The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1916-05-12
THE PARTS
THEY PLAYED
Story OF an American In the
War In Belgium
By ALAN HINSDALE


when the great European war broke
out, having desire to take part In It.
went to Canada, where he enlisted I'm a
regiment Of infantry and In due time
was sent to Belgium. In a 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 yard In the center
of which stood house. The first
thing In his path that afforded hid.
ing place was WELL 1t struck him
that no one would think of looking for
man in the bottom of WELL The
arrangement for drawing water was a
long pole, the bucket being at one end
and huge stone at the other. This
enabled him to descend with less ra.
pidity 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 air was dead give
away, so he emptied the bucket, let
go his hold and it went up as fast as
1T 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 that If he had
not jumped from the frying pan into
the fire he had at least jumped from
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 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 we'll for wa.
ter. His life depended upon some one
coming within a reasonable time, for
If the arrival were put off too long he
would either starve 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. 1t 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 his trying position for six
hours when he was gladdened by the
sound Of bucket striking the ground
In another moment the we'll bucket
was lowered and filed. 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 1t and held on to 1t for
an ascent, doing what he could to
tighten 1t by clutching here and there
the circling wall.
When he reached the well house
there was a shrek, 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
emily, curiosity getting the better Of
her fright. she turned and looked back.
There was the well, the bucket hang
ing over 1t. and silence.
1t occurred to her that the man had
returned to the bottom. and man at
the bottom Of q 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 there?''
Bert knew a little French and re
piled:
"Anglais soldat" English soldier).
This helped matters amazingly. The
girl was Belgian and knew that the
English were fighting for her country
Bert asked her in 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 a support
so that he would not go down 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 helped him out Of the
well house, and after 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 few words Of
explanation the girl went to a cup.
board and brought out a. bottle II
was only wine. but Bert made up for
its want Of strength by drinking 1t all.
Then the girl brought cut some bread
and cheese-there was 10 meat In Bel
eium-and the soldier consumed 1t raw
anorslv Meanwhile tho mOthcr LIGHT