Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-10-19

the bottom that admitted them to the
pastors study. A door between the
study and the church was locked. The
sexton opened 1t. and Russell after re-
locking it put the key In his pocket.
Now. my good man, he said to the
sexton, you need have no further
communication with an enemy. You
have done a good turn for France"
The next thing Russell did was to go
again to the basement and examine
how he could mine his way out of the
church. 1t was very old and the foun-
dalton crumbling. The floor of the
basement was about four feet lower
than the outside surface. Russell
found a place where the wall was bro
ken, and all he had to do was to tun-
mel through 1t and up to the surface, a
distance of only six feet. Returning to
his comrades. he proposed his scheme.
as follows:
"If one Of us can make an escape and
get through the lines we can be of
great service to our fellows. | think
an escape can be made. We can break
through the wall In the basement or
tunnel under 1t and upward to the sur
face. A man thus getting out at night
might be able to pass the guard when
he is at the far end of his beat.
II propose to use the hands of the
| clock of the church for a cipher. l can
visit the belfry whenever l choose and
can place the hands on the dial al any
point. Our men by meons of their
glasses can easily see the tower and
Just where tine hands are. All that Is
to be lone Is to arrange a code"
It was decided that Andrews should
remain and send the signals, and James
Brooks volunteered to make the at
tempt at escape. taking the code with
him. There were plenty of hands to
dig the tunnel. and all the caution that
was required was to avoid work at
the hours the guard visited the prison
ers to bring their meals and for other
purposes.
That same evening the tunnel was
dug. 1t was found that the wall could
not be pierced. and a portion of the ce
ment floor was removed and the tun-
neling done under the wall instead of
through it The work was not difficult
and was accomplished In a few hours.
The earth removed was concealed in a
dark Enclosure under the clock tower.
When all was ready Brooks, who was
q small man of great agility. having
been provided with the code, crawled
into the tunnel and when at the point
where 1t extended straight upward
stood on his feet with his head above
ground and looked about him.
The night was dark. and he could SEQ
nothing, but he could hear the sentry
on that side of the church walking his
beat. The man passed within twenty
feet of him. Brooks noted his move
ments and estimated that the exit from
the tunnel was located about a third
nearer one end of the beat than the
other. 1t behooved the American to
leave his point of concealment after
the man had passed him on the longest
section of his beat and make his way
beyond the beat before he returned.
Watching his opportunity, Brooks
sprang out of the tunnel and ran some
fifty yards into a bush, behind which
he concealed himself. He heard the
Gated that be had been heard. The
sentry stood still for some time, and
Brooks heard the click of his rifles
lock. But be probably made up his
mind that he had heard some animal,
for he presently started again on his
beat
Brooks crawled away toward the
firing line and on his way encountered
a dead body. The corpse was that Of a
German, and Brooks appropriated his
helmet and his coat. His rifle lay near,
and Brooks took that too. Then he ad-
vanced TO the trench at a point between
the occupants and after standing guard
for awhile found an opportunity to
steal out unobserved, and, throwing off
his helmet and dropping his rife, he
crawled ON ali tours toward the Ameri-
can line. Before he could make him
self known several shots We're fired at
him, but fortunately he was unhurt
The next morning a man was sta
toned with a powerful glass leveled at
the dial OF the ciock. In time he called
an officer, who In turn called Brooks.
When they reached him he reported
that the minute hand of the clock was
moving-now backward, now forward.
Brooks consulted the code and reported
to the officer:
Nothing doing"
This, of course. meant that there was
nothing of Importance to he reported Of
the enemy's movements. During the
day the American troops made attacks
at two different points. About 4 o'clock
In the afternoon the watcher reported
that the minute hand of the clock was
again moving backward slowly. After
moving over twenty minutes on the
dial it suddenly sprang forward and
again began its slow retrograde move
ment. Brooks at once read from the
code: