Baxter Springs news., 1918-11-08
Heard tn. German Guard Coming.

Heard the German Guard Coming.
proceeded along It but few hundred
wards when / saw In front OF me a
fence exactly like the one had
crossed.
''This is funny" / said to myself. u
didn't know the Dutch had fence,
too" advanced to the fence ana
examined 1t closely, and Judge of my
astonishment when saw beyond 1t a
nIne-foot fence apparently holding
live wires exactly like the one which
had nearly been the death Of me!
l had very little time to conjecture
what it all meant, for just then l
heard O guard coming. He was walk
ing so fast that l was sure 1t was
Dutch sentry, as the Huns walk much
slower.
was so bewildered, however, that
l decided to take no chances, and as
the road was fairly good / wandered
down 1t and away from that mysteri-
Gus fence. About half mile down
could see the light Of a sentry sta
ton and thought I would go there
and tell my story to the sentrles, real
izing that as l was unarmed 1t was
perfectly safe for me to announce
myself to the Dutch authorities. 1
could be interned only If ! entered
Holland under arms.
As approached the sentry box l
noticed three men in gray uniforms
the regulation Dutch color. / was on
the verge Of shouting to them when
the thought struck me that there was
Just q chance l might be mistaken,
as the German uniforms were the
same color, and / had suffered too
many prlvations and too many narrow
escapes to lose all at this time by
jumping at conclusions.
I had Just turnedNoff the road to go
back into some bushes when out OF
the darkness I heard that dread Ger
man command:
"HaltI Haltp
He didn't need to hOller twice. !
heard and needed the first time. Then
l heard another man come running up
and there was considerable talking,
but whether they were Germans or
Hollanders 1 was still uncertain. He
evidently thought someone was on the
other side of the fence.
Finally heard one Of them laugh
and saw him walk back to the sentry
station where the guard was bllletedr
and crawled asIittle nearer to try to
make out juSt3lFhat 1t meant. had
begun to think 1t was all q night
mare.
Between myself and the light in the
sentry station, I then noticed the
STOPPING figure of man bending over
as If to conceal himself and on his
head was the spiked helmet Of a Ger
man soldlerl
1 knew then what another narrow
escape had had, for ! am quite sure
he would have shot me without cere
mony If / had fOOlishly made myself
known. would have been buried al
once and no one would have been any
wiser, even though, technically speak
ing, was on neutral territory and Inn
mune from capture or attack.
This new shock only served to be
wilder me more. was completely
lost. There seemed to be frontier be
hind me and frontier In front Of me
Evidently, however, what had hap
pened was that had lost my sense
Of direction and had wandered In the
arc Of q circle, returning to the same
fence that / had been so long In get
ting through. This solution OF the
mystery came to me suddenly and / ai
once searched the landscape for some
thing In the way Of a landmark tt
guide me. For once my faithful
friend, the North Star, had failed me
The sky was pitch black and ther'
wasn't a star in the heavens.
In the distance, at about what ap
peared to be about three miles away
but which turned out to be six, cOul'
discern the lights Of a village, and
knew It must be a Dutch village, a
lights are not allowed In Belgium II
that indiscriminate way.
Ny course was now clear. ! would
make n beeIlne for that village. BefOr'
I had gone very far I found myself Il
a marsh or swamp and ] turned bacl
a little, hoping 20 fnd a better path
Finding none. ! retraced my aep