Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, November 5, 1918, Page 5

nee CHAPTER Ix. 1 Enter Belgium. I have said it was about the eighteenth day after my escape that ] entered Belgium, but that #8 more or less guess work. Iwas possibly well into that country before I real- ized that I had crossed the line, About the third day after 1 figured I was in Belgium I started to swim a canal just before daylight. I was then heading due north in the diree tion of the German lines. I was just about the 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 op- posite side, as I reasoned they would not be looking for me there. I found a sheltered clump of bushes that were in a swamp near the canal and in the Uriest part thatI eould find I crawled in and made myself as comfortable as possible. The sum come uf: soon und kept me warm, and I planned to camp right there, food or no food, until the Hun got tired of searching for me. I think I heard them once or twice that day, and myheart nearly stopped on each occasion, but evi- dently they decided to look in some other direction and I was not further molested. . At the same time I figured that it was absolutely mecessary for me to change my course, even at the ex- pense of going somewhat out of my way. I decided to go due west and l 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 Map Showing the Progress O’Brien Made in Passing Out of Luxembourg Into Belgium. The Neg Boe Line Shows the Course 0 at of His Journey Toward Holland. ~ fields, beet patches, woods, lage PT anywhere provided I was not likely to be seen and captured. food was an important considération to,me, but it Was secondary to concealment. At last I brought up at the Meuse river at a place between’ Namur and Nluy, and ft was here that I came near est of all to giving up the struggle. The Meuse at this point is about half a mile wide—as wide as the Hud: son River at West Point, Had ] been in normal condition I wouldn’t have hesitated a moment to swim across, San Diego bay, California, is a mile 1d a half wide, and I had often swam ‘ss and back, and the San Jaoquin, which is also a mile and a half wide, had never proven 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 m=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 to swim. Tt was then about 8 o'clock in the thorning. I waded in and was soon in beyond my depth and had to swim, "r about am hour of it I was very much exhausted, and I ‘doubted er I could make the oppostte although it was not more than or forty feet away. I choked gasped, and my arms and legs Were completely fagged out. I sank a ‘tle and tried to touch bottom with ‘oy feet, but the water was still be yond my depth, here are times when everyone will » und I was no exception. I prayed for strength to make those “w wicked yards, and then, with all the will power I could summon, struck cut far dear life. It seemed a life- time before I finally felt the welcome "ud of bottom and was able to drag inyself up to the bank, but I got there. _\° bank was rather high and I was ‘aking so violently that when I took hold of the grass to, pull myself up, ‘he grass shook out of my hands. } ‘ould not retain my grip. I was afraid ould faint then and there, but J “pt pulling and crawling frantically infernal bank and finally } Up that 1H le St. 'n for the first time in my life } —falnted from utter exhaus- fuinte tion. ‘ It Was now abont 4 o'clock in the moruing and I was entirely unpro- i fas from observation. If anyone come along I would have been 5d lying there dead to the world. why tye hours passed before } ne. But ft was equally! dangerous for me to attempt to taval| very far. Fortunately I found some shrubbery near by and I hid there all day, without food or drink. gs That night I made a little head way, but when day broke I had 8 adful fever and was delirious. 3 talked to. myself and thereby in- creased my changes of capture. In my lucid intervals when I realized that T had been talking, the. thought sent @ 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) ‘tidiculous 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 | ‘jy one constant friend, the North! Star, to stand by me. | “There you are, you old North Ster,” | I cried aloud. “You want me to get to Holland, don’t you? But this Pat O’Brien—this Pat O'Brein 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 Cour- | trai—after all you've one, 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 OQ’Brien—this fel-| low who keeps after me all the time | und leans on my neck and wants me to lie down—this Yellow Pat O'Brein 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 be- cause I was about on my Jast legs. I ‘was very much tempted to lie down then and there and call it a beat. | Things seemed to be getting worse for | ° “IL. Kept Pulling. and Crawling’ Up That Infernal Bank. me the farther I went, and all the time I had before me the spectre 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 prob- ably be captured in the end anyway? Before giving up, however, I decided nm one bold move, I would ap ach one of’ the houses in the yi- einity and get food there or die in the effort. | I picked out a small house because I figured there would be less likeli- hood of soldiers being billeted there. Then I wrapped a stone in my khaki handkerchief as a sort of