The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1918-09-06


for the Belgian who had worn 1t.
Some days later got scarf from
a Belgian peasant and with this equip |
ment l was able to conceal my uni
form entirely.
Later on, however, I decided that it |
was too dangerous to keep the uniform |
on anyway and when night came !
dug a hole and buried 1t.
/ never realized until I had to part
with it just how much I thought Of
that uniform. 1t had been with mo
through hard trials and l felt as II
were abandoning friend when /
parted with 1t. was tempted to keep
the wings off the tunic, but thought
that would be dangerous concession
to sentiment In the event that l was
ever captured. 1t was the only dis
tinction had left, as l had given
the Royal Flying Corps badges and
the stars of my rank to the German
flying officers as souvenirs. but l felt
that 1t was safer to discard 1t. A.
1t finally turned out. through all my
subsequent experiences my escape
would never have been jeopardized
had kept my uniform but, Of course,
I had no idea what was In store for
| me.
There was one thing which surprised
me very much as / journeyed through
Belgium and that was the scarcity of
dogs. Apparently most Of them had
been taken by the Germans and what
are left are beasts of burden who are
too tired at night to bark or bother
intruders. This was a mighty good
thing for me, for / would certainly
have stirred them up In passing
through back-yards as l sometimes
did when l was making a short cut.
One night as l came ont Of yard
it was so pitch dark that / could not
see ten feet ahead Of me and I was
right in the back Of little village,
although did not know 1t. I crawled
along fearing I might come to cross
roads at which there would In all
probability be German sentry.
My precaution served me in good
stead for had / come out In the main
street of the village and within twenty
feet of me, sitting on some bricks
where they were building a little store,
I could see the dim outline Of Ger
man spiked helmeti
I could not cross the street and the
only thing to do was to back track
1t meant making long detour and
. losing two hours of precious time and
3 effort, but there was no help for it
so I plodded YEARLY back, cursint
y the Huns at every step.
n The next night while crossing som,
y fields l came to q road. 1t was one o
the main roads Of Belgium and wa
/ paved with cobble stones. On thes
y roads you can hear wagon or hors
l about a mile or two away. I listeDe
= intently before / moved ahead an,
4 hearing nothing concluded that tn
8 way was clear.
AS emerged from the field and go
my first glimpse of the road, got tn
shock of my life In either direction
9 as far as 1 could see, the road wa
lined with German soldiers VIVA
they were doing In that part of Bel
: GUM / did not know, but you can b.
mighty sure / didn't spend any tim
l trying to find out.
j Again 1t was necessary to chang
r my course and lose a certain amour
r of ground, but by this time l had be
: come fairly we'll reconciled to thes
reverses and they did not depress M
2 as much as they did at first.
At this period Of my adventure, If
1 day or night passed without its Thrill
l began to feel almost disappointed
/ but such disappointments wer
rather rare.
One evening as I was about to swiI
{ a canal about two hundred feet wide
T I suddenly noticed about one hundre
u yards away canal boat moored t
e the side.
e 1t was at q sort of QUITO -the-wa
n place and / wondered what the cana
G boat had stopped for. l crawled u
e to see. AS l neared the boat five me
8 were leaving it and l noticed ther
D cross over into the fields. At a SAT
e distance followed them and they ha
not gone very far before / saw wha
II they were after. They were commi
e ting the common but heinous crime c
y stealing potatoes
1t Without the means to cook then
t potatoes didn't interest me a bit an
% l thought that the boat itself woul
q probably yield me more than the p
le tato patch. Knowing the canal-hand
II would probably take their time in tt
y fields, 1 climbed up the stern of tn
boat leisurely and without any parti
20 ular plans to conceal myself. Just 6
ID my head appeared above the stern {
Sc the boat / saw silhouetted again'
III the sky, the dread outline of a &c
man soIdier-spiked helmet and al
IN A chill ran down my spine as
Of dropped to the bank of the canal an
n skunk away. Evidently the sentry ha
S. not seen me or. If he had, he had prol
Of ably figured that / was one of I'll
" foragng party, but I realized that
e. wouldn't pay in future to take an
It thing for granted.
ID