Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-06-02
THE PARTS
THEY PLAYED
Story OF an American In the
War In Belgium
By ALAN HiNSDALE


went to Canada. where he enlisted in 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 a 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 a hid
ing place was a well. 1t struck him
that no one would think of looking for
a man i'll the bottom of a well. The
arrangement for drawing water was q
long pole, the bucket being at one end
and a 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 III the air was a dead give
away, so he emptied the bucket, lei
go his hold and it went up as fast as
it had come down.
Clarke's pursuers. fortunately fo1
him, did not reach sight of the vel
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 II
.,44.. a,,,o g. D..A Al,k 4c l. -
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 n 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 We're put off too long he
would either starve or be chilled tG
death. Looking up, he examined the
: circle of stone forming the well and
u lhot ~ Ndo wv oblOOtI
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 a bucket striking the ground
In another moment the well bucket
was lowered and filed. Bert would
have climbed the rod connecting II
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 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 vas the well, the bucket hang.
ing over it. and silence.
1t occurred to her that the man had
returned to the bottom, and a 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 there?"
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 it 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 a third
time.
He was q 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 annon all about him.
At the house was a woman-the girls
mother-and several children. The
men of the household were all fighting
for Belgium. After a few words of
the Girl went TO q Gun.