The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-10-03

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that any Of our W men would have
the gall to torture us like that, and yet
we could not possibly believe that 1t
had really happened. Finally, one
fellow could not stand IL n longer.
He was nothing but skin and bones,
but he grabbed a dividing board and
there were just two wallops: the
board hit the Australians head and
the head hit the floor. Then half a
dozen more pounced onto him and
gave him a real licking. When he
came to he had forgotten all about
the wonderful dinner he did not have.
Not long after this the Russian doc
tors proved to the Germans that there
was no black typhus In our barracks
and we were allowed the freedom of
the camp except that we could not
visit the Russian barracks. That was
no hardship to me nor to the rest of
us, except n chap from the Cambrian
Range, who had a special pal among
the Russians hat he wanted to see.
And, of course, when 1t was verboten,
he wanted to see him all the MORE.
A day or two after the order I was
standing outside the barracks door
when / saw this fellow come out with
a dividing board in his hand. l thought
he was going to smash somebody with
it, so / stood by. But he stopped over
and jammed one end of the board
against the threshold OF the door,
scratched the ground with the farther
end of the board and measured again.
He kept this up, length by length, in
the direction of the Russian barracks.
The sentry in the yard stopped and
stared at him, but the fellow kept
right on, paying 40 attention to any
body. Pretty soon he was right by the
sentry's feet and I thought any minute
but he just stared a while and let him
pass. That lad measured the whole
distance to the Russian barracks, went
inside, stayed a while and calmly
strolled back with the board under his
arm. When he reached our barracks
again he told us he had found a vino
mine. What he had found was some
thing not so unusual b~oneheaded
German.
There was a lot of bamboo near the
Russian barracks and the Russians
made baskets out of 1t and turned
them in to the Germans. For this they
got all the good Jobs In the kitchen
and had a fine chance to get more to
eat. But they were treated like dogs
that is. all except the few Cossaeks
that were in the bunch. The Huns
knew that a Cossack never forgets and
Will get revenge for the slightest mis-
treatment, even II 1t means his death.
/ have seen sentries turn aside from
the beat they were walking and get out
of the way when they saw a Cossack
coming. There were very few Coss-
acks there. however. l do not think
they let themselves get captured very
often.
We had roll call every morning, of
course, and were always mustered In
front of our barracks, the middle of
the line being right at the barracks
door. Sometimes when the cold got
too much for them, the men nearest
the door would duck into the bar
racks. AS they left the ranks the
other men would close up and this
kept the line even, with the center still
opposite the barracks door. Finally
almost all of the men would be In the
barracks and by the time the roll was
over not one remained outside. This
seemed to peeve the German officers
a great deal. but they did not punish
US for II until we had been doing It
for some time.
For several days I had noticed that
someone else answered for two men
who had disappeared at least l had
not seen them for some time. / did
not think much about 1t, or ask any
questions, and 1 did not hear anyone
else talk about ii, but l was pretty
sure the two men, a Russian and a
B%ritisher, had escaped. But they were
marked present at roll call and all
accounted for. Everything went along
very well until n day when the name
"Fontaine" got by without being an
swered. Fontaine was a French fire.
man from the Cambrian Range and
that was the first time he had not been
present. We saw what was coming
and we began to get pretty sore at
Fontaine for not telling us. so we could
answer for him and keep the escape
covered.
The minute they found our count
one short they blew the whistles and
a squad of sentries came up as an
extra guard. They counted us again,
but by sneaking back of the line and
closing up again we made the count
all right except for one man-Fon-
tainel We would have tried to cover
up fer him, except hat they had al
ready discovered his absence. Now,
we thought, they will nab Fontaine
but will not discover the escape Of the
others.