine what I was, probably, because I was
+still attired in that old overcoat. She gave a cry, and her husband and
+a boy came to the door.
+
+They could not speak English and I could not speak Flemish, but I
+pointed to my flying-coat and then to the sky and said "_fleger_"
+("flier"), which I thought would tell them what I was.
+
+Whether they understood or were intimidated by my hard-looking
+appearance, I don't know, but certainly it would have to be a brave old
+man and boy who would start an argument with such a villainous-looking
+character as stood before them that night! I had not shaved for a month,
+my clothes were wet, torn, and dirty, my leggings were gone--they
+had got so heavy I had discarded them--my hair was matted, and my
+cheeks were flushed with fever. In my hand I carried the rock in my
+handkerchief, and I made no effort to conceal its presence or its
+mission.
+
+Anyway, they motioned me indoors and gave me my first hot meal in more
+than a month. True, it consisted only of warm potatoes. They had been
+previously cooked, but the old woman warmed them up in milk in one of
+the dirtiest kettles I had ever seen. I asked for bread, but she shook
+her head, although I think it must have been for lack of it rather
+than because she begrudged it to me. For if ever a man showed he was
+famished, I did that night. I swallowed those warm potatoes ravenously
+and I drank four glasses of water one after another. It was the best
+meal I had had since the "banquet" in the prison at Courtrai.
+
+The woman of the house was probably seventy-five years old and had
+evidently worn wooden shoes all her life, for she had a callous spot on
+the side of her foot the size of half a dollar, and it looked so hard
+that I doubt whether you could have driven a nail into it with a hammer.
+
+As I sat there drying myself--for I was in no hurry to leave the first
+human habitation I had entered in four weeks--I reflected on my unhappy
+lot and the unknown troubles and dangers that lay ahead of me. Here, for
+more than a month, I had been leading the life of a hunted animal--yes,
+worse than a hunted animal, for Nature clothes her less favored
+creatures more appropriately for the life they lead than I was clothed
+for mine--and there was not the slightest reason to hope that conditions
+would grow better.
+
+Perhaps the first warm food I had eaten for over a month had released
+unused springs of philosophy in me, as food sometimes does for a man.
+
+I pointed to my torn and water-soaked clothes and conveyed to them as
+best I could that I would be grateful for an old suit, but apparently
+they were too poor to have more than they actually needed themselves,
+and I rose to go. I had roused them out of bed, and I knew I ought not
+to keep them up longer than was absolutely necessary.
+
+As I approached the door I got a glance at myself in a mirror. I was
+the awfulest sight I had ever laid eyes on! The glimpse I got of myself
+startled me almost as much as if I had seen a dreaded German helmet! My
+left eye was fairly well healed by this time, and I was beginning to
+regain the sight of it, but my face was so haggard and my beard so long
+and unkempt that I looked like Santa Claus on a "bat."
+
+As they let me out of the door I pointed to the opposite direction
+to the one I intended taking and started off in the direction I had
+indicated. Later I changed my course completely to throw off any
+possible pursuit.
+
+The next day I was so worn out from exposure and exhaustion that I
+threw away my coat, thinking that the less weight I had to carry the
+better it would be for me, but when night came I regretted my mistake,
+because the nights were now getting colder. I thought at first it would
+be best for me to retrace my steps and look for the coat I had so
+thoughtlessly discarded, but I decided to go on without it.
+
+I then began to discard everything that I had in my pocket, finally
+throwing my wrist-watch into a canal. A wrist-watch does not add much
+weight, but when you plod along and have not eaten for a month it
+finally becomes rather heavy. The next thing I discarded was a pair of
+flying-mittens.
+
+These mittens I had got at Camp Borden, in Canada, and had become quite
+famous, as my friends termed them "snow-shoes." In fact, they were a
+ridiculous pair of mittens, but the best pair I ever had, and I really
+felt worse when I lost those mittens than anything else. I could not
+think of anybody else ever using them, so I dug a hole in the mud and
+buried them, and could not help but laugh at the thought of what my
+friends would say had they seen me burying my mittens, because they
+were a standing joke in Canada, England, and France.
+
+I had on two shirts, and as they were always both wet and didn't keep me
+warm, it was useless to wear both. One of these was a shirt that I had
+bought in France, the other an American army shirt. They were both khaki
+and one as apt to give me away as the other, so I discarded the French
+shirt. The American army shirt I brought back with me to England, and it
+is still in my possession.
+
+When I escaped from the train I still had that Bavarian cap of bright
+red in my pocket and wore it for many nights, but I took great care that
+no one saw it. It also had proved very useful when swimming rivers, for
+I carried my map and a few other belongings in it, and I had fully made
+up my mind to bring it home as a souvenir. But the farther I went the
+heavier my extra clothing became, so I was compelled to discard even
+the cap. I knew that it would be a telltale mark if I simply threw it
+away, so one night after swimming a river I dug a hole in the soft mud
+on the bank and buried it, too, with considerably less ceremony than
+my flying-mittens had received, perhaps; and that was the end of my
+Bavarian hat.
+
+My experience at the Belgian's house whetted my appetite for warm food,
+and I figured that what had been done once could be done again. Sooner
+or later I realized I would probably approach a Belgian and find a
+German instead, but in such a contingency I was determined to measure my
+strength against the Hun's if necessary to effect my escape.
+
+As it was, however, most of the Belgians to whom I applied for food gave
+it to me readily enough, and if some of them refused me it was only
+because they feared I might be a spy or that the Germans would shoot
+them if their action were subsequently found out.
+
+About the fifth day after I had entered Belgium I was spending the day
+as usual in a clump of bushes when I discerned in the distance what
+appeared to be something hanging on a line. All day long I strained my
+eyes trying to decide what it could be and arguing with myself that it
+might be something that I could add to my inadequate wardrobe, but the
+distance was so great that I could not identify it. I had a great fear
+that before night came it would probably be removed.
+
+As soon as darkness fell, however, I crawled out of my hiding-place and
+worked up to the line and got a pair of overalls for my industry. It was
+a mighty joyful night for me. That pair of overalls was the first bit
+of civilian clothes I had thus far picked up, with the exception of a
+civilian cap which I had found at the prison and concealed on my person
+and which I still had. The overalls were rather small and very short,
+but when I put them on I found that they hung down far enough to cover
+my breeches.
+
+It was perhaps three days later that I planned to search another house
+for further clothes. Entering Belgian houses at night is anything but a
+safe proposition, because their families are large and sometimes as many
+as seven or eight sleep in a single room. The barn is usually connected
+with the house proper, and there was always the danger of disturbing
+some dumb animal, even if the inmates of the house were not aroused.
+
+Frequently I took a chance of searching a backyard at night in the hope
+of finding food scraps, but my success in that direction was so slight
+that I soon decided it wasn't worth the risk, and I continued to live on
+the raw vegetables that I could pick with safety in the fields and the
+occasional meal that I was able to get from the Belgian peasants in the
+daytime.
+
+Nevertheless, I was determined to get more in the way of clothing, and
+when night came I picked out a house that looked as though it might
+furnish me with what I wanted. It was a moonlight night, and if I could
+get in the barn I would have a fair chance of finding my way around by
+the moonlight which would enter the windows.
+
+The barn adjoined the main part of the house, but I groped around very
+carefully and soon I touched something hanging on a peg. I didn't know
+what it was, but I confiscated it and carried it out into the fields.
+There in the moonlight I examined my booty and found it was an old coat.
+It was too short as an overcoat and too long for an ordinary coat, but
+nevertheless I made use of it. It had probably been an overcoat for the
+Belgian who had worn it.
+
+Some days later I got a scarf from a Belgian peasant, and with this
+equipment I was able to conceal my uniform entirely.
+
+Later on, however, I decided that it was too dangerous to keep the
+uniform on anyway, and when night came I dug a hole and buried it.
+
+I never realized until I had to part with it just how much I thought of
+that uniform. It had been with me through many hard trials, and I felt
+as if I were abandoning a friend when I parted with it. I was tempted
+to keep the wings off the tunic, but thought that that would be a
+dangerous concession to sentiment in the event that I was ever captured.
+It was the only distinction I had left, as I had given the Royal Flying
+Corps badges and the stars of my rank to the German Flying Officers as
+souvenirs, but I felt that it was safer to discard it. As it finally
+turned out, through all my subsequent experiences my escape would never
+have been jeopardized had I kept my uniform, but, of course, I had no
+idea what was in store for me.
+
+There was one thing which surprised me very much as I journeyed through
+Belgium, and that was the scarcity of dogs. Apparently most of them have
+been taken by the Germans, and what are left are beasts of burden who
+are too tired at night to bark or bother intruders. This was a mighty
+good thing for me, for I would certainly have stirred them up in passing
+through backyards, as I sometimes did when I was making a short cut.
+
+One night as I came out of a yard it was so pitch dark I could not see
+ten feet ahead of me, and I was right in the back of a little village,
+although I did not know it. I crawled along, fearing I might come to a
+crossroads at which there would in all probability be a German sentry.
+
+My precaution served me in good stead, for I had come out in the main
+street of a village and within twenty feet of me, sitting on some bricks
+where they were building a little store, I could see the dim outline of
+a German spiked helmet!
+
+I could not cross the street and the only thing to do was to back-track.
+It meant making a long detour and losing two hours of precious time
+and effort, but there was no help for it, and I plodded wearily back,
+cursing the Huns at every step.
+
+The next night while crossing some fields I came to a road. It was one
+of the main roads of Belgium and was paved with cobblestones. On these
+roads you can hear a wagon or horse about a mile or two away. I listened
+intently before I moved ahead, and, hearing nothing, concluded that the
+way was clear.
+
+As I emerged from the field and got my first glimpse of the road I got
+the shock of my life! In either direction, as far as I could see, the
+road was lined with German soldiers!
+
+What they were doing in that part of Belgium I did not know, but you can
+be mighty sure I didn't spend any time trying to find out.
+
+Again it was necessary to change my course and lose a certain amount of
+ground, but by this time I had become fairly well reconciled to these
+reverses and they did not depress me as much as they had at first.
+
+At this period of my adventure if a day or a night passed without its
+thrill I began to feel almost disappointed, but such disappointments
+were rather rare.
+
+One evening as I was about to swim a canal about two hundred feet wide I
+suddenly noticed, about one hundred yards away, a canal-boat moored to
+the side.
+
+It was a sort of out-of-the-way place, and I wondered what the
+canal-boat had stopped for. I crawled up to see. As I neared the boat
+five men were leaving it, and I noticed them cross over into the fields.
+At a safe distance I followed them, and they had not gone very far
+before I saw what they were after. They were committing the common but
+heinous crime of stealing potatoes!
+
+Without the means to cook them, potatoes didn't interest me a bit, and
+I thought that the boat itself would probably yield me more than the
+potato-patch. Knowing that the canal hands would probably take their
+time in the fields, I climbed up the stern of the boat leisurely and
+without any particular pains to conceal myself. Just as my head appeared
+above the stern of the boat I saw, silhouetted against the sky, the
+dreaded outline of a German soldier--spiked helmet and all! A chill ran
+down my spine as I dropped to the bank of the canal and slunk away.
+Evidently the sentry had not seen me or, if he had, he had probably
+figured that I was one of the foraging party, but I realized that it
+wouldn't pay in future to take anything for granted.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+EXPERIENCES IN BELGIUM
+
+
+I think that one of the worst things I had to contend with in my journey
+through Belgium was the number of small ditches. They intercepted me at
+every half-mile or so, sometimes more frequently. The canals and the big
+rivers I could swim. Of course, I got soaked to the skin every time I
+did it, but I was becoming hardened to that.
+
+These little ditches, however, were too narrow to swim and too wide to
+jump. They had perhaps two feet of water in them and three feet of mud,
+and it was almost invariably a case of wading through. Some of them, no
+doubt, I could have jumped if I had been in decent shape, but with a bad
+ankle and in the weakened condition in which I was, it was almost out of
+the question.
+
+One night I came to a ditch about eight or nine feet wide. I thought I
+was strong enough to jump it, and it was worth trying, as the discomfort
+I suffered after wading these ditches was considerable. Taking a long
+run, I jumped as hard as I could, but I missed it by four or five inches
+and landed in about two feet of water and three feet more of mud.
+Getting out of that mess was quite a job. The water was too dirty and
+too scanty to enable me to wash off the mud with which I was covered
+and it was too wet to scrape off. I just had to wait until it dried and
+scrape it off then.
+
+In many sections of Belgium through which I had to pass I encountered
+large areas of swamp and marshy ground, and, rather than waste the time
+involved in looking for better underfooting--which I might not have
+found, anyway--I used to plod right through the mud. Apart from the
+discomfort of this method of traveling and the slow time I made, there
+was an added danger to me in the fact that the "squash-squash" noise
+which I made might easily be overheard by Belgians and Germans and give
+my position away. Nobody would cross a swamp or marsh in that part
+of the country unless he was trying to get away from somebody, and I
+realized my danger, but could not get around it.
+
+It was a common sight in Belgium to see a small donkey and a common,
+ordinary milch cow hitched together, pulling a wagon. When I first
+observed the unusual combination I thought it was a donkey and ox or
+bull, but closer inspection revealed to me that cows were being used for
+the purpose.
+
+From what I was able to observe, there must be very few horses left in
+Belgium except those owned by the Germans. Cows and donkeys are now
+doing the work formerly done by horses and mules. Altogether I spent
+nearly eight weeks wandering through Belgium and in all that time I
+don't believe I saw more than half a dozen horses in the possession of
+the native population.
+
+One of the scarcest things in Germany, apparently, is rubber, for I
+noticed that their motor trucks, or lorries, unlike our own, had no
+rubber tires. Instead, heavy iron bands were employed. I could hear
+them come rumbling along the stone roads for miles before they reached
+the spot where I happened to be in hiding. When I saw these military
+roads in Belgium for the first time, with their heavy cobblestones that
+looked as if they would last for centuries, I realized at once why it
+was that the Germans had been able to make such a rapid advance into
+Belgium at the start of the war.
+
+I noticed that the Belgians used dogs to a considerable extent to pull
+their carts, and I thought many times that if I could have stolen one
+of those dogs it would have made a very good companion for me, and
+might, if the occasion arose, help me out in a fight. But I had no way
+of feeding it and the animal would probably have starved to death. I
+could live on vegetables which I could always depend upon finding in the
+fields, but a dog couldn't, and so I gave up the idea.
+
+The knack of making fire with two pieces of dry wood I had often read
+about, but I had never put it to a test, and for various reasons I
+concluded that it would be unsafe for me to build a fire even if I had
+matches. In the first place, there was no absolute need for it. I
+didn't have anything to cook, nor utensils to cook it in even if I had.
+While the air was getting to be rather cool at night, I was usually on
+the go at the time and didn't notice it. In the daytime, when I was
+resting or sleeping, the sun was usually out.
+
+To have borrowed matches from a Belgian peasant would have been
+feasible, but when I was willing to take the chance of approaching any
+one it was just as easy to ask for food as matches.
+
+In the second place, it would have been extremely dangerous to have
+built a fire even if I had needed it. You can't build a fire in Belgium,
+which is the most thickly populated country in Europe, without every one
+knowing it, and I was far from anxious to advertise my whereabouts.
+
+The villages in the part of Belgium through which I was making my course
+were so close together that there was hardly ever an hour passed without
+my hearing some clock strike. Every village has its clock. Many times I
+could hear the clocks striking in two villages at the same time.
+
+But the hour had very little interest to me. My program was to travel as
+fast as I could from sunset to sunrise and pay no attention to the hours
+in between, and in the daytime I had only two things to worry about:
+keep concealed and get as much sleep as possible.
+
+The cabbage that I got in Belgium consisted of the small heads that
+the peasants had not cut. All the strength had concentrated in these
+little heads and they would be as bitter as gall. I would have to be
+pretty hungry to-day before I could ever eat cabbage again, and the same
+observation applies to carrots, turnips, and sugar-beets--especially
+sugar-beets.
+
+It is rather a remarkable thing that to-day even the smell of turnips,
+raw or cooked, makes me sick, and yet a few short months ago my life
+depended upon them.
+
+Night after night, as I searched for food, I was always in hopes that
+I might come upon some tomatoes or celery--vegetables which I really
+liked, but with the exception of once, when I found some celery, I was
+never so fortunate. I ate so much of the celery the night I came upon it
+that I was sick for two days thereafter, but I carried several bunches
+away with me and used to chew on it as I walked along.
+
+Of course, I kept my eyes open all the time for fruit trees, but
+apparently it was too late in the year for fruit, as all that I ever was
+able to find were two pears which I got out of a tree. That was one of
+my red-letter days, but I was never able to repeat it.
+
+In the brooks and ponds that I passed I often noticed fish of different
+kinds. That was either in the early morning, just before I turned in for
+the day, or on moonlight nights when the water seemed as clear in spots
+as in the daytime. It occurred to me that it would be a simple matter to
+rig a hook and line and catch some of the fish, but I had no means of
+cooking them and it was useless to fish for the sake of it.
+
+One night in Belgium my course took me through a desolate stretch
+of country which seemed to be absolutely uncultivated. I must have
+covered twelve miles during the night without passing a single farm or
+cultivated field. My stock of turnips which I had plucked the night
+before was gone and I planned, of course, to get enough to carry me
+through the following day.
+
+The North Star was shining brightly that night and there was absolutely
+nothing to prevent my steering an absolutely direct course for Holland
+and liberty, but my path seemed to lie through arid pastures. Far to the
+east or to the west I could hear faintly the striking of village bells,
+and I knew that if I changed my course I would undoubtedly strike farms
+and vegetables, but the North Star seemed to plead with me to follow it,
+and I would not turn aside.