camouflaged Weapon, determined to kil the occu- pant of the house, German or Belgian, if that step Was neceksury in order to get food, tried the weil in the yard, but It would not work, and then T went up to the door and knocked. It was 1 o'clock in the morning. An old lady camo to the windyw and lobdked out, She copld not imagine what I was, bly, bechuse T was still attired in that avercoat, She gave a cry and her husband and a boy came to the door. ” They could not. speak lish ahd 1 could not speak Flemish, but I pointed | to my flying coat aad then to the sky and said “Wieger” (flier), which \I thought would tell’ them what T was, Whether they stood or were intimidated by the hard-looking ap- pearance, I don't know, but certainly it would’ to bé a bravo old man and boy w Hd start An argument | with such a villainous 1o0king char. } acter 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 ad gotten so heavy I had to discard’ them—my hair was matted and my cheeks were flushed with, fever. In my hand I carried the r in my handkerchief and I made no effort to conceal its presence or its. mission. Anyway, they motioned me indoors, guve 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 | heud, alth 1 think it must have been for lnck of it rather than be- | cause she begrudged Itto me. For | ed those | I did that gight. 1 | warm potatoes rayenously and T drank four glusses of water, of¢ after an- The woman of the house was prob- bly seventy-five evidently worn for she had a callous spot on the side of her Tout the size of half ; lar and {t looked so hard that I doubt hetier you could have driven a natt into it with a hammer! 4 As I sat there drying myself—for I was in no hurrry to leave the first human habitation I hid entered in four. weeks—I reflected on my ‘un- happy lot and the unknown troubles and dan; that lay ahead of me. Here, for more than a month, I had been leading the life of a hunted shoes all her’, “SBinguet! ba the ie Betis thevexteption ‘Gf a civilfan ‘cap -which I had found at the prison and concealed on my person and which I still had. The overalls were rather small’ and yery short, but when I put them ou I found that they hung dows | a dol- | far enough to cover y breeches. Tt was perhaps days Inter that I planned to Search another house for further clothes. Eatering Belgian houses at night Is-Ghyil'lg but a safe | Proposition, use the'r families are large and sometimes as many as sever or eight sleep in a single room. Th barn is usually connected with t! house proper, and there was alws the danger of disturbing some dv animal even if the inmates of the animal—yes, worse than a hunted | jouse were not aroused. animal, for naturé clothes her less- favored creatures more appropriate- ly for the life they lead than T was Frequently I took a chance’ ot searching a back yard at night in the hope of finding food scraps, but my © nOticen that the Belgians used dogs to a considerable extent to pull their carts, and I thought many times that & I could have stolen one of | those dogs it would have been a very | companion for me and might, if; 0 sion arose, help me out In a it, Bpt I had no way of feeding it) of ground, but by this time — had be come fairly well reconciled to these reverses and they/Gid por ress me } se conch he they did at ; +" \o” my tidventure, If | sett without its the! ' almost diagpotat living through Te! That vight I got an early start be cause I knéw I had to have food, and I decided that rather t look for, vegrtables I would take ‘hance and apply to the first Belgian peasant whom I came to. ‘ It was about 8 o’clock when I came | (scintments were Gne eWbuing as I was about to swim a canal about two hundred feet wide, @94 the animal would probably have | to a small house. I had picked up a starved to death. I could live on veg-| heavy stone and had bound it in my etables, which I could always depend’ handkerchief and I was resolved to use nm finding in tne fields, but a dog couldn't, and so I gave up the idea. It ag a weapon If it became necessary | After all I had gone through, | was The knack of making fire with two) resolved to win my liberty eventually | clothed for mine—and there was not | success in that direction was so slight! the slightest reason to hope that con-! that I soon decided that it wasn't! | I suddenly noticed about one hundred yards away a canal boat moored to the side. It was at a sort of iy oats | place and I wondered what the i boat had stopped for. I crawled up pleces of dry wood I bad often read about, but I had never pnt {t to a test | and for various reasons I concluded | that it would be unsafe for me to build a fire even ff I had matches. In} the first place, there was no absolute | to see. As T neared the boat five meN| peed for it. I didn't have anythiog | were leaving it and I noticed them} to cook nor utensils to cook it in even, | cross over into the fields, At a safé/¢ 7 had. While the air was getting | | distance I followed them and they had! to be rather coo) at night, I was usu- not gone very fur before I saw what! afiy on the go at that time and didn’t they were after. They were commit- when <I | them | of overalls was the fifst bit of civil- ditions would grow any 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. ¥ pointed to my torn and water. soaked clothes and conyeyed to them as best I oould that I would be grate- ful 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 aroused 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 lald eyes on! The glimpse I got of myself startled me ajinost.~s much as if I had seen a dreaded German helinet! My left eye was fairly well healed by this time and I was beginning to regain 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 IE had indicated. Later I changed my course completely to throw off any possible pursuit. The next day was so worn out from exposure and exhaustion that I threw away my coat, thinking thut the less weight I had to carry the better it would be for me, but ss Pa night came I regretted my mistake because the nights were now getting colder, I thought at first it would be be#er for me. to retrace my steps and look for the coat I 80 thoughtlessly dis- carded, but I decided to go on with-| out it, T then began to discard everything | that Thad in my pocket, finally throw- | ing my wrist watch into a canal, A wrist-watch «does mot 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 gotten at Camp Borden, in Canaga, and had become | quite farhdus, ‘a’,;my ends termed } “snow shoes.” In fact, they were a ridiculous pnir of mittens, but | the best pair I ever had and I really | felt worse when I lost thése mittens than anything else. I could not think of apybody else ever using them, so I} dug a hole in the mud and buried | thom and could not help but laugh | at the thought if my friends could see me burying my wittens, because they | were a scandiug joke in Canada, Eng- | land and France, | i had en 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 Amer- | icin army shirt. They were both | khaki and one as upt to give me away as the other, so I discarded the French The American army shirt I brought back with me to England and it is*still in my possession. | When I escaped frora the train I still had the Bavarian gap 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 proven very | useful when swimming rivers, for I} carried my map and a few other be- longings in it and I had fully made } up my mind to bring it home as a/ souvenir, But the further I went | the heavier my extra clothing beecame,+ so I was compelled to discard even | the cap. I knew that it would be a tell-tale 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 con- siderably less ceremony than my fly- Ing mittens had received perhaps; so ‘that was the end of my Bavarian hut. My experience at the Belgian’s house whetted my appetite for more 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 2 con- | tingency I was determined to ‘meas-/ ure my strength aguinst the Hun’s if | necessury to effect my escape. } As it was, however, most of the Bel- | gians to whom I applied for food gave | 4 it to me readily enough, and if some of them refused me It wus only be- cause they feared I might be a spy | ff or that the Germuns avould shoot them if their action were subsequently found out. About the fifth day after I had en- teréd Belgium I was spending the day as usual in a clump of bushes when 1 discerned in the distance what ap- peured to be something hanging on a ine, All day loug I strained my eyes trying to decide what it could be and arguing with myself that it might be sémething that I could add to my in- udequate wordrob2, but the distance was so great that I could not tdentify it. I had a great fear that before night came it would probably be re- moved. As soon as darkness fell, however, I | crawled out of my hiding piace and | worked up to the line and got a pair of overalls for my industry. The pair lan clothes I had thus far picked up worth the risk and I continued to live on 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 day- time? Nevertheless I was determined to get more in the way of clothing and when night came T 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 moon- light which would enter the windows. The barn adjoined the main part of ‘the house, but I groped around very | carefully and soon I touched some- thing hanging on a peg. I dicn't know what it was, but I confiscated it and carried it out into the fields. There in the moonlight I examined iny booty and found that it was an old coat. It was too short for an over-| coat 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 equip- ment I was able to conceal my unl- form 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 hard trials and I felt as it I were abandoning a friend when I parted with it. I was tempted to keep the wings off the tunic, but thought that would be a dangerous concession to sentiment in the event that I was ever captured. It was the only dis- tinction I had left, as" 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 havé béén jeopardized had I kept my uniform but, of course, I hxd-no idea what-wés 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 had been taken by the Germans and what are left are beasts of burden who are too tired at night to bark or bother intraders. This was a mighty good thing for me, for I would certainly have stirred them up in passing through back-yards 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 that 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 cross- roads at which there would in all probability be a German sentry. My precaution served me in good stead for had I come out in the main street of the village and within twenty feet of me, sitting on some bricks where they were building a little store, { could see the dim outline of a Ger man spiked helmet! I could not cross the street and the only thing to do was to back track. it~meant making a long deteur and losing two hours of precious time and effort, but there was.no help for it, so € plodded wearily. back, cursing the Huns at every step. The next night while crossing some fields I came to a roud. It was one of the main roads of Belgium and was paved with cobble stones. 