Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-13

them pass the keyhole through
, which l was looking.
Halt"
At the word of command shouted
by a junior officer the squad came to
attention right in front of the
house!
1 waited no longer. Running down
the stairs l flew down into the wine
cellar, and although it was almost
| pitch dark-the only light coming
from a grating which led to the back
yard-I soon found a satisfactory
| hiding place in the extreme rear of
the cellar.
l had had the presence of mind to
| leave the door of the wine cellar
ajar, figuring that if the soldiers
found a closed door they would be
| more apt to search for fugitive be-
hind it than If the door were open.
My decision to get away from that
| front door had been maze
J ried out none too soon, for / had
only just located myself between two
big wine cases when 1 heard the
| tramp of soldiers feet marching up
| the front stoop, a crash at the front
door, a few hasty words of COM
mand which 1 did not understand,
and then the noise of scurrying feet
from room to room and such a bang
ing and hammering and smashing
and crashing that / could not make
out what was going on.
Decides to "Stand Pat
If Huyliger had revealed my hid
ing place to the Huns, as l was now
confident he had, l felt that there
was little prospect of their overlook
! ing me. They would search the
house from top to bottom and, If
NJ o,.Nr 10 tho Ground he
| fore they would give up the search.
To escape from the house through
the backyard through the iron graf
| ing, which | had no doubt L could
| force, seemed to be a 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 Ger
mans 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
conclusion that he had arrived at the
house too late-that the bird had
flown.
My position in that wine cellar
was anything but a comfortable one.
Rats and mice were scurrying across
the floor and the smashing and
crashing going on overhead was any
thing but promising.
Evidently those soldiers imagined
that l might be hiding in the walls,
for it sounded as though they were
tearing oc the wainscoting, the pic
ture molding and in fact, every
thing 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 | had no idea. Perhaps
they would let themselves loose on
it and give me my chance.
Ready For IA Fight
With a bottle of wine in each
hand / figured | could put up a good
fight in the dark, especially as | was
becoming more and more accus-
toned to it and could begin to dis
tinguish things here and there,
whereas when they entered the
pitchy darkness of the cellar they
would be as blind as bats in the sun
Perhaps it was twenty minutes
before l heard what sounded like
my deathknell to me; the soldiers
were coming down the cellar steps!
clutched a wine bottle in each
hand and waited with baited breath.
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! In
moment they would be in the cellar
proper. l could almost hear my
heart beating. The mice scurried
across the floor by the scores, fright
ened no doubt by the vibration and
noise made by the descending SOL
diers. Some of the creatures ran
across me where 1 stood between
the two wine cases, but I was too
much interested in bigger game to
pay attention to mice.
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! Again
an order was given in German, and
although l did not understand it l
am willing to bless every word of
it, because it resulted in the SOL
diers turning right about face,
marching up the stairs again,
through the hall and out of the front
door and away!
| could hardly believe my ears. 1t
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 deceived me that was what
they had done.
The possibility that the whole
thing might be a German ruse did
not escape me, and l remained in
the cellar for nearly an hour after
they mad apparently departed before
l ventured to move, listening in
tently in the meanwhile for the
slightest sound which would reveal
the presence of a sentry upstairs.
Not hearing a sound l began to
feel that they had indeed given up
the hunt, for I did not believe that
a German officer would be so con-
siderate 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.
took off my shoes and crept
softly and slowly to the cellar steps
and then, step by step, placing my
weight down gradually so as to pre-
vent the steps from creaking,
climbed to the top. The sight that
met my eyes as 1 glanced into the
kitchen told me the whole story.
The water faucets had been ripped
from the sinks, the water pipes hav-
ing been torn from the walls. Every
thing of brass or copper had been
torn off and gas fixtures. cooking
utensils and everything else which
contained even the smallest proper
ton of the metals the Germans so
badly needed had been taken from
the kitchen.
/ walked upstairs now with more
confidence, feeling tolerably assured
that the soldiers hadn't been after
me at all, but had been merely col
I A.I. Il.