The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-03-20
18-YEAR-0LD BOY RELATES RUNNING GAUNTLET OF WAR
Describes Scenes Attending His Escape From Bel
 gium and Death.
(By Sterling Heilig.)

of his story are certified by M. Fer nand Neuray, a prominent Belgian ed itor, who is living i'll exile in Paris.
 The proper names of persons and places are omitted so as not to incur treprisals on Belgian families by the German invaders.
 More than once I asked my parents
 leave to go away. My father an l swered Wait a bit. You brothers
 are in the army and you are all I have 1 left. Perhaps the war will not last
 much longer
 "On the first of November in the 1 evening began again: Father, I 1 was IS years old yesterday. If l
 don't get away they will come some day to the house and deport me- I
 would rather take the risk. You are
 not going to make me run away with
 out your consent?"
 l My father yielded. We agreed
 that I should leave on the 10th in the evening without mother knowing 1t.
 You can imagine how heavy my heart
 was the evening left when kissed her as I always did. learned after wards that she suspected something
 from the way I kissed her.
 "Yet I did all could to hide my feelings. My eldest sister was in the
 secret and she stayed with mother 1 while father accompanied me from the I door. Two of my mates were wait l ing, one of them had been dispensed from military service before the war ] because of a weak constitution. 1 'If I live a hunded years I shall not forget tour dear home in the l night, the light in the window amid the darkness, and fathers loving good ] by on the threshold. ITO get from Brussels to Maestricht i Gin Ho1land-less than so miles), we took 48 days. Ah! I know in and out that land of Herve, which I knew before only by its cheese. There is not path I have not threaded 20 times with my ears stretched to hear, l ready to tumble into the ditch or the bushes at the first suspicious noise. 1 They assured us that at Liege eco
 miles), we should easily find means l not sure indeed - to get across the l frontier.
 "Alas we lost 15 days in vain, fe- verish efforts. No one-except spies and traitors-would agree then to pass young men into Holland. Tired put, we three resolved take our chan ces and risk all without guide, when a friend came to tell us that band ] of some 200 Belgians was gathered
 near village of the Holland frontier and, at price of gold, had prepared 1 a safe escape.
 1 "You know how 1t ended. Spied and 1 betrayed, we came, in the evening of l Dec. 6, up against German soldiers 1 posted on the other side of barbed wires. It would have been crazy to
 go forward. But how turn back :?
 For we saw behind us 30 German sol- diers marching up to cut us off. There we were, caught in a trap. How can I tell you what ones heart feels at
 such moment?
 ] 1T would have died on the spot rath-
 CT than be taken. The one of us whom we had chosen to lead our column l lost his head when. he saw. the Prus- sians. see him still, 30 yards ahead l of us, lifting his arms and crying, 1 bowling, Comrades! Co1nrades!' Perhaps the poor boy thought his
 supplication would soften the Pus-
 sians' hearts. Oh yes! They had their l guns aimed already, I shall hear all
 my life those soldiers cries. Va, va
 kamerades!' they mocked-and the
 shooting began. The Germans pick ed up 30 dead and wounded and they made 37 prisoners. Most of these were condemned to death, but their penalty was comrnuted to 20 years confinement at hard labor.
 Cavalry and infantry beat up the 1 while country until morning, encour-
 aging each other to the hunt. Their ! od f1rn1lCh tha riOhf and then gun would shoot at fugt-
 tive in moving shadow. One mo- ement there were two soldiers talking three feet from my hiding place. 'I stole out. of the ditch as soon as 1 the fields had sunk back to the silence of beautiful night of peace, lighted by a number of stars. By dint of running at all hours and in all l weathers,N through the byways of
 farms. I had learned to guide my- Eeasily It did not take me much time to find the little house in which had rested the evening before, my two i friends and I, just before we joined our column.
 "Six o'clock was striking at the village belfry when I stretched out to sleep, between two bundles of straw. 1 III a nay IIlOW IIldI SScuISu SO4lof lO me than a feather bed. Soldiers came hunting and searching through 1 the village To the bugle's sound and with notices posted up, the Prus- sians promised 500 marks (S125) for | every fugitive that should be given up to the authorities.
 "Not one was betrayed, not a sim gle one. It is not me you must ad- mire. Compliments hurt me when I 1 compare myself to our brave heroic peasants. As for me, I had no choice l between flight and captivity. But they-while am telling you my wan
 derings and smoking my cigar, they are under supervision and spied on and in danger of death. I escaped I-they stay in prison.
 'I risked my life two or three times I-they expose themselves to death ev- cry day. In the worst moments, the hope of freedom soon and pridest sthat
 I should be a soldier kept me up. They
 could foresee nothing of the morrow but the same insolent mockery of their
 jailers.
 "In getting back to Liege, where
 hoped to find my two friends, I had
 the pleasure of riding seven miles ir
 German automobile. I laugh now when I think of it. You will see
 why. It was broad daylight.
 heard the motor snorting along the
 road, and my first impulse was to rtr
 away over the fields. But it was too