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 cleare As I emerged from the field and got my first glimpse of the road, I got the shock of my life! In either direction, Diagram Showing How O’Brien Lost Precious Hours by Swimming a Riv. er and Later Finding That He Was on the Wrong Side and Had to Swim Back. J a8 far as I could see, the road was lined with German soldiers!” What they were doing In that part of Bel- gium T did not know, but you can be mighty sures dido’t spend any time trying to find out. i Again Jt was necessary to change | } } | ting 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 bont Itself would | probably yield me more than the po- tato patch. Knowing the canal-hands would probably take their time tn the} fields, I ctimbed up the stern of the | boat leisurely and without any partic- ular plans to conceal myself. Just as my head appenred above the stern of the boat I saw silhouetted against the sky, the dread outline of @ Ger- man soldier—spiked helmet and all! A chill ran down my pine as F dropped to the bank of the canal and slunk away, Evidently the sentty had | not seen me or, ff he had, he had prob- ably figured that I was one of the foraging party, but I realized that it wouldn’t pay in future to take anj- thing for granted. CHAPTER X. Experiences: in Belgium. I think that one of the w: things I hed to contend with in my journey through Belgium wag the number of small .ditches. They intercepted me at every half mile or so, sometimes more frequently. The canals and the Burying His Uniform at Night. 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 inyarlably a case of wading through. Some of them, no donbt, 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 ight or nine feet wide. I thought I was strong enough to jump it and? it was rth trying as the discomfort I suffered after wac 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 of mud. Getting out of that mess was quite a job. The’ water was too dirty ati 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 i¢ dried and serape it off then: In many sections of Belgium through which I had to pass & encountered lurge areas of swamp and marshy ground and rather than waste the tine inyolyed In looking for better underfooting—which T might not have | found anyway—I used to pole right through the mud. Apart from: the discomfort of this method of travel- ing and the slow time I made, there | was un 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 & swamp or marsh In that part of the country unless he was trying to get uway 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 ob- served the unusual combjnation, 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 that I was able to observe there must be very few horses left ia Belgium except those owned -by the Germans, Cows dnd donkeys gre now horses and mulés, Altogether I nearly eight weeks wandeting through Belgium, and in all that time I don't believe I snw more than half a dozen horses in the possession of the native poyyifation, * Notice it. In the daytime, | Was restingeor sleeping, the $un was | usually out. To have borrowed matches from a | aselgian peasant would have been feas- ible, but when I was willing to take, the chance of approaching anyone, it; was just as easy to ask for food as matches. It the second place, it would have | been extremely dangerous to have built a Gre even if I had needed it., You can’t build a fire in Belgium, | | which ts the most thickly populated country in Europe, without everyone knowing it, and I was far from anx- | fous to advertising my whereabouts. | Phe villages in that part of Bel- gium through which I was making my course were so close together that there was hard# 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. Bat the hour bad 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 tifings to worry about: kee; concealed and get as much sleep a: 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 heaus and they would be as bitter as gall. I would have to be pretty hungry to- day before I could ever ent cabbage again and the #ame observation ap plies to carrots, turnips and sugar beets—especially sugar beets. It is rather a remarkable thing that today even a smell of turnips, raw or | cooked, makes me sick, and yet a few short months ago my life depended | upon them. Night pfter night as I searched for | food, I was always in hopes that I | might come upon some tomutoes or celery—vegetables which I renily Uked, but with the exception of once, when I found some.celery, I was never | 80 fortunate. I afe so much of the celery the night I came upon it that | I was sick for two days thereafter, | but E 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 thme 