Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-12-07

car driver ne-serVe0 fourteen months
under the British flag. Out Of thirty.
one motorcycle dispatch riders he was
one of four survivors.
can initiate the Scotch accent so as to
get by IL the British lines?
In n week WI caught fourteen Ger
who were wearing the kilt, and
they all seemed very much surprised
that they should have been captured
while posing as Scotchmen.
To put a stop to this spying it was
decided to close all roads for a period
of twenty-four hours. All men were
warned that from 8 o'clock on such
and such a night until 8 o'clock the
following night they were not to leave
their units without the special pass
provided for these twenty-four hours.
Sentries were placed 200 yards apart
on all the roads in the daytime and 100
yards at night. All these preparations
were made very quietly and the great
est secrecy preserved. l vas detailed
with my car to patrol certain roads
during the t~wenty-four hours, and, OF
course, all the other roads were pa
trolled too. We had orders to stop ev-
cry one we met, and If they were not
provided with the special pass we were
to take them prisoners regardless of
what uniform they were wearing. 1t
looked like tiresome work, but it prov
ed to be rather exciting.
/ started over my route promptly at
8 o'clock, and you may be sure / was
all on edge to make a capture. My
car was flying the flag of the army
corps headquarters, so l was not both
cred by the sentries stopping me. l
went over the route the first time with
out meeting a soul who wasn't quite
all right. l was much disappointed,
for / thought / would be picking up
spies wholesale. On the second trip l
began to think that l was going to
have about the same luck as 1 did on
the first. for everything seemed very
quiet and peaceful.
I came to the village of Herzeele and
turned into the road which leads to
Watou, and, as l said. | was begin
ming to be sick of my job. There was
rather a sharp curve in this road, and
as ! turned it | saw by the light of
my electric headlights two men stand
ing in the middle of the road. The
minute they caught sight of my car
they started out across a field as hard
as they could go.
/ yelled at them and damned on my
brakes. They didn't stop. so l pulled
INV raunIuap on6 cont a 0Ot1nI0 Of nor.
suaders after them. That brought
them to a halt all right. and they start
ed yelling "Friend!' at the top of their
voices. | twisted the searchlight on
my "a around until the light shone full
Oh them, and then | called to them to
keep their hands in the air and come
back on the road.
They didn't seem very anxious about
1t, but | assured them if they didn't |
would fill them full of holes. | Ger
tainly felt fierce enough to do it. They
came up on to the road, and l made
them stand one on each side of the
car. Then l noticed hat me of them
had on a pair Of German soldiers
boots, and then l knew that l had a
ISL lOT SURE. 4 kOL OuL duu bcdlCucu
them, but they we're unarmed.
What was worrying me vas the fact
that In taking them back n of them
would have to sit behind me in the
ear took off my spare tires and put
them in the back of the car, and with
the straps | bound n fellows feet
and hands. l piled him into the ton
n on1 xoodo %ho a4ho. cfk In frnn4
with me. ] assured him If he made a
single move | didn't like | would
pump him full of lead P. D. Q.
In this way 1 took them into camp
without accident. They were shot as
spies two days later. Our haul for the
twenty-four hours was thirty-one spies.
and every one of them was a German.
One of the most terrible things /
ever witnessed was the destruction of
the chateau at Hooge. The chateau
was in a very peculiar position, being
on the dead ground between u trench
es and the Germans. Sometimes we
would hold it and sometimes they
would, and it offered great chances to
both for sniping.
sometimes we neld part OF IL, anu
they would hold the other part. Then
there was some great hand to hand
fighting. Our fellows in N room
would be digging holes through the
wall to pot at Germans in the next.
1t was so close to our trenches that
we did not dare to shell it, and the
same thing applied to the Germans.
1t was decided to mine the thing and
blow it off the face of the earth. /
think the Germans had decided the
same thing, and it was simply a case
of who would get their mines laid first.
We got the jump on them, and when
everything was ready our boys enticed
the Germans into it, and then the work
of destruction started. / was sitting
on horseback behind some staff officers.
We were about half a mile from the
place, but we had our ears stuffed