Cleveland County herald., 1918-12-26

 1 that were in the bunch, The Huns knew that Cossack never forgets and will get revenge for the slightest mis- treatment, even if it means his death I have seen sentries turn aside from the beat they were walking and get out of the way when they saw Cossack coming. There were very few Coss- acks there, however. I do not think they let themselves get captured very often.
 We had roll call every morning, of course, and were always mustered in front of our barracks, the middle of the line being right at the barracks door. Sometimes when the cold got too much fer them, the men nearest the door would duck into the bar racks As they left the ranks the other men would close up and this | kept the line even, with the center still opposite the barracks door. Finally almost all of the men would be in the barracks and by the time the roll was over not one remained outside. This seemed to peeve the German officers great deal, but they did not punish us for it until we had been doing it l for some time.
 For several days had noticed that someone else answered for two men who had disappeared; at least 1 had not seen them for some time. l did not think much about it, or ask any questions, and I did not hear anyone else talk about it, but l was pretty sure the two men, a Russian and Britisher, had escaped. But they were marked present at roll call and aI- accounted for. Everything went along very well until one day when the name ''Fontaine" got by without being an swered. Fontaine was a French fire man from the Cambrian Range and that was the first time he had not been present. We saw what was coming and we began to get pretty sore at Fontaine for not telling us. so we could answer for him and keep the escape covered.
 The minute they found our count one short they blew the whistles and squad of sentries came up as an extra guard. They counted us again, but by sneaking back of the line and closing up again we made the count all right except for one man-Fon- taine. We would have tried to cover i ft,------=---shim, f except trat they had al- resE esEggE discaxered his Absence; Now we thought, they will nab Fontainf but will not discover the escape of tho others.
 But evidently they suspected some thing, for soon they brought over a petty officer from H. M S. Nomad. who had not been with us before, and forced him to call the roll from the mastering papers, while they watched the men as they answered. Then they discovered that two more besides Fon- t8ine were missing and began to search for them.
 The other two spoke German and had been missing for at least three days and, I think, had escaped by this time. They were not returned while l was at Brandenburg.
 This was about z a. m. They drilled us down to the little lake, where the cold was much greater, and kept US there until 5 p. m., without food or drink. At about eight that morning they found Fontaine in French bar racks and kicked him all the way to the lake where we were.
 All day long we stood there, falling one by one and getting kicked or beat en each time until we dragged our selves up again. Two or three died l do not know the exact number. But we had enough strength, when ordered back to the barracks, to kick Fon- taine ahead of US all the way. We did not get anything to eat until seven the next morning-twentyfou hours without food and water, ten of which were spent in the snow without any protection from the cold and wind. No wonder we kicked Fontaine for bringing this punishment on us and en- dangering the two who had escaped he had simply strollcd over to the French barracks and forgot to return.
 Now, the food received was just about enough to keep us alive. l SUD- pose, with true kultur, the Huns had figured out just how much it would take to keep man on this side of the starvation line and gave us that much and no more. So we were always famished-a!ways hungrier than you probably ever have been. But some times when we were ravenously hun gry and could not hold out any longer we would trade rations
 One man would trade his whole ra- tion for the next day for half ration today. That is, if you were so hungry that you thought you could not last out the day on your regular share, you would teii someone else that if he gave you balf his share today you would give him all of yours tomorrow. If he was a gambler he would take you up. That is, ne would gamble on his being alive tomorrow. not on yoir keeping your word. He knew you would come ] tt,o