The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1918-10-26

right; you may go on" or he mas
have been talking to the others In
Flemish, but at any rate, observing
that he was more interested In tha
others than he was in me at the mo-,
ment, put the bottle in my pocket
and walked on.
After walked few steps, took a.
fnrtive glance backward and noticed
the soldier who had searched me re.
join his comrades at the curb and then
stop another fellow who had come
along, and then disappeared In the
darkness.
l cannot say that the outcome Of
this adventure left me in the same,
confident frame of mind that followed
the earlier one. l was sure I had.
come out Of 1t all right, but I could
not help thinking what terribly close
shave 1 had.
Suppose the soldier had questioned
me! The ruse 1 had been following
In my dealings with the Belgian peas
ants-pretendlng 1 was deaf and
dumb-might possibly have worked
here, too, but soldier-a German
soldier-might not so easily have been
| fooled. 1t was more than an even
chance that it would have at least
aroused his suspicion and resulted in
further investigation. A search of
my clothing would have revealed a
Dozen things which would have estab-
hshed my identity and all my sham
ming Of deafness would have availed
me nothing.
AS / wandered along / knew that I
was now approaching the big city
which my Belgian friend had spoken
Of and which l would have to enter
II 1 was to get the passport, and !
realized now how essential 1t was to
have something to enable me to get
through the frequent examinations
to which expected to be subjected.
While was still debating In my
mind whether it was going to be pos.
sible for me to enter the city that
night, saw In the distance what ap-
peared to be an arc light, and as !
neared 1t that was what it turned out
to be. Beneath the light I could
make out the forms Of three guards,
and the thought Of having to go
through the same kind of ordeal that
I had just experienced filed me with
misgivings. Was 1t possible that ]
| could be fortunate enough to get by
again?
AS I slowed up little, trying to
make up my mind what was best to do
was overtaken by a group of Bel
gian women who were shutting along
the road, and I decided to mingle
with them and see If couldn't convey
the impression that / was one OF
their party.
As we approached the arc light, the
figures of those three soldiers with
their spiked helmets doomed before
like regiment. / felt as If were
walking right into the jaws of death
Rather than go through what was In
store for me, felt that I would In.
finitely prefer to be fighting again In
the air with those four desperate
Huns who had been the cause Of MY
present plight-then, at least, ]
would have a chance to fight back,
but now I had to risk my life and
take what was coming to me without
a chance to strike a blow In my own
defense.
I shall never forget my feelings al
we came within the shaft Of light pro-
jected by that great arc light nor the
faces Of those three guards as we
passed by them. didn't look directly
at them, but out Of the corner Of my
eye never missed detail. I held q
handkerchief up to my face as we
passed them and endeavored to imi-
tate the slouching gait Of the Belgians
as well as could, and apparently It
worked. We walked right by those
guards and they paid absolutely no
attention to Us.
II ever fellow felt like going down
on his knees and praying did at that
moment, but it wouldn't have done to
show my elation or gratitude In that
conspicuous way.
It was then well after IL o'clock and
I knew 1t would be unsafe for me to
attempt to find a lodging place In the
city, and the only thing for me to do
was to locate the man whose name the
Belgian had given me. He had given
me good description Of the street
and had directed me how to get there.
| and followed his instructions closely.
After walking the streets for about
half an hour, came upon one of the
landmarks my friend had described to
me and ten minutes afterwards was
knocking at the door of the man who
was to make 1t possible for me to reach
Holland-and liberty! At least, that
was what hoped.