The Dolores star., 1918-08-09
Iy LIEUTENANT PAT O'BRIEN

take q chance on being discovered and
threw myself down for a nap. I was
extremely nervous. though. throughout
that whole day, and would scarcely get
settled into a comfortable position and
dOze of for a few minutes when,
startled by some sound in the woods,
would suddenly awake.
After what seemed like a year or
more, night finally came, and with
"dud" sky, lOw-hanging clouds and still
more rain. There was not star in the
sky, Of course, and that made 1t very
bad. because without the aid Of the
stars had absolutely no way Of know
ing which direction / was going. 1t
was just cnse OF taking a chance. l
probably would have been better OF II
had simply picked out n place and
stayed there until the weather i'm
proved, but naturally was impatient
to be on my way when each day with
out food only lessened my strength and
my ultimate chances of reaching the
frontier.
So left the woods and struck of In
the direction which thought was
north. hadn't been Mt all sure Of my
bearings the day before. and rs 1t had
pained the sun failed entirely to help
Ine out. but I was almost sure had
the right direction and trusted to luck.
That night found more rivers. canals
aud swamps than ever found in my
life before. but I had the good fortune
to stumble on to some celery. and after
my diet Of beets 1t surely was treat.
Perhaps it's unnecessary to add that ]
took on q good supply Of celery and
for days I went along chewing celery
like COW would q cud.
Along towards morning, when I sup
posed had gotten In q fairly good lap
Of my journey-perhaps seven or eight
miles-I began to recognise certain OBJ
jects as familiar landmarks. At least.
thought had seen them before and
MS Travelled along knew positively
had seen certain objects very recently.
on at my right-not over q quarter Of
q mile-I noticed some fairl y good
sized woods and thought I would 60
over there to hide that day. because 1t
looked as though the sun was going to
shine and hoped to get my clothes
dry. and perhaps get a decent sleep.
had this celery and a large beet. so
knew would be able to live the day
through.
Finally made my way over to the
woods. 1t was still too dark In among
the trees to do much in the way OF
selecting my quarters for the day and
I could not 60 a step farther. So
waited on the edge of the forest until
dawn and then set out to explore the
place. with view to finding some nook
whera might sleep. Imagine my dis
gust. and discourageE1ent, too. when an
hour cr so later came upon the exact
place where had spent the day before,
and realized that all night long had
been circling the very woods I was try
ing to get away from. think perhaps
had gone all Of quarter Of a mile In
the right direction. but then hkd lost
my BEARINGS entirely. and daylight
found me with nothing accomplished.
The gun. however did come out that
day, a.ld welcomed its warm rays,
as they, perhaps, have never been well |
coined before. was very tired-just |
about all in-but I spent better day |
in the woods than the previous one,
That night the stars came out; |
located my friend, the North Star, and |
tried to make up for lost time. But |
when one is making only seven or eight |
miles a day. or rather a night. one |
night lost means whole lot. especl- |
ally when each day keeps him from
freedom. Such Ill fortune and dis
couragements as this were harder to |
endure, I believe. than the actual |
hunger, and the accompanying worry |
naturally reduced my weight. At times |
l was furiously angry with myself for |
the mistakes I made and the foolish |
things I did, but always tried to see |
something funny about the situation,
whatever it might be. that relieved
the strain of habit and helped to pass
the time away. think If a man is |
overburdened with a sense of humor |
and wants to get rid of 1t, this trip I |
took would be an excellent remedy
for 1t. Right at this time I would
have welcomed anything for q compan-
Ion. l believe even q snake would |
have been a >Godsend to me.
With a name as Irish as mine. 1t is
only natural that I looked for goats
along the way, thinking TINT might
be able to milk them. There are very
few cows in this country, and the op-
portunities for milking them fewer
than the cows themselves because they
are housed in barns adjoining the
homes and always alertly watched by
their fortunate owners. I did hope
that might find a goat staked out
some place in the fields, but in all my
travels I never saw a goat or a pig,
and only few cows. Several times
searched nests for eggs, but somebody
always had beaten me to 1t, as I never
even found SO much as nest egg.
There was no chance Of getting away