+
+When daylight came the consequence was I was empty-handed, and I had to
+find a hiding-place for the day. I thought I would approach the first
+peasant I came to and ask for food, but that day I had misgivings--a
+hunch--that I would get into trouble if I did, and I decided to go
+without food altogether for that day.
+
+It was a foolish thing to do, I found, because I not only suffered
+greatly from hunger all that day, but it interfered with my sleep. I
+would drop off to sleep for half an hour, perhaps, and during that time
+I would dream that I was free, back home, living a life of comparative
+ease, and then I would wake up with a start and catch a glimpse of the
+bushes surrounding me, feel the hard ground beneath me and the hunger
+pangs gnawing at my insides, and then I would realize how far from home
+I really was, and I would lie there and wonder whether I would ever
+really see my home again. Then I would fall asleep again and dream this
+time, perhaps, of the days I spent in Courtrai, of my leap from the
+train window, of the Bavarian pilot whom I sent to eternity in my last
+air-fight, of my tracer-bullets getting closer and closer to his head,
+and then I would wake up again with a start and thank the Lord that I
+was only dreaming it all again instead of living through it!
+
+That night I got an early start because I knew I had to have food, and I
+decided that, rather than look for vegetables, I would take a chance and
+apply to the first Belgian peasant I came to.
+
+It was about eight o'clock when I came to a small house. I had picked up
+a heavy stone and had bound it in my handkerchief, and I was resolved to
+use it as a weapon if it became necessary. After all I had gone through
+I was resolved to win my liberty eventually at whatever cost.
+
+As it happened, I found that night the first real friend I had
+encountered in all my traveling. When I knocked timidly on the door it
+was opened by a Belgian peasant, about fifty years of age. He asked me
+in Flemish what I wanted, but I shook my head and, pointing to my ears
+and mouth, intimated that I was deaf and dumb, and then I opened and
+closed my teeth several times to show him that I wanted food.
+
+He showed me inside and sat me at the table. He apparently lived alone,
+for his ill-furnished room had but one chair, and the plate and knife
+and fork he put before me seemed to be all he had. He brought me some
+cold potatoes and several slices of stale bread, and he warmed me some
+milk on a small oil-stove.
+
+I ate ravenously, and all the time I was engaged I knew that he was
+eying me closely.
+
+Before I was half through he came over to me, touched me on the
+shoulder, and, stooping over so that his lips almost touched my ear, he
+said, in broken English, "You are an Englishman--I know it--and you can
+hear and talk if you wish. Am I not right?"
+
+There was a smile on his face and a friendly attitude about him that
+told me instinctively that he could be trusted, and I replied, "You have
+guessed right--only I am an American, not an Englishman."
+
+He looked at me pityingly and filled my cup again with warm milk.
+
+His kindness and apparent willingness to help me almost overcame me,
+and I felt like warning him of the consequences he would suffer if the
+Huns discovered he had befriended me. I had heard that twenty Belgians
+had been shot for helping Belgians to escape into Holland, and I hated
+to think what might happen to this Good Samaritan if the Huns ever knew
+that he had helped an escaped American prisoner.
+
+After my meal was finished I told him in as simple language as I could
+command of some of the experiences I had gone through, and I outlined my
+future plans.
+
+"You will never be able to get to Holland," he declared, "without a
+passport. The nearer you get to the frontier the more German soldiers
+you will encounter, and without a passport you will be a marked man."
+
+I asked him to suggest a way by which I could overcome this difficulty.
+
+He thought for several moments and studied me closely all the
+time--perhaps endeavoring to make absolutely sure that I was not a
+German spy--and then, apparently deciding in my favor, told me what he
+thought it was best for me to do.
+
+"If you will call on this man," mentioning the name of a Belgian in
+----, a city through which I had to pass, he advised, "you will be able
+to make arrangements with him to secure a passport, and he will do
+everything he can to get you out of Belgium."
+
+He told me where the man in question could be found and gave me some
+useful directions to continue my journey, and then he led me to the
+door. I thanked him a thousand times and wanted to pay him for his
+kindness and help, but he would accept nothing. He did give me his
+name, and you may be sure I shall never forget it, but to mention it
+here might, of course, result in serious consequences for him. When the
+war is over, however, or the Germans are thrown out of Belgium, I shall
+make it my duty to find that kind Belgian, if to do it I have to go
+through again all that I have suffered already.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+I ENCOUNTER GERMAN SOLDIERS
+
+
+What the Belgian had told me about the need of a passport gave me fresh
+cause for worry. Suppose I should run into a German sentry before I
+succeeded in getting one?
+
+I decided that until I reached the big city which the Belgian had
+mentioned--and which I cannot name for fear of identifying some of
+the people there who befriended me--I would proceed with the utmost
+precaution. Since I had discarded my uniform and had obtained civilian
+clothes I had not been quite as careful as I was at first. While I had
+done my traveling at night, I had not gone into hiding so early in the
+morning as before, and I had sometimes started again before it was quite
+dark, relying upon the fact that I would probably be mistaken for a
+Belgian on his way to or from work, as the case might be. From now on,
+I resolved, however, I would take no more chances.
+
+That evening I came to a river perhaps seventy-five yards wide, and I
+was getting ready to swim it when I thought I would walk a little way
+to find, if possible, a better place to get to the river from the bank.
+I had not walked more than a few hundred feet when I saw a boat. It was
+the first time I had seen a boat in all my experiences.
+
+It was firmly chained, but as the stakes were sunk in the soft bank it
+was not much of a job to pull them out. I got in, drank to my heart's
+content, shoved over to the other side, got out, drove a stake into the
+ground, and moored the boat. It would have been a simple matter to have
+drifted down the river, but the river was not shown on my map and I had
+no idea where it might lead me. Very reluctantly, therefore, I had to
+abandon the boat and proceed on foot.
+
+I made several miles that night and before daylight found a safe
+place in which to hide for the day. From my hiding-place I could see
+through the bushes a heavy thick wood only a short distance away.
+I decided that I would start earlier than usual, hurry over to the
+wood, and perhaps in that way I could cover two or three miles in the
+daytime and gain just so much time. Traveling through the wood would be
+comparatively safe. There was a railroad going through the wood, but I
+did not figure that that would make it any the less safe.
+
+About three o'clock that afternoon, therefore, I emerged from my
+hiding-place and hurried into the wood. After proceeding for half a mile
+or so I came to the railroad. I took a sharp look in both directions
+and, seeing no signs of trains or soldiers, I walked boldly over the
+tracks and continued on my way.
+
+I soon came upon a clearing and knew that some one must be living in the
+vicinity. As I turned a group of trees I saw a small house and in the
+distance an old man working in a garden. I decided to enter the house
+and ask for food, figuring the woman would probably be old and would be
+no match for me even if she proved hostile. The old woman who came to
+the door in response to my knock was older even than I had expected. If
+she wasn't close to a hundred years, I miss my guess very much.
+
+She could not speak English and I could not speak Flemish, of course,
+but, nevertheless, I made her understand that I wanted something to eat.
+She came out of the door and hollered for her husband in a shrill voice
+that would have done credit to a girl of eighteen. The old man came in
+from his garden and between the two of them they managed to get the
+idea that I was hungry, and they gave me a piece of bread--a very small
+piece--which was quite a treat.
+
+The house they lived in consisted of just two rooms--the kitchen and a
+bedroom. The kitchen was perhaps fourteen feet square, eight feet of
+one side of it being taken up by an enormous fireplace. What was in
+the bedroom I had no way of telling, as I did not dare to be too
+inquisitive.
+
+I made the old couple understand that I would like to stay in their
+house all night, but the old man shook his head. I bade them good-by and
+disappeared into the woods, leaving them to speculate as to the strange
+foreigner they had entertained.
+
+From the greater density of the population in the section through which
+I was now passing I realized that I must be in the outskirts of the
+big city which the Belgian had mentioned and where I was to procure a
+passport.
+
+Village after village intercepted me, and, although I tried to skirt
+them wherever possible, I realized that I would never make much progress
+if I continued that course. To gain a mile I would sometimes have to
+make a detour of two or three. I decided that I would try my luck in
+going straight through the next village I came to.
+
+As I approached it I passed numbers of peasants who were ambling along
+the road. I was afraid to mingle with them because it was impossible for
+me to talk to them and it was dangerous to arouse suspicion even among
+the Belgians. For all I knew, one of them might be treacherous enough to
+deliver me to the Germans in return for the reward he might be sure of
+receiving.
+
+About nine o'clock that evening I came to a point where ahead of me
+on the right was a Belgian police station--I knew it from its red
+lights--and on the other side of the street were two German soldiers in
+uniform leaning against a bicycle.
+
+Here was a problem which called for instant decision. If I turned back,
+the suspicion of the soldiers would be instantly aroused, and if I
+crossed the road so as not to pass so closely to them, they might be
+equally suspicious. I decided to march bravely by the Huns, bluff my
+way through, and trust to Providence. If anybody imagines, however,
+that I was at all comfortable as I approached those soldiers, he must
+think that I am a much braver man than I claim to be. My heart beat so
+loud I was afraid they would hear it. Every step I took brought me so
+much nearer to what might prove to be the end of all my hopes. It was a
+nerve-racking ordeal.
+
+I was now within a few feet of them. Another step and--
+
+They didn't turn a hair! I passed right by them--heard what they were
+saying, although, of course, I didn't understand it, and went right
+on. I can't say I didn't walk a little faster as I left them behind,
+but I tried to maintain an even gait so as not to give them any idea
+of the inward exultation I was experiencing. No words can explain,
+however, how relieved I really felt--to know that I had successfully
+passed through the first of a series of similar tests which I realized
+were in store for me--although I did not know then how soon I was to be
+confronted with the second.
+
+As it was, however, the incident gave me a world of confidence. It
+demonstrated to me that there was nothing in my appearance, at any rate,
+to attract the attention of the German soldiers. Apparently I looked
+like a Belgian peasant, and if I could only work things so that I would
+never have to answer questions and thus give away my nationality, I
+figured I would be tolerably safe.
+
+As I marched along I felt so happy I couldn't help humming the air of
+one of the new patriotic songs that we used to sing at the aerodrome
+back of Ypres.
+
+In this happy fame of mind I covered the next three miles in about an
+hour, and then I came to another little village. My usual course would
+have been to go around it--through fields, backyards, woods, or whatever
+else lay in my way--but I had gained so much time by going through the
+last village instead of detouring around it, and my appearance seemed to
+be so unsuspicious, that I decided to try the same stunt again.
+
+I stopped humming and kept very much on the alert, but, apart from that,
+I walked boldly through the main street without any feeling of alarm.
+
+I had proceeded perhaps a mile along the main street when I noticed
+ahead of me three German soldiers standing at the curb.
+
+Again my heart started to beat fast, I must confess, but I was not
+nearly so scared as I had been an hour or so before. I walked ahead,
+determined to follow my previous procedure in every particular.
+
+I had got to about fifteen feet away from the soldiers when one of them
+stepped onto the sidewalk and shouted:
+
+"Halt!"
+
+My heart stopped beating fast--for a moment, I believe, it stopped
+beating altogether! I can't attempt to describe my feelings. The thought
+that the jig was up, that all I had gone through and all I had escaped
+would now avail me nothing, mingled with a feeling of disgust with
+myself because of the foolish risk I had taken in going through the
+village, combined to take all the starch out of me, and I could feel
+myself wilting as the soldier advanced to the spot where I stood rooted
+in my tracks.
+
+I had a bottle of water in one pocket and a piece of bread in the other,
+and as the Hun advanced to search me I held the bottle up in one hand
+and the piece of bread in the other so that he could see that was all I
+had.
+
+It occurred to me that he would "frisk" me--that is, feel me over for
+arms or other weapons, then place me under arrest and march me off to
+the guard-house. I had not the slightest idea but that I was captured,
+and there didn't seem to be much use in resisting, unarmed as I was and
+with two other German soldiers within a few feet of us.
+
+Like a flash it suddenly dawned on me, however, that for all this
+soldier could have known I was only a Belgian peasant and that his
+object in searching me, which he proceeded to do, was to ascertain
+whether I had committed the common "crime" of smuggling potatoes!
+
+The Belgians are allowed only a certain amount of potatoes, and it is
+against the laws laid down by the Huns to deal in vegetables of any kind
+except under the rigid supervision of the authorities. Nevertheless, it
+was one of the principal vocations of the average poor Belgian to buy
+potatoes out in the country from the peasants and then smuggle them into
+the large cities and sell them clandestinely at a high price.
+
+To stop this traffic in potatoes the German soldiers were in the habit
+of subjecting the Belgians to frequent search, and I was being held up
+by this soldier for no other reason than that he thought I might be a
+potato-smuggler!
+
+He felt of my outside clothes and pockets, and, finding no potatoes,
+seemed to be quite satisfied. Had he but known who I was he could have
+earned an iron cross! Or perhaps, in view of the fact that I had a heavy
+water-bottle in my uplifted hand, it might have turned out to be a
+_wooden_ cross!
+
+He said something in German, which, of course, I did not understand,
+and then some Belgian peasants came along and seemed to distract his
+attention. Perhaps he had said, "It's all right, you may go on," or
+he may have been talking to the others in Flemish, but, at any rate,
+observing that he was more interested in the others than he was in me at
+the moment, I put the bottle in my pocket and walked on.
+
+After I walked a few steps I took a furtive glance backward and noticed
+the soldier who had searched me rejoin his comrades at the curb and then
+stop another fellow who had come along, and then I disappeared in the
+darkness.
+
+I cannot say that the outcome of this adventure left me in the same
+confident frame of mind that followed the earlier one. It was true I had
+come out of it all right, but I could not help thinking what a terribly
+close shave I had.
+
+Suppose the soldier had questioned me? The ruse I had been following
+in my dealings with the Belgian peasants--pretending I was deaf and
+dumb--might possibly have worked here, too, but a soldier--a German
+soldier--might not so easily have been fooled. It was more than an even
+chance that it would at least have aroused his suspicions and resulted
+in further investigation. A search of my clothing would have revealed
+a dozen things which would have established my identity, and all my
+shamming of deafness would have availed me nothing.
+
+As I wandered along I knew that I was now approaching the big city which
+my Belgian friend had spoken of and which I would have to enter if I was
+to get the passport, and I realized now how essential it was to have
+something to enable me to get through the frequent examinations to which
+I expected to be subjected.
+
+While I was still debating in my mind whether it was going to be
+possible for me to enter the city that night, I saw in the distance what
+appeared to be an arc-light, and as I neared it that was what it turned
+out to be. Beneath the light I could make out the forms of three guards,
+and the thought of having to go through the same kind of ordeal that I
+had just experienced filled me with misgivings. Was it possible that I
+could be fortunate enough to get by again?
+
+As I slowed up a little, trying to make up my mind what was best to do,
+I was overtaken by a group of Belgian women who were shuffling along
+the road, and I decided to mingle with them and see if I couldn't convey
+the impression that I was one of their party.
+
+As we approached the arc-light the figures of those three soldiers with
+their spiked helmets loomed up before me like a regiment. I felt as if
+I were walking right into the jaws of death. Rather than go through
+what was in store for me I felt that I would infinitely prefer to be
+fighting again in the air with those four desperate Huns who had been
+the cause of my present plight; then, at least, I would have a chance to
+fight back, but now I had to risk my life and take what was coming to me
+without a chance to strike a blow in my own defense.
+
+I shall never forget my feelings as we came within the shaft of light
+projected by that great arc-light, nor the faces of those three guards
+as we passed by them. I didn't look directly at them, but out of the
+corner of my eye I didn't miss a detail. I held a handkerchief up to my
+face as we passed them, and endeavored to imitate the slouching gait of
+the Belgians as well as I could; and apparently it worked. We walked
+right by those guards and they paid absolutely no attention to us.
+
+If ever a fellow felt like going down on his knees and praying, I did at
+that moment, but it wouldn't have done to show my elation or gratitude
+in that conspicuous way.
+
+It was then well after eleven o'clock, and I knew it would be unsafe for
+me to attempt to find a lodging-place in the city, and the only thing
+for me to do was to locate the man whose name the Belgian had given me.
+He had given me a good description of the street and had directed me how
+to get there, and I followed his instructions closely.
+
+After walking the streets for about half an hour I came upon one of the
+landmarks my friend had described to me, and ten minutes afterward I was
+knocking at the door of the man who was to make it possible for me to
+reach Holland--and liberty. At least that was what I hoped.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE FORGED PASSPORT
+
+
+For obvious reasons I cannot describe the man to whom I applied for
+the passport, nor the house in which he lived. While, in view of what
+subsequently happened, I would not be very much concerned if he got
+into trouble for having dealt with me, I realize that the hardships he
+had endured in common with all the other inhabitants of that conquered
+city may possibly have distorted his ideas of right and justice, and I
+shall not deliberately bring further disaster on him by revealing his
+identity.
+
+This man--we will call him Huyliger, because that is as unlike his
+name as it is mine--was very kind to me on that memorable night when I
+aroused him from his sleep and in a few words of explanation told him of
+my plight.
+
+He invited me inside, prepared some food for me, and, putting on a
+dressing-gown, came and sat by me while I ate, listening with the
+greatest interest to the short account I gave him of my adventures.
+
+He could speak English fluently, and he interrupted me several times to
+express his sympathy for the sufferings I had endured.
