Baxter Springs news., 1918-10-25

tie prospect Of their overlooking me.
They would search the house from top
to bottom and, II necessary. raze 1t to
the ground before they would give up
the search. To escape from the house
through the backyard through the iron
grating, which had no doubt l could
force, seemed to be the logical thing
to do, but the chances were that the
Huns had thrown q Gordon Rround the
entire block before the squad was sent
10 the house. The Germans do these
things In an efficient manner always.
They take nothing for granted.
My one chance seemed to be to stand
pat in the hope that the officer IN
charge might possibly come TO the con-
clusIon that he had arrived ut the
house too late-that the bird hnd
flown.
NY position IN that wine cellar WAS
anything but a comfortable one. Rats
and mice were scurrylpg across the
floor aud the smashing and crushing
going on overhead was anything hui
promising. Evidently those soldiers
imagined that ought TO be hiding In
the walls, for II sounded us though
they were tearing of the wainscotting'
the picture moldlng and, In fact,
everything that they could tear or pull
apart.
Before very long they would finish
their search upstairs and would come
down to the basement. What they
would do when they discovered the
wine i had no idea. Perhaps they
would let themselves loose on 1t and
give me my chance. With o bottle OF
wine in each hSnd figured could put
up q good fight in the dark, especially
as was becoming more and more ac'
customed to It and could begin to dis
tlnguish things here and there, where
as when they entered the pitchy DARK
ness Of the cellar, they would be az
blind as bats In the sun.
Perhaps It was twenty minutes be-
fore ] heard what sounded like my
death-knell to me; the soldiers were
coming down the cellar stepsl l
clutched a wine bottle in each hand
and waited with bated breath.
Trampl Tramp! Trampl In a mo-
mept they would be In the cellar
proper. could almost hear my heart
beating. The mice scurried across the
foor by the scores, frightened no
doubt by the vibration and noise made
by the descending soldiers. Some OF
the creatures ran across me where !
stood between two wine cases, but l
was too much interested In bigger
game to pay any attention to mice.
Tramp! Trampl "Halt!" Again
an order was given in German, and al
though did not understand 1t l am
willing to bless every word of 1t. be-
cause II resulted In the soldiers turn
Ing right about face, marching up the
stairs again. through the hall and out
Of the front door and away!
/ could hardly believe my ears. II
seemed almost too good to be true thnt
they could have given ur the search
Just as they were about to come upon
their quarry, but unless my ears de
ceived me that was what they had
done.
The possibility that the whole thing
might be a German ruse did not escape
me, and I remained in the cellar for
nearly an hour after they had appar-
entity departed before i ventured TO
move, listening intently In the mean
while for the slightest sound which
would reveal the presence Of a sentry
upstairs.
Not hearing q sound began to feel
that they had indeed given up the hunt
for ! did not believe TINT a German
oficer would be 90 cOnsiderate Of bis
men as to try 10 trap me rather than
carry the cellar By force II they had
the slightest Idea that ! was there.
took or my shoes and crept softly
and slowly TO the cellar steps and then
step BY step. placing my weight down
gradually 80 as to prevent the steps
from creaking. I climbed to the tOp,
ne sight that met my eyes as ]
Eiancod Into ne kitchen told me the
vhale EtnE- Ia UataE faleHtA kac