Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-11-17

HSaiffSh III VSoh SaiNs
for a paddle and with it she aided Jim
in bringing the raft against the west
bank of the river. The float grounded
In shallow water and jim stole to the
shore. How far up they had drifted
he could not guess, but after crossing
the tracks of the West Shore railroad
he came to a sheer, abrupt wall Of
rock reaching up far into the black
mist. He was somewhere at the foot
of the Palisades. He crept along eau
tiously. pausing many times to listen.
till he found an ascent to the top OF
the sheer cliffs. Then he came upon a
great camp-a strange, unsentineled,
unguarded refugee camp-lit by the
embers Of fires which glowed here and
there In irregular spots. As Jim crept
close he could hear babies crying and
women grooming to them a~nxiously and
trying to quiet them.
"Oh, baby, baby, I've got nothing for
you! 1 couldn't get anything to eat to
night!' walled n poor mother.
The regents soldiers, Jim had heard,
gave little concern to such camps ex-
cept to take out all men of military
age. Half an hour later Jim returned
to the raft.
Were still well within the regents
lines" he reported to Beatrice Logan.
There's a big refugee camp just above
with the regents infantry billeted be-
yond. l found a kid, a regular boy
scout, who was sleeping on the ground.
He says he knows where every watch
Is stationed, and he made a map for
me to show how we can get through
here and where we can hide during
the day. The kid wanted to come with
me, but If he was caught guiding me
I suppose they'd shoot him, SO l
wouldn't let him follow"
North Of the ruins of New York the
regents army appeared merely to be
maintaining the positions it had taken
during the siege. Their immediate OBJ
tectives were in other quarters. Jim
learned from refugees that ar army
was moving against New England.
During the siege of Manhattan a col
umn had taken Bridgeport and cap
tured the cartridge works and manu-
factories of rapid fire guns and the
rifle and cartridge factories of New
Haven. Another column, moving into
New Jersey, had taken the powder
works and arsenals about Dover. The
regents armies were marching farther
now in both directions. One was adj
vancing upon Hartford and Spring
field. The other, cutting across New
Jersey and capturing the powder plants
at Parlin and Pompton lakes, was
moving toward the great gun works
at Bethlehem. The third army, landed
upon the Delaware coast from trans
ports, was cooperating with this col
umn. 1t had taken the munition plants
upon Washington.
"But boys been movin' west every
thing movable In way of machinery"
gloated an old refugee. 1.-THE Spring
field rifle m~achinery's at Rock Island,
Ill, now, and the revolver company
that was at Springfeld's at Omaha,
they say. The Du Pont people we got
their plants going again at Kansas
City and Des Moines; Bethlehem's
mostly at st. Louis and Gary and Chi
cago now. And the governments at
Cleveland"
Flour already was gone; milk was
gone, the cattle all killed. Already the
old men and women and children were
beginning to die by the dozens Of want
and exposure, and the winter was only
on the way.
Jim could take no food from these
people. Beatrice would take none. Jim
kept her close to him as he worked his
way north.
Though the countryside continued to
be a great miserable camp of refugees,
there were fewer and fewer of the
enemy's soldiers. Now there were only
outposts and patrols of the invaders.
But during the third day of hiding
Beatrice disappeared. Jim had left
her hiding in an old, abandoned boat
shed by the river while he went to
find wood. When he returned she was
gone.
There were no marks to show wheth-
er any one had come and taken her.
There was nothing. She had just dis
appeared. He searched frantically.
recklessly for her all the rest of the
day, but found no trace Of the girl and
encountered nothing different from the
common woe Of the homeless, hope
less people. The sight of them, the
sound of their voices, the odors of their
wretchedness, drove him on more reso-
lutely to the army.
The American army! Every one
spoke of 1t now. He was nearing 1t.
The army for which New York and
the rest of the ~seacoast had been sac
rificed, for which the men who had
fought and died In Manhattan had CIV
en- themselves with the city. The army.
Helm Ashby, with the others-had
won for 1t two months to train and
drill and make itself ready: the army