+
+"O'Brien," he said, after I had concluded my story, "I am going to
+help you. It may take several days--perhaps as long as two weeks, but
+eventually we will provide the means to enable you to get into Holland!"
+
+I thanked him a thousand times and told him that I didn't know how I
+could possibly repay him.
+
+"Don't think of that," he replied; "the satisfaction of knowing that I
+have aided in placing one more victim of the Huns beyond their power to
+harm him will more than repay me for all the risk I shall run in helping
+you. You'd better turn in now, O'Brien, and in the morning I'll tell you
+what I plan to do."
+
+He showed me to a small room on the second floor, shook hands with me,
+and left me to prepare for the first real night's rest I had been able
+to take in nearly two months.
+
+As I removed my clothes and noticed that my knees were still swollen to
+twice their normal size, that my left ankle was black and blue from the
+wrench I had given it when I jumped from the train, and that my ribs
+showed through my skin, I realized what a lot I had been through. As a
+matter of fact, I could not have weighed more than one hundred and fifty
+pounds at that time, whereas I had tipped the scales at one hundred and
+ninety when I was with my squadron in France.
+
+I lost no time in getting into bed and still less in getting to sleep.
+I don't know what I dreamed of that night, but I had plenty of time to
+go through the experiences of my whole life, for when I was aroused by a
+knock on the door, and Huyliger came in, in response to my invitation to
+enter, he told me that it was nearly noon. I had slept for nearly twelve
+hours.
+
+I cannot say that the thought did not run through my head that perhaps,
+after all, I was living in a fool's paradise, and that when Huyliger
+reappeared it would be with a couple of German soldiers behind him,
+but I dismissed such misgivings summarily, realizing that I was doing
+Huyliger an injustice to let such things enter my head even for an
+instant. I had no right to doubt his sincerity, and it would do me no
+good to entertain such suspicions. If he was going to prove treacherous
+to me, I was powerless, anyway, to cope with him.
+
+In a few moments my host appeared with a tray containing my breakfast.
+I don't suppose I shall ever forget that meal. It consisted of a cup of
+coffee--real coffee, not the kind I had had at Courtrai--several slices
+of bread, some hot potatoes, and a dish of scrambled eggs.
+
+Every mouthful of that meal tasted like angel-food to me, and Huyliger
+sat on the edge of the bed and watched me enjoying the meal, at the same
+time outlining the plans he had made for my escape.
+
+In brief, the scheme was to conceal me in a convent until conditions
+were ripe for me to make my way to the border. In the mean while I was
+to be dressed in the garb of a priest, and when the time came for me to
+leave the city I was to pretend that I was a Spanish sailor, because
+I could speak a little Spanish, which I had picked up on the coast.
+To attempt to play the part of a Belgian would become increasingly
+difficult, he pointed out, and would bring inevitable disaster in the
+event that I was called upon to speak.
+
+Huyliger said I would be given sufficient money to bribe the German
+guards at the Dutch frontier, and he assured me that everything would
+work out according to schedule.
+
+"Yours is not the first case, O'Brien, we have handled successfully," he
+declared. "Only three weeks ago I heard from an English merchant who had
+escaped from a German detention camp and come to me for assistance, and
+whom I had been able to get through the lines. His message telling me of
+his safe arrival in Rotterdam came to me in an indirect way, of course,
+but the fact that the plans we had made carried through without mishap
+makes me feel that we ought to be able to do as much for you."
+
+I told Huyliger I was ready to follow his instructions and would do
+anything he suggested.
+
+"I want to rejoin my squadron as soon as I possibly can, of course," I
+told him, "but I realize that it will take a certain length of time for
+you to make the necessary arrangements, and I will be as patient as I
+can."
+
+The first thing to do, Huyliger told me, was to prepare a passport. He
+had a blank one and it was a comparatively simple matter to fill in the
+spaces, using a genuine passport which Huyliger possessed as a sample
+of the handwriting of the passport clerk. My occupation was entered as
+that of a sailor. My birthplace we gave as Spain, and we put my age at
+thirty. As a matter of fact, at that time I could easily have passed for
+thirty-five, but we figured that with proper food and a decent place
+to sleep in at night I would soon regain my normal appearance and the
+passport would have to serve me, perhaps, for several weeks to come.
+
+Filling in the blank spaces on the passport was, as I have said, a
+comparatively easy matter, but that did not begin to fill the bill.
+Every genuine passport bore an official rubber stamp, something like an
+elaborate postmark, and I was at a loss to know how to get over that
+difficulty.
+
+[Illustration: THE FORGED PASSPORT PREPARED IN A BELGIAN CITY TO AID
+LIEUTENANT O'BRIEN'S ESCAPE INTO HOLLAND, BUT WHICH WAS NEVER USED]
+
+Fortunately, however, Huyliger had half of a rubber stamp which had
+evidently been thrown away by the Germans, and he planned to construct
+the other half out of the cork from a wine bottle. He was very skilful
+with a penknife, and although he spoiled a score or more of corks before
+he succeeded in getting anything like the result he was after, the
+finished article was far better than our most sanguine expectations.
+Indeed, after we had pared it over here and there and removed whatever
+imperfections our repeated tests disclosed, we had a stamp which made
+an impression so closely resembling the original that, without a
+magnifying-glass, we were sure it would have been impossible to tell
+that it was a counterfeit.
+
+Huyliger procured a camera and took a photograph of me to paste on the
+passport in the place provided for that purpose, and we then had a
+passport which was entirely satisfactory to both of us and would, we
+hoped, prove equally so to our friends the Huns.
+
+It had taken two days to fix up the passport. In the mean while,
+Huyliger informed me that he had changed his plans about the convent,
+and that instead he would take me to an empty house where I could remain
+in safety until he told me it was advisable for me to proceed to the
+frontier.
+
+This was quite agreeable to me, as I had had some misgivings as to the
+kind of a priest I would make, and it seemed to me to be safer to remain
+aloof from every one in a deserted house than to have to mingle with
+people or come in contact with them even with the best of disguises.
+
+That night I accompanied Huyliger to a fashionable section of the city
+where the house in which I was to be concealed was located.
+
+This house turned out to be a four-story structure of brick. Huyliger
+told me that it had been occupied by a wealthy Belgian before the
+war, but since 1914 it had been uninhabited save for the occasional
+habitation of some refugee whom Huyliger was befriending.
+
+Huyliger had a key and let me in, but he did not enter the house with
+me, stating that he would visit me in the morning.
+
+I explored the place from top to bottom as well as I could without
+lights. The house was elaborately furnished, but, of course, the dust
+lay a quarter of an inch thick almost everywhere. It was a large house,
+containing some twenty rooms. There were two rooms in the basement,
+four on the first floor, four on the second, five on the third, and
+five on the top. In the days that were to come I was to have plenty of
+opportunity to familiarize myself with the contents of that house, but
+at the time I did not know it, and I was curious enough to want to know
+just what the house contained.
+
+Down in the basement there was a huge pantry, but it was absolutely
+bare, except of dust and dirt. A door which evidently led to a
+sub-basement attracted my attention, and I thought it might be a good
+idea to know just where it led in case it became necessary for me to
+elude searchers.
+
+In that cellar I found case after case of choice wine--Huyliger
+subsequently told me that there were eighteen hundred bottles of it. I
+was so happy at the turn my affairs had taken and in the rosy prospects
+which I now entertained that I was half inclined to indulge in a little
+celebration then and there. On second thoughts, however, I remembered
+the old warning of the folly of shouting before you are well out of
+the woods, and I decided that it would be just as well to postpone the
+festivities for a while and go to bed instead.
+
+In such an elaborately furnished house I had naturally conjured up ideas
+of a wonderfully large bed, with thick hair mattresses, downy quilts,
+and big soft pillows. Indeed, I debated for a while which particular
+bedroom I should honor with my presence that night. Judge of my
+disappointment, therefore, when, after visiting bedroom after bedroom,
+I discovered that there wasn't a bed in any one of them that was in a
+condition to sleep in. All the mattresses had been removed and the rooms
+were absolutely bare of everything in the way of wool, silk, or cotton
+fabrics. The Germans had apparently swept the house clean.
+
+There was nothing to do, therefore, but to make myself as comfortable
+as I could on the floor, but as I had grown accustomed by this time
+to sleeping under far less comfortable conditions I swallowed my
+disappointment as cheerfully as I could and lay down for the night.
+
+In the morning Huyliger appeared and brought me some breakfast, and
+after I had eaten it he asked me what connections I had in France or
+England from whom I could obtain money.
+
+I told him that I banked at Cox & Co., London, and that if he needed any
+money I would do anything I could to get it for him, although I did not
+know just how such things could be arranged.
+
+"Don't worry about that, O'Brien," he replied. "We'll find a way of
+getting at it, all right. What I want to know is how far you are
+prepared to go to compensate me for the risks I am taking and for the
+service I am rendering you."
+
+The change in the man's attitude stunned me. I could hardly believe my
+ears.
+
+"Of course, I shall pay you as well as I can for what you have done,
+Huyliger," I replied, trying to conceal as far as possible the
+disappointment his demand had occasioned me. "But don't you think that
+this is hardly the proper time or occasion to talk of compensation? All
+I have on me, as you know, is a few hundred francs, and that, of course,
+you are welcome to, and when I get back, if I ever do, I shall not
+easily forget the kindness you have shown me. I am sure you need have no
+concern about my showing my gratitude in a substantial way."
+
+"That's all right, O'Brien," he insisted, looking at me in a knowing
+sort of way. "You may take care of me afterward, and then again you may
+not. I'm not satisfied to wait. I want to be taken care of _now_!"
+
+"Well, what do you want me to do? How much do you expect in the way of
+compensation? How can I arrange to get it to you? I am willing to do
+anything that is reasonable."
+
+"I want ---- pounds!" he replied, and he named a figure that staggered
+me. If I had been Lord Kitchener instead of just an ordinary lieutenant
+in the R. F. C., he would hardly have asked a larger sum. Perhaps he
+thought I was.
+
+"Why, my dear man," I said, smilingly, thinking that perhaps he was
+joking, "you don't really mean that, do you?"
+
+"I certainly do, O'Brien, and what is more," he threatened, "I intend to
+get every cent I have asked, and you are going to help me get it!"
+
+He pulled out an order calling for the payment to him of the amount he
+had mentioned, and demanded that I sign it.
+
+I waved it aside.
+
+"Huyliger," I said, "you have helped me out so far, and perhaps you have
+the power to help me further. I appreciate what you have done for me,
+although now, I think, I see what your motive was, but I certainly don't
+intend to be blackmailed, and I tell you right now that I won't stand
+for it!"
+
+"Very well," he said. "It is just as you say. But before you make up
+your mind so obstinately I would advise you to think it over. I'll be
+back this evening."
+
+My first impulse, after the man had left, was to get out of that house
+just as soon as I could. I had the passport he had prepared for me, and
+I figured that even without further help from him I could now get to the
+border without very much difficulty, and when I got there I would have
+to use my own ingenuity to get through.
+
+It was evident, however, that Huyliger still had an idea that I might
+change my mind with regard to the payment he had demanded, and I decided
+that it would be foolish to do anything until he paid me a second visit.
+
+At the beginning of my dealings with Huyliger I had turned over to him
+some pictures, papers, and other things that I had on me when I entered
+his house, including my identification disk, and I was rather afraid
+that he might refuse to return them to me.
+
+All day long I remained in the house without a particle of food other
+than the breakfast Huyliger had brought to me. From the windows I
+could see plenty to interest me and help pass the time away, but of
+my experiences while in that house I shall tell in detail later on,
+confining my attention now to a narration of my dealings with Huyliger.
+
+That night he appeared, as he had promised.
+
+"Well, O'Brien," he asked, as he entered the room where I was awaiting
+him, "what do you say? Will you sign the order or not?"
+
+It had occurred to me during the day that the amount demanded was so
+fabulous that I might have signed the order without any danger of
+its ever being paid, but the idea of this man, who had claimed to be
+befriending me, endeavoring to make capital out of my plight galled me
+so that I was determined not to give in to him, whether I could do so in
+safety or not.
+
+"No, Huyliger," I replied. "I have decided to get along as best I can
+without any further assistance from you. I shall see that you are
+reasonably paid for what you have done, but I will not accept any
+further assistance from you at any price, and, what is more, I want
+you to return to me at once all the photographs and other papers and
+belongings of mine which I turned over to you a day or two ago!"
+
+"I'm sorry about that, O'Brien," he retorted, with a show of apparent
+sincerity, "but that is something I cannot do."
+
+"If you don't give me back those papers at once," I replied, hotly, "I
+will take steps to get them and damned quick, too!"
+
+"I don't know just what you could do, O'Brien," he declared, coolly,
+"but as a matter of fact the papers and pictures you refer to are out of
+the country. I could not give them back to you if I wanted to."
+
+Something told me the man was lying.
+
+"See here, Huyliger!" I threatened, advancing toward him, putting my
+hand on his shoulder and looking him straight in the eye, "I want those
+papers and I want them here before midnight to-night. If I don't get
+them, I shall sleep in this place just once more, and then, at eight
+o'clock to-morrow morning, I shall go to the German authorities, give
+myself up, show them the passport that you fixed up for me, tell them
+how I got it, and explain everything!"
+
+Huyliger paled. We had no lights in the house, but we were standing
+near a landing at the time and the moonlight was streaming through a
+stained-glass window.
+
+The Belgian turned on his heel and started to go down the stairs.
+
+"Mind you," I called after him, "I shall wait for you till the city
+clock strikes twelve, and if you don't show up with those papers by that
+time, the next time you will see me is when you confront me before the
+German authorities! I am a desperate man, Huyliger, and I mean every
+word I say!"
+
+He let himself out of the door and I sat on the top stair and wondered
+just what he would do. Would he try to steal a march on me and get in
+a first word to the authorities, so that my story would be discredited
+when I put it to them?
+
+Of course my threat to give myself up to the Huns was a pure bluff.
+While I had no desire to lose the papers which Huyliger had, and which
+included the map of the last resting-place of my poor chum Raney, I
+certainly had no intention of cutting off my nose to spite my chin by
+surrendering to the Germans. I would have been shot, as sure as fate,
+for, after all I had been able to observe behind the German lines, I
+would be regarded as a spy and treated as such.
+
+At the same time I thought I had detected a yellow streak in Huyliger,
+and I figured that he would not want to take the risk of my carrying out
+my threat, even though he believed there was but a small chance of my
+doing so. If I did, he would undoubtedly share my fate, and the pictures
+and papers he had of mine were really of no use to him, and I have never
+been able to ascertain why it was he wished to retain them unless they
+contained something--some information about me--which accounted for his
+complete change of attitude toward me in the first place, and he wanted
+the papers as evidence to account to his superiors or associates for his
+conduct toward me.
+
+When he first told me that the plan of placing me in a convent disguised
+as a priest had been abandoned he explained it by saying that the
+Cardinal had issued orders to the priests to help no more fugitives,
+and I have since wondered whether there was anything in my papers which
+had turned him against me and led him to forsake me after all he had
+promised to do for me.
+
+For perhaps two hours I sat on that staircase musing about the peculiar
+turn in my affairs, when the front door opened and Huyliger ascended
+the stairs.
+
+"I have brought you such of your belongings as I still had, O'Brien," he
+said, softly. "The rest, as I told you, I cannot give you. They are no
+longer in my possession."
+
+I looked through the little bunch he handed me. It included my
+identification disk, most of the papers I valued, and perhaps half of
+the photographs.
+
+"I don't know what your object is in retaining the rest of my pictures,
+Huyliger," I replied, "but, as a matter of fact, the ones that are
+missing were only of sentimental value to me, and you are welcome to
+them if you want them. We'll call it a heat."
+
+I don't know whether he understood the idiom, but he sat down on the
+stairs just below me and cogitated for a few moments.
+
+"O'Brien," he started, finally, "I'm sorry things have gone the way
+they have. I feel sorry for you and I would really like to help you. I
+don't suppose you will believe me, but the matter of the order which I
+asked you to sign was not of my doing. However, we won't go into that.
+The proposition was made to you and you turned it down, and that's an
+end of it. At the same time, I hate to leave you to your own resources
+and I'm going to make one more suggestion to you for your own good. I
+have another plan to get you into Holland, and if you will go with me
+to another house I will introduce you to a man who I think will be in a
+position to help you."
+
+"How many millions of pounds will he want for his trouble?" I asked,
+sarcastically.
+
+"You can arrange that when you see him. Will you go?"
+
+I suspected there was something fishy about the proposition, but I felt
+that I could take care of myself and decided to see the thing through.
+I knew Huyliger would not dare to deliver me to the authorities because
+of the fact that I had the telltale passport, which would be his
+death-knell as well as my own.
+
+Accordingly I said I would be quite willing to go with him whenever he
+was ready, and he suggested that we go the next evening.
+
+I pointed out to him that I was entirely without food and asked him
+whether he could not arrange to bring or send me something to eat while
+I remained in the house.
+
+"I'm sorry, O'Brien," he replied, "but I'm afraid you'll have to get
+along as best you can. When I brought you your breakfast this morning I
+took a desperate chance. If I had been discovered by one of the German
+soldiers entering this house with food in my possession, I would not
+only have paid the penalty myself, but you would have been discovered,
+too. It is too dangerous a proposition. Why don't you go out by yourself
+and buy your food at the stores? That would give you confidence, and
+you'll need plenty of it when you continue your journey to the border."
+
+There was a good deal of truth in what he said, and I really could not
+blame him for not wanting to take any chances to help me, in view of the
+relations between us.
