Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-16
" "OutWiHing the Hum
By Lieutenant Pat O'Brien

in this city was in some respects
worse than it had been when / was
making my way through the open
country. While l had a place to
sleep and my clothes were no longer
constantly soaking, my opportunities
for getting food were considerably
less than they had been. Nearly all
the time L was half famished, and
L decided that l would get out of
there at once, since L was entirely
through with Huyliger.
My physical condition was greatly
improved. While the lack of food
showed itself on me, l had regained
some of my strength, my wounds
were healed. my ankle was strong
err and although my knees were
still considerably enlarged, I felt
that / was in better shape than I
had been at any time since my leap
from the train, and l was ready to
go through whatever was in store
| for me.
CHAPTER XVI
Leave For the Frontier
To get out of the city, it would be
necessary to pass two guards. This
| had learned in the course of my
walks at night, having frequently
| travelled to the city limits with the
idea of finding out just what con-
ditions L would have to meet when
the time came for me to leave.
A German soldiers uniform, how
ever, no longed worried me as it
had at first. l had mingled with the
Huns so much in the city that l be-
gan to feel that / was really a Bel
gian, and / assumed the indifference
that they seemed to feel.
l decided, therefore, to walk out
n hn pif in 4 l,
| the sentries would be less apt to Ge
on the watch. 1t worked fine. / was
not held up moment. the sentries
evidently taking me for Belgian
peasant on his way to work
Travelling faster than I had ever
done before since my escape, 1 was
soon out in the open country, and
the first Belgian l came to l ap-
! preached for food. He gave me half
| his lunch and we sat down on the
side of the road to eat it.
OF course, he tried to talk to me-
but | used the old ruse of pretend
ing I was deaf and dumb and he was
quite convinced that it was so. He
made various efforts to talk to me in
pantomime, but l could not make
out what he was getting at, and
think he must have concluded that
| was not only half starved, deaf and
dumb, but "looney" in the bargain.
When night came l looked around
for a place to rest. l had decided to
travel in the day time as we'll as
night, because ! understood that i
was only a few miles from the from
tier, and / was naturally anxious to
get there at the earliest possible
moment, although L realized that
there L would encounter the most
hazardous part of my whole adven-
ture. To get through the heavily
guarded barbed and electrically
charged barrier was a problem that
I hated to think of even. although
the hours l spent endeavoring to
devise some way of outwitting the
Huns were many.
1t had occurred to me, for in
stance, that it would not be such a
difficult matter to vault over the
electric fence, which was only nine
feet high. In college I know a ten
foot vault is considered a high
school boys accomplishment but
there were two great difficulties in
the way of this solution. In the
first place it would be no easy mat
ter to get pole of the right length,
weight and strength to serve the
purpose.
More particularly, however, the
pole vault idea seemed to me to be
out of the question because of the I
fact that on either side of the elec-
trio fence, six feet from it, was a
six-foot barbed wire barrier. To
vault safely over a nine-foot cleo
trically charged fence was one thing,