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-létter days, bat I was never able to repeat it. i 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 turr®d 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 ine and catch some 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 Mield. My stock of turnips which I | bhad picked the night before was gone | and I planned, of course, to get enough | to carry me through-the following | } The North Star was shining brightly that night and there was absolutely nothing to prevent my steering an ab- | Solutely difect 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 steiking of yilluge bells, and I knew that if I changed my | course I woulde undoubtedly strike farms and vegetables, but the North | Star yeemed to plead with mg to fol- | low it and [I would not turn aside. When daylight came, the quence was I was empty handed and I had to find a hiding place for the day. \t thought I would approach the first | peasant I came to and ask for food, ‘but that day [ had misgivings—a Ratich—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, | been: I not only suffered greatly | from hunger ail that day, but it inter- fered with my sleep. I would drop off | to sleep for half an hour, perhaps, | end during that time I would cream | that I was free, back home, living a | fe of comparative ease, and then ¢ would wake up with a start and catch a ‘glimpse of the bushes surrounding meé, feel the hard ground beneath me and -the hunger pangs gnawing at my sides, and then F would real how far from home I really was, and £ would He there and wonder whether I would ever really see my home again, Then I would fall asteep again and dream this time, perhaps of the | days 1 spent in Courtral, or my leap from the train window, of the Bava- rian pilot whem I sent to eternity in ‘my last afr fight, of my tracer bullets | getting cloggr. and closer to his head, and then T would wake up again with | @ Stary and thank the Lord that - was only dreamlag ital again instead of se at whatever cost. As it happened, I found that aight 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 ce. He asked me in Flemish what I wanted, but I shook my head and pointing to my ears and mouth inti- mated that I was deaf and dumb, and then I opened and closed my niouth several times to show him that 1 wanted food. He showed me Inside and sat me at the table. He apparently lived alone, for his {i-furnished room had but ore chair, and the p! and knife and fork he put before me seemed to be all he had. He brought me some cold potatoes and several slices of stple bread, and he warmed me some milk on a small oll stove. ‘ I ate ravenousiy and all the time T was engaged I knew that he was eye- ing me closely. Before I was half through he came over to ine, touching me on the der, and stooping over so that h almost touched my ear, he ss broken E “You are an lishman—I know it—and you can he and talk if you wish—am I not righ There was a smile on his face ond a friendly attitude about him that told me instinctively that he could @e trusted, and I replied: “Yon have guessed right—only I am an Amesi- can, not an Englishman.” *He looked at me pityingly and filled my cup again with warm milk. His kindness and apparent willing- ness to help me almost overcame me, and I felt like wirning him of the consequences he would suffer if the Huns discovered he had befriends me. I had heard that twenty Be: na had been shot for helping Belgians to escape into Holland, and I hated to think what might happen to this good old 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 ifid gone through and Toutlined my future plans. “You will never be avie to get te 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 te suggest a way by which I could evereome the difficulty. He thought for several moments and studied me closely all the time— perhajis” endeavoring to maké abso- ~ ~ “You Can Hear and Talk If You Wish —Am | Not Right?" lutely sure that I was not a German spy—and then apparently deciding tn my favor, told me what he thought tt was best for me to do. “If you will call on this man” (mentioning the name of a Belgian [n + a city through which I had to pass), he advised, “you will be able to make arrangements with him to é6e cure a passport, and he will do every- thing he can to get you out of Bel- gium.” He told me where the man In ques tan could be found aud gave me some usefui directions to continue my jou ney, and then he ied me to the door, I thanked him a thousand times and wanied to pay him for his kindness and help but he would accept nothiag. He did give me his name and you may be sure I shall never forget it, bat to mention it here might, of course, re suit in serious consequences for him. When the war Is over, however, or the Germans are thrown ont of Belgium, I shall make it my duty to find that kind Belgian if | have to go through aguin all that © have suffered already to do it. (To be Continued Tomorrow) Liberty Bonds wanted. Highest eash price paid. Room 4, Kimball Building. Security Loan Co., phone 702. L1-dAtt _ List yqur property with us. The Security Loan Company, Reom 4, Kimball Bldg. 21-1-tf WANTED—Woman to do . family washing and prefer having her come to the house; snjall —f, 4 Phone W? Jardine at 17. L1-4-3t t t. ir Ep « t- ed 2 eel TE At eae ae Pee a ee ower