+
+"Very well," I said; "I've gone without food for many hours at a time
+before and I suppose I shall be able to do so again. I shall look for
+you to-morrow evening."
+
+The next evening he came and I accompanied him to another house not
+very far from the one in which I had been staying and not unlike it in
+appearance. It, too, was a substantial dwelling-house which had been
+untenanted since the beginning, save perhaps for such occasional visits
+as Huyliger and his associates made to it.
+
+Huyliger let himself in and conducted me to a room on the second floor,
+where he introduced me to two men. One, I could readily see by the
+resemblance, was his own brother. The other was a stranger.
+
+Very briefly they explained to me that they had procured another
+passport for me--a genuine one--which would prove far more effective
+in helping to get me to the frontier than the counterfeit one they had
+manufactured for me.
+
+I think I saw through their game right at the start, but I listened
+patiently to what they had to say.
+
+"Of course, you will have to return to us the passport we gave you
+before we can give you the real one," said Huyliger's brother.
+
+"I haven't the slightest objection," I replied, "if the new passport is
+all you claim for it. Will you let me see it?"
+
+There was considerable hesitation on the part of Huyliger's brother and
+the other chap at this.
+
+"Why, I don't think that's necessary at all, Mr. O'Brien," said the
+former. "You give us the old passport and we will be very glad to give
+you the new one for it. Isn't that fair enough?"
+
+"It may be fair enough, my friends," I retorted, seeing that it was
+useless to conceal further the fact that I was fully aware of their
+whole plan and why I had been brought to this house. "It may be fair
+enough, my friends," I said, "but you will get the passport that I have
+here," patting my side and indicating my inside breast pocket, "only off
+my dead body!"
+
+I suppose the three of them could have made short work of me then and
+there if they had wanted to go the limit, and no one would ever have
+been the wiser, but I had gone through so much and I was feeling so mean
+toward the whole world just at that moment that I was determined to sell
+my life as dearly as possible.
+
+"I have that passport here," I repeated, "and I'm going to keep it. If
+you gentlemen think you can take it from me, you are welcome to try!"
+
+To tell the truth, I was spoiling for a fight and I half wished they
+would start something. The man who had lived in the house had evidently
+been a collector of ancient pottery, for the walls were lined with great
+pieces of earthenware which had every earmark of possessing great value.
+They certainly possessed great weight. I figured that if the worst came
+to the worst that pottery would come in mighty handy. A single blow
+with one of those big vases would put a man out as neatly as possible,
+and as there was lots of pottery and only three men I believed I had an
+excellent chance of holding my own in the combat which I had invited.
+
+I had already picked out in my mind what I was going to use, and I got
+up, stood with my back to the wall, and told them that if they ever
+figured on getting the passport, then would be their best chance.
+
+Apparently they realized that I meant business and they immediately
+began to expostulate at the attitude I was taking.
+
+One of the men spoke excellent English. In fact, he told me that he
+could speak five languages, and if he could lie in the others as well I
+know he did in my own tongue, he was not only an accomplished linguist,
+but a most versatile liar into the bargain.
+
+They argued and expostulated with me for some time.
+
+"My dear fellow," said the linguist, "it is not that we want to deprive
+you of the passport. Good Heavens! if it will aid you in getting out
+of the country, I wish you could have six just like it. But for our
+own protection you owe it to us to proceed on your journey as best you
+can without it, because as long as you have it in your possession you
+jeopardize our lives, too. Don't you think it is fairer that you should
+risk your own safety rather than place the lives of three innocent men
+in danger?"
+
+"That may be as it is, my friends," I retorted, as I made my way to the
+door, "and I am glad you realize your danger. Keep it in mind, for in
+case any of you should happen to feel inclined to notify the German
+authorities that I am in this part of the country, think it over before
+you do so. Remember always that if the Germans get me, they get the
+passport, too, and if they get the passport, your lives won't be worth a
+damn! When I tell the history of that clever little piece of pasteboard
+I will implicate all three of you, and whomever else is working with
+you, and as I am an officer I rather think my word will be taken before
+yours. Good night!"
+
+The bluff evidently worked, because I was able to get out of the city
+without molestation from the Germans.
+
+I have never seen these men since. I hope I never shall, because I am
+afraid I might be tempted to do something for which I might afterward be
+sorry.
+
+I do not mean to imply that all Belgians are like this. I had evidently
+fallen into the hands of a gang who were endeavoring to make capital
+out of the misfortunes of those who were referred to them for help. In
+all countries there are bad as well as good, and in a country which
+has suffered so much as poor Belgium it is no wonder if some of the
+survivors have lost their sense of moral perspective.
+
+I know the average poor peasant in Belgium would divide his scanty
+rations with a needy fugitive sooner than a wealthy Belgian would dole
+out a morsel from his comparatively well-stocked larder. Perhaps the
+poor have less to lose than the rich if their generosity or charity is
+discovered by the Huns.
+
+There have been many Belgians shot for helping escaped prisoners and
+other fugitives, and it is not to be wondered at that they are willing
+to take as few chances as possible. A man with a family, especially,
+does not feel justified in helping a stranger when he knows that he and
+his whole family may be shot or sent to prison for their pains.
+
+Although I suffered much from the attitude of Huyliger and his
+associates, I suppose I ought to hold no grudge against them in view of
+the unenviable predicament which they are in themselves.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+FIVE DAYS IN AN EMPTY HOUSE
+
+
+The five days I spent in that house seemed to me like five years. During
+all that time I had very little to eat--less, in fact, than I had been
+getting in the fields. I did not feel it so much, perhaps, because of
+the fact that I was no longer exposed to the other privations which
+had helped to make my condition so wretched. I now had a good place to
+sleep, at any rate, and I did not awake every half-hour or so as I had
+been accustomed to do in the fields and woods, and, of course, my hunger
+was not aggravated by the physical exertions which had been necessary
+before.
+
+Nevertheless, perhaps because I had more time now to think of the hunger
+pains which were gnawing at me all the time, I don't believe I was ever
+so miserable as I was at that period of my adventure. I felt so mean
+toward the world I would have committed murder, I think, with very
+little provocation.
+
+German soldiers were passing the house at all hours of the day. I
+watched them hour after hour from the keyhole of the door--to have shown
+myself at the window was out of the question because the house in which
+I was concealed was supposed to be untenanted.
+
+Because of the fact that I was unable to speak either Flemish or German
+I could not go out and buy food, although I still had the money with
+which to do it. That was one of the things that galled me--the thought
+that I had the wherewithal in my jeans to buy all the food I needed, and
+yet no way of getting it without endangering my liberty and life.
+
+At night, however, after it was dark, I would steal quietly out of the
+house to see what I could pick up in the way of food. By that time, of
+course, the stores were closed, but I scoured the streets, the alleys,
+and the byways for scraps of food, and occasionally got up courage
+enough to appeal to Belgian peasants whom I met on the streets, and in
+that way I managed to keep body and soul together.
+
+It was quite apparent to me, however, that I was worse off in the city
+than I had been in the fields, and I decided to get out of that house
+just as soon as I knew definitely that Huyliger had made up his mind to
+do nothing further for me.
+
+When I was not at the keyhole of the door I spent most of my day on the
+top floor in a room which looked out on the street. By keeping well away
+from the window I could see much of what was going on without being
+seen myself. In my restlessness I used to walk back and forth in that
+room, and I kept it up so constantly that I believe I must have worn a
+path on the floor. It was nine steps from one wall to the other, and as
+I had little else to amuse me I figured out one day, after I had been
+pacing up and down for several hours, just how much distance I would
+have covered on my way to Holland if my footsteps had been taking me in
+that direction instead of just up and down that old room. I was very
+much surprised that in three hours I crossed the room no less than
+five thousand times and the distance covered was between nine and ten
+miles. It was not very gratifying to realize that after walking all that
+distance I wasn't a step nearer my goal than when I started, but I had
+to do something while waiting for Huyliger to help me, and pacing up and
+down was a natural outlet for my restlessness.
+
+While looking out of that top-floor window one day I noticed a cat on a
+window-ledge of the house across the street. I had a piece of a broken
+mirror which I had picked up in the house and I used to amuse myself for
+an hour at a time shining it in the cat's eyes across the street. At
+first the animal was annoyed by the reflection and would move away, only
+to come back a few moments later. By and by, however, it seemed to get
+used to the glare and wouldn't budge, no matter how strong the sunlight
+was. Playing with the cat in this way was the means of my getting food a
+day or two later--at a time when I was so famished that I was ready to
+do almost anything to appease my hunger.
+
+It was about seven o'clock in the evening. I was expecting Huyliger at
+eight, but I hadn't the slightest hope that he would bring me food,
+as he had told me that he wouldn't take the risk of having food in his
+possession when calling on me. I was standing at the window in such
+a way that I could see what was going on in the street without being
+observed by those who passed by, when I noticed my friend the cat coming
+down the steps of the opposite house with something in his mouth.
+Without considering the risks I ran, I opened the front door, ran down
+the steps and across the street, and pounced on the cat before it could
+get away with its supper, for that, as I had imagined, was what I had
+seen in its mouth. It turned out to be a piece of stewed rabbit, which I
+confiscated eagerly and took back with me to the house.
+
+Perhaps I felt a little sorry for the cat, but I certainly had no other
+qualms about eating the animal's dinner. I was much too hungry to dwell
+upon niceties, and a piece of stewed rabbit was certainly too good for
+a cat to eat when a man was starving. I ate it and enjoyed it, and the
+incident suggested to me a way in which I might possibly obtain food
+again when all other avenues failed.
+
+From my place of concealment I frequently saw huge carts being pushed
+through the streets gathering potato peelings, refuse of cabbage, and
+similar food remnants which, in America, are considered garbage and
+destroyed. In Belgium they were using this "garbage" to make their bread
+out of, and while the idea may sound revolting to us, the fact is that
+the Germans have brought these things down to such a science that the
+bread they make in this way is really very good to eat. I know it would
+have been like cake to me when I was in need of food; indeed, I would
+have eaten the "garbage" direct, let alone the bread.
+
+Although, as I have said, I suffered greatly from hunger while occupying
+this house, there were one or two things I observed through the keyhole
+or from the windows which made me laugh, and some of the incidents that
+occurred during my voluntary imprisonment were really rather funny.
+
+From the keyhole I could see, for instance, a shop window on the other
+side of the street, several houses down the block. All day long German
+soldiers would be passing in front of the house, and I noticed that
+practically every one of them would stop in front of this store window
+and look in. Occasionally a soldier on duty bent would hurry past, but
+I think nine out of ten of them were sufficiently interested to spend
+at least a minute, and some of them three or four minutes, gazing at
+whatever was being exhibited in that window, although I noticed that it
+failed to attract the Belgians.
+
+I have a considerable streak of curiosity in me and I couldn't help
+wondering what it could be in that window which almost without exception
+seemed to interest German soldiers, but failed to hold the Belgians,
+and after conjuring my brains for a while on the problem I came to the
+conclusion that the shop must have been a book-shop and the window
+contained German magazines, which, naturally enough, would be of the
+greatest interest to the Germans, but of none to the Belgians.
+
+At any rate, I resolved that as soon as night came I would go out and
+investigate the window. When I got the answer I laughed so loud that
+I was afraid for the moment I must have attracted the attention of the
+neighbors, but I couldn't help it. The window was filled with huge
+quantities of sausage. The store was a butcher-shop, and one of the
+principal things they sold, apparently, was sausage. The display they
+made, although it consisted merely of quantities of sausage piled in
+the windows, certainly had plenty of "pulling" power. It "pulled" nine
+Germans out of ten out of their course and indirectly it "pulled" me
+right across the street. The idea of those Germans being so interested
+in that window display as to stand in front of the window for two,
+three, or four minutes at a time, however, certainly seemed funny to me,
+and when I got back to the house I sat at the keyhole again and found
+just as much interest as before in watching the Germans stop in their
+tracks when they reached the window, even though I was now aware what
+the attraction was.
+
+One of my chief occupations during those days was catching flies. I
+would catch a fly, put him in a spider's web--there were plenty of
+them in the old house--and sit down to wait for the spider to come
+and get him. But always I pictured myself in the same predicament and
+rescued the fly just as the spider was about to grab him. Several times
+when things were dull I was tempted to see the tragedy through, but
+perhaps the same Providence that guided me safely through all perils was
+guarding, too, the destiny of those flies, for I always weakened and the
+flies never did suffer from my lust for amusement.
+
+The house was well supplied with books--in fact, one of the choicest
+libraries I think I ever saw--but they were all written either in
+Flemish or in French. I could read no Flemish and very little French.
+I might have made a little headway with the latter, but the books all
+seemed too deep for me and I gave it up. There was one thing, though,
+that I did read and re-read from beginning to end--that was a New York
+_Herald_ which must have arrived just about the time war was declared.
+Several things in there interested me, and particularly the baseball
+scores, which I studied with as much care as a real fan possibly would
+an up-to-date score. I couldn't refrain from laughing when I came to an
+account of Zimmerman (of the Cubs) being benched for some spat with the
+umpire, and it afforded me just as much interest three years after it
+had happened--perhaps more--than some current item of worldwide interest
+had at the time.
+
+I rummaged the house many times from cellar to garret in my search for
+something to eat, but the harvest of three years of war had made any
+success along that line impossible. I was like the man out on the ocean
+in a boat and thirsty, with water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
+
+I was tempted while in this city to go to church one Sunday, but my
+better judgment told me it would be a useless risk. Of course some one
+would surely say something to me, and I didn't know how many Germans
+would be there, or what might happen, so I gave up that idea.
+
+During all the time I was concealed in this house I saw but one
+automobile, and that was a German staff officer's. That same afternoon I
+had one of the frights of my young life.
+
+I had been gazing out of the keyhole as usual when I heard coming down
+the street the measured tread of German soldiers. It didn't sound like
+very many, but there was no doubt in my mind that German soldiers were
+marching down the street. I went up-stairs and peeked through the
+window, and sure enough a squad of German infantry was coming down the
+street, accompanying a military truck. I hadn't the slightest idea that
+they were coming after me, but still the possibilities of the situation
+gave me more or less alarm, and I considered how I could make my escape
+if by any chance I was the man they were after. The idea of hiding in
+the wine-cellar appealed to me as the most practical; there must have
+been plenty of places among the wine kegs and cases where a man could
+conceal himself, but, as a matter of fact, I did not believe that any
+such contingency would arise.
+
+The marching soldiers came nearer. I could hear them at the next house.
+In a moment I would see them pass the keyhole through which I was
+looking.
+
+"Halt!"
+
+At the word of command shouted by a junior officer the squad came to
+attention right in front of the house.
+
+I waited no longer. Running down the stairs, I flew down into the
+wine-cellar, and although it was almost pitch dark--the only light
+coming from a grating which led to the backyard--I soon found a
+satisfactory hiding-place in the extreme rear of the cellar. I had the
+presence of mind to leave the door of the wine-cellar ajar, figuring
+that if the soldiers found a closed door they would be more apt to
+search for a fugitive behind it than if the door were open.
+
+My decision to get away from the front door had been made and carried
+out none too soon, for I had only just located myself between two big
+wine-cases when I heard the tramp of soldiers' feet marching up the
+front steps, a crash at the front door, a few hasty words of command
+which I did not understand, and then the noise of scurrying feet from
+room to room and such a banging and hammering and smashing and crashing
+that I could not make out what was going on.
+
+If Huyliger had revealed my hiding-place to the Huns, as I was now
+confident he had, I felt that there was little prospect of their
+overlooking me. They would search the house from top to bottom and, if
+necessary, raze it to the ground before they would give up the search.
+To escape from the house through the backyard through the iron grating,
+which I had no doubt I could force, seemed to be a logical thing to do,
+but the chances were that the Huns had thrown a cordon around the entire
+block before the squad was sent to the house. The Germans do these
+things in an efficient manner always. They take nothing for granted.
+
+My one chance seemed to be to stand pat in the hope that the officer in
+charge might possibly come to the conclusion that he had arrived at the
+house too late--that the bird had flown.
+
+My position in that wine-cellar was anything but a comfortable one. Rats
+and mice were scurrying across the floor, and the smashing and crashing
+going on overhead was anything but promising. Evidently those soldiers
+imagined that I might be hiding in the walls, for it sounded as though
+they were tearing off the wainscoting, the picture-molding, and, in
+fact, everything that they could tear or pull apart.
+
+Before very long they would finish their search up-stairs and would come
+down to the basement. What they would do when they discovered the wine
+I had no idea. Perhaps they would let themselves loose on it and give
+me my chance. With a bottle of wine in each hand I figured I could put
+up a good fight in the dark, especially as I was becoming more and more
+accustomed to it and could begin to distinguish things here and there,
+whereas they would be as blind as bats in the sun when they entered the
+pitchy darkness of the cellar.
+
+Perhaps it was twenty minutes before I heard what sounded like my
+death-knell to me; the soldiers were coming down the cellar steps. I
+clutched a wine bottle in each hand and waited with bated breath.
+
+Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! In a moment they would be in the cellar proper. I
+could almost hear my heart beating. The mice scurried across the floor
+by the scores, frightened, no doubt, by the vibration and noise made
+by the descending soldiers. Some of the creatures ran across me where
+I stood between the two wine-cases, but I was too much interested in
+bigger game to pay attention to mice.
+
+Tramp! Tramp! "Halt!" Again an order was given in German, and although I
+did not understand it, I am willing to bless every word of it, because
+it resulted in the soldiers turning right about face, marching up the
+stairs again, through the hall, and out of the front door and away!
