The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1918-09-13

CHAPTER xiii.
Five Days in an Empty House.


The five days l spent in that house
seemed to me like five years. During
all that time had very little to eat
less in fact than l had been getting in
the fields. l did not feel it so bad, per-
haps, because of the fact that was no
longer exposed to the other privaticns
which before had combined to make
my condition so wretched. now had
good place to sleep, at any rate, and L
did not wake every half hour or so as
/ had been accustomed to do in the
fields and woods, and, of course, my
hunger was not aggravated by the
physical exertions which had been
necessary before.
Nevertheless, perhaps because 1 had
more time now to think of the hunger
pains which were gnawing at me all
the time, l don't believe / was ever so
miserable as 1 was at that period of
my adventure. felt so mean towards
murder, think, with very little prov
ocatiOn.
German soldiers were passing the
house at all hours of the day. I
watched them hour after hour from the
keyhole of the door-to have shown
myself at the window was out of the
question because the house in which
/ was concealed was supposed to be
untenanted.
Because of the fact that l was I'M
able to speak either Flemish or Ger
man l could not go out and buy food,
although 1 still had the money with
which to do it. That was one of the
things that CALLED one-the thought
that I had the wherewithal in my
jeans to buy all the food 1 needed and
yet no way of getting it without en-
dangering my liberty and life.
At night, however, after it was dark,
1 would steal quietly out of the house
to see what could pick up in the way
of food. By that time, of course, the
stores were closed, but l secured the
streets, the alleys and the byways for
scraps of food and occasionally got up
courage enough to appeal to Belgian
peasants whom l met on the streets,
and in that way l managed to keep
body and soul together.
1t was quite apparent to me, how
ever, that l was worse off in the city
than l had been in the fields, and l
decided to get out of that house just
as soon as knew definitely that Huy
Tiger had made up his mind to do moth
ing further for me.
When l was not at the keyhole of the
door 1 spent most of my day on the top
floor in a room which looked out on the
street. By keeping well away from the
window l could see much of what was
going on without being seen myself.
In my restlessness, used to walk back
and forth in that room and kept it up
so constantly that / believe must have
worn a path in the floor. 1t was nine
steps from one wall to the other, and
as had little else to amuSe me l fig
ured out one day after l had been
pacing up and down for several hours
just how much distance l would have
covered on my way to Holland if my
footsteps had beer taken in that direc-
ton instead of just up and down that
old room. l was very much surprised
to find that in three hours l crossed
the room no less than 5000 times and
the distance covered was between nine
and ten miles. 1t was not very graft
flying to realize that after walking all
that distance l wasn't step nearer my
goal than when l started, but l had to
do something While waiting for Huy-
Tiger to help me, and pacing up and
down was natural outlet for my
restlesSness.
While looking out of the top floor
window one day. l noticed a cat on
window ledge of the house across the
street. l had a nice piece of broken