Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-06

came to another little village. My
usual course would have been to go
| around it--through fields, back
yards, woods or whatever else lay
in my way-but L had gained so
much time by going through the last
village instead of detouring it and
my appearance seemed to be so un-
suspicious that I decided to try the
same stunt again.
I stopped humming and kept very
much on the alert but, apart from
that / walked boldly through the
main street without any feeling of
alarm.
1 had proceeded perhaps a mile
along the main street when 1 noticed
ahead of me three German soldiers
standing at the curD.
Again my heart started to beat
fast, l must confess, but l was not
nearly so scared as l had been an
hour or so before.
1 walked ahead, determined to
follow my previous procedure in ev-
cry particular t
Heart Stops at HALT"
I had go to about fifteen feet
away from the soldiers when one of
them stepped onto the sidewalk and
shouted:
Halt"
My heart stopped beating fast
for a moment, l believed it stopped
beating altogether. l can't attempt
to describe my feelings. The thought
that the jig was up-that all 1 had
gone through and all had escaped
would now avail me nothing. bin
gled with a feeling of disgust with
myself because of the foolish risk I
ho 70 in, hn vii
lage, com bined to take all the starch
out of me, and I could feel myself
willing as the soldier advanced to
the spot where / stool rooted in my
tracks.
I had a bottle of water in one
pocket and a piece of bread In the
other, and as the Hun advanced to
search me 1 held the bottle up in
one hand and the piece of bread in
the other so that he could see that
was all l had.
1t occurred to me that he would
"frisk" me-that is, feel me over
for arms or other weapons-then
place me under arrest and march
me off to the guardhouse. l had
not the slightest idea but that l was
captured, and there didn't seem to
be much use in resisting, unarmed as
L
soldiers within few feet of us.
Like flash it suddenly dawned
on me, however, that for all this
! soldier could have known 1 was
only a Belgian peasant and that his
| object in marching me, which he
proceeded to do, was to ascertain
whether 1 had committed the com
mon crime" of smuggling pota'
! toes!
Were After Potato Smugglers
The Belgians were allowed only &
certain amount of potatoes, and it /:
against the laws laid down by the
Huns to deal in vegetables of any
kind except under the rigid super
vision of the authorities. Neverthe,
less, it was one of the principal vo'
cations of the average poor Belgian
to buy potatoes out in the country
from the peasants and then smugglC
them into the large cities and sci
them clandestinely at a high price.
To stop this traffic in potatoes, Tho
German soldiers were in the habi
of subjecting the Belgians to fire
quent search and / was being helc
up by this soldier for no other rea'
son than that he thought might bt
a potato smuggler!
| He felt of my outside clothes an6
pockets, and finding no potatoe:
seemed to be quite satisfied. Hao
he but known who l was he could
have earned an iron cross! Or, per,
haps, in view of the fact that / had
a heavy water bottle in my upliftec
hand it might have turned out to be
a wooden cross!
He said something in German
which, of course, did not under
stand, and then some Belgian peas
ants came along and seemed to dis
tract his attention. Perhaps he hac
said IT'S all right; you may gC
on" or he may have been talking t
| the others in Flemish, but, at an,
rate, observing that he was more in,
terested in the others than he wal
in me at the moment I put the bot
tie in my pocket and walked on.