+
+I could hardly believe my ears. It seemed almost too good to be true
+that they could have given up the search just as they were about to come
+on their quarry, but unless my ears deceived me that was what they had
+done.
+
+The possibility that the whole thing might be a German ruse did not
+escape me, and I remained in the cellar for nearly an hour after they
+had apparently departed before I ventured to move, listening intently in
+the mean while for the slightest sound which would reveal the presence
+of a sentry up-stairs.
+
+Not hearing a sound, I began to feel that they had indeed given up
+the hunt, for I did not believe that a German officer would be so
+considerate of his men as to try to trap me rather than carry the cellar
+by force if they had the slightest idea that I was there.
+
+I took off my shoes and crept softly and slowly to the cellar steps, and
+then step by step, placing my weight down gradually so as to prevent
+the steps from creaking, I climbed to the top. The sight that met my
+eyes as I glanced into the kitchen told me the whole story. The water
+faucets had been ripped from the sinks, the water pipes having been torn
+from the walls. Everything of brass or copper had been torn off, and gas
+fixtures, cooking utensils, and everything else which contain even only
+a small proportion of the metals the Germans so badly needed had been
+taken from the kitchen. I walked up-stairs now with more confidence,
+feeling tolerably assured that the soldiers hadn't been after me at
+all, but had been merely collecting metals and other materials which
+they expected an elaborate dwelling-house like the one in which I was
+concealed to yield.
+
+Later I heard that the Germans have taken practically every ounce of
+brass, copper, and wool they could lay their hands on in Belgium.
+Even the brass out of pianos has been ruthlessly removed, the serious
+damage done to valuable property by the removal of only an insignificant
+proportion of metal never being taken into consideration. I learned,
+too, that all dogs over fourteen inches high had been seized by the
+Germans. This furnished lots of speculation among the Belgians as to
+what use the Germans were putting the animals to, the general impression
+apparently being that they were being used for food.
+
+This, however, seemed much less likely to me than that they were being
+employed as despatch dogs in the trenches, the same as we use them on
+our side of the line. They might possibly kill the dogs and use their
+skins for leather and their carcasses for tallow, but I feel quite sure
+that the Huns are by no means so short of food that they have to eat
+dogs yet awhile.
+
+Indeed, I want to repeat here what I have mentioned before: if any
+one has the idea that this war can be won by _starving_ the Huns, he
+hasn't the slightest idea how well provided the Germans are in that
+respect. They have considered their food needs in connection with their
+resources for several years to come, and they have gone at it in such
+a methodical, systematic way, taking into consideration every possible
+contingency, that, provided there is not an absolute crop failure, there
+isn't the slightest doubt in my mind that they can last for years, and
+the worst of it is they are quite cocksure about it.
+
+It is true that the German soldiers want peace. As I watched them
+through the keyhole in the door I thought how unfavorably they compared
+with our men. They marched along the street without laughter, without
+joking, without singing. It was quite apparent that the war is telling
+on them. I don't believe I saw a single German soldier who didn't look
+as if he had lost his best friend--and he probably had.
+
+At the same time, there is a big difference--certainly a difference of
+several years--between wishing the war was over and giving up, and I
+don't believe the German rank and file any more than their leaders have
+the slightest idea at this time of giving up at all.
+
+But to return to my experiences while concealed in the house. After the
+visit of the soldiers, which left the house in a wretched condition,
+I decided that I would continue my journey toward the frontier,
+particularly as I had got all I could out of Huyliger, or rather he had
+got all he was going to get out of me.
+
+During my concealment in the house I made various sorties into the city
+at night, and I was beginning to feel more comfortable, even when German
+soldiers were about. Through the keyhole I had studied very closely
+the gait of the Belgians, the slovenly droop that characterized most
+of them, and their general appearance, and I felt that in my own dirty
+and unshaven condition I must have looked as much like the average
+poor Belgian as a man could. The only thing that was against me was my
+height. I was several inches taller than even the tallest Belgians.
+I had often thought that red hair would have gone well with my name,
+but now, of course, I was mighty glad that I was not so endowed, for
+red-haired Belgians are about as rare as German charity.
+
+There are many, no doubt, who will wonder why I did not get more help
+than I did at this time. It is easily answered. When a man is in hourly
+fear of his life and the country is full of spies, as Belgium certainly
+was, he is not going to help just any one that comes along seeking aid.
+
+One of the Germans' most successful ways of trapping the Belgians has
+been to pose as an English or French prisoner who has escaped; appeal
+to them for aid; implicate as many as possible, and then turn the whole
+German police force loose on them.
+
+As I look back now on those days I think it remarkable that I received
+as much help as I did, but when people are starving under the conditions
+now forced upon those unfortunate people it is a great temptation to
+surrender these escaped prisoners to German authorities and receive the
+handsome rewards offered for them--or for alien spies, as I was classed
+at that time.
+
+The passport which I had described me as a Spanish sailor, but I was
+very dubious about its value. If I could have spoken Spanish fluently
+it might have been worth something to me, but the few words I knew of
+the language would not have carried me very far if I had been confronted
+with a Spanish interpreter. I decided to use the passport only as a
+last resort, preferring to act the part of a deaf and dumb Belgian
+peasant as far as it would carry me.
+
+Before I finally left the house I had a remarkable experience which I
+shall remember as long as I live.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+A NIGHT OF DISSIPATION
+
+
+During the first two days I spent with Huyliger after I had first
+arrived in the big city he had told me, among other things, of a
+moving-picture show in town which he said I might have a chance to see
+while there.
+
+"It is free every night in the week except Saturdays and Sundays," he
+said, "and once you are inside you would not be apt to be bothered by
+any one except when they come to take your order for something to drink.
+While there is no admission, patrons are expected to eat or drink while
+enjoying the pictures."
+
+A day or two later, while walking the streets at night in search of
+food, I had passed this place, and was very much tempted to go in
+and spend a few hours, particularly as it would perhaps give me an
+opportunity to buy something to eat, although I was at a loss to know
+how I was going to ask for what I wanted.
+
+While trying to make up my mind whether it was safe for me to go in, I
+walked half a block past the place, and when I turned back again and
+reached the entrance with my mind made up that I would take the chance I
+ran full tilt into a German officer who was just coming out!
+
+That settled all my hankerings for moving pictures that night. "Where
+you came from, my friend," I figured, "there must be more like you! I
+guess it is a good night for walking."
+
+The next day, however, in recalling the incident of the evening before,
+it seemed to me that I had been rather foolish. What I needed more than
+anything at that time was confidence. Before I could get to the frontier
+I would have to confront German soldiers many times, because there
+were more of them between this city and Holland than in any section
+of the country through which I had so far traveled. Safety in these
+contingencies would depend largely upon the calmness I displayed. It
+wouldn't do to get all excited at the mere sight of a spiked helmet.
+The Belgians, I had noticed, while careful to obey the orders of the
+Huns, showed no particular fear of them, and it seemed to me the sooner
+I cultivated the same feeling of indifference the better I would be able
+to carry off the part I was playing.
+
+For this reason, I made up my mind then and there that, officers or no
+officers, I would go to that show that night and sit it through, no
+matter what happened. While people may think that I had decided unwisely
+because of the unnecessary risk involved in the adventure, it occurred
+to me that perhaps, after all, that theater was about one of the safest
+places I could attend, because that was about the last place Germans
+would expect to find a fugitive English officer in, even if they were
+searching for one.
+
+As soon as evening came, therefore, I decided to go to the theater. I
+fixed myself up as well as possible. I had on a fairly decent pair of
+trousers which Huyliger had given me and I used a clean handkerchief as
+a collar.
+
+With my hair brushed up and my beard trimmed as neatly as possible
+with a pair of rusty scissors which I had found in the house, while
+my appearance was not exactly that of a Beau Brummel, I don't think I
+looked much worse than the average Belgian. In these days, the average
+Belgian is very poorly dressed at best.
+
+I can't say I had no misgivings as I made my way to the theater;
+certainly I was going there more for discipline than pleasure, but I had
+made up my mind and I was going to see it through.
+
+The entrance to the theater or beer-garden--for it was as much one as
+the other--was on the side of the building, and was reached by way of
+an alley which ran along the side. Near the door was a ticket-seller's
+booth, but as this was one of the free nights there was no one in the
+booth.
+
+I marched slowly down the alley, imitating as best I could the
+indifferent gait of the Belgians, and when I entered the theater I
+endeavored to act as though I had been there many times before. A hasty
+survey of the layout of the place was sufficient to enable me to select
+my seat. It was early and there were not more than half a dozen people
+in the place at that time, so that I had my choice.
+
+There was a raised platform, perhaps two feet high, all round the walls
+of the place, except at the end where the stage was located. On this
+platform tables were arranged, and there were tables on the floor proper
+as well.
+
+I decided promptly that the safest place for me was as far back as
+possible where I would not be in the line of vision of others in back
+of me. Accordingly, I slouched over to a table on the platform directly
+opposite the stage and I took the seat against the wall. The whole place
+was now in front of me. I could see everything that was going on and
+every one who came in, but no one, except those who sat at my own table,
+would notice me unless they deliberately turned around to look.
+
+The place began to fill up rapidly. Every second person who came in the
+door seemed to me to be a German soldier, but when they were seated at
+the tables and I got a chance later on to make a rough count, I found
+that in all there were not more than a hundred soldiers in the place
+and there must have been several hundred civilians.
+
+The first people to sit at my table were a Belgian and his wife. The
+Belgian sat next to me and his wife next to him. I was hoping that other
+civilians would occupy the remaining two seats at my table because I
+did not relish the idea of having to sit through the show with German
+soldiers within a few feet of me. That would certainly have spoiled my
+pleasure for the evening.
+
+Every uniform that came in the door gave me cause to worry until I
+was sure it was not coming in my direction. I don't suppose there was
+a single soldier who came in the door whom I didn't follow to his
+seat--with my eyes.
+
+Just before they lowered the lights two German officers came in the
+door. They stood there for a moment looking the place over. Then they
+made a bee-line in my direction, and I must confess my heart started to
+beat a little faster. I hoped that they would find another seat before
+they came to my vicinity, but they were getting nearer and nearer, and I
+realized with a sickening sensation that they were headed directly for
+the two seats at my table, and that was indeed the case.
+
+These two seats were in front of the table, facing the stage, and except
+when they would be eating or drinking their backs were toward me, and
+there was considerable consolation in that. From my seat I could have
+reached right over and touched one of them on his bald head. It would
+have been more than a touch, I am afraid, if I could have got away with
+it safely.
+
+As the officers seated themselves a waiter came to us with a printed
+bill of fare and a program. Fortunately, he waited on the others first,
+and I listened intently to their orders. The officers ordered some
+light wine, but my Belgian neighbor ordered "Bock" for himself and his
+wife, which was what I had decided to order, anyway, as that was the
+only thing I could say. Heaven knows I would far rather have ordered
+something to eat, but the bill of fare meant nothing to me, and I was
+afraid to take a chance at the pronunciation of the dishes it set forth.
+
+There were a number of drinks listed which I suppose I might safely
+enough have ordered. For instance, I noticed "Lemon Squash, 1.50,"
+"Ginger Beer, 1-," "Sparkling Dry Ginger Ale, 1-," "Apollinaris, 1-,"
+and "Schweppes Soda, 0.80," but it occurred to me that the mere fact
+that I selected something that was listed in English might attract
+attention to me and something in my pronunciation might give further
+cause for suspicion.
+
+It seemed better to parrot the Belgian and order "Bock," and that was
+what I decided to do.
+
+One item on the bill of fare tantalized me considerably. Although it was
+listed among the "Prizzen der dranken," which I took to mean "Prices of
+drinks," it sounded very much to me like something to eat, and Heaven
+knows I would rather have had one honest mouthful of food than all the
+drinks in the world. The item I refer to was "Dubbel Gersten de Flesch
+(Michaux)." A _double_ portion of anything would have been mighty
+welcome to me, but I would have been quite contented with a _single_
+"Gersten"--whatever that might happen to be--if I had only had the
+courage to ask for it.
+
+To keep myself as composed as possible, I devoted a lot of attention
+to that bill of fare, and I think by the time the waiter came around
+I almost knew it by heart. One drink that almost made me laugh out
+loud was listed as "Lemonades Gazeuses," but I might just as well have
+introduced myself to the German officers by my right name and rank as to
+have attempted to pronounce it.
+
+When the waiter came to me, therefore, I said "Bock" as casually as I
+could, and felt somewhat relieved that I got through this part of the
+ordeal so easily.
+
+While the waiter was away I had a chance to examine the bill of fare,
+and I observed that a glass of beer cost eighty centimes. The smallest
+change I had was a two-mark paper bill.
+
+Apparently the German officers were similarly fixed, and when they
+offered their bill to the waiter he handed it back to them with a remark
+which I took to mean that he couldn't make change.
+
+Right there I was in a quandary. To offer him my bill after he had just
+told the officers he didn't have change would have seemed strange, and
+yet I couldn't explain to him that I was in the same boat and he would
+have to come to me again later. The only thing to do, therefore, was to
+offer him the bill as though I hadn't heard or noticed what had happened
+with the Germans, and I did so. He said the same thing to me as he had
+said to the officers, perhaps a little more sharply, and gave me back
+the bill. Later on he returned to the table with a handful of change and
+we closed the transaction. I gave him twenty-five centimes as a tip--I
+had never yet been in a place where it was necessary to talk to do that.
+
+During my first half-hour in that theater, to say I was on pins and
+needles is to express my feelings mildly. The truth of the matter is
+I was never so uneasy in my life. Every minute seemed like an hour,
+and I was on the point of getting up and leaving a dozen times. There
+were altogether too many soldiers in the place to suit me, and when the
+German officers seated themselves right at my table I thought that was
+about all I could stand. As it was, however, the lights went out shortly
+afterward and in the dark I felt considerably easier.
+
+After the first picture, when the lights went up again, I had regained
+my composure considerably and I took advantage of the opportunity to
+study the various types of people in the place.
+
+From my seat I had a splendid chance to see them all. At one table there
+was a German medical corps officer with three Red Cross nurses. That
+was the only time I had ever seen a German nurse, for when I was in the
+hospital I had seen only men orderlies. Nurses don't work so near the
+first-line trenches.
+
+The German soldiers at the different tables were very quiet and orderly.
+They drank Bock beer and conversed among themselves, but there was no
+hilarity or rough-housing of any kind.
+
+As I sat there, within an arm's reach of those German officers and
+realized what they would have given to know what a chance they had to
+capture an escaped British officer, I could hardly help smiling to
+myself, but when I thought of the big risk I was taking, more or less
+unnecessarily, I began to wonder whether I had not acted foolishly in
+undertaking it.
+
+Nevertheless, the evening passed off uneventfully, and when the show
+was over I mixed with the crowd and disappeared, feeling very proud of
+myself and with a good deal more confidence than I had enjoyed at the
+start.
+
+I had passed a night which will live in my life as long as I live. The
+bill of fare, program, and a "throw-away" bill advertising the name of
+the attraction which was to be presented the following week, which was
+handed to me as I came out, I still have and they are among the most
+valued souvenirs of my adventure.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+OBSERVATIONS IN A BELGIAN CITY
+
+
+One night, shortly before I left this city, our airmen raided the place.
+I didn't venture out of the house at the time, but the next night I
+thought I would go out and see what damage had been done.
+
+When it became dark I left the house, accordingly, and, mixing with the
+crowd, which consisted largely of Germans, I went from one place to
+another to see what our "strafing" had accomplished. Naturally I avoided
+speaking to any one. If a man or woman appeared about to speak to me, I
+just turned my head and looked or walked away in some other direction.
+I must have been taken for an unsociable sort of individual a good many
+times, and if I had encountered the same person twice I suppose my
+conduct might have aroused suspicion.
+
+I had a first-class observation of the damage that was really done by
+our bombs. One bomb had landed very near the main railroad station, and
+if it had been only thirty yards nearer would have completely demolished
+it. As the station was undoubtedly our airman's objective, I was very
+much impressed with the accuracy of his aim. It is by no means an easy
+thing to hit a building from the air when you are going at anywhere from
+fifty to one hundred miles an hour and are being shot at from beneath
+from a dozen different angles--unless, of course, you are taking one of
+those desperate chances and flying so low that you cannot very well miss
+your mark, and the Huns can't very well miss you, either!
+
+I walked by the station and mingled with the crowds which stood in the
+entrances. They paid no more attention to me than they did to real
+Belgians, and the fact that the lights were all out in this city at
+night made it impossible, anyway, for any one to get as good a look at
+me as if it had been light.
+
+During the time that I was in this city I suppose I wandered from one
+end of it to the other. In one place, where the German staff had its
+headquarters, a huge German flag hung from the window, and I think I
+would have given ten years of my life to have stolen it. Even if I could
+have pulled it down, however, it would have been impossible for me to
+have concealed it, and to have carried it away with me as a souvenir
+would have been out of the question.
+
+As I went along the street one night a lady standing on the comer
+stopped me and spoke to me. My first impulse, of course, was to answer
+her, explaining that I could not understand, but I stopped myself in
+time, pointed to my ears and mouth, and shook my head, indicating that
+I was deaf and dumb, and she nodded understandingly and walked on.
+Incidents of this kind were not unusual, and I was always in fear that
+the time would come when some inquisitive and suspicious German would
+encounter me and not be so easily satisfied.
+
+There are many things that I saw in this city which, for various
+reasons, it is impossible for me to relate until after the war is over.
+Some of them, I think, will create more surprise than the incidents I
+am free to reveal now.
