Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1918-08-31


his safe arrival in Rotterdam came tx
me in an indirect way, of course, but
the fact that the plans we had made
carried through without mishap makes
me feel that we ought to be able to dc
as much for YOU"
told Huyliger was ready to follow
his instructions and would do any
thing he suggested.
Il want to rejoin my squadron as
soon as possibly can,' I told him
"but realize that 1t will take Ger
tin length of time for you to make thu
necessary arrangements, and I will bt
as patient as | can"
The first thing to do. Huyliger told
me, was to prepare passport. He had
blank one and it was comparatively
simple matter to fill In the spaces us
ing genuine passport which Huyligel
possessed as a sample of the hand
writing of the passport clerk. My oc
cupation was entered as that of O
sailor. My birthplace we gave as
Spain, and we put my age at thirty
AS a matter Of fact, at that time
could easily have passed for thirty
| five, but we figured that with proper
| food and a decent place to sleep al
night, | could soon regain my normal
| appearance, and the passport would
have to serve me, perhaps, for several
weeks to come.
Filling in the blank spaces on the
passport was, as I have said, a com.
naratiyely easy matter, but that did
not begin to fill the bill. Every genu-
inc passport bore an official rubber
stamp, something like an elaborate
postmark, and was at loss TO know
how to get over that difficulty.
Fortunately, however, Huyliger had
half of a rubber stamp which had evil
IDENTIFY been thrown away by the Ger.
mans, and he planned to construct the
other half out of the cork from wine
bottle, He was very skillful with a
penknife, and although he spoilt a
score or more of corks before he sue
ceeded in getting anything like the
result he was after, the finished article
expectations. Indeed, after we had
pared it over here and there, and re-
moved whatever imperfections our re-
peated test disclosed, we had a stamp
which made an impression so closely
resembling the original that without a
magnifying glass, we were sure, it
would have been impossible to tell
that 1t was a counterfeit.
Huyliger procured a camera and
took photograph of me to paste on
the passport in the place provided for
that purpose, and we then had a pass
port which was entirely satisfactory
to both of us and would, we hoped,
prove equally so to our friends the
Huns.
1t had taken two days to fix up the
passport. In the meanwhile Huyliger
informed me that he had changed his
plans about the convent and that in
stead he would take me to an empty
house, where | could remain in safety
until he told me it was advisable for
me to proceed to the frontier.
This was quite agreeable to me, as I
had had misgivings as to the kind
of priest would make and it seemed
to me to be safer to remain aloof from
everyone in a deserted house than to
have to mingle with people or come in
contact with them, even with the best
of DISCUSSES.
That night / accompanied Huyliger
to a fashionable section of the city,
where the house in which was to be
concealed was located.
This house turned out to be four
story structure of brick. Huyliger told
me that it had been occupied by a
wealthy Belgian before the war, but
since 1914 it had been uninhabited save
for the occasional habitation of some
refugee whom Huyliger was befriend-
ing.
Huyliger had key and let me in,
but he did not enter the house with
me, stating that he would visit me in
the morning.
/ explored the place from top to bot
tom as well as could without lights.
The house was deliberately furnished,
but, of course, the dust lay quarter
of an inch thick everywhere. 1t was
large house, containing some twenty
rooms. There were two rooms in the
basement four on the first floor, four
on the second five on the third and five
on the top. In the days that were to
come / was to have plenty of oppor-
tunity to familiarize myself with the
contents of that house but at that time
/ did not know 1t and / was curious
enough TO want to know just what the
house contained.
Down in the basement there was
huge pantry but it was absolutely bare,
except of dust and dirt. A door which
evidently led to sub-basement 1T
tracted my attention and \ thought it
might be good idea to know just
where IL led to in case it became neces-
sary for me to elude searchers.
In that cellar found case after case