The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1918-09-20

whom had been able to get through |
the lines. His message telling me of |
his safe arrival In Rotterdam came to
me in an indirect way, OF course, but
the fact that the plans we had made
carried through without mishap makes
me feel that we ought to be able to do
as much for you"
/ told Huyliger was ready to follow
his instructions and would do any
thing he suggested.
Il want to rejoin my squadron as
soon as l possibly can" l told him,
"but I realize that 1t will take a GER
tin length Of time for you to make the
necessary arrangements, and l will be
as patient as l can"
The first thing to do. Huyliger told
me, was to prepare passport. He had
blank one and it was a comparatively
simple matter to fill In the spaces, u.s.
ing a genuine passport which Huyliger
possessed as a sample of the hand
writing Of the passport clerk. My Oc-
cupation was entered as that Of
sailor. My birthplace we gave as
Spain, and we put my age at thirty.
AS matter of fact, at that time
could easily have passed for thirty
five, but we figured that with proper
food and a decent place to sleep at
night, l could soon regain my normal
appearance, and the passport would
have to serve me, perhaps, for several
weeks to come.
Filling in the blank spaces on the
passport was, as l have said, a COM
paratively easy matter, but that did
not begin to fill the bill. Every genu-
inc passport bore an official rubber
stamp, something like an elaborate
postmark, and was at loss to know
how to get over that difficulty.
Fortunately, however, Huyliger had
half Of rubber stamp which had evil
! IDENTIFY been thrown away by the Ger
mans, and he planned to construct the
other half out of the cork from a wine
bottle, He was very skillful with a
| penknife, and although he spoIlt a
score or more Of corks before he sue
result he was after, the finished article
was far better than our most sanguine
expectations. Indeed, after we had
pared it over here and there, and re-
moved whatever imperfections our re-
peated test disclosed, we had stamp
which made an impression SO closely
resembling the original that without a
would have been impossible to tell
that 1t was a counterfeit.
| Huyliger procured a camera and
took photograph of me to paste on
the passport in the place provided for
that purpose and we then had a pass
port which was entirely satisfactory
to both of us and would, we hoped
| Huns.
1t had taken two days to fix up the
passport. In the meanwhile Huyligel
informed me that he had changed his
plans about the convent and that in
stead he would take me to an empty
house, where / could remain in safety
until he told me it was advisable fol
me to proceed to the frontier.
This was quite agreeable to me, as
had had misgivings as to the kind
of priest l would make and it seemed
to me to be safer to remain aloof from
everyone in a deserted house than t.
have to mingle with people or come il
contact with them, even with the bes
of disguises
That night / accompanied Huyligel
to a fashionable section of the city
where the house in which l was to b,
concealed was located.
This house turned out to be q four
story structure of brick. Huyliger tolt
me that 1t had been occupied by
wealthy Belgian before the war, bu
since 1914 it had been uninhabited say,
for the occasional habitation of som,
refugee whom Huyliger was befriend
ing
Huyliger had a key and let me In
but he did not enter the house witt
me, stating that he would visit me il
the morning.
/ explored the place from top to bot
tom as well as l could without lights
The house was deliberately furnished
but, of course, the dust lay a quartz
of an inch thick everywhere. 1t was
large house, containing some twent,
rooms. There were two rooms in tn
basement four on the first floor, fou
on the second five on the third and fiv
on the top. In the days that were t
come l was to have plenty of oppor
tunity to familiarize myself with tn
contents of that house but at that tim
l did not know it and / was curiou
enough to want to know just what tn
: house contained.
Down in the basement there was
huge pantry but it was absolutely bare
except of dust and dirt. A door whic
evidently led TO a sub-basement al
tracted my attention and thought
: might be good idea tn know jus
where ii led to in case it became neees
! sary for me to elude searchers.
, In that cellar found case after cas-