+
+It used to amuse me, as I went along the streets of this town, looking
+in the shop windows, with German soldiers at my side looking at the same
+things, to think how close I was to them and they had no way of knowing.
+I was quite convinced that if I were discovered my fate would have been
+death, because I not only had the forged passport on me, but I had been
+so many days behind the German lines after I had escaped that they
+couldn't safely let me live with the information I possessed.
+
+One night I walked boldly across a park. I heard footsteps behind me
+and, turning around, saw two German soldiers. I slowed up a trifle to
+let them get ahead of me. It was rather dark and I got a chance to see
+what a wonderful uniform the German military authorities have picked
+out. The soldiers had not gone more than a few feet ahead of me when
+they disappeared in the darkness like one of those melting pictures on
+the moving-picture screen.
+
+As I wandered through the streets I frequently glanced in the café
+windows as I passed. German officers were usually dining there, but
+they didn't conduct themselves with anything like the light-heartedness
+which characterizes the Allied officers in London and Paris. I was
+rather surprised at this, because in this part of Belgium they were much
+freer than they would have been in Berlin, where, I understand, food is
+comparatively scarce and the restrictions are very rigid.
+
+As I have said, my own condition in this city was in some respects worse
+than it had been when I was making my way through the open country.
+While I had a place to sleep and my clothes were no longer constantly
+soaking, my opportunities for getting food were considerably less than
+they had been. Nearly all the time I was half famished, and I decided
+that I would get out of there at once, since I was entirely through with
+Huyliger.
+
+My physical condition was greatly improved. While the lack of food
+showed itself on me, I had regained some of my strength, my wounds
+were healed, my ankle was stronger, and, although my knees were still
+considerably enlarged, I felt that I was in better shape than I had been
+at any time since my leap from the train, and I was ready to go through
+whatever was in store for me.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+I APPROACH THE FRONTIER
+
+
+To get out of the city it would be necessary to pass two guards. This
+I had learned in the course of my walks at night, having frequently
+traveled to the city limits with the idea of finding out just what
+conditions I would have to meet when the time came for me to leave.
+
+A German soldier's uniform, however, no longer worried me as it had at
+first. I had mingled with the Huns so much in the city that I began to
+feel that I was really a Belgian, and I assumed the indifference that
+the latter seemed to feel.
+
+I decided, therefore, to walk out of the city in the daytime when the
+sentries would be less apt to be on the watch. It worked splendidly. I
+was not held up a moment, the sentries evidently taking me for a Belgian
+peasant on his way to work.
+
+Traveling faster than I had ever done before since my escape, I was soon
+out in the open country, and the first Belgian I came to I approached
+for food. He gave me half his lunch and we sat down on the side of the
+road to eat it. Of course, he tried to talk to me, but I used the old
+ruse of pretending I was deaf and dumb and he was quite convinced that
+it was so. He made various efforts to talk to me in pantomime, but I
+could not make out what he was getting at, and I think he must have
+concluded that I was not only half-starved, deaf, and dumb, but "luny"
+into the bargain.
+
+When night came I looked around for a place to rest. I had decided to
+travel in the daytime as well as night, because I understood that I was
+only a few miles from the frontier, and I was naturally anxious to get
+there at the earliest possible moment, although I realized that there I
+would encounter the most hazardous part of my whole adventure. To get
+through that heavily guarded barbed and electrically charged barrier was
+a problem that I hated to think of, even, although the hours I spent
+endeavoring to devise some way of outwitting the Huns were many.
+
+It had occurred to me, for instance, that it would not be such a
+difficult matter to vault over the electric fence, which was only
+nine feet high. In college, I know, a ten-foot vault is considered a
+high-school boy's accomplishment, but there were two great difficulties
+in the way of this solution. In the first place, it would be no easy
+matter to get a pole of the right length, weight, and strength to serve
+the purpose. More particularly, however, the pole-vault idea seemed to
+be out of the question because of the fact that on either side of the
+electric fence, six feet from it, was a six-foot barbed-wire barrier. To
+vault safely over a nine-foot electrically charged fence was one thing,
+but to combine with it a twelve-foot broad vault was a feat which even a
+college athlete in the pink of condition would be apt to flunk. Indeed,
+I don't believe it is possible.
+
+Another plan that seemed half-way reasonable was to build a pair of
+stilts about twelve or fourteen feet high and walk over the barriers
+one by one. As a youngster I had acquired considerable skill in
+stilt-walking, and I have no doubt that with the proper equipment it
+would have been quite feasible to have walked out of Belgium as easily
+as possible in that way, but whether or not I was going to have a chance
+to construct the necessary stilts remained to be seen.
+
+There were a good many bicycles in use by the German soldiers in
+Belgium, and it had often occurred to me that if I could have stolen
+one, the tires would have made excellent gloves and insulated coverings
+for my feet in case it was necessary for me to attempt to climb over the
+electric fence bodily. But as I had never been able to steal a bicycle,
+this avenue of escape was closed to me.
+
+I decided to wait until I arrived at the barrier and then make up my
+mind how to proceed.
+
+To find a decent place to sleep that night I crawled under a barbed-wire
+fence, thinking it led into some field. As I passed under, one of the
+barbs caught in my coat, and in trying to pull myself free I shook the
+fence for several yards.
+
+Instantly there came out of the night the nerve-racking command, "Halt!"
+
+Again I feared I was done for. I crouched close down on the ground in
+the darkness, not knowing whether to take to my legs and trust to the
+Hun's missing me in the darkness if he fired, or stay right where I was.
+It was foggy as well as dark, and although I knew the sentry was only a
+few feet away from me I decided to stand, or rather lie still. I think
+my heart made almost as much noise as the rattling of the wire in the
+first place, but it was a tense few moments for me.
+
+I heard the German say a few words to himself, but didn't understand
+them, of course, and then he made a sound as if to call a dog, and I
+realized that his theory of the noise he had heard was that a dog had
+made its way through the fence.
+
+For perhaps five minutes I didn't stir, and then, figuring that the
+German had probably continued on his beat, I crept quietly under
+the wire again, this time being mighty careful to hug the ground so
+close that I wouldn't touch the wire, and made off in a different
+direction. Evidently the barbed-wire fence had been thrown around an
+ammunition-depot or something of the kind and it was not a field at all
+that I had tried to get into.
+
+I figured that other sentries were probably in the neighborhood and I
+proceeded very gingerly.
+
+After I had got about a mile away from this spot I came to a humble
+Belgian house, and I knocked at the door and applied for food in my
+usual way, pointing to my mouth to indicate I was hungry and to my ears
+and mouth to imply that I was deaf and dumb. The Belgian woman who lived
+in the house brought me a piece of bread and two cold potatoes, and as I
+sat there eating them she eyed me very keenly.
+
+I haven't the slightest doubt that she realized I was a fugitive.
+She lived so near the border that it was more than likely that other
+fugitives had come to her before, and for that reason I appreciated more
+fully the extent of the risk she ran, for no doubt the Germans were
+constantly watching the conduct of these Belgians who lived near the
+line.
+
+My theory that she realized that I was not a Belgian at all, but
+probably some English fugitive, was confirmed a moment later when, as
+I made ready to go, she touched me on the arm and indicated that I was
+to wait a moment. She went to a bureau and brought out two pieces of
+fancy Belgian lace, which she insisted upon my taking away, although at
+that particular moment I had as much use for Belgian lace as an elephant
+has for a safety-razor, but I was touched with her thoughtfulness and
+pressed her hand to show my gratitude. She would not accept the money I
+offered her.
+
+I carried that lace through my subsequent experiences, feeling that it
+would be a fine souvenir for my mother, although, as a matter of fact,
+if she had known that it was going to delay my final escape for even a
+single moment, as it did, I am quite sure she would rather I had never
+seen it.
+
+On one piece of lace was the Flemish word "_Charité_" and on the
+other the word "_Espérance_." At the time, I took these words to mean
+"Charity" and "Experience," and all I hoped was that I would get as
+much of the one as I was getting of the other before I finally got
+through. I learned subsequently that what the words really stood for was
+"Charity" and "Hope," and then I was sure that my kind Belgian friend
+had indeed realized my plight and that her thoughtful souvenir was
+intended to encourage me in the trials she must have known were before
+me.
+
+I didn't let the old Belgian lady know, because I did not want to alarm
+her unnecessarily, but that night I slept in her backyard, leaving early
+in the morning before it became light.
+
+Later in the day I applied at another house for food. It was occupied
+by a father and mother and ten children. I hesitated to ask them for
+food without offering to pay for it, as I realized what a task it must
+have been for them to support themselves without having to feed a hungry
+man. Accordingly, I gave the man a mark and then indicated that I wanted
+something to eat. They were just about to eat, themselves, apparently,
+and they let me partake of their meal, which consisted of a huge bowl of
+some kind of soup which I was unable to identify and which they served
+in ordinary wash-basins! I don't know that they ever used the basins to
+wash in as well, but whether they did or not did not worry me very much.
+The soup was good and I enjoyed it very much.
+
+All the time I was there I could see the father and the eldest son, a
+boy about seventeen, were extremely nervous. I had indicated to them
+that I was deaf and dumb, but if they believed me it didn't seem to make
+them any more comfortable.
+
+I lingered at the house for about an hour after the meal, and during
+that time a young man came to call on the eldest daughter, a young woman
+of perhaps eighteen. The caller eyed me very suspiciously, although
+I must have resembled anything but a British officer. They spoke in
+Flemish and I did not understand a word they said, but I think they were
+discussing my probable identity. During their conversation, I had a
+chance to look around the rooms. There were three altogether, two fairly
+large and one somewhat smaller, about fourteen feet long and six deep.
+In this smaller room there were two double-decked beds, which were
+apparently intended to house the whole family, although how the whole
+twelve of them could sleep in that one room will ever remain a mystery
+to me.
+
+From the kitchen you could walk directly into the cow-barn, where two
+cows were kept, and this, as I have pointed out before, is the usual
+construction of the poorer Belgian houses.
+
+I could not make out why the caller seemed to be so antagonistic to me,
+and yet I am sure he was arguing with the family against me. Perhaps
+the fact that I wasn't wearing wooden shoes--I doubt whether I could
+have obtained a pair big enough for me--had convinced him that I was not
+really a Belgian, because there was nothing about me otherwise which
+could have given him that idea.
+
+At that time--and I suppose it is true to-day--about ninety per cent. of
+the people in Belgium were wearing wooden shoes. Among the peasants I
+don't believe I ever saw any other kind of footwear, and they are more
+common there than they are in Holland. The Dutch wear them more as a
+matter of custom. In Belgium they are a dire necessity because of the
+lack of leather. I was told that during the coming year practically all
+the peasants and poorer people in Germany, too, will adopt wooden shoes
+for farm-work, as that is one direction in which wood can be substituted
+for leather without much loss.
+
+When the young man left I left shortly afterward, as I was not at all
+comfortable about what his intentions were regarding me. For all I knew,
+he might have gone to notify the German authorities that there was a
+strange man in the vicinity--more, perhaps, to protect his friends from
+suspicion of having aided me than to injure me.
+
+At any rate, I was not going to take any chances and I got out of that
+neighborhood as rapidly as I could.
+
+That night found me right on the frontier of Holland.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+GETTING THROUGH THE LINES
+
+
+Waiting until it was quite dark, I made my way carefully through a field
+and eventually came to the much-dreaded barrier.
+
+It was all that I had heard about it. Every foot of the border-line
+between Belgium and Holland is protected in precisely the same manner.
+It is there to serve three purposes: first, to keep the Belgians from
+escaping into Holland; second, to keep enemies, like myself, from
+making their way to freedom; and, third, to prevent desertions on the
+part of Germans themselves. One look at it was enough to convince any
+one that it probably accomplished all three objects about as well as
+any contrivance could, and one look was all I got of it that night,
+for while I lay on my stomach gazing at the forbidding structure I
+heard the measured stride of a German sentry advancing toward me, and I
+crawled away as fast as I possibly could, determined to spend the night
+somewhere in the fields and make another and more careful survey the
+following night.
+
+The view I had obtained, however, was sufficient to convince me that
+the pole-vault idea was out of the question even if I had a pole
+and were a proficient pole-vaulter. The three fences covered a span
+of at least twelve feet, and to clear the last barbed-wire fence it
+would be necessary to vault not only at least ten feet high, but at
+least fourteen feet wide, with certain knowledge that to touch the
+electrically charged fence meant instant death. There would be no second
+chance if you came a cropper the first time.
+
+The stilt idea was also impracticable because of the lack of suitable
+timber and tools with which to construct the stilts.
+
+It seemed to me that the best thing to do was to travel up and down
+the line a bit in the hope that some spot might be discovered where
+conditions were more favorable, although I don't know just what I
+expected along those lines.
+
+It was mighty disheartening to realize that only a few feet away lay
+certain liberty and that the only thing that prevented me from reaching
+it were three confounded fences. I thought of my machine and wished that
+some kind fairy would set it in front of me for just one minute.
+
+I spent the night in a clump of bushes and kept in hiding most of the
+next day, only going abroad for an hour or two in the middle of the
+day to intercept some Belgian peasant and beg for food. The Belgians
+in this section were naturally very much afraid of the Germans, and I
+fared badly. In nearly every house German soldiers were quartered, and
+it was out of the question for me to apply for food in that direction.
+The proximity of the border made every one eye one another with more or
+less suspicion, and I soon came to the conclusion that the safest thing
+I could do was to live on raw vegetables, which I could steal from the
+fields at night as I had previously done.
+
+That night I made another survey of the barrier in that vicinity, but it
+looked just as hopeless as it had the night before, and I concluded that
+I only wasted time there.
+
+I spent the night wandering west, guided by the North Star, which had
+served me so faithfully in all my traveling. Every mile or two I would
+make my way carefully to the barrier to see if conditions were any
+better, but it seemed to be the same all along. I felt like a wild
+animal in a cage, with about as much chance of getting out.
+
+The section of the country in which I was now wandering was very heavily
+wooded and there was really no very great difficulty in keeping myself
+concealed, which I did all day long, striving all the time to think of
+some way in which I could circumvent that cursed barrier.
+
+The idea of a huge step-ladder occurred to me, but I searched hour after
+hour in vain for lumber or fallen trees out of which I could construct
+one. If I could only obtain something which would enable me to reach a
+point about nine feet in the air, it would be a comparatively simple
+matter to jump from that point over the electric fence.
+
+Then I thought that perhaps I could construct a simple ladder and lean
+it against one of the posts upon which the electric wires were strung,
+climb to the top and leap over, getting over the barbed-wire fences in
+the same way.
+
+This seemed to be the most likely plan, and all night long I sat
+constructing a ladder for this purpose.
+
+I was fortunate enough to find a number of fallen pine-trees from ten
+to twenty feet long. I selected two of them which seemed sufficiently
+strong and broke off all the branches, which I used as rungs, tying them
+to the poles with grass and strips from my handkerchief and shirt as
+best I could.
+
+It was not a very workmanlike-looking ladder when I finally got
+through with it. I leaned it against a tree to test it and it wabbled
+considerably. It was more like a rope ladder than a wooden one, but I
+strengthened it here and there and decided that it would probably serve
+the purpose.
+
+I kept the ladder in the woods all day and could hardly wait until dark
+to make the supreme test. If it proved successful, my troubles were
+over; within a few hours I would be in a neutral country out of all
+danger. If it failed--I dismissed the idea summarily. There was no use
+worrying about failure; the thing to do was to succeed.
+
+The few hours that were to pass before night came on seemed endless, but
+I utilized them to reinforce my ladder, tying the rungs more securely
+with long grass which I plucked in the woods.
+
+At last night came, and with my ladder in hand I made for the barrier.
+In front of it there was a cleared space of about one hundred yards,
+which had been prepared to make the work of the guards easier in
+watching it.
+
+I waited in the neighborhood until I heard the sentry pass the spot
+where I was in hiding, and then I hurried across the clearing, shoved my
+ladder under the barbed wire, and endeavored to follow it. My clothing
+caught in the wire, but I wrenched myself clear and crawled to the
+electric barrier.
+
+My plan was to place the ladder against one of the posts, climb up to
+the top, and then jump. There would be a fall of nine or ten feet, and I
+might possibly sprain my ankle or break my leg, but if that was all that
+stood between me and freedom I wasn't going to stop to consider it.
+
+I put my ear to the ground to listen for the coming of the sentry. There
+was not a sound. Eagerly but carefully I placed the ladder against the
+post and started up. Only a few feet separated me from liberty, and my
+heart beat fast.
+
+I had climbed perhaps three rungs of my ladder when I became aware of an
+unlooked-for difficulty.
+
+The ladder was slipping!
+
+Just as I took the next rung the ladder slipped, came in contact with
+the live wire, and the current passed through the wet sticks and into my
+body. There was a blue flash, my hold on the ladder relaxed, and I fell
+heavily to the ground unconscious!
+
+Of course, I had not received the full force of the current or I would
+not now be here. I must have remained unconscious for a few moments, but
+I came to just in time to hear the German guard coming, and the thought
+came to me that if I didn't get that ladder concealed at once, he would
+see it even though, fortunately for me, it was an unusually dark night.
+
+I pulled the ladder out of his path and lay down flat on the ground,
+not seven feet away from his beat. He passed so close that I could have
+pushed the ladder out and tripped him up.
+
+It occurred to me that I could have climbed back under the barbed-wire
+fence and waited for the sentry to return and then felled him with a
+blow on the head, as he had no idea, of course, that there was any one
+in the vicinity. I wouldn't have hesitated to take life, because my only
+thought now was to get into Holland, but I thought that as long as he
+didn't bother me perhaps the safest thing to do was not to bother him,
+but to continue my efforts during his periodic absences.
