The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-07-11

| tie prospect of their overlooking me.
They would search the house from top
to bottom and, If 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 I had no doubt could
force, seemed to be the logical thing
to do, but the chances were that the
Huns had thrown a Gordon around the
entire block before the squad was sent
to 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 oncer In
charge might possibly come to the con-
clusion that he had arrived at the
house too late-that the bird had
flown
My position in that wine cellar was
anything but comfortable one. Rats
and mice were scurrying across the
floor and the smashing and crashing
going on overhead was anything but
promising. Evidently those soldiers
imagined that ought to be hiding in
the walls, for it sounded as though
they were tearing off the wainscotting,
the picture holding and, in fact,
everything that they could tear or pull
apart.
Before very long they would finish
hni
down to the basement. What they
would DO when they discovered the
wine had no idea. Perhaps they
would let themselves loose on it and
give me my chance. With bottle of
wine in each hand figured could put
UP a good fight in the dark, especially
as l was becoming more and more ac-
customed to it and could begin to dis
tinguish things here and there, where
as when they entered the pitchy dark
ness Of the cellar, they would be as
blind as bats in the sun.
Perhaps it was twenty minutes be-
fore I heard what sounded like my
death-knell to me; the soldiers were
coming down the cellar steps!
clutched wine bottle in each hand
and waited with bated breath.
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! In mo-
ment they would be in the cellar
proper. I could almost hear my heart
beating. The mice scurried across the
floor by the scores. frightened no
doubt by the vibration and noise made
by the descending soldiers. Some Of
the creatures ran across me where I
stood between two wine cases, but /
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 l did not understand 1t l am
willing to bless every word Of 1t, be-
cause 1t 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. It
seemed almost too good to be true that
they could have given up 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
NE, and / remained in the cellar for
nearly an hour after they had appar-
emily departed before I ventured to
move, listening intently in the mean
while for the slightest sound which
would reveal the presence Of sentry
upstairs.
Not hearing sound I began to feel
that they had indeed given up the hunt,
for did not believe that q German
officer would be so considerate of his
men as to try to trap ,me rather than
carry the cellar by force If they had
the slightest idea that was there.
I took OF my shoes and crept softly
and slowly to the cellar steps and then
step by step. placing my weight down
gradually 90 as to prevent the steps