Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-07-26

confiscated the Map.
my sock underneath my logging. AS
I had anticipated, it later proved of
the utmost value to me.
1 got it none too soon, for half al
hour later we were on our way to
Client. Our party consisted of five
British officers and one French officer.
At Client, where we had to wait for
several hours for another train to take
us direct to the prison camp in Ger
many, two other prisoners were added
to u party.
In the interval we were locked in a
room at a hotel, "a guard sitting at the
door with a rifle on his knee. 1t would
have done my heart good for the rest
of my life if 1 could have gotten away
then and fooled that Hun-he was so
cocksure.
Later we were marched to the train
that was to convey US to Germany. 1t
consisted of some twelve coaches,
eleven of these containing troops going
home on leave, and the twelfth re-
served for US. We were placed in a
fourth-class compartment with old,
hard, wooden seats, a filthy floor and
no lights save a candle placed there
by a guard. There were eight of US
prisoners and four guards.
AS we sat in the coach we were an
object of curiosity to the crowd who
gathered at the station.
"Hope you have a nice tripl" one Of
them shouted sarcastically.
"Drop me a line when you get to
Berlin, will you?" shouted another in
broken English.
"When shall we see you again?'
asked a third. A.
Remember ms to your friends, will
you? You'll find plenty where you're
going!" shouted another.
The German officers made no effort
to repress the crowd, in fact, they
joined in the general laughter which
followed every sally.
1 called to a German officer who was
passing u windew.
you're an officer, aren't your" I
asked, respectfully enough.
eyes, what of it?' he rejoined.
Well, in England" I said, 1--WE let
your officers who are prisoners ride
first class. Can't you fix it so that we
can be similarly treated, or least be
transferred to second-class compart-
ment?"
eff 1 had my way" he replied, you'd
ride with the hogs!"
Then he turned to the crowd and
told them of my request and how he
had answered me, and they all laughed
hilariouSly.
This got me pretty hot.
"That would be a d sight
better than riding with the Germans! !"
I yelled after him, but if he consid-
cred that a good joke, he didn't pass
it on to the crowd.
Some months later when / had the
honor of telling my story to King
George, he thought this incident was
n of the best jokes he had ever
heard. 1 don't believe he ever laughed
harder in his life.
Before our train pulled out, our
guards had to present their arms for
inspection and their rifles were loaded
in our presence to let US know that
they meant business.
From the moment the train started
on its way to Germany, the thought
kept coming to my head that unless !
could make my escape before we
reached that reprisal camp l night az
well make up my mind, as far as ]
Vas concerned, the war was over.
1t occurred to me that if the eight
of US in that a could jump at a given
signal and seize those four Hun guards
by surprise, we'd have a splendid
chance of besting them and jumping
of the train when it first slowed down,
but when 1 passed the idea on to my
comrades they turned it down. Even
if the plan worked out as gloriously
as l had pictured, they pointed out,
the fact that so many of US had es-
capped would almost inevitably result
in our recapture. The Huns would
have secured Belgium till they had
got us and then we would all be shot.
Perhaps they were right.
Nevertheless, 1 was determined that,
matter what the others decided to
do, l was going to make one bid for
freedom, come what might.
AS we passed through village after
in Belgium and 1 realized that
we were getting nearer and nearer to
that dreaded reprisal camp, l on
cluded hat my one and only chance Of
getting free before we reached it was
through the Window l would have
to go through that window while the
vas going f~ull-speed, because if
l waited until it had slowed up or
stopped entirely, it would be a simple
for the guards to overtake or
shoot me.