+
+His beat at this point was apparently fairly long and allowed me more
+time to work than I had hoped for.
+
+My mishap with the ladder had convinced me that escape in that way was
+not feasible. The shock that I had received had unnerved me and I was
+afraid to risk it again, particularly as I realized that I had fared
+more fortunately than I could hope to again if I met with a similar
+mishap. There was no way of making that ladder hold, and I gave up the
+idea of using it.
+
+I was now right in front of this electric barrier, and as I studied it I
+saw another way of getting by. If I couldn't get over it, what was the
+matter with getting under it?
+
+The bottom wire was only two inches from the ground, and, of course, I
+couldn't touch it, but my plan was to dig underneath it and then crawl
+through the hole in the ground.
+
+I had only my hands to dig with, but I went at it with a will, and
+fortunately the ground was not very hard.
+
+When I had dug about six inches, making a distance in all of eight
+inches from the lowest electric wire, I came to an underground wire. I
+knew enough about electricity to realize that this wire could not be
+charged, as it was in contact with the ground, but still there was not
+room between the live wire and this underground wire for me to crawl
+through, and I either had to go on digging deep enough under this wire
+to crawl under it or else pull it up.
+
+This underground wire was about as big around as a lead-pencil and there
+was no chance of breaking it. The jack-knife I had had at the start of
+my travels I had long since lost, and even if I had had something to
+hammer with, the noise would have made that method impracticable.
+
+I went on digging. When the total distance between the live wire and the
+bottom of the hole I had dug was thirty inches I took hold of the ground
+wire and pulled on it with all my strength.
+
+It wouldn't budge. It was stretched taut across the narrow ditch I had
+dug--about fourteen inches wide--and all my tugging didn't serve to
+loosen it.
+
+I was just about to give it up in despair when a staple gave way in the
+nearest post. This enabled me to pull the wire through the ground a
+little, and I renewed my efforts. After a moment or two of pulling as I
+had never pulled in my life before a staple on the next post gave way,
+and my work became easier. I had more leeway now and pulled and pulled
+again until in all eight staples had given way.
+
+Every time a staple gave way it sounded in my ears like the report
+of a gun, although I suppose it didn't really make very much noise.
+Nevertheless, each time I would put my ear to the ground to listen for
+the guard, and, not hearing him, went on with my work.
+
+By pulling on the wire I was now able to drag it through the ground
+enough to place it back from the fence and go on digging.
+
+The deeper I went the harder became the work, because by this time my
+finger-nails were broken and I was nervous--afraid every moment that I
+would touch the charged wire.
+
+I kept at it, however, with my mind constantly on the hole I was digging
+and the liberty which was almost within my reach.
+
+Finally I figured that I had enough space to crawl through and still
+leave a couple of inches between my back and the live wire.
+
+Before I went under that wire I noticed that the lace which the Belgian
+woman had given me as a souvenir made my pocket bulge, and lest it might
+be the innocent means of electrocuting me by touching the live wire, I
+took it out, rolled it up, and threw it over the barrier.
+
+Then I lay down on my stomach and crawled or rather writhed under the
+wire like a snake, with my feet first, and there wasn't any question of
+my hugging Mother Earth as closely as possible, because I realized that
+even to touch the wire above me with my back meant instant death.
+
+Anxious as I was to get on the other side, I didn't hurry this
+operation. I feared that there might be some little detail that I had
+overlooked, and I exercised the greatest possible care in going under,
+taking nothing for granted.
+
+When I finally got through and straightened up there were still several
+feet of Belgium between me and liberty, represented by the six feet
+which separated the electric barrier from the last barbed-wire fence,
+but before I went another step I went down on my knees and thanked God
+for my long series of escapes and especially for this last achievement,
+which seemed to me to be about all that was necessary to bring me
+freedom.
+
+Then I crawled under the barbed-wire fence and breathed the free air
+of Holland! I had no clear idea just where I was, and I didn't much
+care. I was out of the power of the Germans, and that was enough. I had
+walked perhaps a hundred yards when I remembered the lace I had thrown
+over the barrier, and, dangerous as I realized the undertaking to be, I
+determined to walk back and get it. This necessitated my going back on
+to Belgian soil again, but it seemed a shame to leave the lace there,
+and by exercising a little care I figured I could get it easily enough.
+
+When I came to the spot at which I had made my way under the barbed wire
+I put my ear to the ground and listened for the sentry. I heard him
+coming and lay prone on the ground till he had passed. The fact that he
+might observe the hole in the ground or the ladder occurred to me as I
+lay there, and it seemed like an age before he finally marched out of
+earshot. Then I went under the barbed wire again, retrieved the lace,
+and once again made my way to Dutch territory.
+
+It does not take long to describe the events just referred to, but the
+incidents themselves consumed several hours in all. To dig the hole
+must have taken me more than two hours, and I had to stop frequently
+to hide while the sentry passed. Many times, indeed, I thought I heard
+him coming and stopped my work, and then discovered that it was only
+my imagination. I certainly suffered enough that night to last me a
+lifetime. With a German guard on one side, death from electrocution
+on the other, and starvation staring me in the face, my plight was
+anything but a comfortable one.
+
+It was the 19th of November, 1917, when I got through the wires. I had
+made my leap from the train on September 9th. Altogether, therefore,
+just seventy-two days had elapsed since I escaped from the Huns. If I
+live to be as old as Methuselah, I never expect to live through another
+seventy-two days so crammed full of incident and hazard and lucky
+escapes.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+EXPERIENCES IN HOLLAND
+
+
+But I was not yet quite out of the woods.
+
+I now knew that I was in Holland, but just where I had no idea. I walked
+for about thirty minutes and came to a path leading to the right, and I
+had proceeded along it but a few hundred yards when I saw in front of me
+a fence exactly like the one I had crossed.
+
+"This is funny," I said to myself. "I didn't know the Dutch had a fence,
+too." I advanced to the fence and examined it closely, and judge of my
+astonishment when I saw beyond it a nine-foot fence apparently holding
+live wires exactly like the one which had nearly been the death of me!
+
+I had very little time to conjecture what it all meant, for just then I
+heard a guard coming. He was walking so fast that I was sure it was a
+Dutch sentry, as the Huns walk much more slowly.
+
+I was so bewildered, however, that I decided to take no chances, and
+as the road was fairly good I wandered down it and away from that
+mysterious fence. About half a mile down I could see the light of a
+sentry station, and I thought I would go there and tell my story to the
+sentries, realizing that as I was unarmed it was perfectly safe for me
+to announce myself to the Dutch authorities. I could be interned only if
+I entered Holland under arms.
+
+As I approached the sentry box I noticed three men in gray uniforms,
+the regulation Dutch color. I was on the verge of shouting to them when
+the thought struck me that there was just a chance I might be mistaken,
+as the German uniforms were the same color, and I had suffered too many
+privations and too many narrow escapes to lose all at this time.
+
+I had just turned off the road to go back into some bushes when out of
+the darkness I heard that dread German command:
+
+"Halt! Halt!"
+
+He didn't need to holler twice. I heard and heeded the first time. Then
+I heard another man come running up, and there was considerable talking,
+but whether they were Germans or Hollanders I was still uncertain.
+Evidently, however, he thought the noise must be a dog or the wind.
+
+Finally I heard one of them laugh and heard him walk back to the sentry
+station where the guard was billeted, and I crawled a little nearer to
+try to make out just what it all meant. I had begun to think it was all
+a nightmare.
+
+Between myself and the light in the sentry station I then noticed the
+stooping figure of a man bending over as if to conceal himself, and on
+his head was the spiked helmet of a German soldier!
+
+I knew then what another narrow escape I had had, for I am quite sure
+he would have shot me without ceremony if I had foolishly made myself
+known. I would have been buried at once and no one would have been any
+the wiser, even though, technically speaking, I was on neutral territory
+and immune from capture or attack.
+
+This new shock only served to bewilder me the more. I was completely
+lost. There seemed to be frontier behind me and frontier in front of
+me. Evidently, however, what had happened was that I had lost my sense
+of direction and had wandered in the arc of a circle, returning to the
+same fence that I had been so long in getting through. This solution of
+the mystery came to me suddenly, and I at once searched the landscape
+for something in the way of a landmark to guide me. For once my faithful
+friend, the North Star, had failed me. The sky was pitch black and there
+wasn't a star in the heavens.
+
+In the distance, at what appeared to be about three miles away, but
+which turned out to be six, I could discern the lights of a village, and
+I knew that it must be a Dutch village, as lights are not allowed in
+Belgium in that indiscriminate way.
+
+My course was now clear. I would make a bee-line for that village.
+Before I had gone very far I found myself in a marsh or swamp, and I
+turned back a little, hoping to find a better path. Finding none, I
+retraced my steps and kept straight ahead, determined to reach that
+village at all costs and to swerve neither to the right nor to the left
+until I got there.
+
+One moment I would be in water up to my knees and the next I would
+sink in clear up to my waist. I paid no attention to my condition. It
+was merely a repetition of what I had gone through many times before,
+but this time I had a definite goal, and, once I reached it, I knew my
+troubles would be over.
+
+It took me perhaps three hours to reach firm ground. The path I struck
+led to within half a mile of the village. I shall never forget that
+path; it was almost as welcome to my feet as the opposite bank of the
+Meuse had seemed.
+
+The first habitation I came to was a little workshop with a bright light
+shining outside. It must have been after midnight, but the people inside
+were apparently just quitting work. There were three men and two boys
+engaged in making wooden shoes.
+
+It wasn't necessary for me to explain to them that I was a refugee, even
+if I had been able to speak their language. I was caked with mud up to
+my shoulders, and I suppose my face must have recorded some of the
+experiences I had gone through that memorable night.
+
+"I want the British consul," I told them.
+
+Apparently they didn't understand, but one of them volunteered to
+conduct me to the village. They seemed to be only too anxious to do all
+they could for me; evidently they realized I was a British soldier.
+
+It was very late when my companion finally escorted me into the village,
+but he aroused some people he knew from their beds and they dressed and
+came down to feed me.
+
+The family consisted of an old lady and her husband and a son who was a
+soldier in the Dutch army. The cold shivers ran down my back while he
+sat beside me, because every now and again I caught a glimpse of his
+gray uniform and it resembled very much that of the German soldiers.
+
+Some of the neighbors, aroused by the commotion, got up to see what it
+was all about, and came in and watched while I ate the meal those good
+Dutch people prepared for me. Ordinarily, I suppose, I would have been
+embarrassed with so many people staring at me while I ate, as though I
+were some strange animal that had just been captured, but just then I
+was too famished to notice or care very much what other people did.
+
+There will always be a warm place in my heart for the Dutch people.
+I had heard lots of persons say that they were not inclined to help
+refugees, but my experience did not bear these reports out. They
+certainly did much more for me than I ever expected.
+
+I had a little German money left, but as the value of German money is
+only about half in Holland, I didn't have enough to pay the fare to
+Rotterdam, which was my next objective. It was due to the generosity of
+these people that I was able to reach the British consul as quickly as
+I did. Some day I hope to return to Holland and repay every single soul
+who played the part of Good Samaritan to me.
+
+With the money that these people gave me I was able to get a third-class
+ticket to Rotterdam, and I am glad that I didn't have enough to travel
+first-class, for I would have looked as much out of place in a
+first-class carriage as a Hun would appear in heaven.
+
+That night I slept in the house of my Dutch friends, where they fixed
+me up most comfortably. In the morning they gave me breakfast and then
+escorted me to the station.
+
+While I was waiting in the station a crowd gathered round me, and soon
+it seemed as if the whole town had turned out to get a look at me. It
+was very embarrassing, particularly as I could give them no information
+regarding the cause of my condition, although, of course, they all knew
+that I was a refugee from Belgium.
+
+As the train pulled out of the station the crowd gave a loud cheer, and
+the tears almost came to my eyes as I contrasted in my mind the conduct
+of this crowd and the one that had gathered at the station in Ghent when
+I had departed a prisoner en route for the reprisal camp. I breathed a
+sigh of relief as I thought of that reprisal camp and how fortunate I
+had really been, despite all my suffering, to have escaped it. Now, at
+any rate, I was a free man and I would soon be sending home the joyful
+news that I had made good my escape.
+
+At Einhoffen two Dutch officers got into the compartment with me. They
+looked at me with very much disfavor, not knowing, of course, that I was
+a British officer. My clothes were still pretty much in the condition
+they were when I crossed the border, although I had been able to scrape
+off some of the mud I had collected the night before. I had not shaved
+nor trimmed my beard for many days, and I must have presented a sorry
+appearance. I could hardly blame them for edging away from me.
+
+The trip from Einhoffen to Rotterdam passed without special incident.
+At various stations passengers would get into the compartment and,
+observing my unusual appearance, would endeavor to start a conversation
+with me. None of them spoke English, however, and they had to use their
+own imagination as to my identity.
+
+When I arrived at Rotterdam I asked a policeman who stood in front of
+the station where I could find the British consul, but I could not make
+him understand. I next applied to a taxicab driver.
+
+"English consul--British consul--American consul--French consul,"
+I said, hoping that if he didn't understand one he might recognize
+another.
+
+He eyed me with suspicion and motioned me to get in and drove off. I had
+no idea where he was taking me, but after a quarter of an hour's ride he
+brought up in front of the British consulate. Never before was I so glad
+to see the Union Jack!
+
+I beckoned to the chauffeur to go with me up to the office, as I had no
+money with which to pay him, and when we got to the consulate I told
+them that if they would pay the taxi fare I would tell them who I was
+and how I happened to be there.
+
+They knew at once that I was an escaped prisoner and they readily paid
+the chauffeur and invited me to give some account of myself.
+
+They treated me most cordially and were intensely interested in the
+brief account I gave them of my adventures. Word was sent to the
+consul-general, and he immediately sent for me. When I went in he shook
+hands with me, greeting me very heartily and offering me a chair.
+
+He then sat down, screwed a monocle on his eye, and viewed me from top
+to toe. I could see that only good breeding kept him from laughing at
+the spectacle I presented. I could see he wanted to laugh in the worst
+way.
+
+"Go ahead and laugh!" I said. "You can't offend me the way I feel this
+blessed day!" And he needed no second invitation. Incidentally, it gave
+me a chance to laugh at him, for I was about as much amused as he was.
+
+After he had laughed himself about sick he got up and slapped me on the
+back and invited me to tell him my story.
+
+"Lieutenant," he said, when I had concluded, "you can have anything you
+want. I think your experiences entitle you to it."
+
+"Well, Consul," I replied, "I would like a bath, a shave, a hair-cut,
+and some civilized clothes about as badly as a man ever needed them, I
+suppose, but before that I would like to get a cable off to America to
+my mother, telling her that I am safe and on my way to England."
+
+The consul gave the necessary instructions, and I had the satisfaction
+of knowing before I left the office that the cable, with its good
+tidings, was on its way to America.
+
+Then he sent for one of the naval men who had been interned there since
+the beginning of the war and who was able to speak Dutch, and told him
+to take good care of me.
+
+After I had been bathed and shaved and had a hair-cut, I bought some new
+clothes and had something to eat, and I felt like a new man.
+
+As I walked through the streets of Rotterdam, breathing the air of
+freedom again and realizing that there was no longer any danger of being
+captured and taken back to prison, it was a wonderful sensation.
+
+I don't believe there will ever be a country that will appear in my
+eyes quite as good as Holland did then. I had to be somewhat careful,
+however, because Holland was full of German spies, and I knew they
+would be keen to learn all they possibly could about my escape and my
+adventures, so that the authorities in Belgium could mete out punishment
+to every one who was in any respect to blame for it. As I was in
+Rotterdam only a day, they didn't have very much opportunity to learn
+anything from me.
+
+The naval officer who accompanied me and acted as interpreter for me
+introduced me to many other soldiers and sailors who had escaped from
+Belgium when the Germans took Antwerp, and as they had arrived in
+Holland in uniform and under arms the laws of neutrality compelled their
+internment, and they had been there ever since.
+
+The life of a man who is interned in a neutral country, I learned, is
+anything but satisfactory. He gets one month a year to visit his home.
+If he lives in England, that is not so bad, but if he happens to live
+farther away, the time he has to spend with his folks is very short, as
+the month's leave does not take into consideration the time consumed in
+traveling to and from Holland.
+
+The possibility of escape from internment is always there, but the
+British authorities have an agreement with the Dutch government to send
+refugees back immediately. In this respect, therefore, the position of
+a man who is interned is worse than that of a prisoner who, if he does
+succeed in making his escape, is naturally received with open arms in
+his native land. Apart from this restraint, however, internment, with
+all its drawbacks, is a thousand times--yes, a million times better than
+being a prisoner of war in Germany.
+
+It seems to me that when the war is over and the men who have been
+imprisoned in Germany return home they should be given a bigger and
+greater reception than the most victorious army that ever marched into a
+city, for they will have suffered and gone through more than the world
+will ever be able to understand.
+
+No doubt you will find in the German prison-camps one or two
+faint-hearted individuals with a pronounced yellow streak who
+voluntarily gave up the struggle and gave up their liberty rather than
+risk their lives or limbs. These sad cases, however, are, I am sure,
+extremely few. Nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand of the men
+fighting in the Allied lines would rather be in the front-line trenches,
+fighting every day, with all the horrors and all the risks, than be a
+prisoner of war in Germany, for the men in France have a very keen
+realization of what that means.
+
+But to return to my day in Rotterdam.
