The daily Alaskan., 1916-05-11
THE PARTS
 THEY PLAYED
Story of an American In the
 War In Belgium
By ALAN HINsDALE

| when the great EurOpean WAT DFOAs out. having desire to take part in it, went to Canada. where be enlisted in a regiment of infantry and in due time was sent to Belgium. In fight he was taken prisoner. and while being marched to the rear with number of his comrades. his guard being inatten- tive. he managed to slip away. Just as he was passing out Of sight of his captOrs he was seen. and they gave chase.
 Clarke ran into a yard In the center of which stood a house. The first thing In his path that afforded hid, ! ing place was well. It struck him that no one would think of looking for q man in the bottom of a well. The arrangement for drawing water was a long pole, the bucket being at one end and a huge stone at the other. This enabled him to descend with less ra' pldlty than if not partly counterbal. anced by the stone, though he went down much faster than he would have | chosen.
 The other end of the balance pole being up in the mir was a dead give away, so he emptied the bucket, let go his hold and 1t went up as fast as it had come down.
 Clarke's pursuers. fortunately for him, did not reach sight of the well house till a few moments after the bucket had gone up. AS he had hoped, they did not stop to look Into the well. but continued on their way. But It soon occurred to Bert thnt if he had not Jumped from the frying pan Into the fire he had at least jumped from a German prison into cold water. Al though the season was in the early summer the bath was by no means tepid.
 All he could do was. to get one foot on a stone on one side of the well and the other foot on the other side. stand there above the surface and wait for some one to come to the well for wa ter. His life depended upon some one coming within a reasonable time, for if the arrival were put of too long be would either starye or be chilled to death. Looking up. he examined the circle of stone forming the well and saw that the surface was too smooth for him to climb. It was only at the lower part that the stones afforded a | fOothold.
 Bert had been captured in the morn ing and escaped about noon He had stood In bis trying position for six hours when he was gladdened by the sound of a bucket striking the ground In another moment. the well bucket was lowered and filled. Bert would have climbed the rod connecting 1t with the balance pole. but his strength had gone out of him. So when the bucket came to the surface of the WA ter he emptied It and held on to 1t for an ascent, doing what he could to tighten it by clutching here and there the circling wall.
 When he reached the well house there was a shriek, and down he went again to the bottom. A girl, instead of drawing up a bucket of water, had drawn up a man. and the discovery was a great shock to her. She ran away from the well house. but pres ently, curiosity getting the better of her. fright, she turned and looked back There was the well, the bucket hang ing over it, and silence
 It occurred to her thUt the man had returned to the bottom, and man at the bottom of a well was not neces- sarily an object of terror. Then she realized the mans position Lastly she went back to the well house and, without daring to look over, called out:
 Who's thereT
 Bert knew a little French and re- piled:
 "Anglais soldat" EnglIsh sOldier). This helped matters amazingly. The girl was a Belgian and knew that the English were fighting for her country, Bert asked her in a mixture of French and English to lower the bucket and help him out. She did not understand him, but common sense suggested that this be done and done quickly. Down went the bucket again. Bert took hold of 1t and with difficulty was raised to the surface. Once there he took the precautiOn to catch hold of 8 support so that he would not go down a third time
 He was a pitiable spectacle, drench. ed and chilled as he was; indeed, just the object to excite the sympathy of a woman. She helred him out of the well house, and ai>ar she had assured him by French, English and panto- mime that there were no German sol diers very near, he started with her to the house as fast as he was able, lest some enemy might see him, for there was the, boom of cannon all about him.
 At the house was woman-the girls mother-and several children. The men of the household were all fighting for Belgium. After a few words of explanation the girl went to a cup board and brought out bottle. Ii was only wine, but Bert made up for l IA ...A .a ,t..,, ,rk1, hr IyInl-iUur fk all