The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-07-13
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Copyright. l9ls, by Pat Alva O'Brien


length, weight and strength to serve
the purpose. More particularly, how
ever, the pole-vault idea seemed to me
to be out of the question because OF
the fact that on either side Of the cleo
trio fence, six feet from it, was a six
| foot barbed wire barrier. To vault
safely over nine-foOt electrically
charged fence was one thing, but to
combine with it a tweIve-foot broad
vault was feat which even a college
| athlete in the pink Of condition would
be apt to funk. Indeed, l don't be-
| lieve it is possible.
Another plan that seemed halfway
reasonable was to build pair Of stills
| about twelve or fourteen feet high and
| walk over the barriers one by one. AS
youngster l had acquired consider
! able skill in stilt-walking and l have
no doubt that with the proper equip
ment it would have been quite feas-
ible to have walked out of Belgium
as easily as possible in that way, but
! whether or not | was going to have a
chance to construct the necessary
stills remained to be seen.
There were a good many bicycles In
use by the German soldiers in Belgium
and it had often occurred to me that
If I could have stolen one, the tires
would have made excellent gloves and
insulated coverings for my feet in
case it was necessary for me to at
fn hn oil vi
bodily. But as 1 had never been able
to steal bicycle this avenue of es-
cape was closed to me.
decided to wait until arrived at
the barrier and then make up my mind
how to proceed.
To find a decent place to sleep that
night, I crawled under a barbed wire
fence, thinking it led into some field. |
AS / passed under, one of the barbs |
caught in my coat and in trying to
pull myself from it shook the fence
for several yards.
Instantly there came out Of the night |
the nerye-racking command: Halt %
Again I feared I was done for.
crouched close down on the ground in |
the darkness, not knowing whether to |
take to my legs and trust to the Huns
missing me in the darkness if he fired,
or stay where l was. 1t was foggy
as well as dark, and although [ knew
the sentry was only few feet away
from me / decided to stand, or rather
lie, pat. l think my heart made almost
as much noise as the rafting Of the
wire in the first place, and it was a
tense few moments to me.
heard the German say few words
to himself, but didn't understand them
of course, and then he made a sound
as if to call dog, and l realized that
his theory of the noise he had heard
was that dog had made it's way
through the fence.
For perhaps five minutes I didn't
stir, and then figuring that the German
had probably continued on his beat ]
crept quietly under the wire again.
this time being mighty careful to hug
the ground SO close that / wouldn't
touch the wire, and made off in a diff.
ferent direction. Evidently the barbed
wire fence had been thrown around an
ammunition depot or something of the
kind, and it was not field at all that
I had tried to get into.
/ figured that other sentrieS were
probably in the neighborhood and ]
proceeded very gingerly.
After had got about a mile away
from this spot I came to an humble
Belgian house and I knocked at the
door and applied for food in my usual
way, pointing to my mouth 70 indi.
cate l was hungry and to my ears and
mouth to imply that I was deaf and
dumb. The Belgian woman who lived
in the house brought me a piece of
bread and two cold potatoes and as II
sat there eating them she eyed me
very keenly.
| haven't the slightest doubt that
she realized ! was fugitive. She lived
so near the border that it was more
for that reason, l appreciated more
fully the extent of the risk she ran, for
no doubt the Germans were constantly
watching the conduct of these Bel
CLANS who lived near the line.
My theory that she realized that ]
was not a Belgian at all, but prob
ably some English fugitive, was con-
firmed moment later, wheH, as |
made ready to go, she touched me on
the arm and indicated that l was to
wait moment. She went to bureau
and brought out two pieces of fancy
Belgian lace which she insisted upon
my taking away, although at that par
icular moment / had as much use for
Belgian lace as an elephant for
safety razor, but 1 was touched with
her thoughtfulness and pressed her
hand to show my gratitude. She would
lot accept the money I offered her.
carried the lace through my sub
'equent experiences, feeling that it
would be a fine souvenir for my
mother, although as matter of fact if
had known that it was going to de-
az my final escape for even a single I
as it did, l am quite sure
he would rather lad not seen it.
On one piece of lace was the Fiemr
sh word ''rhe ITO" "~d tho other