+
+After I was fixed up I returned to the consulate and arrangements were
+made for my transportation to England at once. Fortunately there was a
+boat leaving that very night, and I was allowed to take passage on it.
+
+Just as we were leaving Rotterdam the boat I was on rammed our own
+convoy, one of the destroyers, and injured it so badly that it had to
+put back to port. It would have been a strange climax to my adventure
+if the disaster had resulted in the sinking of my boat and I had lost
+my life while on my way to England after having successfully outwitted
+the Huns. But my luck was with me to the last, and while the accident
+resulted in some delay, our boat was not seriously damaged and made
+the trip over in schedule time and without further incident, another
+destroyer having been assigned to escort us through the danger zone in
+place of the one which we had put out of commission.
+
+When I arrived in London the reaction from the strain I had been under
+for nearly three months immediately became apparent. My nerves were
+in such a state that it was absolutely impossible for me to cross the
+street without being in deadly fear of being run over or trampled on.
+I stood at the curb, like an old woman from the country on her first
+visit to the city, and I would not venture across until some knowing
+policeman, recognizing my condition, came to my assistance and convoyed
+me across.
+
+Indeed, there are a great number of English officers at home at all
+times "getting back their nerve" after a long spell of active service
+at the front, so that my condition was anything but novel to the London
+bobbies.
+
+It was not many days, however, before I regained control of myself and
+felt in first-class shape.
+
+Although the British authorities in Holland had wired my mother from
+Holland that I was safe and on my way to England, the first thing I did
+when we landed was to send her a cable myself.
+
+The cable read as follows:
+
+     _Mrs. M. J. O'Brien, Momence, Ill., U. S. A._:
+
+     Just escaped from Germany. Letter follows.
+
+                                        PAT.
+
+As I delivered it to the cable-despatcher I could just imagine the
+exultation with which my mother would receive it and the pride she would
+feel as she exhibited it among her neighbors and friends.
+
+I could hear the volley of "I told you so's" that greeted her good
+tidings.
+
+"It would take more than the Kaiser to keep Pat in Germany!" I could
+hear one of them saying.
+
+"Knew he'd be back for Christmas, anyway," I could hear another remark.
+
+"I had an idea that Pat and his comrades might spend Christmas in
+Berlin," I could hear another admitting, "but I didn't think any other
+part of Germany would appeal to him very much."
+
+"Mrs. O'Brien, did Pat write you how many German prisoners he brought
+back with him?" I could hear still another credulous friend inquiring.
+
+It was all very amusing and gratifying to me, and I must confess I felt
+quite cocky as I walked into the War Department to report.
+
+For the next five days I was kept very busy answering questions put
+to me by the military authorities regarding what I had observed as to
+conditions in Germany and behind the lines.
+
+What I reported was taken down by a stenographer and made part of the
+official records, but I did not give them my story in narrative form.
+The information I was able to give was naturally of interest to various
+branches of the service, and experts in every line of government work
+took it in turns to question me. One morning would be devoted, for
+instance, to answering questions of a military nature--German methods
+behind the front-line trenches, tactics, morale of troops, and similar
+matters. Then the aviation experts would take a whack at me and discuss
+with me all I had observed of German flying-corps methods and equipment.
+Then, again, the food experts would interrogate me as to what I had
+learned of food conditions in Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium, and as
+I had lived pretty close to the ground for the best part of seventy-two
+days I was able to give them some fairly accurate reports as to actual
+agricultural conditions, many of the things I told them probably having
+more significance to them than they had to me.
+
+There were many things I had observed which I have not referred to
+in these pages because their value to us might be diminished if the
+Germans knew we were aware of them, but they were all reported to the
+authorities, and it was very gratifying to me to hear that the experts
+considered some of them of the greatest value.
+
+One of the most amusing incidents of my return occurred when I called at
+my banker's in London to get my personal effects.
+
+The practice in the Royal Flying Corps when a pilot is reported missing
+is to have two of his comrades assigned to go through his belongings,
+check them over, destroy anything that it might not be to his interest
+to preserve, and send the whole business to his banker or his home,
+as the case may be. Every letter is read through, but its contents is
+never afterward discussed nor revealed in any way. If the pilot is
+finally reported dead, his effects are forwarded to his next of kin,
+but while he is officially only "missing" or is known to be a prisoner
+of war they are kept either at the squadron headquarters or sent to his
+banker's.
+
+In my case, as soon as it was learned that I had fallen from the sky it
+was assumed that I had been killed, and my chum, Paid Raney, and another
+officer were detailed to check over my effects. The list they made and
+to which they affixed their signatures, as I have previously mentioned,
+is now in my possession and is one of the most treasured souvenirs of my
+adventure.
+
+My trunk was sent to Cox & Co. in due course, and now that I was in
+London I thought I would go and claim it.
+
+When I arrived in the bank I applied at the proper window for my mail
+and trunk.
+
+"Who are you?" I was asked, rather sharply.
+
+"Well, I guess no one has any greater right to Pat O'Brien's effects
+than I have," I replied, "and I would be obliged to you if you would
+look them up for me."
+
+"That may be all right, my friend," replied the clerk, "but according
+to our records Lieutenant O'Brien is a prisoner of war in Germany,
+and we can't very well turn over his effects to any one else unless
+either you present proof that he is dead and that you are his lawful
+representative, or else deliver to us a properly authenticated order
+from him to give them to you."
+
+He was very positive about it all, but quite polite, and I thought I
+would kid him no more.
+
+"Well," I said, "I can't very well present proofs to you that Pat
+O'Brien is dead, but I will do the best I can to prove to you that he is
+alive, and if you haven't quite forgotten his signature I guess I can
+write you out an order that will answer all your requirements and enable
+you to give me Pat O'Brien's belongings without running any risks." And
+I scribbled my signature on a scrap of paper and handed it to him.
+
+He looked at me carefully through the latticed window, then jumped down
+from his chair and came outside to clasp me by the hand.
+
+"Good Heavens, Lieutenant!" he exclaimed as he pumped my hand up and
+down. "How did you ever get away?" And I had to sit right down
+and tell him and half a dozen other people in the bank all about my
+experiences.
+
+[Illustration: COPY OF TELEGRAM INVITING LIEUTENANT O'BRIEN TO MEET KING
+GEORGE]
+
+[Illustration: COPY OF TELEGRAM SENT BY LIEUTENANT O'BRIEN IN ANSWER TO
+AN INVITATION TO MEET KING GEORGE]
+
+I had been in England about ten days when I received a telegram which,
+at first, occasioned me almost as much concern as the unexpected sight
+of a German spiked helmet had caused me in Belgium. It read as follows:
+
+     _Lieut. P. A. O'Brien, Royal Flying Corps, Regent's Palace
+     Hotel, London_:
+
+     The King is very glad to hear of your escape from Germany.
+     If you are to be in London on Friday next, December 7th, His
+     Majesty will receive you at Buckingham Palace at 10:30 A.M. Please
+     acknowledge.
+
+                                                  CROMER.
+
+Of course, there was only one thing to do and that was to obey orders. I
+was an officer in the army and the King was my commander-in-chief. I had
+to go, and so I sat down and sent off the following answer:
+
+     _Earl Cromer, Buckingham Palace, London_:
+
+     I will attend Buckingham Palace as directed, Friday, December
+     7th, at 10:30.
+
+                                   LIEUTENANT PAT O'BRIEN.
+
+In the interval that elapsed I must confess, the ordeal of calling on
+the King of England loomed up more dreadfully every day, and I really
+believe I would rather have spent another day in that empty house in the
+big city in Belgium, or, say, two days at Courtrai, than go through what
+I believed to be in store for me.
+
+Orders were orders, however, and there was no way of getting out of it.
+As it turned out it wasn't half so bad as I had feared; on the contrary,
+it was one of the most agreeable experiences of my life.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+I AM PRESENTED TO THE KING
+
+
+When the dreaded 7th of December arrived I hailed a taxicab and in as
+matter-of-fact tone of voice as I could command directed the chauffeur
+to drive me to Buckingham Palace, as though I were paying my regular
+morning call on the King.
+
+My friends' version of this incident, I have since heard, is that
+I seated myself in the taxi and, leaning through the window, said,
+"Buckingham Palace!" whereupon the taxi driver got down, opened the
+door, and exclaimed, threateningly:
+
+"If you don't get out quietly and chuck your drunken talk, I'll jolly
+quick call a bobby, bli' me if I won't!"
+
+But I can only give my word that nothing of the kind occurred.
+
+When I arrived at the palace gate the sentry on guard asked me who
+I was, and then let me pass at once up to the front entrance of the
+palace.
+
+There I was met by an elaborately uniformed and equally elaborately
+decorated personage, who, judging by the long row of medals he wore,
+must have seen long and distinguished service for the King.
+
+I was relieved of my overcoat, hat, and stick and conducted up a long
+stairway, where I was turned over to another functionary, who led me to
+the reception-room of Earl Cromer, the King's secretary.
+
+There I was introduced to another earl and a duke whose names I do not
+remember. I was becoming so bewildered, in fact, that it is a wonder
+that I remember as much as I do of this eventful day.
+
+I had heard many times that before being presented to the King a man is
+coached carefully as to just how he is to act and what he is to say and
+do, and all this time I was wondering when this drilling would commence.
+I certainly had no idea that I was to be ushered into the august
+presence of the King without some preliminary instruction.
+
+Earl Cromer and the other noblemen talked to me for a while and got me
+to relate in brief the story of my experiences, and they appeared to be
+very much interested. Perhaps they did it only to give me confidence and
+as a sort of rehearsal for the main performance, which was scheduled to
+take place much sooner than I expected.
+
+I had barely completed my story when the door opened and an attendant
+entered and announced:
+
+"The King will receive Leftenant O'Brien!"
+
+If he had announced that the Kaiser was outside with a squad of German
+guards to take me back to Courtrai my heart could not have sunk deeper.
+
+Earl Cromer beckoned me to follow him, and we went into a large room,
+where I supposed I was at last to receive my coaching, but I observed
+the earl bow to a man standing there and realized that I was standing in
+the presence of the King of England.
+
+"Your Majesty, Leftenant O'Brien!" the earl announced, and then
+immediately backed from the room. I believed I would have followed
+right behind him, but by that time the King had me by the hand and was
+congratulating me, and he spoke so very cordially and democratically
+that he put me at my ease at once.
+
+He then asked me how I felt and whether I was in a condition to
+converse, and when I told him I was he said he would be very much
+pleased to hear my story in detail.
+
+"Were you treated any worse by the Germans, Leftenant," he asked, "on
+account of being an American? I've heard that the Germans had threatened
+to shoot Americans serving in the British army if they captured them,
+classing them as murderers because America was a neutral country and
+Americans had no right to mix in the war. Did you find that to be the
+case?"
+
+I told him that I had heard similar reports, but that I did not
+notice any appreciable difference in my treatment from that accorded
+Britishers.
+
+The King declared that he believed my escape was due to my pluck and
+will power, and that it was one of the most remarkable escapes he had
+ever heard of, which I thought was quite a compliment, coming as it did
+from the King of England.
+
+"I hope that all the Americans will give as good an account of
+themselves as you have, Leftenant," he said, "and I feel quite sure they
+will. I fully appreciate all the service rendered us by Americans before
+the States entered the war."
+
+At this point I asked him if I was taking too much time.
+
+"Not at all, Leftenant, not at all!" he replied, most cordially. "I
+was extremely interested in the brief report that came to me of your
+wonderful escape, and I sent for you because I wanted to hear the whole
+story first-hand, and I am very glad you were able to come."
+
+I had not expected to remain more than a few minutes, as I understood
+that four minutes is considered a long audience with the King. Fifty-two
+minutes elapsed before I finally left there!
+
+During all this time I had done most of the talking, in response to the
+King's request to tell my story. Occasionally he interrupted to ask a
+question about a point he wanted me to make clear, but for the most part
+he was content to play the part of listener.
+
+He seemed to be very keen on everything, and when I described some of
+the tight holes I got into during my escape he evinced his sympathy.
+Occasionally I introduced some of the few humorous incidents of my
+adventure, and in every instance he laughed heartily.
+
+Altogether the impression I got of him was that he is a very genial,
+gracious, and alert sovereign. I know I have felt more ill at ease when
+talking to a major than when speaking to the King--but perhaps I had
+more cause to.
+
+During the whole interview we were left entirely alone, which impressed
+me as significant of the democratic manner of the present King of
+England, and I certainly came away with the utmost respect for him.
+
+In all of my conversation, I recalled afterward, I never addressed the
+King as "Your Majesty," but used the military "sir." As I was a British
+officer and he was the head of the army, he probably appreciated this
+manner of address more than if I had used the usual "Your Majesty."
+Perhaps he attributed it to the fact that I was an American. At any
+rate, he didn't evince any displeasure at my departure from what I
+understand is the usual form of address.
+
+Before I left he asked me what my plans for the future were.
+
+"Why, sir, I hope to rejoin my squadron at the earliest possible
+moment!" I replied.
+
+"No, Leftenant," he rejoined, "that is out of the question. We can't
+risk losing you for good by sending you back to a part of the front
+opposed by Germany, because if you were unfortunate enough to be
+captured again they would undoubtedly shoot you."
+
+"Well, if I can't serve in France, sir," I suggested, "wouldn't it be
+feasible for me to fly in Italy or Salonica?"
+
+"No," he replied; "that would be almost as bad. The only thing that
+I can suggest for you to do is either to take up instruction--a very
+valuable form of service--or perhaps it might be safe enough for you to
+serve in Egypt; but, just at present, Leftenant, I think you have done
+enough, anyway."
+
+Then he rose and shook hands with me and wished me the best of luck, and
+we both said, "Good-by."
+
+In the adjoining room I met Earl Cromer again, and as he accompanied me
+to the door he seemed to be surprised at the length of my visit.
+
+"His Majesty must have been very much interested in your story," he
+said.
+
+As I left the palace a policeman and a sentry outside came smartly to
+attention. Perhaps they figured I had been made a general.
+
+As I was riding back to the hotel in a taxi I reflected on the
+remarkable course of events which in the short space of nine months had
+taken me through so much and ended up, like the finish of a book, with
+my being received by his Majesty the King! When I first joined the Royal
+Flying Corps I never expected to see the inside of Buckingham Palace,
+much less to be received by the King.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+HOME AGAIN!
+
+
+That same day, in the evening, I was tendered a banquet at the Hotel
+Savoy by a fellow-officer who had bet three other friends of mine that
+I would be home by Christmas. This wager had been made at the time he
+heard that I was a prisoner of war, and the dinner was the stake.
+
+The first intimation he had of my safe return from Germany and the fact
+that he had won his bet was a telegram I sent him reading as follows:
+
+     _Lieutenant Louis Grant_:
+
+     War-bread bad, so I came home.
+
+                                   PAT.
+
+He said he would not part with that message for a thousand dollars.
+
+Other banquets followed in fast succession. After I had survived nine
+of them I figured that I was now in as much danger of succumbing to a
+surfeit of rich food as I had previously been of dying from starvation,
+and for my own protection I decided to leave London. Moreover, my
+thoughts and my heart were turning back to the land of my birth, where I
+knew there was a loving old mother who was longing for more substantial
+evidence of my safe escape than the cables and letters she had received.
+
+Strangely enough, on the boat which carried me across the Atlantic I saw
+an R. F. C. man--Lieutenant Lascelles.
+
+I walked over to him, held out my hand, and said, "Hello!"
+
+He looked at me steadily for at least a minute.
+
+"My friend, you certainly look like Pat O'Brien," he declared, "but I
+can't believe my eyes. Who are you?"
+
+I quickly convinced him that his eyes were still to be relied upon,
+and then he stared at me for another minute or two, shaking his head
+dubiously.
+
+His mystification was quite explicable. The last time he had seen me I
+was going down to earth with a bullet in my face and my machine doing
+a spinning nose dive. He was one of my comrades in the flying corps and
+was in the fight which resulted in my capture. He said he had read the
+report that I was a prisoner of war, but he had never believed it, as he
+did not think it possible for me to survive that fall.
+
+He was one of the few men living out of eighteen who were originally
+in my squadron--I do not mean the eighteen with whom I sailed from
+Canada last May, but the squadron I joined in France. He rehearsed
+for me the fate of all my old friends in the squadron, and it was a
+mighty sad story. All of them had been killed except one or two who
+were in dry-dock for repairs. He himself was on his way to Australia to
+recuperate and get his nerves back into shape again. He had been in many
+desperate combats.
+
+As we sat on the deck exchanging experiences I would frequently notice
+him gazing intently in my face as if he were not quite sure that the
+whole proposition was not a hoax and that I was not an impostor.
+
+Outside of this unexpected meeting, my trip across was uneventful.
+
+I arrived in St. John, New Brunswick, and eventually the little town of
+Momence, Illinois, on the Kankakee River.
+
+I have said that I was never so happy to arrive in a country as I was
+when I first set foot on Dutch soil. Now I'm afraid I shall have to take
+that statement back. Not until I finally landed in Momence and realized
+that I was again in the town of my childhood days did I enjoy that
+feeling of absolute security which one never really appreciates until
+after a visit to foreign parts.
+
+Now that I am back, the whole adventure constantly recurs to me as a
+dream, and I'm never quite sure that I won't wake up and find it so.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+[Transcriber's Notes:
+
+The transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious
+errors:
+
+  1. p. 172 woulb --> would
+  2. p. 265 geting --> getting
+
+End of Transcriber's Notes]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Outwitting the Hun, by Pat O'Brien
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42490 ***