The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1918-10-11
copyri9l,t, 1918, - Pat Alvs O'Brien


that as long az no didn't bother -
perhaps the safest thing to do was -
to bother him. but to continue my -
forts during his periodic absence.
His beat at this point was appareoS
ly fairly long and allowed mo mar
time to work than had hoped for3
Ny mishap with the ladder had cen
vinced me that my escape In that woJ
was not feasible. The shock that !
had received had unnerved me and !
was afraid to risk 1t again. particu-
larly as realized that I had Jared
more fortunately than I could hope
to again If I met with similar mis-
hap. There was no way Of making
that ladder hold and gave up the idea
of using 1t.
was now right In front Of this
electric barrier and as studied It q
saw another way of getting by. II 1|
couldn't get over It. what was the
matter with getting under It'll
The bottom wire was only two
inches from the ground and, of course,
couldn't touch 1t, but my plan was
to dig underneath 1t and then crawl
through the hole In the ground.
had only my hands to dig with,
but went at 1t with will and fortu-
nately the ground was not very hard
When had dug about six inches,
making a distance In all Of eight
inches from the lowest electric wire.
I came to an underground wire. I
knew enough about electricity to real
lie that this wire could not be charged,
as 1t was In contact with the ground,
but still there was not room between
wire for me to crawl through, and
ether had to go back or dig deep
enough under this wire to crawl under
1t or else pull 1t up.
This underground wire was about
as big around as a lead pencil and
there was no chance Of breaking It.
The jack-knife l had had ut the start
Of my travels I had long since lost
and even II had had something to
hammer with, the noise would have
made the method impracticable.
went on digging. When the total
distance between the live wire and the
bottom Of the hole had dug was
thirty inches, took hold of the ground
wire and pulled on 1t with all my
strength.
II wouldn't nudge. It WINS stretched
taut across the narrow ditch l had
dug-about fourteen inches wide
and all the tugging didn't serve to
loosen 1t.
I was just about to give up In de
! spair when a staple gave way In thu
nearest post. That enabled me to pull
the wire through the ground a little
and I renewed my efforts. After q
moment or two Of pulling as l had
| never pulled In my life before, d
staple on the next post gave way
and my work became easier. I had
more leeway now and pulled and
pulled again until In all eight staples
had given way.
Every time staple gave way, Il
sounded in my ears like the report Of
gun, although I suppose it didn'
really make very much noise. Never
theless, each time I would put my cal
to the ground to listen for the guard
If I heard him I would stop working
and lie perfectly still in the dark til
he had gone by.
By pulling on the wire, l was nov
able to drag 1t through the grount
enough to place it back from thu
fence and go on digging.
The deeper I went the harder be
came the work, because by this tim
my finger nails were broken and
was nervous-afrnid every momen
that would touch the charged wire.
kept at 1t. however, with my min
constantly on the hole was diggin
and the liberty which was almost witt
In my reach.
Finally / figured that had enoug
space to crawl through and still leav
couple Of inches between my bac
and the live wire.
Before / went under that wire l NJ
tced that the lace which the Belgia
woman had given me as a souvenl
made my pocket bulge, and lest
might be the innocent means Of ele'
trocuting me by touching the live wir'
took 1t out, rolled 1t up and threw
over the barrier first.
Then lay down on my stomach an
crawled or rather writhed under tn
wire like snake. with my feet frs
and there wasn't any question OF N
! hugging mother earth as closely {
possible because l realized that eve
to touch the wire above me with n
back meant instant death.
Anxious as I was to get on the 9TH
side, / didn't hurry this operation.
feared that there might be some lit
! detail that I had overlooked and I e
!, ercised the greatest possible care
going under, taking nothing f
! | granted.
t When I finally got through al
e Strengthened up, there were still sc
e eral feet of Belgium between me al
d liberty, represented by the six fe
which separated the electric barrI
e from the last barbed wire fence, b
e before l went another step / we
= down on nv knees and thanked G.,